The Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education Advanced Level (A-level) examination is held annually in Singapore. It is conducted jointly by the Singapore Ministry of Education (MOE), Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) and the University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES). Being a collaboration between the MOE and UCLES, the Singaporean A-level is a different version of the international A-level. The A-level certificate is a qualification recognised internationally and valued by universities and employers alike. It allows Singaporean students to gain entry into local and overseas universities to further their education.
Contents
The examination is taken by students at the end of their second year for junior college students, and the third year for centralised institute students. Candidates are usually 18 or 19 years of age.
In 2010, the number of school candidates who sat for the examination was 14,280, out of which 90.8% of them scored at least three Higher 2 (H2) passes, with a pass in General Paper (GP) or Knowledge and Inquiry (KI).
Curriculum
The Singaporean A-level curriculum was revised and took effect after replacing the previous system of ‘AO’, ‘A’ and ‘S’ papers. It was designed to emphasise multi-disciplinary learning, breadth of learning as well as flexibility, and it aims to prepare students well for the approaches being taken in university education, and for the demands of an innovation-driven world of the 21st century. The Singaporean A-levels differ in exam structure and subject content from GCE A-levels in other countries such as the United Kingdom, Malaysia, Brunei, Seychelles, Pakistan etc.
Under the new curriculum, candidates select subjects from three levels of study, namely Higher 1 (H1), Higher 2 (H2) and Higher 3 (H3). Subjects are divided into knowledge skills and content-based subjects. Knowledge skills subjects include General Paper, Knowledge and Inquiry and Project Work; content-based subjects are divided into languages, humanities and the arts, and mathematics and sciences.
Subject combination
Students may opt to elect any combination and number of H1 and H2 subjects but are invariably required to sit for either H1 General Paper or H2 Knowledge and Inquiry.
Under the Ministry of Education's regulations, students sitting for the A-level in a junior college are required to take at least one subject that is from a contrasting discipline. They are also required to fulfill additional academic requirements of Singapore's education system, such as having to take Project Work and a Mother Tongue Language. They may also opt to take maximum of two H3 subjects.
Grading
H1 and H2 subjects are graded alphabetically in the following manner.
Notes:
H3 subjects are graded as either Distinction, Merit, Pass or Ungraded.