Singapore-Cambridge GCE Advanced Level

The Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education Advanced Level (or Singapore-Cambridge GCE A-Level) examination is a national university entrance examination held annually in Singapore. It is conducted jointly by the Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE), Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) and the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES).[1]

Despite the engagement of an identical examination board as partnering authority, the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Advanced Level examination has no relation to the British A-Level examinations, having de-linked since 2002 when the Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE) took over the management of the national examination. This is owing to the stark differences in the development of the respective education systems in the two countries.[2]

The Singapore-Cambridge GCE A-Level certificate is a qualification recognised internationally and valued by universities and employers alike. It allows Singaporean students to gain entry into local and overseas universities to further their education.[3]

The pre-university national examination is taken by school candidates upon completion of pre-university education at junior college & centralised institutes, students from relevant Integrated Programmes, and is open to private candidates.

, with the standards and grading for the subjects determined by SEAB and MOE in consultation with the Cambridge International Examinations (CIE), a subsidiary of UCLES. Localised subjects, including Mother Tongue subjects such as Chinese, Malay and Tamil are

Curriculum

The Singaporean A-level curriculum was revised 2006 for an enhanced curriculum framework dedicated to the Singapore's education requirement. This is compared to the initial system of ‘AO’, ‘A’ and ‘S’ papers modelled after the United Kingdom education system. It was designed to emphasise multi-disciplinary learning, breadth of learning as well as flexibility, and it aims to prepare students well for the approaches being taken in university education, and for the demands of an innovation-driven world of the 21st century.[4] The Singaporean A-levels differ in exam structure and subject content from GCE A-levels in other countries such as the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Brunei, Seychelles, Pakistan etc.

Under the new curriculum, candidates select subjects from three levels of study, namely Higher 1 (H1), Higher 2 (H2) and Higher 3 (H3). Subjects are divided into knowledge skills and content-based subjects. Knowledge skills subjects include General Paper, Knowledge and Inquiry and Project Work; content-based subjects are divided into languages, humanities and the arts, and mathematics and sciences.[5]

General Paper and Knowledge & Inquiry

General Paper (or GP) at H1 level or Knowledge & Inquiry (or KI) at H2 level are academic subjects offered at the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Advanced Level examination in the Singapore education system. All pre-university students in Singapore undertaking the Singapore-Cambridge GCE Advanced Level examination are required to offer either of the subjects.[5][6]

General Paper aims to develop in students the ability to think critically, to construct cogent arguments and to communicate their ideas using clear, accurate and effective language. In addition, General Paper encourages students to explore a range of key issues of global and local significance and provides students with a good foundation to thrive in a fast-changing world.[6]

The General Paper comprises two papers, Paper 1 and Paper 2. Paper 1 comprises twelve questions that cover a wide range of topics, including but not limited to: history, society, culture, economy, politics, philosophy, sciences, mathematics, geography, literature and language, as well as topics of local interest and global concern. Candidates are to answer any one question out of the twelve given within a time span of 90 minutes. Candidates are to write an essay of length between 500 and 800 words. Paper 1 accounts for half of the final grade. Paper 2 comprises one or two passages of continuous prose. Candidates are required to demonstrate their ability to comprehend, explain, infer, evaluate and summarise within a time-span of 90 minutes. The sections tested include short answer questions, summary and an application question. The application question requires the candidate to evaluate the author's arguments and apply the author's suggestions to their own country. Marks are also allocated for appropriate use of language. Paper 2 accounts for the other half of the final grade.

In 2012, the Singapore General Paper syllabus was modified and its subject code 8806 was replaced by a new subject code 8807. A key difference in the new syllabus is that examiners require candidates to present conviction, confidence and be convincing in their essays, departing from set-piece essays and memorising core content.

Subject combination

Subjects at H1 level constitutes one academic unit, subjects at H2 level constitutes two academic units, with the exception of subjects taken at H3 level.[5] Students are invariably required to sit for either H1 General Paper or H2 Knowledge and Inquiry, and may opt to elect any combination and number of H1 and H2 subjects, up to a maximum of twelve academic units (AUs).[5] A maximum of two H3 subjects can be applied. Subject examination of the H3 level subjects were previously offered as "Special papers" (or "S-Papers") under the Cambridge GCE Advanced Level before 2006.[5]

Under the Ministry of Education's regulations, students sitting for the A-level in a junior college are required to take at least one subject that is from a contrasting discipline.[5] They are also required to fulfil additional academic requirements of Singapore's education system, such as having to take Project Work and a Mother Tongue Language.[7]

Grading system

H1 and H2 subjects are graded alphabetically in the following manner.[8]

GradeRemark
AAbove Singapore-Cambridge

GCE Advanced Level pass

B
C
D
E
SBelow Singapore-Cambridge

GCE Advanced Level pass

Ungraded

Notes:

  • Candidates who pass at least one subject at H1 or H2 level will receive a Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education (Advanced Level).
  • Grade 'S' denotes a sub-pass.
  • Grades 'S' and 'Ungraded' indicate that the candidate has failed to obtain a pass in the particular subject. These two grades do not appear on the certificate but will be shown on the result slip.
  • Subject(s) taken by the candidate under special arrangements will be annotated in the certificate.

H3 subjects are graded as either Distinction, Merit, Pass or Ungraded.

List of subjects examined

SubjectLanguage mediumLevelNotes
Project WorkEnglishH1
General PaperEnglishH1
English Language and LinguisticsEnglishH2
Knowledge and InquiryEnglishH2
Literature in EnglishEnglishH1, H2, H3
Theatre Studies and DramaEnglishH2
GeographyEnglishH1, H2, H3
HistoryEnglishH1, H2, H3
EconomicsEnglishH1, H2, H3
China Studies in EnglishEnglishH1, H2
FrenchFrenchH1, H2
GermanGermanH1, H2
JapaneseJapaneseH1, H2
Non-Tamil Indian LanguagesBengali / Gujarati / Hindi / Punjabi / UrduH1
MathematicsEnglishH1, H2, H3
Further MathematicsEnglishH2
PhysicsEnglishH1, H2
ChemistryEnglishH1, H2
BiologyEnglishH1, H2
ArtEnglishH1, H2, H3
MusicEnglishH2, H3
ComputingEnglishH2
Principles of AccountingEnglishH2
Management of BusinessEnglishH2
Chinese languageChineseH1
China Studies in ChineseChineseH2
General Studies in ChineseChineseH1
Translation (Chinese)English and ChineseH2
Chinese Language and LiteratureChineseH2, H3
Malay LanguageMalayH1
Malay Language and LiteratureMalayH2, H3
Tamil LanguageTamilH1
Tamil Language and LiteratureTamilH2, H3
Essentials of Modern PhysicsEnglishH3
Pharmaceutical ChemistryEnglishH3
ProteomicsEnglishH3

H3 Pharmaceutical Chemistry

H3 Pharmaceutical Chemistry (Syllabus 9812) is an additional subject being offered to the GCE A-level students in Singapore. It replaces the decades-old Special paper (otherwise known as paper "0" in syllabus 9251), a paper that is often taken by students aiming for local/overseas scholarship or who simply want to challenge themselves. The first batch of students sat for their examination in November 2007.

As given under the "Introduction" in the syllabus provided by University of Cambridge, H3 is meant for students with exceptional ability and interest in chemistry. The depth of the knowledge is pitched at undergraduate level, with approximately 140 hours of teaching and self-directed independent learning. H3 Pharmaceutical Chemistry is notorious for being the hardest subject in the 'A' Level curriculum as prescribed by UCLES and SEAB.

Syllabus

The syllabus is divided into 6 sections as follow:

  1. Effects and development of drugs
  2. Properties of functional groups and intermolecular interactions
  3. Molecular Stereochemistry
  4. Understanding Reaction Mechanisms
  5. Separation and Analytical Techniques
  6. Some classes of drugs

Additional information

The above syllabus is somewhat similar to the optional topics offered by International Baccalaureate chemistry. It overlaps considerably with option B, G and H, which are titled "Medicines and Drugs", "Modern Analytical Chemistry" and "Further Organic Chemistry" respectively. The move from Special paper to H3 is primarily to place more emphasis on independent thinking, learning and creativity. Unlike Special paper, H3 takes the students beyond what is covered in the basic H2 syllabus; it therefore allows students to be exposed to more in-depth knowledge at a younger age.

Teaching materials/notes are mainly obtained from a guide written by the University of Cambridge.

Candidate Performance

In 2010, the number of school candidates who sat for the examination was 14,280, out of which 90.8% of them scored at least three Higher 2 (H2) passes, with a pass in General Paper (GP) or Knowledge and Inquiry (KI).[9]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Singapore GCE A Levels".
  2. ↑ hermes (2017-09-11). "Changes to Britain's GCSE and A-level exams won't affect Singapore students". The Straits Times. Retrieved 2017-12-10.
  3. ↑ http://www.aec.edu.sg/bs_gce_alevel.php
  4. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-01-01. Retrieved 2011-03-12.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Ministry of Education Singapore: New 'A' Level Curriculum 2006". www.moe.gov.sg. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
  6. 1 2 "School Info". www.seab.gov.sg. Retrieved 2017-12-06.
  7. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2011-06-21.
  8. ↑ http://www.seab.gov.sg/privateExamInstructions/2011InstructionsForPrivateCandidates.pdf
  9. ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-03-07. Retrieved 2011-03-12.
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