That is a reasonable assumption. The government's behavior is not unpredictable. Although I can't say I would support something like that, given the way they've been handing out funds to SPM students before getting their 6th Form done, they would want to defend their own exam, the STPM, and no one can or should expect otherwise. At least we can say there is a private education industry.

Like I've said in my previous post, I want to go overseas. I do hope that STPM really lives up to it's reputation as a passport overseas as well as locally. I've did some research and all Commonwealth countries have a treaty to recognize STPM, but whether it is really adhered by, I do not know. It's a gamble.

I reason myself not taking A-levels as I don't want to burden my family with the tuition fees and I hope to fit into that quota set for STPM students by foreign universities (if they even exist). Again, a gamble.

What do you guys think on this?

Was not aware such a strange treaty existed. Nonetheless as I've explained previously, universities in the Commonwealth have lists on their websites of "international qualifications" and STPM will undoubtedly be among them. Since it is ABC rather than a number you just need to ensure you have a lot of the As and pluses or whatever.

You're going to try and get a scholarship. Can you afford living expenses if you only got a tuition scholarship? A Levels do not change so radically, and you can expect good results based on historical standards and predictions of your own ability to write the exams. The same definitely cannot be said for STPM, judging from my observations and of course this "change". Maybe what I'm trying to say is more people get A*A*A*A* in A Level than those who get the four highest As in STPM, and that might be why people claim STPM is so hard, but that even BBBB at STPM may not be worth BBBB at A Level (which is not worth much at all), because of differences in grading/assessment. To be sure, A Level has difficult content too, but if you outperform your cohort you'll get a good grade, regardless of where you did the exam or where you came from.

I don't think schools have a quota for STPM. That would be unreasonable. They don't prefer A Level over STPM, or IB over A Level. But having STPM makes it more difficult for them to judge you against the rest, so your overall application, your profile, needs to be fairly convincing. Because like I said, they won't necessarily look at AABB in STPM and consider that to be AABB at A Level, regardless of the difficulty of the exams (which they don't care about, there are so many GCE A Level boards and so many different types of A Level!).

I spent my 30 minutes to read this thread @@

My eyes really like @@

Same situation as I.

I will post a new thread because i don't want my eyes become @@

if you want to study outside msia, it is NO point doing matrik, so your decision is correct....

if you are not aiming for critical courses, then stpm is a good and cheap compromise....it IS recognised by all unis in uk/oz/spore....

the main problem with stpm is the difficulty in getting good grades, as it is purposely marked down at the top to give advantage to matrik students...

that factor will be crucial for critical courses even outside msia, and you will also loose out to a levels students in foreign uni selections....

but for non critical courses, the cut offs are usually pretty basic, so it matters not whether you get aaa in a levels or bbb in stpm.....you will still get in.....

hey i wanna ask. if lepasan spm 2010 apply for matriks for 2014/2015 session, is it possible? late already to apply 2013/2014 session..what's the age limit to apply matrix anyway?

but duration of forn6 and alevel is same ( 1.5 yrs ). so why form 6 is waste of time but alevel isn't?