r/SGExams

A student at my school, which is a very Chinese-oriented government-aided secondary school in the north, has practically not shown up for a single class all year, and pretty much skipping every single WAs without fail. They barely turn up once or twice a month, and the situation has become so incredibly bad that their name does not even appear on the daily attendance list anymore.

When they actually bother to show up to school, they just chat with their friends and completely refuse to focus on the lessons. They even go on holiday to other countries during the middle of the school term and shamelessly post all of their travels across social media for everyone to see.

There has been some talk among the Sec 3 batch that this person would definitely be retained because of this exact behavior, but apparently, the school administration is still promoting them straight to Sec 4. Apparently they are doing this simply because they do not want a retainee on their records as it will "reflect badly on the reputation of the school."

What kind of absolute bullshit is this? I know a friend from another school who was actually retained because they failed two to three subjects, despite having over >95% percent attendance and genuinely putting in an effort to improve their academics. How is it remotely fair to the rest of us who actually put in the hard work, the endless hours and the daily effort for the entire year while they get a completely free pass?

Hi. I won’t go into the specifics but I did A Levels last year and got a subpar RP. Got rejected from local universities, and was lost in terms of what to do.

Doing an internship in the media industry, and I always wanted to do media. Media in universities is not something I’m looking for because I want the hands-on experience. So I’m looking to go into Polytechnic.

Feeling conflicted because as a A-level graduate, the next step is supposedly University. But I failed to get into local university, and if the job prospects for local universities are already so shit, what makes it any better if I go to private university?

I should also be studying something “stable” and “reputable” right? I did Commerce for A levels and almost everyone was expecting me to study Biz. That is not where my passion lies, and if I go into Biz I’m just so afraid I’ll get stuck in corporate hell.

This country doesn’t support the arts. AI is running rampant but all I can think of is my passion. Am I just stupid and stubborn trying to carve a path for myself that seems impossible. I’m scared. I’m so scared. I’m upset at myself for everything that has gone up to this point.

I’m useless aren’t I? As a A-level graduate, why am I not as bright as my peers. I studied my ass off and it ended up like this. I feel very stuck and I don’t know what to do anymore.

Is there anything going for me anymore?

Ive seen so many of you understandably stressing over prelim grades, and trying to extrapolate to your final As grades.

STOP

I know you all already know this is a dumb idea, but will do it anyways. Trust me i did the same. This will only cause you sm stress for no fucking reason.

Just put in the effort man. Do the work, stop stressing about unnecessary details. It will only cause you to perform worse. Stop reading those comments that tell you its over. Its really not.
Nothing is over until you stop trying.

Personal stats to boost your spirits

Prelim grades 4h2

B for econs (61%)
C for chem (55%)
D for physics (50%)
E for math (48%)
E for gp (46%)

Final grades

A for econs
A for chem
A for physics
B for math
A for gp

Tution only for sciences, gp and econs relied heavily upon consults. Math js grind

Its fucking possible. If my dumbass can, you can.
So stop worrying about things out of your control and work on what is. You cannot control yourself and have to try estimating? Fine, but get to work right after. Do not think about it again.

6 hours a day, 4 weeks straight. (For those who easily burn out)
8-10 hours for those with more resilience.

Also stop scrolling reddit and get to work

Tips:

Econs. Use Ri and Ej papers as samples. 2025 they were quite accurate on the difficulty level and their answers are usually the best broken down. Vjc answers are also lowkey elite, but only some years. I forgot which ones forgive me.
Also ignore papers before 2022, econs difficulty has grown exponentially for some reason.

Maths. Papers papers papers.

Physics. Do not forgo your practical, its free marks. Pls study at least 3 days.
If you get stuck, move on to easy answers to build momentum
Do PAPERS. 80% of the qns are regurgitated concepts. As long as you do your homework, you will be able to figure them out eventually.

Chem. If you suck at application, focus p1,3,4. P3 especially is usually free marks as its all regurgitated content. The answers are also all phrased in a certain way so you need to get used to the answering style needed.
If you are good at application, it just means u dont know your content well enough to score. Easy fix, read notes.

Gp: Ts luck icl 😭. Paper two try your best to understand what the question wants from you instead of the question itself. Phrasing does not need to necessarily be as strict as prelims as Cambridge assesors usually are nicer than gp tutors in terms of marking for phrasing. But do use correct vocab and grammatical structure unlike this sentence.

P1 just read model answers on a wide variety of topics. Try to copy the way the author writes. No need for super fancy vocab. Simple gets the job done.

Just lock in, and enjoy yourself after the break. You will have plenty of time to stress after As are over. For us guys, have fun prepping for BMT (for those pesfit), will either be hell or life changing depending on your mindset and platoonmates.

JIAYOU

Question to people in University or have graduated from Univeristy recently

Hi i am a y2 polytechnic student, and i wonder if going to Uni in sg, especially the big 3 is difficult if my Cgpa is at 3.5. I still have half of my poly life left and i plan to work extra hard to bring it up, if you went from poly to uni let me know what uni you went to and what was your cgpa back then, do let me know, thankyou ☺️

Another question is that, does a better portfolio increase chances of getting into a uni significantly more? If so, what are somethings that you would recommend for a poly student to work on and why?
Let’s say my interest is in the IT industry, what would you recommend the poly student to work on?

And lastly to all post polytechnic and JC students, were there anything you’d wished you had done or work towards when you were younger and still in poly or jc? what are some things that would have given you an advantage or benefits when you were in Uni or the adult life? Anything that you wished you had learnt or worked on.

Thankyou ☺️

Hey so I haven't seen any mod make a megathread for this(probably bc of how less of us there are), so I made one. How was it?

Also my school experience technical difficulties because of that damn .juypter-workspace file, anyone else also had that?

Hi this is the post for the 2026 N Level Mathematics paper 2 discussion. How do you find the paper today? Was it easier/harder than paper 1? Was the predicted topics came out as forecasted? Was the difficulty same or harder than previous years? Please feel free to share your thoughts thanks.

[Previous link: 2026 N Level Math Syllabus A (4045) Paper 1 discussion post: https://www.reddit.com/r/SGExams/s/XhGf1gSPw4 ]

o levels is less than 2 weeks away and I am really scared as I feel like I’m not putting as much effort as everyone around me and that I may fall below my expectations.

for some context these are my prelim results

english A1 - 77% (honestly might have been a fluke)

humanities B4 - 63% ( SS pulled me down)

E math A1 - 83%

A math B4 - Tbh I didn’t focus much on A math and just went to the exam praying for the best. usually around A2

Chem - B4 ( paper 2 pulled me down significantly)

physics - A2

biology - A2 (paper 2 pulled me down significantly)

HMT - C5

So I have Raw 14, net 10. technically raw 12 if I include mt from last yr o level)

I really want to get to a top JC and get close to raw 6 as possible. I’m extremely nervous and feel that even if I can score full marks i will succumb to the pressure during the exam. this was what had happeend during prelims where I found myself blanking out sometimes.

so the question is “if there is one thing I could do for the next 12 days to significantly increase my score what would it be”

i also need ur honest opinion on whether raw 6 is attainable for me