WHAT, WHEN, WHO, HOW?
Direct Polytechnic Admission (DPA) allows students who are taking O levels that year, to be enrolled and confirmed a place in their desired Polys/JCs, even before their O level results are released!
Sounds good? yes, definitely! Anyone who is taking O levels can apply for it, no harm trying so just apply haha!
The application period really varies so you have to check it for yourself in the MOE website (http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/admissions/dpa/) but for last year, it started in mid June so fret not, I don't think it will start till it's June this year as well.
You will have to apply for it through the website, you will need to write 800 characters write up for every choices you have applied for, there will be a total of 3 choices for you to choose and nope, it does not have to be in the same polys and JCs. It will definitely help you if you have participated in activities related to your selected course, add it in in the write-up! In the write up, it's definitely like selling yourself and letting the parties to know how interested are you in the course and WHY are you interested in it. It all depends on how good you can sell yourself by words, you can ask your English teacher for help. *wink (but I did not)
For example, for mine, I applied for:
1st choice: Early childhood studies in Temasek Polytechnic.
2nd choice: Psychology studies in Temasek Polytechnic.
3rd choice: Early childhood education in Ngee Ann Polytechnic.
After that, you will have to wait, probably a month? You may receive phone calls from your respective Poly or JC whichever you have applied for, to inform you that you are being selected to have an interview. And yes, you can choose to attend more than one interviews if you get selected by one or more of your desired courses. During the interview, you will have to bring along your school result, testimonial and any certificates that will benefit your interview.
TIP FOR INTERVIEW: My interview was after school hours so I just wore my school uniform there. Need not dress up for it. Here's the tip: be as down to earth and honest as possible in the interview. Trust me. I have friends who told the interviewer that they can help TP to get this award and that award but they are not being selected. Whereas me? I told the interviewer "I cannot guarantee that I will get any awards for TP but I will try my best to."
Stupid me, i have no idea i can accept both. I got a phone call from Psychology in TP at first so i thought that early childhood studies rejected me, so i accepted the interview and after that, early childhood studies's in-charge called me for an interview so i called back psychology's to tell them i want to reject the interview. pfft.
And you think that's all? Definitely NOT. You will need to wait for more days or weeks to let them tell you that your DPA application is officially approved.
For example, 1000 participants signed up for DPA, 100 of them got interviewed but only 50 of them will be approved.
WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU ARE APPROVED/REJECTED?
If you are approved, you will have to make sure that your O levels get the L1R4 raw points of 26 points and below, including English, 2 relevant subjects of your course and 2 other best subjects in your result slip. Not only below 26 points, you will have to meet the Minimum Entry Requirements for the course you are approved in. If you have failed to meet any one of the two requirements, you are automatically rejected and your place in the course will be lost.
If you are rejected, according to what I have heard from others, you can actually appeal during the appeal period with the help of your testimonials from your teachers and recommendation letter from the principal.
NOTE: Once you accepted the course offered by the respective poly through confirmation, you are NOT allowed to change courses unless you failed to meet the requirements. If not, you do not need to participate in the Joint Admission Exercise (JAE).
POLYTECHNIC PREPARATORY PROGRAMME (PPP)
So after you receive your O level results blabla, you scored well and met the requirements, you will receive this thick junk of package from your respective poly. This package will tell you more about the Polytechnic Preparatory Programme (PPP).
PPP is a compulsory programme for all DPA students which will required you to go to school 8 weeks earlier than the April Intake (pfft, i know but wait for it). Definitely, you have to pay for it, haha, for TP, it's $150 for mine.
TEMASEK POLYTECHNIC'S PPP 2015
As I was enrolled in TP, I think I am only suitable to speak up for the PPP in TP instead of all polys because I am not familiar with the rest.
So for mine, the PPP started in 9th February 2015. The first day basically is just introduction to the school, the DPA programme, the PPP programme and definitely, the ice-breakers game as we are divided into groups. For mine, we started off with the smallest number of people in the group but the most number of GLs (the leaders/seniors in TP to lead the group).
So basically in TP, you will need 3 Cross Disciplinary Subjects (CDS) upon your graduation. In PPP, in 2 months time, the DPA students have to complete 2 CDS and thats totally absurd to us upon hearing it. Others take 3 years to complete 3 but for DPA students, hell no, we need to complete 2 CDS in 2 months. wtf but of course, the after sweetness will be telling to your April Intake friends "where got time CDS?"
The CDS is basically a module for you to take part, it is what determines your GPA, other than attendance and those basic stuff. And if the CDS result is released and you are unhappy with it, any one can retake the different CDS or the same CDS.
For my group, we choose the CDS of Japanese Language and Culture & the compulsory CDS for all DPA students is TransnNational Studies (TNS).
But wait, actually no, I did not choose Japanese L&C, I chose another choice which is Business Management & Entrepreneurship but they gave me my 2nd choice which is Japanese L&C but it was okay, I embraced it.
In CDS, we will have to attend Lectures & Tutorials which will be held at different places.
TNS JOURNEY
The TNS journey gave me the most traumatising memory so far in my life, I guess. First of all, I have learnt that TNS lecturers are so strict with the timing of lessons, to be honest, every lecturers in TP.
For example, there is this day when I was late for lesson, for freaking 2 minutes and BAM, the lecturer shouted at me and warned me to get out of the lesson if there is next time. And I'm there like "lmao chill your tits brah." pffft.
Anyway, we have had lectures at 9am in the morning so I have to wake up at 6:30AM because it takes around 1 hour ~ 1 hour 15 minutes for me to get to TP. Not to mention, the always-packed 72. Moving on, in TNS, we learnt about the different etiquettes and cultures in different country. For example, we get to understand people from different cultures more with the 7 types/dimensions we learnt.
For example, one of the dimensions are Neutral and Affective, the way they show their emotions. For example, Italians are affective and Singaporeans are neutral. Affective means that they show their emotions out loud via verbal and physical actions. Neutral means that even if we are not happy, we keep it within ourselves. So when an Italian come over to work in Singapore, he will be hurt and confused by how Singaporeans express themselves as they are not used to show it out. Hurt in the sense where Italians hug upon greeting but for Singaporeans, we wave or greet. So there will be a time where Italian wants to hug Singaporeans but we back off.
I'm sorry if that overwhelmed you but that's what this CDS is about. Just that we learnt 7 types. You will be interested in this course if you are planning to want to understand people from different countries or so.
In addition, in TNS, we have had a 2 weeks residential stay in TP's Glocal Connect Village (GCV). Yes, an apartment with kitchen, living room and bedrooms! So how it works is that 5 people of the same gender will get to live in an apartment, we are required to stay overnight there for 2 weeks except for the weekends. Meals and all those necessities, we are supposed to take care of that! Other than that, we will also have to return back to our apartment and not leave the gate after 10:30PM.
Why is this traumatising? Our crazily hectic schedules in the residential stay. Yes.
This is what MY GROUP SCHEDULE was:
9 to 10AM: TNS Lecture
10 to 12PM: TNS Tutorial
1.45 to 3PM: Japanese Lecture
3 to 5PM: Japanese Tutorial
It isn't that bad as you thought, right? But wait. Let me analyse it for you.
PS: This crazily hectic schedule, is just for my group. Lol we pathetic.
Ever since the first day of TNS and Japanese, we have had homework. The homework includes doing research and everything for 2 presentations in another 2 weeks time, reversing your work because of the tests thats happening in 2 weeks time and at the same time, writing 3 800 word essays in 4 weeks.
Analysing:
background information - GCV is like at another end of TP, it takes 10 minutes to get to the main gate of TP, no joke. Our lectures are held at the classrooms which are like 2 minutes walk to the main gate and our tutorials are held at GCV classrooms...
We have a break from 12 to 1.45pm. After TNS tutorial, we will head back to apartment which is next to the GCV classrooms to put our things. Then make our way to get our lunch. After that, we have to walk all the way back to GCV to get our things then walk all the way back to the lecture room.
The next break we have is after 5pm.
Analyse again:
5 ~ 5.20PM: Back to our apartment to rest for a while.
5.20 ~ 6PM: Bathe
6 ~ 7PM: need to do homework right.
7 ~ 8PM: Cook and eat our dinner
8 ~ 10:30PM: we need to meet the guys from the opposite block to discuss for our Japanese presentation in 1 week time.
After 10:30PM: we have to start researching for our TNS presentation and trust me, it is definitely not easy. My entire group said none of them get more than 6 hours of sleep a day and it is impossible. The longest time my apartment group get to sleep is 4 hours. There is once we slept at 6AM while we have a presentation consultation at 8AM.
Okay, enough of my rumbling. Good luck to those who want to take up in this CDS, the good thing about this is that you really really get to bond a lot with your apartment mates. And after this, you will miss the stay with your friends and the memories.
JAPANESE L&C JOURNEY
In this CDS (most of my seniors said it was easy and definitely, it is way easier than TNS), you will get to learn the geography and culture of Japan, for example, what is their etiquettes, how many islands do Japan have and which part of Japan is famous for different things and so on. Those are what we learnt in lectures.
In tutorials, we will get to learn to speak and understand Japanese. We will have this language book which there are all the dialogues a Japanese can have with someone they are not very close with, and we will need to memorise and understand how to speak and listen to Japanese for the upcoming tests.
There are 2 tests: 1) Paper test which will have culture and geography questions and definitely, what is "something" in Japanese or maybe they will give a Japanese word and expect you to know. 2) Listening test. So basically all of the content is this listening audio will be in Japanese and we will have to understand and choose our answers which is in English. Thank God they are all MCQs. After these two, we have our presentation which is acting and speaking in Japanese.
SCHOOL DISCOVERY PROGRAMME (SDP)
I am in the school of Humanities & Social Sciences (HSS) so I will not be able to speak up for the rest!
Basically in HSS, we travel around in our SDP, we tend to go field trips to hospitals and etc.
There is this activity that I really love in SDP, which is the psychology activities. It is a whole bunch of activities we have to do in TP and to video down the public's reactions.
For example, falling down and dropping a stack of paper.
So at the end of the day, the reaction and conclusion my group has made is that there is no humanity in TP. :')
I acted to fall down in front of a whole group of seniors but only 2 ~ 3 of them reacted after 5 minutes. My friend dropped a stack of paper and it flew around in front of a group of girls and none of them bothers.
However, we will have to discuss it with our fellow HSS classmates. And the conclusion is that some are afraid of troubles and some wanted to help but they dare not approach.
One of my friend from another group in HSS was super cool, she acted to faint in the TP bus stop in front of a lot of people and unfortunately none helped. so she tried again after getting up and then fainting again, this time only one aunty attempted to help her up.
END OF PPP
After that, it will marks the end of PPP and the DPA programme! but to be very honest, I'm not done with it yet as we are left with the closing ceremony and the interaction day with seniors that are postponed due to be mourning of Mr Lee Kuan Yew. Other than that, we are done!
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Do follow me on instagram and twitter @minhuikoh for more updates about the closing ceremony and interaction day and i don't think i will waiting for both to end! And if you have any more questions for me to answer about the DPA journey, do ask me @ www.ask.fm/heyitsminmin!
Edited: Both closing ceremony and interaction day has passed but I won't update you guys about it, to hold some suspense!
And as always, thank you for reading!
p/s: this post was done weeks ago, before 6th April but Im only uploading it now because I am very busy recently with my great-grandmother's funeral, FOW & HSS FO. so yep!