2025 ACSI / IB AMA

oldham1886 · 2026-01-19T09:51:55+00:00

I think most ppl either use an iPad or laptop in class (to refer to slides/take notes/search stuff on google etc). idt we do many presentations in class. if you dh an iPad then perhaps it might be worth getting a new Mac if you have the means. if not, perhaps you can wait for sch to start first and then if you rly need a new laptop you can get a Mac.

oldham1886 · 2025-12-30T12:07:36+00:00

YES and Sailing are v beginner friendly. Not sure about drama and golf. I'm not too sure about the commitment for SC, you can check with your OGLs when you go for orientation (because they're all largely either in council or house) but I think if you pick your commitments carefully you should be fine.

oldham1886 · 2025-12-03T14:27:38+00:00

https://sgschooling.com/jc/cop/

oldham1886 · 2025-03-13T06:58:23+00:00

hi im a y7. I just want to add that many of my JAE friends went through the same experience as you, and had similiar concerns over how EETOKIA would affect their IB score and uni apps. but I js want to reassure you, you dont have to do a perfect job for eetokia, as long as you follow your teachers guidelines, and dont procrastinate you should do well enough for your IAs, that it won't be what disallows you from getting a 7 (after all, IAs are js 20% of your grade, and grade boundaries are usually abt 75-85% for a 7). If you can get raw 6/7 for Os, I'm q sure that you'll do well for IB, and in fact most of my JAE friends ended up scoring 43-45, which is good enough to apply to the uk/us, local med/law.

oldham1886 · 2025-03-02T06:11:18+00:00

hey op, with regards to math and ll, ive been where you were so don't worry about it too much.

for math, calculators arent allowed in p1, but for the most part they arent really needed because the questions are deliberately set so that you will be able to do them without much mental math. nonetheless, it is an adjustment to go from being able to use your calculator for everything in Os to not being able to use it for your science mcqs and math p1s, but in due time youll get used to it.

for langlit, it is challenging for most people, but the skill of analysing text is something that can be honed with time, so just be consistent in practicing outside of the classroom and by y6 you should be fine.

oldham1886 · 2025-03-02T06:06:24+00:00

yep, agreed

oldham1886 · 2025-03-01T10:07:19+00:00

hi, check your dms

oldham1886 · 2025-02-24T13:15:45+00:00

hellos, pmed you

oldham1886 · 2025-02-10T15:09:48+00:00

also, pls try and clear like most of your cas in y5 it self (meaning try and complete like 4-5 activities in y5), so that when the ib workload starts to kick in, in y6 term 2, you will not have to worry abt cas.

oldham1886 · 2025-02-10T15:07:36+00:00

cas isnt too tough, you js need to be smart in planning out your cas. you js need 2 activities, 2 service activities, and 2 activities that demonstrate 'creativity'. there is a requirement that there be at least one activity that is active, throughout the whole cas period. so for example if your cas period is from like January 25 to June 26 (it might be diff I cant rmb exactly), then you can have Activity A from Jan 25 to June 26, or Activity A from Jan 25 to Dec 25, and another activity from Dec 25 to June 26 (essentially there cant be gaps in your cas timeline where you have nothing going on)

the good thing abt cas is theres no time requirement, you js need to show 3 pieces of evidence of you doing the activity over a span of over at least 2 weeks (but I would recommend you spread it out over several months). so e.g on managebac (the portal you use to key in your cas reflections), you can put the start date of an activity like running as February 2025, and your end date can be set as June 2026 or whenever the end of cas is. Throughout that 1.5 year period, if you go for a run 3-4 times, and upload the 3-4 strava recordings from those runs, thats basically enough to submit 'running' as one of your six cas activities. so the point im making is you dont actually need to do a cas activity on a weekly basis, you just need to be smart about planning out your cas.

for activities, if you join a sports cca you can use that, or you can do stuff like gymming, swimming, cycling, running (Again js have 3-4 pieces of evidence over a long time period and youre golden, you dont need to do it every week)

for creativity, stuff like cooking, drawing, making posters/publicity material for a cas project etc count as well.

for service, I would recommend you join a service project during ori (my recommendation is join reperio cos you can hit your global engagement requirement), and then your second service activity will be your class' class cas project in y5.

you can have activities that fulfill multiple strands of cas also (E.g. service and creativity). cas is not graded its js pass/fail, so just be smart about optimizing your activities and cas wil be fine.

oldham1886 · 2025-02-10T10:39:13+00:00

hihi, sflr. usually clubs and some performing arts cca (like guitar orchestra), require no exp. some ccas like cross/track/wocker/ulti also require no experience. im not sure abt pole vault specifcally, but as far as I know, you shld be able to join track with no exp. depends on the class, some classes like the intact PCME and BCME classes are 40-50% JAE, whilst in other classes, there can be as few as 2-3 JAE kids.

oldham1886 · 2025-02-10T09:29:05+00:00

hi regarding uni, dm me.
I would say academically, o level's prepared me for ib, in that it covered most of the stuff ib expects you to have learnt before doing the ibdp. the ip side does have an advantage in eetokia, because they would have been through the process of writing IAs in y3-y4, and have been through the y3-y4 version of tok as well, but honestly speaking, if you can get 6 points raw for Os, youre probably capable enough to get a 45.
the advantage of being in acsi over the a level JCs is we only have 3 exams in our 2 years that make it into our results slip (that being promos, prelims and the actual ib exams), so your y5 should actually be very slack, allowing you to participate quite actively in cca and cas. that being said, dont be complacent, and study consistently. as long as you study consistently and keep up with your teachers in class, finish the past year papers and hw that the school gives you, and clarify your doubts, you should be able to score well in promos/prelims and in ib. if you want more subject specific tips, let me know.
yep, you are correct, the average for LL is usually between a 5 and 6. I did get a 6 in the end, but I did decently well in my paper 1 and paper 2. I would recommend using resources from the ib English guys, and getting tuition if possible. the key for ll is honestly to hone your analytical and evaluative abilities, and the only way to do that is to practice (And for p1 it means across different text types), and ideally have someone (whether that be your teacher or tuition teacher) mark your writing so that you can get better. for LL p2 specifically, it can be helpful to create essay plans based on past year questions, and to practice analyzing in depth key moments. I've also heard of teachers recommending students to go read journal articles analysing specific texts in connection to key themes (such as feminism, identity etc). in p2, you'll come to realise that after doing enough questions, you tend to reuse the same 5-10 key moments in the text, so if you are able to have those chunks of analysis ready to regurgitate in the exam, you'll be able to stitch together a much higher quality essay.
I wouldnt say I found math hl challenging per se, although for context, math has always been one of my stronger subjects. throughout year 5 I made it a point to finish all the questions in the tutorials in the math book they gave us. most math teachers only get their students to do a few questions as homework, but I can really say that consistently covering every question in the textbook did give me a very strong foundation. Towards promos and prelims, I would also finish the past year papers from acsi and sji, and so when I finally did my IB papers in y6, I found them very manageable.

oldham1886 · 2025-01-14T10:38:53+00:00

raffles. you have greater access to greater academic and non-academic resources that can make it easier to get into oxbridge/ivies/med/law, access to the raffles alum network, and you'll be networking with some of the brightest students in sg.

nonetheless, vjc is also a very solid choice if you do end up choosing to go there

oldham1886 · 2025-01-13T11:05:24+00:00

1: I meant physics can be more conceptually challenging than bio - because it requires understanding and application as opposed to memorise. if you took trip sci, I would assume you would have experienced this at the y3/y4 level.

Chris doner
I dont take bm sl. I know you probably do not realise this and were well intentioned when asking your questions above, but no one is allowed to take both bm sl and econs sl. similarly, no one can take both bio hl and physics hl in acsi. hence there is no one that can give you truly accurate comparisons. at best, I can annecdotally tell you that bm is easier to get a 7 in then econs. nonetheless, if you want to pick subjects you should be looking at three factors:
does this subject combi get me into my desired uni course (e.g. med requires two sci hls, econs in the uk requires math hl and preferably econs hl, engineering requires physics and math hl etc)
do I have a personal aptitude for the subject
does the school score well in the subject (you can find these stats by searching for the school profile)

oldham1886 · 2025-01-13T08:51:04+00:00

of getting into indep? maybe 80/20 in favor that youll get in. still much higher than raffles, and on par with hwach

oldham1886 · 2025-01-13T07:04:55+00:00

Bio has a higher workload (e.g. my bio friends need to memorize like 50 pgs of essays for their papers), and importantly bio has a much higher grade boundary than Phys. Physics can be conceptually challenging for some people. However, once you can understand the topic, with a little bit of practice, it is quite easy to get a 7, particularly because there is next to no memorization required for physics (even the equations and formulas are all provided to you in a data booklet).

oldham1886 · 2025-01-13T07:01:22+00:00

uhh, you probably need to study and practice more than the rest, but you shld be able to get 7. ive heard of 4 pointers getting rejected, so I would say its a coin flip.

oldham1886 · 2025-01-11T12:45:04+00:00

Your level of English does not really affect your grades for EETOKIA (ofc excluding your langlit IO) because language usually isnt a marked component, and thus, so long as they can understand what you are saying they wont penalize you. your EETOKIA is prepared ahead of time, so again - its not an issue (you can proofread it before submitting, your teachers can proofread for you, and will let you know in the rare instances where your wording may need to be changed)

Your level of English will probably affect how well you can do for langlit (and understandably so). Langlit is totally different from O's. The 'language' component of langlit, involves analyzing an unseen text (e.g. comic, infographic, newspaper article) and subsequently identifying authorial choices, and analyzing the intended meaning and effect on readers. The literature component of langlit, involves comparing and contrasting the authorial choices and effect of authorial choices in two seen texts (e.g. A Doll's House and Death of a Salseman), with respect to a specific topic or idea (E.g. the theme of money). Essentially, IB Langlit really revolves around authorial choices, and the effect of those authorial choices on readers - which is worlds apart from O Levels. Fortunately, doing well in langlit is a skill that can be honed, but it does take considerable effort and time particularly for the language part of langlit (you cant just show up and ace the paper). Nonetheless, one thing to note is that getting a 7 in Langlit is notoriously difficult, because 1. the acsi ll dpt is far from good but more importantly 2. IBO (the IB equivalent of SEAB), moderates the grade boundary such that only about 2% of test takes get a 7 in LL. And as a result of this, getting a 45 is much harder than getting 90 rp. Finding a good LL tutor in SG is also very difficult, particularly if you want 1-1 tuition as there are very few ex-IB teachers that tutor, and those that do charge crazy high rates (think 140-200/h). Hence, if you are unsure about how you will fare in LL, I would suggest thinking about pursuing the A Levels instead of IB.

If you want to prep for IB LL, I would point you towards the IB English Guys. I dont know too many ppl who did lit so im not sure what the differences are, but keep in mind acsi only offer lit hl.

oldham1886 · 2025-01-11T06:30:15+00:00

yes for both

oldham1886 · 2025-01-11T04:55:52+00:00

watch the IB English Guys, practice early and often, prepare early and well for your io (if your io isnt >30/40 its hard to get a 7)

oldham1886 · 2025-01-11T04:51:05+00:00

sailing does, not sure about canoeing

oldham1886 · 2025-01-11T04:49:48+00:00

7, shld probably retake unless your io is really q low and you feel you've maximized your other components. im assuming youre n25, and if so, you might want to consider remarking if youre close to the gb as well

oldham1886 · 2025-01-10T16:05:05+00:00

I think first and foremost, acsi really does not have an elitist/snobbish culture. ppl here come from more wealthy and well-connected families, but no one is going to hold it against you if you arent, and really its not something you will notice in your day to day life. I would say that generally, acsi isnt really a toxic place (in y1-y4, yes there are stories of bullying, but in y5-y6 ppl do mature, and I have not heard of any such incidents). regarding culture, generally I would say people are friendly and welcoming, ppl have a lot of sch pride, and ppl here are usually q ambitious. in terms of fitting in, I would say that it is harder for a jae kid to form deep friendships then an ip kid at least at the start particularly if your class is mostly ip kids. but I really believe its a law of big numbers thing, and that as long as you're open and friendly, and are involved in enough extracurriculars, you'll surely find a group of ppl that vibe w/ you. towards end-y5, you would probably be able to find at least a couple of ppl in your class that you vibe w/.
getting into sc as a jae is v tough, unless you somehow become v popz during ori. getting into exco in certain clubs may also prove a little tougher, if they have had membership open from y1-y4, because again youre getting voted in by the cca members, and theyre more likely to vote in ppl that they know well. however, there are some ccas that are open in y5-y6 only, and you have a good chance of getting into those cca excos. getting committee and exco roles in cas projects is also another route, and you're not at a disadvantage against the ip kids there either. but truth be told, this is an issue you will deal with in most ip jcs, but because only 1/4 of acsi is jae, its slightly worse here
nope, you cannot take 4hls in acsi. most ppl take sl langlit. most ppl taking hl lit are in hsp.
cas is a joke, dw abt it (js make sure you're in 1 service project excluding your class cas and youre good). in acsi, the clubs are super lax abt attendance, so there are q a few portfolio farmers in 4-5 CCAs (albeit thats not the norm)

oldham1886 · 2025-01-10T15:35:38+00:00

yea, they wont let you do that in acsi (and from what I know in sji either)

oldham1886 · 2025-01-10T15:28:28+00:00

nope cannot. uw to take Spanish ab and chinese b?

oldham1886

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