Having my IGCSEs now and I'm starting to think what I should take next year after I get my results. My plan originally was to go to a Japanese Pre-U (Pusat Bahasa Teikyo if you're interested) in KL since I want to further my studies in Japan but now I'm having doubts as my teacher advised me to take A-levels instead as there's more chance for scholarships and qualifications. Now I'm kind of in a dilemma between which one to go, people say A-levels are hard and I'm not very academically smart myself but if I put my mind to it, I can do it given enough time.

I've been researching this Pre-U for quite a while now suddenly having this other option confuses me, I'm fine with either as long as it has the end goal of pursuing studies in ICT in Japan and possibly getting scholarships to lessen studying fees. Any suggestions or opinions below would be appreciated.

If you can get 8As and above in IGCSE, then you might have a decent chance of scoring 2As and above in A levels

I just did A levels myself prior to studying at HW Malaysia as an actuarial science student, having gotten 1A* and 3As ( the other A I got by remarking my chemistry A2 modules, hence it rose from B to A). For me A levels isnt hard as long as you have the will and tenacity to put in effort and study , the pivotal factor to scoring As are just these two: do past papers and understand the concepts.
Also memorize the marking schemes untill you can regurgitate each and every answer corresponding to all questions that generally require you to include certain fixed points in your answer.
The other tip I can give you if you plan to pursue A levels is to be inquisitive. Keep asking questions till you understand what is being thought.

I woudn't say foundation is easier than A levels, while the duration is shorter and you certainly study less, some foundation programs incorporate uni level material into their curriculum, for example, if you were to do foundation in engineering, at some unis you would already be studying linear algebra which is something that is generally taught at year 1 undergrad math courses and is not included in the A level math syllabus, though if I aint wrong STPM Maths T does teach linear algebra

This post has been edited by ZenithSkirmisher: Oct 25 2019, 04:25 PM

Wow thats good to hear an A bump on Chemistry for remark lol

You gotten 78 on Overall?

This post has been edited by iSean: Oct 25 2019, 04:38 PM

Yes

Yeah definitely willing to put in the hard work but damn, getting 8As and the chance of getting 2As is just decent? Is A-levels that much more difficult? I dropped 2 subjects in IGCSEs myself so I'm only able to get 7 if I score well for exams. Yep, just found out too late that best way to revise is definitely grinding past years and focusing early on in school years.. Do you learn things or concepts from scratch in A-levels or do they assume you have good knowledge and just start somewhere further if that makes any sense. I'll definitely ask questions and dig deep until I understand the concept, sometimes I just can't really study from the textbook since the choice of words are confusing.

FYI, subjects I dropped were chemistry and add maths, which personally, I found quite difficult for me to keep up with and I scored terribly for them during exams. Wow, 4A's for A-levels must be really good, but do you think A-levels are recommended for someone like me? Not academically talented but I'll definitely put in the work it's needed.

This post has been edited by shwegdow: Oct 26 2019, 04:44 AM

In most cases I had say that lecturers generally assume you have solid foundation for the subjects you are studying and start somewhere further from the basics, for AS things you learn are just your IGCSEs plus some extras, but A2 is an entirely different ball game, the topics covered are more advanced and are close to year 1 undergrad material, which made sense seeing as to how A2 is supposed to bridge the gap between year 12 and year 1 at uni.

If you truly are not academically inclined I had advice against taking up A levels as they truly do live up to their reputation for being a challenging program that demands hard work and innate intelligence for students to attain good grades like 3As and above , but the good news is there are lots of resources online for you to refer to should you decide to take up A levels, websites such as GCE guide and Z-notes have contributed tremendously in securing my 1A* and 3As

This post has been edited by ZenithSkirmisher: Oct 26 2019, 10:59 PM

Ah alright then, thanks anyways. If lets say I want to prepare myself for A-levels so I'll know what to expect if I happen to take A-levels, any resources online I could use to practice or revise for content that they teach? 3 subjects sounds pretty doable but from what I'm hearing, it's probably more of a nightmare than what it sounds like.

The only websites I know of are Chemguide for Chem, GCE Guide and papacambridge for past papers and Cambridge text books in PDF format xtremepapers for past papers and forums dedicated to discussions like solutions, suggested answers, predictions on questions etc and z notes for typed summaries on AS and A2 content

This post has been edited by ZenithSkirmisher: Oct 26 2019, 10:41 PM

Ah that's quite helpful, thanks again for the help! Will be sure to check out these websites and possibly practice for some subjects

A-Levels is somewhat of a double edged sword
You can have marking scheme, and examiner reports, but do you know what you're actually doing is another thing...

3 Subjects is totally enough to get admitted to your desired university, around the world, with exception of Singapore
It is a nightmare balancing time for past papers, social, and quality time.

Doing too much past papers would normally lead to burn out
If you not sure what you're doing.

Do topical past year papers, but do 5 years maximum would be totally sufficient I hope.

This post has been edited by iSean: Oct 27 2019, 04:16 PM

To be fair, not everything is going to come easy but I'm willing to work hard if it gives me a feasible chance of studying overseas.
Yeah for sure, past years burnout is not very fun so I'll try to limit myself on that.

Oh by the way, how does the process of applying for overseas after completing A-level go if you may enlighten me? Right now, I'm more or less set on doing a computer science degree after A-levels but preferably in Japan.
It's probably a little too soon to be talking about going overseas now but I can't help but be curious, just want to be well prepared.

You sound like me. But I suffered major burn out during my a levels after struggling in my A Level subjects juggling with Math and 3 Pure Science.
Which lead me to no where but to settle for less in Malaysia.

Basically A levels applying is more direct if you apply to UK via UCAS.
Malaysia IPTA via UPU.

For Japanese one, what I heard from my friends is they either went to Japanese Learning Center settle their Language before moving to Japan with their studies.

School admission is a more towards direct admission based on the school academic requirements.

It is a huge learning curve grasping another language, to further your studies. But in countries like China. They offer English Courses I'm not sure Japan uni similar or not.

How did you know I got 78?

nah, I personally gotten 78 and didn't bother to remark for A2.

Ow that sounds rough, sorry to hear that. I'm planning to take 3 subjects, personally haven't suffered much burn out from studying because I'm quite inconsistent and take longgg breaks when I take breaks. May I ask how many hours did you study a day during those times and how many days per week? Or did you save studying for last minute?

Did a little research and it seems Japan is not the best place to pursue my degree in and I think I might just complete it locally. Though of course, I'd like to work there but I'll figure that myself somehow in the future. In the unlikely case I get a sponsorship to further my studies, where should I go?

Learning new languages are fun sometimes, get to communicate with more people from around the world. But thanks anyways for taking your time to reply, gonna work hard now for A-levels!

This post has been edited by shwegdow: Oct 31 2019, 12:17 AM

Depends on what subjects you are struggling through.
my study life was mostly always in campus.

Classes always starts from 8am to 5 pm.
With occasional 2 to 4 hours breaks.

Most of the time I take my topical past papers.
And slowly scrub through them during my breaks alone in the library.
And try to find solutions online for some questions for hours, not understanding why the marking scheme and examiner report says so.

Then thanks to scholarships, forced to join those Student Meetings every Wednesday til 5.30pm. Even though with some small hopes in regaining the scholarship in the next semester.

Diving through a horrible jam back home later it is already 7pm.
Exhausted go to bed after dinner around 8. And wake up 6am in the morning prep to college again. It becomes abit mundane.

Saturday I take my day off, and Sunday try to do homework that was mostly Maths and Chemistry.

Ooh you could take the A-Levels computer science subject and test if it's something you'd want to study further. For US studies, almost all uni/college applications is through this system called the Common App. Some elite unis don't follow it. But yes, I mentioned US because it's quite a cutting-edge place to study CS 😆

(Actually if you want to go US for sure, you could skip A Levels and do ADP/ADTP or just enrol straight to a US uni)

This post has been edited by E-Tan: Oct 31 2019, 09:28 PM

Are you still serving MCKL Teaching Scholarship tho?

While A-level is like the golden pass to studying overseas, for specific countries, like USA and Japan, it's better to take other pre-u options instead. If you're really keen on studying in Japan, I highly advise you from taking A-levels. Now, if you're talking about scholarships, yes, A-level candidates have a better chance at getting scholarships since it's recognized worldwide, but tbh, it doesn't that much unless you get stellar results.

And if you're worried about A-levels being hard, don't be. I have no idea where the notion that A-levels is hard comes from, but as long as you listen in class and do past years, you'll score well. One of the benefits of taking A-levels is that their marking schemes are very transparent, and the pattern for their questions rarely varies. One of my classmates finished half the sets of past years, and she could basically answer half of the questions without batting an eye since everything is so similar.

USA is out of the picture they accepts only SAT 😅

Again you can have the marking scheme but no idea what you're doing is bad.

Especially doing Mathematics topical without a solution manual.
I personally find reading the marking scheme for Maths is especially difficult. If you don't know which step you done wrong.

Doing too much of topical questions might be also harmful in a sense that you might be spending too much time in 1 topic rather than the others. Try to do 5 years maximum of the latest papers.
.Don't go full retarded and do 2002 to 2015/16 like me.

As there would be some syllabus changes. Seriously 5 years is enough. With 3 variants in a year starting 2011 onwards.

This post has been edited by iSean: Nov 1 2019, 08:23 AM

Yeah for sure, was what I was planning to do anyways though I don't really have previous experience in CS, just quite interested. Not so sure about studying abroad anymore now, though I'll be open if I get the chance to do it. Have you personally studied in the US before?

May I ask why it's better to take Pre-U courses rather than A-levels if I wanted to study in Japan?

Ah that sounds reassuring, I've always heard about how A-levels is extremely hard despite there being only 3 subjects but I guess it's better to be wary than not. Definitely aiming to get a scholarship though regardless of the challenge. How was your experience in A-levels, is it a considerable leap from IGCSEs?

Hahahah definitely will do, kinda understand what you mean since I have all these 10 year past years for IGCSEs but literally only did like the first few papers before exams and called it a day. Felt quite wasteful as now I'm done with exams and still have so many empty pages left but nothing to do with them anymore.. but yeah I feel like past years is slightly more useful than topicals unless you really need to revise a specific topic.

Might be good to also poke around explore what are the subfields under CS - pure CS (if i may call it this) is much problem solving, theory, algorithms and such. The extended family that sometimes come packaged under CS is programming and other software/hardware tech stuff. But best to ask someone in the CS field! And yes, I did my degree in US.

On a side note, since CS and math are close cousins, you'd might need to take A-Levels maths which will be on the hard side since you didn't take IG add maths. Memorizing mark schemes for maths is NOT a good way to learn the subject! Work regularly, and immediately ask questions if stuck or of you have doubts. Ask friends, teachers, or simply global communities dedicated to helping students (e.g. A-Level Math FB group, ZNOTES Discord server, Mathematics Discord Server).

This post has been edited by E-Tan: Nov 4 2019, 05:34 PM

I'm quite interested in the programming and software development part of CS but not so sure about the subfields and etc, might dig deeper about it. Also, how did you go about after completing your SPM/IGCSEs? Currently looking for a college which provides computer science as a subject for A-levels but I've seem to only come down to two options.. Taylor's or MCKL, though leaning towards the latter since Taylor's is hella expensive.

As for maths, yeah of course, I don't look at only the marking scheme to learn. I try to look around for as many resources as possible to make sure I truly understand the concept, might need to work a little more on my maths for A-levels though. Also, Znotes and Maths discord server? Didn't know that existed, mind linking me?

This post has been edited by shwegdow: Nov 4 2019, 08:59 PM

Seems like TARUC also has CS? At least according to iSean's List of A-Level Colleges. After SPM I did A-Levels (because I had no idea what I want to study for sure), then studied Physics in US (and realized that I actually didn't need to do A-Levels to study there lol).

ZNotes Discord (For CIE A-level & IGCSE)
Mainly for all kinds of IG/A-Level subjects. Discussions of past-years, exam rants, help on topics, random discussions, etc. It's a global Discord server which is nice because there is almost 24-hour help available lol. Make sure you get the right 'roles' to view all the channels for your subjects! To join, go to the main website znotes.org/, then click on the 'Community' tab which brings you to the Discord invite link.

Mathematics Discord
Also a global Discord server too. Maths of all levels from secondary to university/graduate maths are in there, so make sure your discussions and help questions are in the right channels. To join, go to https://discordapp.com/invite/EPRSUcc. Since you're interested in exploring CS, you could also go to their #network channel and find the CS Discord server.

Welcome to the world of academic Discord!

This post has been edited by E-Tan: Nov 5 2019, 09:56 AM

Oops, didn't even notice his flair. Just checked it out, seems like the course is limited to Art Stream and Science Stream and I don't even meet the conditions of the latter so that's out of the list. Most probably going to go with MCKL in the end unless I find an alternative. Oh wooow, Physics in US huh, sounds costly.. how are you doing now?

Thanks for the Discord channels too! Didn't know there were actually academic Discord servers, might be a great help

Ah that's sad that TARUC has more conditions/requirements.

Thankfully it didn't cost a bomb (due to scholarships and 3-5 campus jobs per semester). Now enjoying life in Maths and Physics heheh. Wish I found out about the network of academic Discord servers earlier haih, could have spared me lots of extensive, frustrating moments when problem solving in degree.

Oh wow, that's good to hear you're breezing through hahahah. Yeah, thanks for introducing it to me. Haven't really done much in the Discord but looks like a rather helpful community.

I remember trying to apply for Japanese unis after getting my A level results a few months ago, and there are very little courses that accept A-levels as its qualification, and most of them are arts stream subjects. So yeah, A-levels is pretty bad for applying to study in Japan, but you might be able to discover something I didn't, cause I didn't do much digging.

Also, you should consider taking 4 subjects instead of 3 if you aim to get scholarships as 4A* is like the minimum requirement to even obtain a scholarship interview. Beyond that, you'll also need to participate in national/ international level competitions. Forget school-level activities, cause most scholarship interviewers ignore those.

Now, as for my experience in A-levels, I took the double maths + phys + chem route. Further maths is a huge leap (I felt as if all the stuff I learned was magic) from what I learned in SPM, but with a strong mathematical foundation, I found it doable after doing some tutorials. Chemistry is also a slight leap since I took SPM, and we weren't taught the actual electron orbitals. So, it was kinda hard coming to terms with this new rudimentary theory. But, after learning to accept it, it became pretty easy. I only did past years that our lecturers gave in class, and 1-2 extra ones before each paper and I ended up getting 2A* and 2As. So, I think A-level isn't that hard as others make it to be.

Word of advice, don't memorize the content. Instead, try to absorb the concepts and you'll be fine. Also, ask a lot of questions, especially for the "basics" if you haven't nailed them. I was especially bad in physics during high school, but after asking a crap ton of them to my lecturer, he provided plenty of examples and I finally understood most of the "basics" that plagued me in highschool. With that, physics was smooth-sailing all the way.

Ahh I see, well now I'm not so intent on going to study in Japan anymore unless the opportunity arises. And damn, 4 subjects? That sounds a little nuts from what I've heard.. if I were to take 4 subjects I'd like to pick further maths as an additional subject but I have practically no knowledge in add maths so that sounds impossible.. great results though. But 4A*s is the minimum? Holy, that sounds borderline impossible for being a minimum not gonna lie.

Yeah for sure, how do you teach yourself to understand rather than memorize? Because when I read notes online, I instinctively go into passive rereading and memorizing mode rather than understanding which kind of messes me up since I have a lot of terms to memorize. What are you doing now after A-levels by the way?

Yeah, for actual 100% full tuition waiver scholarships for foreign countries, 4A*s is only the entrance ticket. But for some unis, like HKU, 4A*s guarantees full tuition fee waiver iirc. Also, 4A*s is actually pretty easy to get. From what I've seen, there are generally three cases where students get 4A*s,
1: They smart af
2: They're hardworking af (ie drown themselves in past years to drill the concepts into themselves)
3: A combination of both

The only reason I didn't get 4A*s is because I'm super careless at maths despite understanding the concepts. Like imagine copying the equation wrong and blindly attempting to solve it for half an hour kinda careless.

Well, for physics, each chapter revolves around a few formulas. Memorize those, and you'll be able to figure out the entire chapter based on the formulas alone. Take the formula for gravitational force as an example, Force of gravity = -GMm/r^2. From this formula, I can understand that gravitational force decreases in magnitude over a distance, since r = radius. Then, it can also be surmised that gravity is an attractive force, since force is a vector, and its sign is negative. Then, from the two Ms, I'll know that gravity is based on the distance between two masses, hence M.

Another thing that can help with understanding is by visualizing the things you learn. Like a mental simulation if you will. Another thing that helps is to relate if to phenomena you encounter IRL. Like, after learning what centripetal force is, I take note of how my body moves while the car makes a turn (you better start noticing this now, cause most people find it hard to come to terms when they reach that chapter).

That's what you do with physics. As for chemistry, half of the content needs to be memorized (no other way, I'm afraid), whereas the other half can be built on what you've memorized.

As for Bio, well, you're on your own with that. I despise that subject with every fibre in my being. There's literally no way to cheese it besides pure memorization

Also, I noticed that you're interested in CS, which is my current major. One of my current coursemates used to study A-levels CS as well, but he says that he's struggling with our current course content. He says that A-levels CS only touches briefly on each topic, so he didn't really get a strong foundation. However, from what I've skimmed from the CS textbook, it leans more towards the Information Systems side of CS. So, please check it out beforehand and make sure that this is really what you want.