Yishun Innova Junior College (YIJC)
Table of Contents
0. Introduction
1. Describe your school culture
2. Why did you choose YIJC?
3. How is the academic rigour? Is everyone fixated on results?
4. Was the it tough to get into a CCA?
5. Is it competitive to get a leadership position in your school?
6. What are some special traditions/ activities your school has?
7. What is the class size and gender ratio?
8. Are tutors easy to approach and open for consultations?
9. What are some stereotypes about your school? Are they true?
10. Any other personal advice?
Introduction
This section is written by Teleschope
YIJC prides itself as a ONE college, aiming to nurture leaders and learners who are critical thinkers, effective collaborators and driven by purpose. It has various signature programmes such as Internationalisation Programme, Work Attachment Programme and Digital Literacies Programme, equipping students with life skills. It has a variety of school activities that celebrate the sports and the arts, namely Hip and Happening@House, Arts Fusion and the yearly concert performed by Musicians’ Club.
Disclaimer: Any views or opinions in this article are from either current or past students from the respective schools and do not represent those of Teleschope, unless explicitly stated. All students have been anonymised for privacy reasons.
Q1. Describe your school culture
“ I would say that the…
school environment is really slack
You’d see students studying in school but for the most part, you see students who really can’t be bothered with studying. The only classes I see that consistently have a lot of students putting in effort are the 4H2 classes (There’s only 2 4H2 classes) and one of the Arts stream classes. A lot of people here didn’t choose to be here, either they went to JC due to parental pressure or they couldn’t go to the JC they wanted to and were thrown here. Hence…
many students really don’t have school spirit
and you can often see a lot of people who pon sch events such as sports day or house outing. For example, last year after promos, each house went bowling at a different bowling alley and a lot of people just pon.”
Q2. Why did you choose YIJC?
“ I came to JC because it offered be the best chance of the university course I want to go into. Every year, only around 450 students get accepted into NUS and NTU combined for the course and only 5 were from polytechnic the last I checked. I’m also more towards academic than hands on work. I wasn’t too fixated on JC however, as I did consider polytechnic courses as well.
From my net L1R5, I could choose to go to JPJC, TMJC, CJC, or YIJC. I didn’t choose TMJC or JPJC simply because it was too far from my house in the central area of Singapore. I considered CJC at first however, they did not offer me the subject combi I wanted as I took Combined Science and History elective. I chose YIJC as I was confident that my request for PCM would be accepted as I got distinctions for my Science and for my E and A Maths. They also allowed me to take H1 Geography despite not doing O Level Geography. It’s also somewhat near my house being just 30 minutes away.”
Q3. How is the academic rigour? Is everyone fixated on results?
“
The academic rigour is actually quite up there
and comparable with a lot of the other JCs in my opinion. Lectures are moderate-fast paced sometimes and the papers set are also quite demanding at times. Sometimes we do get an easy paper but other times, the papers can be pretty challenging. It’s…
not very competitive
because a lot of people in YIJC don’t put in much effort into their studies. If you get anything higher than 50RP for an internal examination, you’re easily the 80th percentile of the cohort.
YIJC also focuses quite a bit on holistic development
but overall, a lot of our students can’t really be bothered at either. We do have some students who do very well either holistically, academically, or even both. Personally, I am a chairperson of an EXCO in sch and I promoted to JC2 at around the 85th percentile of the cohort so I guess I could be an example of those students?”
“ It varies from classes to classes. We’re grouped by subject combi and our O level aggregate and usually, classes with a lower average aggregate are more competitive. Despite that,
even being in a more academic-inclined class, we rarely discuss our marks as some might find it demoralising
”
Q4. Was the it tough to get into a CCA?
“ Every year during orientation week, each CCA will be holding CCA trials. The aim is to identify students who have certain proficiency at the sport/performing art etc.
Every student has an equal chance at joining the CCA
and the trial is to assess their current proficiency if any. For Sports CCAs, it’s mostly for A Divs. For performing arts CCAs, there will be SYF so they will definitely be looking out for people who have prior experience in the performing arts. Personally, I went to trial for Soccer and Tennis. During Soccer trials, I identified my playing position as goalkeeper but the coach was crazy and made me do dribbling and shooting (No idea what that was about) so obviously I did not get selected. For Tennis trial, the coach tossed the ball to me and my task was to return the ball to the other side of the court. I had 0 experience in Tennis but they guided me accordingly including how to hold the racquet. Eventually, I was headhunted by Chinese Orchestra due to my prior experience in Primary Sch, having gone for SYF twice then, and Choir also approached me due to my prior experience in Secondary School. I joined Chinese Orchestra eventually.”
“ It ranges too! I entered dance, which is the only performing arts to have a consistent certificate of Distinction for SYF so they were quite strict with the auditions. But it…
doesn’t mean that there’s a lower chance of you entering a CCA of higher prestige if you have no background on it!
”
Q5. Is it competitive to get a leadership position in your school?
“ Personally…
I think it’s not very competitive
in terms of leadership position, though this can vary between Academic Council EXCOs or CCAs.
Leadership positions are strictly voluntary
and one has to want the leadership position to be considered for it. Personally, I indicated interest in Academic Council EXCO for PE but I did not indicate an interest for chairperson. However, the PE teacher in charge of the EXCO felt that a fellow EXCO member and me demonstrated exceptional leadership qualities beyond the actual chair and vice chair, and hence she decided to put our names for Chair and Vice Chair. This is actually one of the very rare cases where an EXCO position was bestowed upon an individual rather than on a voluntary basis. In other cases, one would have to indicate the EXCO position they are interested to apply for. As mentioned earlier, many students in YIJC don’t even want to be here so quite a number of them dont actually bother applying for EXCO or anything at all, so…
competition tends to be really chill
for the most part.”
“ It’s…
not as competitive to get the class leader position but selection in the student council as well as some CCAs is relatively competitive
”
Q6. What are some special traditions/ activities your school has?
“ Every year, there will be inter-house games between the 5 different houses. We compete in various sports and activities which then earn points for our house. It’s strictly voluntary and non compulsory. Personally, I participated in IHG for debate and it was quite a fun experience. We also have the annual sports day for JC1 and JC2 on different dates. The JC1 one is called King Of The Street or better known as KOTS. We are taught the sport during our PE modules and we then participate in that sport during KOTS. For JC2, there’s King Of The Arena or KOTA which involves going around in your CG and participating in various activities to earn points. Unfortunately, KOTA for this year was cancelled due to Covid-19 so I can’t tell you what it is like. My EXCO committee was responsible for planning KOTA and KOTS in JC1 but we couldn’t plan KOTA this year due to its cancellation. The current JC1 EXCO will be planning KOTA for next year.
My personal favourite was IHG as it was strictly voluntary in terms of participation except for people in the relevant CCAs (for example Debate need to participate in IHG debate). Hence I did not feel pressured to participate and I was there because I wanted to be. Being the chairperson of an EXCO, specifically PE, I was one of the organisers for KOTS hence I did not have much chance to participate. I did play 2 rounds but I couldn’t play after that due to an ankle injury in the second round.”
“ We conduct an events called KOTS/KOTA (King Of The Streets/ King Of The Arena). It serves as both a sports day and an inter house competition! This year’s got altered into a step challenge but heard from previous batches there’s water games :)”
Q7. What is the class size and gender ratio?
The average class size is around 25 people. My class had 24 people as of end JC1 after my classmate dropped out halfway. Of the 24, 8 were girls and 16 were guys. In JC2, my class had 1 girl who retained and we had 3 new classmates because they retaking A Levels. So now we have 8 girls and 18 guys.
But, my class is not representative of the overall cohort as there are some classes who are majority girls. For example, a BCMe class only has 3 guys and the rest are girls.”
“ The usual class size is 24 people and up to 32 classes. For classes taking H2 physics, there’s a higher proportion of boys, usually up to 75%, whereas classes with H2 biology there are more girls than guys. (don’t know about arts stream sorry!)”
Q8. Are tutors easy to approach and open for consultations?
“
Consultation slots are almost always available
because very few people in YIJC even care enough to study, not to mention book consult. Personally, booking consults with my teachers is super easy since they’re always free anyway. Though I do have a friend from an Arts class who wants to book consult for H2 Econs but the Econs teacher is constantly booked out because this one guy taking 4H2 booked all her consultation slots. There are only 3 people in my cohort taking 4H2 btw. He is the only person taking PCME 4H2.
Our tutors are very approachable and they are more than happy to see you for consult
”
“Yup! some teachers actually give out their own timetable so that the students can book their consultations.”
Q9. What are some stereotypes about your school? Are they true?
“ The most common stereotype that I hear is “YIJC slacker school.” or “YIJC tank bellcurve.” Personally, …
I do agree that YIJC can somewhat be called a slacker school
Even I myself am a pretty hardcore gamer and I honestly have no idea how I got decent grades lol. We do always have exceptions to this such as hardworking students who mug their entire lives off and tend to do really well. Regarding the one on tank bellcurve, I guess that could be due to the fact that our average RP for A Level is in the 60s range.
Another one I hear is “YIJC is more like Yishun Polytechnic.” Personally, …
I do agree that YIJC school culture is more towards Polytechnic than it is JC.
We have students who muggers, clubbers, gamers, everything under the sun, we have. Probably because we do have quite a number of students who transfer over from Poly. We even have the occasional police case once in a while. But to be honest, …
going to YIJC allowed me to experience some of the things you’d otherwise experience in Poly
while being in a place where I can excel as the teaching and learning style suits my personal learning style.
Another stereotype I hear is “YIJC academic no standard.” I personally feel that this is not true. Our tutors expect a certain standard from each and everyone of us and…
our tutors are of pretty much the same standard as other JCs.
If I were to compare my tutor to perhaps one from RJC, there’s really not much of a difference in my opinion. However, it is the academic standard of the student that I feel is different. Both teachers are equally qualified and equally proficient at teaching, but the students’ self directed initiative towards learning tends to be different. Hence I feel that it’s not fair to blame the sch for a student’s poor academic performance.”
“ I heard there are some people assuming that students in YIJC is lazy just by looking at the PW A rate and university qualification rate. I would want to emphasise that the…
standard of performance in YIJC varies a lot
firstly due to the broad range in terms of aggregate (from 8 pointers to 20 pointers), secondly due to the classification of people of similar aggregate in the same class. There really shouldn’t be a general description for YIJC as there is…
a variety of different strengths between students in YIJC.
Our PW department may need a little work but i can say that the PCME departments are really good :)”
Q10. Any other personal advice?
“ Coming to JC shouldn’t be a choice just because you don’t know what you want to do in life. You need to be prepared for the academic rigour and expectations from the school. 2 years will fly by faster than anything you have ever experienced and when you are not prepared, that’s when they retain you to build up your foundation. It is untrue to compare a school based on their students’ performance, because put it simply, it is not exactly the schools’ fault that the students don’t actually want to be there or can’t be bothered really. Personally, I wanted to go to YIJC and I indicated it as my first choice in JAE, and I am willing to put in that effort and that is probably the reason why I promoted with 65 RP. Not because I’m smart because I’m not, not because I have very good tutors, but because I wanted to be there and was willing to put in effort towards my own learning.”
“ I’m more theory inclined instead of practical-inclined. Plus in jc, you can afford to be inconsistent in your work as long as you do not flunk in your major exams. Whereas in poly, assignments are constantly given out, which will accumulate to your overall gpa.”
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