A Reddit member and Singapore permanent resident who took the SPERS exam and qualified for junior college said his father advised him against enrolling in the local polytechnics.
The Reddit member with the user-handle ‘rokkenjima-fragment‘, a frequent contributor to the site, said in his post that he did fairly well in the IGCSE exams – well enough to qualify for junior college or polytechnic.
But his father advised him against enrolling in the local polytechnics, saying “poly is for idiots…and (poly grads) end up getting shitty jobs”.
The Reddit member sought advice from fellow Redditors on higher education soon after qualifying for junior college on the basis of his SPERS exam results.
He finally decided to enrol in either Pioneer of Jurong Junior College.
Here is his post (edited), where he mentioned his SPERS exam results and options, in full:
“I’m an Indian Permanent Resident (PR) who’s been studying in international schools his whole life and now my parents want me to join a local junior college (JC).
i got 5 A*s and 2As in my O Level (IGCSE). just got my School Placement Exercise for Returning Singaporeans (SPERS) JC results, and I got Innova, Yishun, Jurong, Pioneer, Millenia, and my parents are rather ‘pissed’…lol.
Can anyone tell me what my options are? I’m assuming those JCs aren’t exactly the greatest, but it doesn’t really matter as long as i do well for my A level, right? Should i try to DSA (Direct School Admission) to a better JC? Or should i do Poly?
My dad hasn’t studied in the local system at all, but he always lectures me on how I absolutely HAVE to go to JC and that Poly is for idiots (which i’m assuming is untrue). He also says that the government funds Polys and gives them better facilities than JCs to attract students. So, more people go to Poly and end up getting ‘shitty’ jobs (because there is a shortage of people who want to work those jobs). Which honestly sounds like some conspiracy ‘shit’ to me. I really don’t know if he’s bullshitting or not. So, I need some external advice.
He also says pioneer JC is full of gangsters. Hope thats not true lol. I’m not sure if we have enough money to pay for another international school. i feel really disappointed in myself right now and i really need some advice on what to do next.
Also, i finished my O Level 2 years ago. then i joined an IB school, but got burnt out really hard on the massive workload and my shitty subject combination (took biology instead of physics despite liking physics more since my parents suggested bio) and ended up dropping out after 1 yr. So now, I’m pretty sure i don’t want to study biology.
I went to a Poly to take the SPERS-JC test and thought the facilities were actually really cool and wouldn’t mind studying there. Could really use some advice or pointers. Thanks.
Edit: Thank you for all the advice. Didn’t expect so many replies. Read all of them and I think I’ll just stick with Pioneer/Jurong JC.”