She is remarkably accurate about the admissions process we went through (we are from the same batch), considering this took place five years ago. Anyway, since I am working in the school's Annex Office and we're gearing up for this year's recruitment, I thought I could provide details on how the current admission system works.
1. You apply online, or you come to the school and use our computers to apply.
2. You sit for a test covering various aspects of math and science. No calculators are allowed. The test will be held in NUS High and some other primary schools around Singapore. This should take place in May or June. Primary 6 and Sec 2 applicants will, of course, take their own respective test.
3. You are notified if you have been shortlisted for the DSA camp, if you are Primary 6, or an interview, if you are Sec 2.
4. The DSA camp is now a one-day camp from 8am to 6pm, in July. Students are placed in groups and rotate around the stations: English, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Math (I'm not sure if there's math, but I think there is). For the English station, you're usually required to write some sort of short essay, and for the rest, you try some experiments and fill in worksheets.
5. The Sec 2 interviews take place in July as well. No one knows much about this except the admin people and the principals, so if you want to know more, you can call the school and ask.
6. You get an offer letter or a rejection letter, and you have to respond by a certain date as stipulated in the letter. Somewhat like university applications, actually, so it's a good early preparation for what lies ahead when you turn 18.
I volunteered as a helper for 2009's DSA camp, and wrote some reflections in my blog afterwards, and I thought I'd share them with you:
I must say, the criteria used to assess the primary 6 kids is pretty scary. They aren't expected to throw in complicated details of concepts you only learn in secondary school, of course, but they are expected to show many qualities. Intelligence alone won't get you through the camp.
There were about 400 students at the camp. Each subgroup had about 6-7 people, and out of those, probably only 2-3 people will get offered places in the school. The competition is ridiculously intense, though the kids don't realise it.
[...]
I was stationed at Chemistry, and the station was based around one reaction. Most of the kids gave pleasantly expected responses: "Cool!" "It's magic!" etc. [...] There's a very observable difference between a kid who really likes a subject and reads up on it, and one who only knows this stuff because his parents wanted him to have a head start.
Besides grading them on the accuracy of their written answers, there was the last task which involved groupwork.
This last task was perhaps the most interesting of the lot, simply because of the variation in group dynamics, the different thought processes and ideas, and such other matters. We tried our best to guide them in the right direction without explicitly giving them the answer – asking them questions that would get them to think, getting them to discover the answer themselves; pointing them towards previous experiences that could be re-used, previous concepts. It wasn't easy to facilitate such a discussion, especially for the livelier groups that tended to get distracted. I now have a greater appreciation for the way teachers structure their lessons.
You could see that some of the kids were obviously ringleaders of the group; everyone gathered around them, their opinions were the most frequently heard and used. Some were shy, but when approached, had good insights to share. Some didn't seem to care and didn't bother to listen in; others were more disruptive. Then there were those who were obsessed over tiny little details; some which were hyper; some who knew all the answers. An eagerness to learn could be seen in the way some of them interacted with the others and responded to the questions they were asked. Equally prevalent was the eagerness to please, or to impress.
It was often those kids who knew everything, and yet stayed humble about it, that made me feel so horrible about myself. I'm sure that if I had been in that batch, I wouldn't have made it through.
The students were given scores based on their written work, and the attitude and potential they showed in the discussions; the teachers also wrote comments about them in small boxes, giving recommendations or vetoes. And there were so many high scorers that by the time you got to the 75% mark, there was more than enough to fill the entire intake.
It's my first insight into the world of admissions – certainly not at the college level, but I think a smaller-scale model of a high school would work as well. One teacher said, "I feel so scared, like I have this overwhelming responsibility. I'm deciding the future of these children!"
If you look at how influential a person's secondary school education is, that statement just rings so true. I'm glad I wasn't an official assessor for this.
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