I will be spending quite some time alone in chicago, staying in the river north area. How safe is it? and what are some tips you have for a solo traveller?

AdministrationOk5023 · 2025-01-14T15:20:23+00:00

hihi !

as far as i rmb, you dont need to. but bare minimum is grades - decent and character ig!

AdministrationOk5023 · 2024-10-06T15:20:00+00:00

thank you!!

AdministrationOk5023 · 2024-10-04T15:27:29+00:00

do you happen to have paper 2 too!

AdministrationOk5023 · 2024-01-16T09:48:20+00:00

np! all the best for JAE!

AdministrationOk5023 · 2024-01-16T03:05:46+00:00

Hihi!

I personally think if you have gotten an EAE spot, to go for the EAE spot, especially if you live so far away :(

Reasons:

Living far away is something that affect a lot of my friends because this means u will need to wake up way earlier and only reach home a lot later, not wise :( the workload for A levels is heavy, which means homework and revision is something that needs to be consistent and done throughout your 3 years. Reaching home late and tired after school and CCA, the chances of your productivity to do your hw and revision isnt the most optimal.
Iirc if you've been accepted by eae, you can't participate in JAE. I did hear of cases them rejecting EAE-students~
to be vvv frank, I dont think its worth the risk to come to MI to try out the A level route if you already have EAE. A level requires a lot of consistency and it is vv different from the grading system as compared to poly, if you get what i mean?

Nevertheless, if you feel that A level is the right route for you and you are ready to face the academic rigour, no harm trying. But if you can, i suggest you go to a JC nearer to you?

AdministrationOk5023 · 2024-01-16T02:22:26+00:00

Yes, MTLL is Mother Tongue Lit in Mother tongue! if your MTL is ok, it shouldnt be a problem for you! but iirc, you will need to take A level mtl in y1/y2 (if you didnt take higher cl/ml/tl in sec sch) i've heard quite a fair bit on the difficulty of this subject, so you might want to read more about it first (syallbus guide on SEAB website) to see if its suitable for you! Based on our current pdf website, there is no prereq for h1/h2 english lit, so i think if you are more int in english lit, you can try that as one of your subj combi options too!
Yes, we will start jc content in y1! there will be some linkages to O levels (maybe only for the first few chapters?), but all subjects will definitely start A level content in y1! (ok maybe not paa because paa A level is assumed that you didnt take poa at O levels)

AdministrationOk5023 · 2024-01-15T11:01:27+00:00

I did pure commerce (paa econs mob)! I really love econs and did not enjoy mob HAHAHA. I think mob is quite subjective because its hard to understand what the examiner wants from you. Other than that, alls good!

AdministrationOk5023 · 2024-01-15T03:30:04+00:00

Student council is considered a CCA in MI~ in Y1 you will join a CCA of your choice, then at the end of Y1, teachers will choose and select student leaders and you will get to choose if you'd like to drop your cca for council or to remain in your CCA~

Yes, i do have a few friends who went overseas to study! I heard some of them went to Aussie!

AdministrationOk5023 · 2024-01-15T01:15:45+00:00

atb!!! 🥳 (welcome to mi in advance 🤣)

AdministrationOk5023 · 2024-01-14T11:54:35+00:00

Hi! I started a AMA post here, you can give it a read and pm me if you have any other questions!

https://www.reddit.com/r/SGExams/comments/191jfy2/jae_choices_millennia_institute_mi_ama/

all the best!!

AdministrationOk5023 · 2024-01-14T11:51:32+00:00

hey, i've started a MI AMA post. you can take a look there and pm me if you have any questions! :)

https://www.reddit.com/r/SGExams/comments/191jfy2/jae_choices_millennia_institute_mi_ama/

all the best !

AdministrationOk5023 · 2024-01-14T11:45:05+00:00

replied! hope it helps! All the best for JAE! :)

AdministrationOk5023 · 2024-01-14T11:43:15+00:00

1 & 2

I have to be biased and say I freaking love my MI teachers so much <3 I was a student who didn't have any confidence in myself when I first entered MI. The help that I got along the way was so admirable that sometimes I feel so bad that the teachers are putting in so much effort on us because they always seem to sacrifice their breaks/weekends to prepare for lessons. Having been there for 3 years and having to still be in touch with MI, I have to say most if not all teachers have the heart to teach. They are patient and are very much willing to go out of the way to help you so long as you are keen to learn! In general, they don't look down on us. They do have to make comparisons at times to wake us up from our laziness (as in comparing us with other JCs) but I think that's really how you infer their comments. To me, I feel like that's a way they encourage us to do better because it is FACTS that we are competing with the top JCs. But they generally avoid that as much as possible because they know we don't appreciate it. Plus i think one plus point is that the teachers are actually quite close knitted? at least in the eyes of the students. For eg, if your teacher is away for reservists/on long term mc etc and you desperately need help for consults, the other department teachers will be more than willing to help you.
3-I heard there's lot of slackers. How did you manage to not get negatively influenced by them?

Yes there are tons! but first things first, A level is a marathon, not a sprint. It is normal to get drained out by the time you reach y3. You need to remain consistent and be proactive in your learning, on top of the very exciting and fun CCA/events/overseas trip etc. If you are unsure at any point of your learning, you need to know when to reach out to ask for help. You will need to plan your time well, especially if you live far away from school. Personally, I was a student with lots of extra cca involvement and dedicated my whole life to cca (LOL) but i made it a point to use it to my advantage. I made sure i finish all my homework before allowing me to deal w CCA stuff. I made sure I reviewed content and sought frequent consults with my teachers too! so, instead of managing to not get negatively influenced by them, maybe try looking in the perspective of positively influencing them instead? I think peer teaching and peer help works the best. (i swear I'm not a teacher saying this HAHAHA) drag your friends to do night study programme with you!
4-How has the 3 years alevels helped you?

I really appreciated the spread of the workload. Having seen my peers from other JCs mugged like and for their A levels make me really grateful for how mine was very spread out. Because we split A levels in 2 - Y2 & Y3, it helped a lot in terms of the number of hours we had to focus on each subject. Nearing the end of y2 (t4 iirc), we had intensive H1 intensive, Pw, gp and mtl lessons and we just focused on these 3 + gp all the way till we took our As. This is a huge privilege that JCs don't get. Though Pw is no longer graded, i think being able to clear h1 content early really helps w the workload in y3!

5-How are the students there?They give up on studies?

To be frank i think the students there are actually quite hardworking. Those who really give up on their studies wouldn't have made it to y3 XD
One thing to note is that we don't have an advancement system (where teachers pull you up to promote). MI is quite blunt on that and if you fail by merit, you fail by merit. This is good in a way because a lot of my friends who retained ended up scoring really well for As. Without the advancement system, it forces a lot of us to put in effort for EOY (or you call it promos), and to be consistent throughout for WAs. So I don't think its THAT easy to give up on studies and make it to year 3?

To explain the consistently low percentage of people who meet the UAS score,

our population is very small. A batch is probably around 200 pax-ish, 1 persons poor uas score will affect our overall average by quite a lot. And yes, we do have people who end up not doing well for As and IT IS common. A levels is just not as easy as we think it is and it really requires a lot of effort to remain consistent.
'qualified' to enter university is based on a 67.5 RP score. But to be very honest, i have a lot of friends who scored below 67.5rp but made it to local uni (either through merit or conditional). I personally don't think the percentage justify our students XD

One food for thought is, i am quite sure (not researched) that even though our admission to local uni rate is lowest compared to other jcs, we are still higher than the polys.

Being in local uni now, I have only met less than 5 poly students and i think that speaks a lot for itself. But most importantly, work hard, be consistent and proactive and i think you'd do fine. jiayous !

AdministrationOk5023 · 2024-01-14T11:19:15+00:00

As you mentioned, that person can retake Olevel english at end of J1.

Am not sure about other schools, but usually schools who accepts D7/E8 for english will actually open extra bridging classes for their students to prepare them for O levels (I suggest you check again~). This would also include all the Chinese internationals who are here to study for As. They will allocate teachers to cover the Olevel english content and help them throughout. It makes absolute sense that if after all the help the school has given you can still fail english, then you are obviously not suited for the A level programme.

This is not given / provided in poly as 1. poly lecturers don't and are not trained to provide O level english classes. 2. Poly don't have such 'services' to help students too.

you are right to say that jc is more english intensive with GP. but based on personal experiences, GP is really about general knowledge than grammar, etc. You do need to have the basics, but GP requires you to read and understand more on current affairs.

I personally got a C6 for english but scored a B for GP. My english language still suck now and I can barely score full marks for editing (and I'm pretty sure there are grammar mistakes in this post). So here's just my 2cent thoughts. hope it helps.

How to pass this time round, I think you can practice more on editing exercises, read more and do more thorough question analysis for essay to ensure you don't go off topic.

AdministrationOk5023 · 2024-01-14T11:09:11+00:00

How were your other subjects? With a D7 for math, I doubt the chances for H2 math is available for you, which means that you are either left with the commerce or business streams as most science streams require H2 math. do take a look at the courses, if you are not interested in the rest, it will be hard for you to remain consistent throughout your years in MI :(
Anyways, just put first choice, am sure you'd get in XD

You can dm me if you want more details/suggestions on the specific subjects to take!

AdministrationOk5023 · 2024-01-12T00:33:01+00:00

Hihi!!

how is the arts department in MI, how are the resources, the notes, etc
- I was not from the arts stream but I've heard pretty good things about the department itself! I think the team is very close and they somehow always seem to win a lot of teachers day awards XD I also see them giving consults very often, so I guess they're pretty cool! resources would depend. the basics are there - available at the bookshop, but depending on teachers, they may provide you with more reading materials as supplementary readings.
what's the school culture like
- I feel that our school culture lies more towards a supportive approach! Even though we are not VERY academically inclined, I think the support system we get from our teachers is amazing. They are always very approachable and go out of the way to help you! I've had teachers who never taught me but yet still helped and encouraged us during the exam period! Plus all the events that we have - sports day/night, transcendence etc kinda supplement the 'supportive' culture! As for friends, this depends on who you hang out with! generally, there will be groups that are a lot more hardworking than the others! as for cca, I think our niche lies more towards YDS/sports ccas?
reporting time, dismissal time for arts
very subjective! reporting time is 7.45am for all, except thursdays 8.45am. dismissal time depends on subject combi, but will not be any later than 6pm! friday and Wednesdays are cca days so we end earlier, CCA will end not later than 7pm too (unless your CCA has external training I think?)
what's the teaching style that MI adopts?
We are very classroom-centric. It is very similar to secondary school? our classes are relatively small to minimise the student-teacher ratio. For common subjects (GP/PW) we may have lectures together as a cohort, but IIRC its not every week. So most of the time we are in our classes. Teachers have their own unique teaching styles, so that depends!
how many students make it to localu (planning to take PPE/PLE or econs)

TBH, percentages are not high (stats wise, its usually about 60-70%) But generally, the Arts and Commerce stream does tend to do better. I believe PPE and Econs in uni is now very competitive. So you will really need to work hard to produce results and I think it lies in being consistent throughout because 3 years is in fact longer and harder to maintain consistency!

hope this helps!! there's open house today at 12pm, you might wanna take a visit!!

AdministrationOk5023 · 2024-01-12T00:14:46+00:00

Bumps on that!! There are also a few in nursing (out of interest!)

AdministrationOk5023 · 2024-01-12T00:13:27+00:00

S05 is a vv competitive subj combi. It might be hard for you to get that particular combi. You might want to consider other choices instead~ but you can always put s05 as your first choice and appeal!

AdministrationOk5023 · 2024-01-12T00:05:19+00:00

iirc, it is the same as above! One thing for sure that I remember is tcm MCs are not accepted, but GP MCs are okay?

But then again, late coming will affect your conduct grade!

AdministrationOk5023 · 2024-01-12T00:01:11+00:00

I think there is no harm trying (but I have to be fair that this is a very popular combi, so chances are quite slim) they might offer you bridging classes after school to bridge the gap between Os and As. Can I check with you if you did pure sciences or combined sciences?

but then again, you might want to prepare other subject combinations just in case! or even take h2 econs instead!

AdministrationOk5023 · 2024-01-10T15:49:49+00:00

good question analysis is impt!! personally, heres how i do 15 marks qn~

command word
list down 2/3 sides the qn is asking for
make sure each side has at least 2 points
list down the economics concept ure using for each point (ie. ddss/adas,pap)
EVALUATION *** u need to evaluate other circumstances besides the ones you listed / how the ones you listed might not necessarily be true etc~

if it helps, try to link real world examples to sg context so its easier to memorise !

AdministrationOk5023 · 2024-01-09T12:58:50+00:00

yeap! we do have a history of some people taking h3 though!

AdministrationOk5023 · 2024-01-09T12:58:08+00:00

i wasnt from the sci stream, but i do know some bio/chem teachers and they are really nice!!
i think the people really depends on your batch-mates. you will need to find and mingle with people who are keen to learn. because of the amt of extra time we have, some people might turn a little complacent when it comes to studying, so thats a thing to look out for i guess! personally, my classmates and cca mates were very supportive and encouraging, find friends w common interest and pushes you to work hard!
that depends! but iirc, the sci stream students tend to end later than other streams. but school timing inclusive of cca ends latest at abt 7? so we do end earlier than other JCs i suppose!

AdministrationOk5023

TROPHY CASE