{"id":5101,"date":"2012-06-21T16:02:16","date_gmt":"2012-06-21T08:02:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/?p=5101"},"modified":"2012-06-21T16:02:16","modified_gmt":"2012-06-21T08:02:16","slug":"private-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/2012\/06\/21\/private-candidate\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking your GCE ‘A’ Levels as a Private Candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Someone dropped by my Tumblr<\/a> to ask me to write a post about my experience re-taking my A Levels as a private candidate.<\/p>\n

Here we go.<\/p>\n

REGISTRATION.<\/strong><\/p>\n

If you want to re-take your A’s, the first thing you got to do is to register with the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board<\/a>. (SEAB). Go to National Examinations -> GCE ‘A’ Levels -> Private Candidates -> Online Registration<\/a><\/strong>. You can just click that last link to save yourself the trouble. Registration for this year’s A’s are closed. I believe I registered for mine in late March.<\/p>\n

CHOOSING SUBJECTS.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When choosing subjects, you’ll want to check out the Syllabuses<\/a>. I picked Mathematics, Economics, English Literature, and English Language and Linguistics. All of them H2’s.\u00a0(And H1 General Paper.)<\/p>\n

In JC, I had taken H2 Mathematics, H2 Economics and H2 History, and H1 Literature. (And H1 General Paper.)<\/p>\n

I got B’s for H2 Economics, H2 History and H1 Literature. I got an S for H2 Mathematics. (And an A for H1 General Paper.)<\/p>\n

I didn’t really study at all. I just sort of skimmed through everything. It’s easy to pass Economics, History and Literature without much effort if you can think and write clearly. Actually, with the benefit of hindsight, I’d say that it’s the same for Mathematics- but you can’t improvise in Mathematics- you’ll have to have a thorough understanding of the language.<\/p>\n

I’d say it’s the same for every subject, actually- every subject has its own language, in a way, and you’ll need to learn to speak it fluently if you want to score well. Maths is the most technical \u00a0or “different” of the languages… I’ll talk more about this in a later post.<\/p>\n

I decided to do English Language and Linguistics instead of History because I didn’t really relish the idea of having to re-learn a whole bunch of history. I enjoyed learning it the first time around, but if I ever have a desire to learn history, I know where to look up the information.<\/p>\n

I’ve always been passionate about language and linguistics to some degree, and so I thought it would be fun to try doing something I love. It’s a bit risky, though, because it’s a really young or new subject. The syllabus is vague, and I haven’t seen the specimen papers yet. Still, I imagine that in the worst case scenario I’m going to get a B. (The plan is still to get A’s.)<\/p>\n

I specifically avoided taking any science subjects, despite my renewed passion for them. I would quite like to learn Physics, for instance, but it’s complicated- I’ll have to sign up for the practical paper and all that stuff. Messy. I’ll stick to writing, thanks!<\/p>\n

STUDY PLAN.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m re-doing my A’s together with my friend and former band-mate,\u00a0Adnin<\/a>. It’s good to have someone else doing it with you, to keep yourself accountable.<\/p>\n

I had sold off my graphing calculator after my A’s, so I’m borrowing one from my girlfriend.<\/p>\n

I printed out all the syllabuses to remind myself of what I’m tested on.<\/p>\n

I made a deal with a friend who still had his notes for Mathematics and Economics- I traded him some books for his notes, and more importantly, his old Prelim papers. I’ve been spending most of my time going through 2007 JC Prelim Papers for Economics.<\/p>\n

I’ll be meeting up with a couple of younger friends who are doing their A’s this year, and I’ll be getting more recent prelim papers from them. I still need to get myself some ELL material.<\/p>\n

I haven’t really started properly on Literature and ELL, because I’m fairly confident that I can get up to speed on those in a month if I have to. My strategy at the moment is to build my confidence by getting my Economics up to scratch, to practice my Mathematics at a foundation level (I’ve been watching Math lectures on YouTube and they are absolutely fantastic.) It’s already June, and soon it will be July. Throughout July and August I will be studying hardcore- it will dominate my time.<\/p>\n

I have been deleting and removing distractions from my life. I have been decluttering my study space (this will get more dramatic as time goes by). I try to keep track of how much I study every day, and what I accomplished. (This will get more dramatic as time goes by.)<\/p>\n

Feel free to ask questions- I don’t have the time to make this post perfect, so think of it as the start of a series of posts that will eventually be clear and useful as a collective. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

===<\/p>\n

USEFUL STUFF:\u00a0<\/strong>Check the syllabuses of all the subjects you’re doing on\u00a0http:\/\/www.seab.gov.sg\/<\/a>. \u00a0Print these out. Analyse them. Know them inside out. Tick everything you’re comfortable with and can answer easily. Focus your energy on everything you’re bad at.<\/p>\n

MATH:<\/strong><\/p>\n