COMPARISON BETWEEN CONTINUING IN A JC VS RE-STARTING A-LEVELS IN THE UK

Updated Dec 2020

Sometimes, current Year 1 JC students missed the opportunity to join the 18-month/5-term A-level course which has started in January this year. Or, some current JC students are not happy in their JC because they could not get into the JC of their choice, or they could not do the subjects they want, or they find JC life too stressful. They can re-start their A-Level studies in the UK in September of their JC1 year and do the 2-year A-level course. Alternatively, they can join the next 18-month course starting in next January.

Exceptionally bright JC1 students may even be able to join Year 2 of the 2-year A-levels course in September in their JC1 year, and complete their A-levels in the following June. They will start university one year ahead of their JC cohort.

Students who join the 2-year course in September or the 1 1/2-year course in the following January need not feel that they will lose out to their JC classmates. They do not. They just do not “save” one year, or start university studies one year earlier as their Sec 4 year cohorts who have joined the 2-year course in the previous September, or the special 5-term course earlier in January. But, they will still enter university the same time as their current JC cohorts. This is shown below.

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Continue in JC in Singapore

Jan to Nov 2021 - JC Year 1

Jan to Nov 2022 - JC Year 2

Jan- Sept 2023 - Wait

September 2023 Enter UK University

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Go to the UK for A-Levels

Sep 2021 to June 2022 -  UK A-Levels, Year 1

Sept 2022 to June 2023 - UK A-Levels, Year 2

Aug 2023 - A-level results out

September 2023 - Enter UK University

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In short, there is no difference. Both students enter a UK university in September, 2022, in this example. The only difference is that a JC student who finishes his/her A-levels here will have to wait 9 months for the UK university to start, whereas a student re-starting A-level studies in the UK will start his/her university studies immediately after the summer holidays. Moreover, if he/she has been studying in a JC from Jan-June this year, he/she will be doubly strong by the time he/she joins the UK college in September as they are doing revision of Year 1 work, and so the first 6 months spent in JC1 are not a waste of time. (Such students are recommended not to rejoin their JC in July when the second half of the academic year opens. They should spend the next 3 months doing internship, attachments or voluntary work.)