Hello people, its been a while, yes it has, since my last update. I'm so sorry for being away and neglecting this little space for such a long time! I promise I did not do it on purpose, I was so so damn caught up with my personal, work and carousell stuff. Like even now, I'm writing this post at 3AM while I need to be awake at 10AM.
!!!!! GOOD NEWS!!!! I decided to abide one of my askfm anon's suggestions to blog once every 1 or 2 weeks depending on my schedule, I'll most probably have a new post every or alternate Saturdays. (づ｡◕‿‿◕｡)づ can y'all pls applause for my effort!!!
Okay lets get into today's topic!
So I received A LOT of askfm questions regarding like how to choose between JC and Poly or similar questions, y'all seem LOST and unmotivated. so i decided to help you guys out with some little thoughts I've in mind or i know about the topic!
1) An Aim/A Dream
Without an aim or a dream about what you inspire to be in the future or what do you want to work as, without a clear set of determined mind of knowing WHERE YOU WANT TO GO AND SEE YOURSELF IN IN THE NEXT 20 YEARS, you will always be lost.
You will always be unmotivated for your O's and definitely, you will be very very very LAZY to study.
Can't seem to find a more significant word or a better word to describe how important it is to have a goal.
2) Know what your interest is and what do you love to do
Of course, it will be great to know exactly what do you want to do. For example, in my aspect, I want to be a child psychologist, the ones who work in a clinic and are able to prescribe medication to help people. However, you have to give yourself some space and provide yourself with some alternatives. Because in life, you don't always get what you want. So it will be better to have options.
For example, I love to help people out, I want to know what are others thinking about. So I will focus on the HUMANITIES in people.
Hence, you will have to go online and research a little about the courses provided in the Polytechnics and ITE (i'll explain JC part later) regarding about your interest which in my case, it will be humanities.
click THIS to see the courses of your interest provided in the 5 polytechnics.
so I went to the link and see the courses available in the 5 polytechnics of my interest:
from there, slowly eliminate the courses which YOU DO NOT WANT and write down on a piece of paper what are the courses that are left for you to rank your choices. TRY NOT TO HAVE A LOT OF COURSES LEFT because you will not want to pick out a champion from a lot of choices right? You will be blurred out from the amount of choices and your mindset will not be as determined as compared to when you only have 5 choices. So do consider to my suggestion, have only 5 choices remaining for you to rank.
Then from there, go and research about the minimum entry criteria and the cut off points for your 5 choices and make sure your prelim marks are better than it!
TIP 1: For example, if the cut off point is 17, make sure that your target for O levels L1R4 is 12 ~ 15. Don't hit exactly on the dot, someone might has a better L1R4 than you!!
TIP 2: This is where your CCA comes in!! For example, the cut off point is 17. Student A scored 17 points with a A1 to B3 CCA point as compared to Student B who scored 16 points with a D7 CCA point. I can be very certain to tell you, the authority will choose the one with 17 points! Because with a good CCA point, it makes their testimonies better.
3) Know where do you want to go
As you may know, there are 21 Junior Colleges (JCs) excluding 1 of them (Millenia Institute) who offers a 3 year course instead of the regular 2, 5 Polytechnics and 3 ITEs in Singapore.
I'm in a polytechnic so my knowledge of how things work in there, are much more than the other two alternatives but I still know a little some some ok!!! (P/S: some some is not a typo, its a slang of mine, for a very little amount of knowledge)
Lets start with JC!
I said to explain the JC part earlier on above because from what I know, JC does NOT offer a specific course. However, it is more of school-based programmes.
For example, Temasek JC and Victoria JC offer Humanities-based programmes which from my hypothesis; their electives provided in the school are towards that area. BUT they are not solely based on that programme.
Most of the JCs have at least 1 programme which includes Music, Theatres and Drama, Humanities, Art and so on! so it really depends on your own interest and then again, their cut off point is different!
I will say that JC is more suitable for people who love to read and understand and memorise stuff. JC is a hell lot of stress because everything is done by you, yourself and not with any group works. Whatever is done by you, is your grade. It is just like secondary school, in my opinion, but with more stress and more individual project.
My teacher once told me that JC life is like x10 of O levels and you really need to study everyday if not you will miss out. However, if you want to go to an university, this is the way that has more guarantees and the choice with the least risk. And of course, JC is filled with their own personal fun as well!
Moving onto ITE,
I know the least about this path because lets be honest, no one really wants to aim to go that path, like a normal person will never choose to go O levels and then wants to go to ITE right? No offence but really.
ITE is definitely not the end of your life, I have friends who went through the ITE path but now are in polytechnics. So please do not give up hope!!
My perspective of ITE: A lot of hands-on project and group work, it prepares you to head on to another path in life, like Polytechnic or working path. It teaches you a lot of life skills, definitely and quite an amount of self-independence skills because there are a lot of presentations and projects from what I know!
To those who want to go to ITE just because they thought they will have a better life in ITE then I'm sorry, you're very wrong because with the advance in the education system, the ITE Year 1 life is even worse than Polytechnic Year 1 (from what I heard), there are a lot of works to be done and stuff.
Lastly, Polytechnic!
For polytechnic, a lot of self-independence skills are very much needed because unlike secondary schools, the teachers won't remind you about the tests and stuff. So you will need to keep track of your own work and of course, everything you do in Polytechnics is about GPA.
A normal test is counted in your GPA, participating in class (answering questions, doing research, even attending classes) is counted and a whole lot of junk is counted in the GPA so if you are planning to come to polytechnics, you have to be mentally prepared!!
Because if you don't score well in the 1st test, it is really very hard to pull up the scores during the 2nd or 3rd test. And once your GPA goes down, it is hard to pull it up!
But then again, it is the path with the most freedom given (coloured hair, home clothing and stuff)!
Oh i forget to mention the most important part, the amount of group work is really crazy!!!!! Be wise in choosing your group mates please, your closest friend may not be the best group mate to have for you!
MOST OF THE THINGS YOU DO IN POLY HAVE TO BE IN A GROUP. So if you are the type of people who can't work well in groups, then poly might not be the one for you.
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Summary:
JC: Individual work + a lot of studying & memorising.
Poly: Teamwork skills.
ITE: Hands-on projects.
Choose for yourself, which is the best path for you? Can you sit down and study for literally 7 hours non-stop? Can you work well with your groups and be a good team leader? Or will you be able to learn the best when you are experiencing it?
Choose for yourself!!
That is all for today's post, hope I have answered all your questions and please leave me an askfm question if you have any further questions to be answered! I'm sorry that my knowledge for JC and ITE are really very limited as most of my friends went the same path as I did.
Upcoming post: Secondary VS Poly life. Stay tune!!! x
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