Saturday, August 21, 2010
Independent studies

I will also not be talking about food in this post, I will be talking about the new assessment method introduced, Independent Studies.

Independent Studies is a new "subject" that was introduced in Hwa Chong Institution. It is supposedly the subject to gauge and indicate if a student is capable of doing independent learning and is suitable to stay in the IP Stream. It is made up of ACE and Project Work (Projects Day), each taking up 50%. The passing criteria for promotion to the next level of education is at least a B3, which is 65%. Failure to hit the target will result in being filtered out to the O level classes, 3Q and subsequently 4Q.

Allow me to point out some of the disadvantages of this system. First of all, there are people in the school who are not good at projects and are better at independent work. True, we must encourage those people to socialise and learn how to work with other people, but wouldn't it be unfair if projects day holds a deciding 50%? Furthermore, there is an unfair competition in Projects Day. Secondary 2 students will have to compete with Secondary 4 students, who are supposedly more vocal and have 2 years more of experience. For Projects Day, in order to score a high grade, we must enter the Grand Finals judging round. However, there are limited chances and it will most probably be dominated by Secondary 4 students. How is is fair that we are unable to score in that area, but yet it decides our fate?

There has been much debate about this new system, and it is hard to decide if it is the best method of assessment. On a personal level, I detest and hate this new system because it is very unfair and furthermore, it will not hike our MSG, like ACE and OP did in the previous system. On a general level, I feel that Projects Day should not hold such a high weightage (50%), because of the unfair nature of it.

Friday, August 20, 2010
Oral Communications

Sorry to whoever is reading my blog, I was unable to keep up with my 1 post a week rule last week, because there was 4 test and I really could not sacrifice my study time to make a post. Even if I did it would have been a substandard post.

In this post, I will be talking about the new "subject" introduced in Hwa Chong, Oral Communications.

Oral Communications is the new assessment method introduced this year, together with Independent Studies. The aim of Oral Communications is to promote vocal skills and to encourage public speaking. It consist of Oral Participation in classes, English Current Affairs Discussion, Chinese Current Affairs Discussion, and a Chinese and English Interview. The highest Oral Participation marks in 5 subjects will be taken into account for your Oral Participation marks.

Now, I will point out some of the major flaws of the new system. First of all, like Independent Studies, it is unfair to a specific group of people. In this case, Oral Communications is unfair to people who are shy in nature, they are not vocal and they are not good at speaking. Even if they are encouraged to speak up, they will still not be as proficient as those who are vocal in nature and they will lose out in the assessment. Furthermore, most of the assessment such as the interviews and the current affairs discussion are all one-try, if you screw it up, you're screwed. If a student under performs on that day, his entire subject grade will be affected.

Personally, I do not really like this system alot as I am not much of a public speaker. However, I feel that I can still live with it.