Junior College Home Tuition

Junior colleges offer an accelerated two-year programme, as compared to the traditional three-year programme, leading to the Advanced Level (A-Level) examination. Alternatively, students can choose to enrol in Millennia Institute (MI), a pre-university institution offering a three-year programme leading to the A-level examination.

Subject-Based Banding

Both junior colleges and MI accept students based on their O-level examination results with different requirements. A-level is often considered the natural progression towards university education, although students with diplomas can obtain entrance as well. Around 90 percent of junior college students, compared to around the top 10 percent of polytechnic students, will be admitted into local universities.

Since 2006, the A-level curriculum has been revised to emphasise multi-disciplinary learning, breadth of learning, as well as flexibility. The move is made with the aimed of preparing students for the approaches taken in university education.

Under the new system, students can select subjects from three levels of study, Higher 1 (H1), Higher 2 (H2) and Higher 3 (H3). Subjects themselves are divided into knowledge skills and content-based subjects. Students can select any combination and number of H1 and H3 subjects, but are required to sit either for H1 General Paper of H2 Knowledge and Inquiry. They are also required to take a t least on subject from a contrasting discipline.

Final Hurdle

In the past, there used to be two intakes for junior college, the Provisional Admission Exercise (PAE) and the Joint Admissions Exercise (JAE). However, in 2009, the O-level examinations were brought forward to facilitate a single intake system. The old systems had many issues. First of all, after the three-month PAE, teachers were forced to start the syllabus from scratch to accommodate students who might not have studied the subject during PAE. In addition, many students took the period as an orientation period, since they knew that they can afford to wait for the start of JAE to focus on their studies.

The PAE also meant that teachers effectively had slightly more than a year to finish teaching their syllabus. Even with the new system, because schools will be preparing their students for their A-level examinations at around the mid-year point of their final year, teachers have limited time to deliver their materials. Subjects are also more abstract, requiring understanding and skills for students to excel. The fast-paced nature means that students are constantly at risk at falling behind.

Why Junior College Tuition?

A-levels are commonly perceived as the final hurdle of a student’s academic career. This shows the difficulty of the examinations, even compared to university education! The challenge lies in the large scope of academic contents that must be learnt and mastered within a short span of time. Teachers are unable to devote too much time to revisit previous topics for struggling students and unlike primary and secondary schools, they expect the students to take ownership of their studies. It is no common for teachers to organise remedial classes or extra practice sessions due to the lack of facilities and time.

Home tutors are especially helpful in this case because they can offer one-to-one teaching and guidance for students. For abstract topics, such as those taught for A-levels, it is important to identify the difficulties a student have in understanding a certain principle and find ways to remedy that. Sometimes, it is possible that topics taught in secondary school have to be revised just to build a solid foundation. This is something that junior college teachers do not have time for.

Besides, preparation for A-level requires special strategies that focus on the different component and topics of the subject papers. It is possible to focus on stronger areas to counter weaker ones. This can only be done with personal consultation with a home tutor.

Home Tuition Care only recommends tutors with extensive experience in helping junior college students. Besides academic qualifications, they also have proven track records with some of them having taught in schools before.

A-level is a very important public examination if the intention is to get into a local university. All the hard work done in the past ten years will amount to nothing if a student falls at this final step. It is important to get assistance for your children early so that they can overcome this final hurdle!