Poly education is now
increasingly popular as a post secondary education route. However
there are many students who still have doubts and misconception of
poly education which I will soon address some
Firstly, one of the
reasons that deterred students from considering poly education is
the fear that it is hard to score well in Poly, which in turn
reduces their chances to enter local universities(NUS/ NTU). As a
student of Temasek Poly Aerospace engineering(gpa 3.87) , I can
safely say that this is a misconception. In fact it is actually
easy to score in Poly (gpa >3.7). If one put in the hard work,
you will almost certainly (99%) score well. In fact in my class(30
students), many scored around a gpa of 3.7-3.8 and around 7
students scored a perfect gpa score of 4.0. This means that many
are eligible for courses such as aerospace engineering/chemical
engineering
etc.(http://www.nus.edu.sg/oam/gradeprofile/sprogramme-igp.html) Only
1 or 2 students scored badly as they the lazy type or slackers who
skip lectures and tutorials. As a widely known fact, the number of
Poly students entering local universities (especially NUS, NTU). My
friends and seniors who chose Poly education are also doing quite
well. In fact some of them even do well enough to get
scholarships.
'In university education,
JC students will own Poly students in Science and Math'. This is
also a common misconception. If you take a look at Poly syllabus,
at least for engineering( for example
http://www.tp.edu.sg/schools/eng/aerospace-engineering-t51#tab6),
our syllabus is almost similar to JC syllabus( h2 physics, h2
math), or maybe even more in depth. For example in thermal
physics(H2 physics), it covers specifically the different methods
of heat transfer, specific heat capacity, latent heat, ideal gas
law and 1st law of thermodynamics. In poly, with addition to the
mentioned topics, we also learn how to apply the 2nd law of
thermodynamics and the equations of conduction, convection and
radiation. For Engineering Math in poly, we learn more about
calculus (more ways to differentiate and integrate, applying it to
engineering problems in our society). Thus it is incorrect to say
that JC students will be better academically than Poly students in
University.
Another reason some
students prefer JC to Poly is because they believe that Poly is
more project based learning and they dislike this style of
learning/ they felt that they are weaker in such learning style.
Well, fear not. There are courses, in fact many courses, that are
more theory based (such as accounting, chemical engineering,
aerospace engineering etc). There are only a small amount of
project work which mainly focuses on presentation and public
speaking so as too groom you to become a confident leader who has
the language skills and the ability to lead. (In fact JC also have
H1 project work lol). At least for engineering courses, you muggers
can mug all you want in your exams and tests to clinch your
As.
In conclusion, Poly is an
excellent post secondary education to consider about. With the
increasing quality of education in Polytechnics, more students are
considering Poly education. Thus Polytechnics not only focus on
producing quality workers and leaders to the workforce , but also
producing students who are well equipped with the knowledge
required for further education.
Ps: Not trying to start a
poly vs jc debate here. Just trying to point out the advantages of
Poly education so that students can compare between different post
secondary education routes.
Excellent
post. Poly education has always been good since my
time.
Just to highlight two important stuff:
"If one put in the hard work, you will almost certainly (99%)
score well."
--> Applies for everything.
One would fail at JC too if one did not put in the hard work.
Regarding TP's aerospace engineering, the L1R4 requirement is 12
points and below.
It would be fair to say that all the candidates in this engineering
requirement has the capability to enter JC and do just as well for
A Level.
Overall, poly does give more than JC in terms of education, and
that has been the way since years ago. It requires the student to
make a decision immediately after O Level on what he/she wants to
work as upon graduation, unlike for students going to JC who only
need to make the most critical decision after A level.
My only gripe for poly education going to university comes in
two points, and it has absolutely nothing do do with the quality of
education at all. Posted it before, but essential that I post
again.
1) Poly education covers first year university stuff, which
means poly students get to skip the first year uni modules and do
it in 3 years instead of 4 (for engineering at least). For guys,
the disadvantage comes due to NS. Immediately after NS, poly guys
enter into uni engineering 2nd year, and have to compete with 2nd
year students. Essentially, guys will be competing with their poly
knowledge they get from at least 2+ years ago against students who
just learned it less than a year ago. Be it Physics or
Maths.
It's still possible, but the amount of extra work needed just to
compete is likely tremendous for most.
2) It may seem like an advantage to do only 3 years of
university, but it will be tougher in the final year of uni for
poly students than JC students. I say only for engineering as
that's where my experience lie.
Going from JC to uni, it means I have to take a 4 years
engineering course. What this means that during my first two years,
I could cram the maximum number of modules, and take on an
Industrial Attachment and a Student Exchange Program in my 3rd
year, and still have lesser modules in my final year though I chose
not to.
For poly students, the first year university modules that are
exempted does not include all first year university modules taken
by JC students. In the 3 years of university, you may have to cram
more modules each semester than the average JC-to-uni student path,
and likely have more modules in the final year of uni. The final
year is important because this is where you have your final year
project and you will really want to score for it.
And it is tougher for poly-to-uni students to have sufficient
university time to explore the different student programs without
extending their university stay -> that means spending an extra
year in school? Even for JC-to-uni students, certain student
programs already require them to extend a semester or two to
complete.