"Ten Year Series (TYS)" is a term used by Singaporeans, in particular students, to refer to official compilation books of examination papers in past years for the General Certificate of Education (GCE) Normal Level (N-level), Ordinary Level (O-level) and Advanced Level (A-level), approved by the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) and University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES).
In Singaporean schools, these books are known to be used extensively by teachers and students in preparation for similar questions that may be asked in upcoming examinations. [1] Most students review these past examination papers in order to seek to reveal applications of concepts as well as encounter the forms of various new concepts which would be covered in examinations but not explicitly in the syllabus. [2]
Critics of the education system claim that this phenomenon to be signs of rote memorization, which goes against the emphasis for creative thinking as championed by the Singaporean government. [3] [4] [5]
Until 2007, the term had not always been truly literal since some of these books have compilations containing papers from more than two decades worth of examinations, which means that students will thus often be doing practice papers that are set even before they were born. [2] SEAB has since implemented a new rule limiting the publication of papers to the past ten years, which resulting in a spike of demand for older ten-year series. [2] Ten-year series should not be confused with assessment books (books containing questions on specific subjects for students to practice), which serve as an additional practice, or as a form of enrichment. The latter are privately authored and sold in bookstores. [6]
Education in Singapore is managed by the Ministry of Education (MOE). It controls the development and administration of state schools receiving taxpayers' funding, but also has an advisory and supervisory role in respect of private schools. For both private and state schools, there are variations in the extent of autonomy in their curriculum, scope of taxpayers' aid and funding, tuition burden on the students, and admission policy.
Temasek Secondary School (TMS) is a co-educational government autonomous secondary school in Bedok South, Singapore. Founded in 1980, it offers secondary education leading to the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Ordinary Level or Singapore-Cambridge GCE Normal Level examination.
A past paper is an examination paper from a previous year or previous years, usually used either for exam practice or for tests such as University of Oxford, University of Cambridge College Collections.
Founded in 1920, The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) is a professional organization for schoolteachers of mathematics in the United States. One of its goals is to improve the standards of mathematics in education. NCTM holds annual national and regional conferences for teachers and publishes five journals.
Ong Teck Chin is a Singaporean educator. He was formerly the Principal/CEO of Anglo-Chinese School, and resident warden of its boarding school. He is now currently the Principal of Singapore International School of Bangkok Sixth Form.
The Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) is a national examination in Singapore that is administered by the Ministry of Education and taken by all students near the end of their sixth year in primary school before they move on to secondary school. The examination test students' proficiency in the English language, their respective mother tongue languages, mathematics and science. Students have about two hours to complete each subject paper except for certain components of language subjects. Students answer multiple choice questions by shading their responses on a standardized optical answer sheet (OAS) that uses optical mark recognition to detect answers or by writing their workings and/or answers on the question booklet itself for certain sections of the paper.
The Ministry of Education is a ministry of the Government of Singapore responsible for the formulation and implementation of policies related to the education in Singapore.
The Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level is a GCE Ordinary Level examination held annually in Singapore and is jointly conducted by the Ministry of Education (MOE), Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) and the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES). Students are graded in the bands ranging from A to F and each band has a respective grade point, a lower grade point indicates better performance. The number at the end of each grade corresponds to the grade point that they receive. To pass an individual O-Level subject, a student must score at least C6 or above. The highest grade a student can attain is A1.
Maris Stella High School (MSHS) (Chinese: 海星中学; pinyin: Hǎixīng Zhōngxué) is a government-aided, all-boys Catholic secondary school with autonomous status. As a full school, it comprises a primary section offering a six-year programme leading up to the Primary School Leaving Examination, as well as a secondary section offering a four-year programme leading up to the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Ordinary Level examinations. Run by the international Marist Brothers at Mount Vernon Road, Singapore near Bartley MRT station, Maris Stella High School is one of the eleven Special Assistance Plan (SAP) high schools in Singapore.
Montfort Secondary School (MSS) is a Catholic school in Hougang, Singapore. Founded in 1916, it is a government-aided secondary education all-boys school. It is one of the seven institutions governed by St Gabriel's Foundation.
Dunman Secondary School (DMN) is a co-educational government autonomous secondary school in Tampines, Singapore. It was founded in 1963.
Paya Lebar Methodist Girls' School(PLMGS) is a primary and secondary school for girls located in Hougang, Singapore. Running on a single-session, the school caters to students from Primary 1 to 6 and Secondary 1 to 4/5 in the Express, Normal Academic and Normal Technical streams in Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School (Primary) and Paya Lebar Methodist Girls’ School (Secondary).
The A-level is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational authorities of British Crown dependencies to students completing secondary or pre-university education. They were introduced in England and Wales in 1951 to replace the Higher School Certificate. The A-level permits students to have potential access to a chosen university they applied to with UCAS points. They could be accepted into it should they meet the requirements of the university.
Gan Eng Seng School (GESS) is a co-educational government secondary school in Bukit Merah, Singapore. Founded in 1885 by philanthropist Gan Eng Seng, the school is the first school established by the overseas Chinese community in Singapore and is one of the oldest schools in the country.
Holy Innocents' High School (HIHS) (Simplified Chinese:圣婴中学, Traditional Chinese: 聖嬰中學, pinyin: Shèngyīng Zhōngxué) is a Catholic school in Singapore. Founded in 1892, the school offers secondary school education leading up to a Singapore-Cambridge GCE Ordinary Level examination, in both the Express and Normal (Academic) streams, as well as Singapore-Cambridge GCE Normal Level in the Normal (Academic) and Normal (Technical) streams.
Additional Mathematics is a qualification in mathematics, commonly taken by students in high-school. It features a range of problems set out in a different format and wider content to the standard Mathematics at the same level.
Junior colleges (JC) are pre-university institutions in Singapore that offer two-year pre-university courses that leads to either the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Advanced Level or the International Baccalaureate Diploma. Admission to Junior college is based on the aggregate raw score of 20 points or less in O-Level "L1R5" in the examination. Lower aggregate is considered better, i e. 7 aggregate score is better than aggregate score 10. Bonus points are also deducted from this proscore to come up with the final score for the admission.
The Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education Advanced Level is a GCE Advanced Level examination held annually in Singapore and is jointly conducted by the Ministry of Education (MOE), Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) and the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES).
Singapore embraces an English-based bilingual education system. Students are taught subject-matter curriculum with English as the medium of instruction, while the official mother tongue of each student - Mandarin Chinese for Chinese, Malay for Malays and Tamil for South Indians – is taught as a second language. Additionally, Higher Mother Tongue (HMT) is offered as an additional and optional examinable subject to those with the interest and ability to handle the higher standards demanded by HMT. The content taught to students in HMT is of a higher level of difficulty and is more in-depth so as to help students achieve a higher proficiency in their respective mother tongues. The choice to take up HMT is offered to students in the Primary and Secondary level. Thereafter, in junior colleges, students who took HMT at the secondary level have the choice to opt out of mother tongue classes entirely. Campaigns by the government to encourage the use of official languages instead of home languages have been largely successful, although English seems to be becoming the dominant language in most homes. To date, many campaigns and programmes have been launched to promote the learning and use of mother tongue languages in Singapore. High ability students may take a third language if they choose to do so.
The Art Elective Program (AEP) is offered by schools in Singapore that have obtained permission from the Ministry of Education. This programme is also known as Higher Art and can also be offered as a Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level (O-level) subject.