Surviving the Integrated Programme

By The Math Guy · ← All articles

When most people think about Integrated Programme (IP) Schools, the one thing that sticks out is not having to sit for the O Levels at the end of 4 years. The general understanding is that the time saved on exam preparation would allow students to focus on a wider range of interests and skills. This would be true if everything else was more or less equal, but a big factor that is overlooked is that the academic syllabus is accelerated and in many cases quite a bit more in depth. So if the syllabus is more demanding, it's hard to say how much time you are actually saving in terms of exam preparation. Sure, there is one less major exam, but every other test and exam requires more of each student. Throw extra activities on top of that and it would be understandable to see how it might be draining for at least some students. Of course this might be a rather simplistic argument, because students who've made it to an IP school are likely faster learners, a factor that offsets some of these challenges. Nevertheless, I see many IP students struggle academically each year for this reason.

Recognising the Problems

When it comes to mathematics, there are several difficulties that IP students might face. Often, they might just have a vague idea that they find the subject hard. Identifying what exactly is causing this perception is naturally harder because they only have a microscopic view of the situation. Below are 2 commonly overlooked problems.

1. Less Defined Resources

For certain topics, students might be expected to learn the material on their own. Or at least, students are expected to cover the basic portions of the topics independently.

This can be really problematic, because the basics are key to solving harder questions. While the material provided by most IP schools are really well curated and offer a wide variety of intermediate to hard practice questions, they might lack sufficient practice questions to solidify the basics. Sourcing for more practice on basic questions is also troublesome because the IP syllabus differs from the Express syllabus in quite a few ways. Many IP schools don't use a textbook, or it's only a recommended textbook and therefore optional. Many textbooks are actually great sources of practice questions because they have questions organised by subtopics and increasing difficulty level. The problem is that year 1 IP students learn topics that can be found in the secondary 2 and sometimes secondary 3 express textbooks. So ideally, a student would need to buy secondary 1-4 textbooks for Elementary Math as well as Additional Math, and be able to locate the different topics efficiently. One solution to this would be to have resources tailored to the IP syllabus. RGS uses such textbooks. Then again, the syllabus differs between different IP schools, so the issue still remains.

2. Conceptual vs Rote Learning

This one's a bit tricky. These days, it's widely accepted that rote memorisation isn't the best way to learn. There was a period of time where a critique about Singaporean students was that students were knowledgeable but lacked the ability to apply concepts they'd learnt across different scenarios. But I think the pendulum has swung too far to the other side. So much about learning involves memorisation. But because it has gotten such a bad rep, the lack of emphasis on memorisation rears its head in a number of ways. Students shun repetitive work. Schools provide a great amount of variation in questions but not enough is spent on drilling. Parents and educators are wary of anything resembling rote memorisation. The concerns are understandable, and I think it's neatly captured in the idea that if you understand a concept well enough, you will remember it. This hasn't played out in my experience however. When a student learns a new concept, there are ways to test his understanding. The most straightforward way is to test him with questions, and to tweak the questions in different ways and see if he is still able to solve them. In this manner, you can ensure that the student has a fairly high understanding of the concept being taught, but it doesn't change the fact that he will likely forget this "understanding" of the topic in just a couple of days. For IP students, this problem is harder to spot, because this wasn't much of an issue in primary school where their natural ability (which includes above average memory) was likely not tested to the limit. But don't forget, they've now been streamed together with students of equal or higher ability, and the syllabus is accelerated to match these expected abilities. Thus it's unlikely that they're able to now get by without the repetition that their peers have gotten used to, ironically because they weren't blessed with naturally strong memory.

To sum up, the lack of external school-specific resources and a tendency towards escalating in difficulty too quickly are just a couple of factors that contribute to academic challenges in an IP school. That being said, the teachers are often experienced and approachable, so if you're struggling, that's always a good place to start looking for guidance. Alternatively, a tutor who is experienced with the IP syllabus can help you save a lot of time navigating through these issues. I know this sounds like a shameless plug for my own services, but actually there are many other such services around, so you don't necessarily have to engage mine, just be aware that there is specific help available for IP school students.