Applying to NUS High School

For those who are interested in gaining admission to NUS High School.

Firstly, of course the school looks for those with interest in Math and Science. This is the basic criteria you must have. By ‘interest’, I mean that you like the subject, and by ‘passion’, I mean that you can’t live without the subject. If you are applying to NUS High, you are most likely in Primary Six or Secondary two, so no one should expect you to know what you want to do for the rest of your life just yet. But interest in the relevant subjects is definitely critical. The school of course does not want a misfit; it will be bad for both parties.

I am from the class of 2009, which means I applied for admission in mid-2005. Things have probably changed greatly since then, but some basic admissions guidelines should more or less be the same.

For me, I applied in Secondary Two. I was originally from Nanyang Girls’ High School before I transferred over, so I already had some results from Nanyang. The online portal wanted applicants to submit what results I had from Nanyang, and also my PSLE score. They also wanted applicants to do a write up on – something along the lines of “Why do you want to join NUS High?”, and “Why are you interested in Math and Science?” I think I still have some of my essays in my computer; if I can find them I’ll post them up. And they asked applicants to list down any competitions/ events they had which could demonstrate their aptitude, particularly in the areas of Mathematics and Science. And you also had to ask two of your teachers, one who had to be a science/ math teacher, to write a recommendation letter to support your application.

After a few weeks, I was shortlisted for the test, held at some hall in NUS (the University). This was a test set by the school, which had applicants answer some questions in Math and Science. If I’m not wrong, there were separate sections for Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Integrated Science. I didn’t have many problems with the science portions; I remember just working my way through methodically. For Math, it required a bit more creativity since the questions tested weren’t in the ‘normal’ school syllabus. So unless they have changed the system, as long as you know the syllabus for your age group well, you shouldn’t have too many problems with the test. Of course, extra knowledge beyond your school curriculum will be an added advantage as I believe there will likely be questions like that to distinguish between the candidates.

After some more waiting, I was called for a two day Math and Science camp at the Science Centre Singapore. This camp was held only during the daytime; participants were allowed to return home at night. This camp aims to sieve out students who could work well in a Math and Science school, and showed enthusiasm for the subject, and were proactive. There were eight people in each group, lead by a team leader who was an NUS Student Volunteer. The NUS Volunteer took notes about the behavior of the participants and wrote down what he thought of the participant’s capabilities and suitability for the school. One piece of advice: Don’t be overly enthusiastic about grabbing the limelight though; they look for team players also.

During the camp in 2005, participants were lead around various stations in the Science Centre to observe various scientific demonstrations. We were given slips of paper with questions about the scientific phenomena and asked to respond about what we thought caused them. I remember one of them was about what causes a vortex. Another stations involved Newton’s three laws of motion and constructing a water rocket. There were several stations for separate science subjects.

At the end of the first day, participants were given a Teflon frying pan and asked to find the coefficient of friction of it. We had the night to do it, and had to submit the answers the next day. See picture above for what I did back then.

The next day, we gave our answers to the team leaders to look through, and those who had good responses were invited to present their solution before their groups. Then there were more stations, and at the conclusion of the camp, and a handful were asked to present their solutions in front of all the participants in an auditorium.

After another round of waiting, I got an email saying that I had been offered a place in NUS High School, and that they would follow up with a hard copy letter of offer, along with withdrawal forms from my current school.

Successful applicants were also invited to a talk at NUS High School with their parents so that they could post any more queries to the staff at NUS High.

This is what happened for those who applied for NUS High in the regular round. For those who somehow missed the deadline, they had the interview instead of the camp. At the interview, I heard that besides the “normal” questions such as why you like math and science, they also ask academic questions, for example what is 1+1/2+1/4+1/8+1/16+… ?

That was the selection process back in 2005 for the Year 3 intake.

Last year, I volunteered at the biology station for the 2010 Year 1 intake. Applicants were places into little groups in the NUS High School Biology labs and asked to observe [insert biology experiment or demonstration] and respond to a series of questions about them. There was one teacher at each table in the lab and at least one student volunteer to help observe their behavior as well. Students were accessed on their responses to the academic questions and also their behavior – which goes without saying that disruptive behavior/ asking impertinent questions – should not be done. Surprising as this may seem, there were actually a minority behaving like that.