“Cher, should I go for Higher Nitec after O’s? Retake as private candidate? Or go for a polytechnic course that I don’t like”
Taking Higher Nitec or retaking O’s were probably not options that many of you thought of when first started on the route to O’levels. But sometimes, things don’t go as planned. Should Higher Nitec be one of your options? Retaking O’s as a private candidate? Here’s my take on it.
Some misconception you need to clear
#1 “Going for this route means no future”.
From previous batches of your seniors, I’ve seen:
- Students who went on to a less-ideal path and did do well.
- Students who went on to their dream path and did do well.
- Students who went on to their dream path and didn’t do well.
- Students who went on to a path less ideal and didn’t do well.
Realise something? Whether you do well after O’s does not depend on the path you take. It depends on YOU.
Likewise, I’ve interviewed possible polytechnic interns for my unit. The variety of paths taken by the prospects are mind-boggling:
- Some came to polytechnic straight from O’s.
- One flunked O’s, went to Nitec, then Higher Nitec, then polytechnic.
- One was in N(T), went to Nitec, then Higher Nitec, then polytechnic.
- One did well in O’s, went on to A’levels and flunked it, then went to polytechnic.
What I’ve found out from interviewing them is that the path they took didn’t determine if they are better than other candidates. It really goes back to themselves.
#2 “I’ll be looked down for life”/ “It is shameful to take this route”
#3 “Ha, but I’ll be wasting more years going a longer route”
Yes, you may have relatives or family members comparing. Let me tell you something — once you start working, nobody cares where you studied, what route you took and how long you took.
My first batch of students (from my days of relief teaching) are 25 this year. After secondary schools, some of them repeated their levels, took routes that are less prestigious, bored the brunt of comparison and scorn from some relatives.
But now that they’ve started working, they realise those things don’t really matter in the long run actually.
So what option should I go for?
I’m neutral for the option you go for. My take is, so long as you make an informed choice, I’ll support you.
I have two questions for you to consider and weigh to help you make an informed choice:
#1 Why did I not do well for O’s this time? How can I ensure that as a private candidate, I’ll do better?
If you can’t identify why, or if you have vague reasons (e.g.: I need to work harder), or you don’t have a clear plan, my take is it is best not to retake your O’s as a private candidate. That’s as good as “Hey, I don’t know why I got lost, but I’ll walk faster so that I’ll get to my destination this time”.
#2 Should I go for a less inclined poly course but I’m likely to meet its COP this year, or take Higher Nitec course that I’m more inclined to instead?
Both have benefits and trade-offs. The question is, which option’s trade-off are you willing to accept?
How to decide?
Pick the one which
- You’re likely to do better in to get to where you want to go in the long run.
- You’re willing to accept the trade-off more than the other option’s tradeoff
Whether the route is longer or shorter, you should be pick the one that you’re more likely to do well in so that you can get to where you want, right?
Resources for further consideration
List of Higher Nitec Courses at ITE
https://www.ite.edu.sg/wps/portal/fts_courses_by_level?cat=HigherNitec&title=HigherNitec
Find out what the course is about, what kind of modules, one year or two year long etc.
Joint Polytechnics Admission Exercise (JPAE) website
https://jpae.polytechnic.edu.sg/app
JPAE is the admission exercise for ITE graduates to apply for any of the polytechnic courses. Much like how JAE is the admission exercise for O’level.
If you intend to go on to polytechnic courses after ITE, do check out what are the pathways and requirements
JAPE — Polytechnic Course Entry Requirements for Higher Nitec (Non-DPP) Graduates
https://jpae.polytechnic.edu.sg/App/StaticPage/Higher%20Nitec.html
In this page, all the Higher Nitec courses are listed out. Click on the ones you have intentions to join to see
- What kind of polytechnic courses it leads to
- Average GPA of the students who made it to the course
- Whether you can skip a semester or a whole year for relevant polytechnic courses, and what is the GPA required to do that
(1) If you were to take this Higher Nitec Course
(2) These are the polytechnic courses you can apply for upon graduation
(3) For Microelectronics (by TP)’s case, you can do the course in 2 years if you were to apply with this Higher Nitec Course. However, for other courses, you can’t skip a year and have to do all 3 years for the polytechnic course
(4) GPA refers to the average grade of all the modules you took in your Higher Nitec Course. The higher, the better.
In this example, to qualify for Microelectronic’s course and skip a year to do in 2 years, you need to have a min. GPA of 3.5 out of 4. Where as for the other courses in this page, you need a min. GPA of 2 out of 4 to apply.
“Average JPAE GPA Band” is like your cut-off points for JAE — it refers to the average score of the students who applied for this course. So for Microelectronics, you need a min. GPA of 3.5 to apply, but usually, those who got into the course has a GPA of 3.5 to 3.5999.
Whereas for Multimedia and Infocomm Technology, although you can apply with a GPA of 2.0 (Min GPA), most students who got in have a GPA of between 2.5 to 2.999 (Average JPAE GPA Band). That means if you have a GPA of 2.3 for example, you can apply for the course, but may not get in as the available space would usually be taken up by those whose GPA are much higher than yours
