Assalamualaikum.
It;s been quite a while since I wrote for this blog. Been busy getting our new Tik Tok platform up and running. Despite the social media, I still think we need to document our experience by writing so that one day this can be reference for our children and others starting their own homeschooling journey,
So for this post, I would like to share our experience on choosing the right ( or rather most suitable) public exam for our children and the reasons behind it.
I (since as a former academician, naturally inclined to concern more about exams compared to my husband) had been searching and reading to learn more on these two most popular choice of exams available for homeschoolers in Malaysia. Well, there are other options like SAT but because we are aiming for admissions into local higher institutions, most of the time only these two exams are considered.
I remember started going through iGCSE syllabus when our first child reached 14 years old. We started with Maths and English because if we were to end up with SPM anyway, the syllabus would probably be much the same plus or minus. InsyaAllah nothing goes to waste. You can check on subjects offered and syllabus from CIE website.
At first as I compared the two exams, of course I preferred iGCSE over SPM for reasons I'm going to discuss later. But after we did the very first sitting ( and a few communications with college admission), we decided that SPM is the more practical choice for our children.
Okay, so why we initially chose iGCSE?
As our first son had been unschooling most of his homeschool time, we thought that iGCSE syllabus were quite easier and more interesting than SPM. Well, we both had our experience with SPM, and I had experience with A-levels so I knew how dramatically different both local and international exams are. We don't like how rote learning is still very much needed to score SPM, despite how much "HOTS or KBAT" they call it. It's the way Malaysian school students have been taught to prepare for exams that make it more challenging. I knew this because I had the chance to took my SPM in MRSM and my A-levels in a UK boarding school. So I know exactly the difference experience and vibes between local and international exams.
So these are the selling point of iGCSE over SPM for us:
1. Syllabus are less challenging. At the time, SPM syllabus for our first child was KBSM, the old syllabus. We thought learning iGCSE would be easier for our first experience on public exams. Alhamduillah, iGCSE syllabus I managed to download them either from Cambridge examination website or Cambridge exam centre schools websites.
2. No minimum age restriction for iGCSE, which means we can start taking exam earlier between 15 to 16 years old, while for SPM, we have to wait until the child is 17 ( by school year) to register for the exam.
3. There are no compulsory subjects, more subject choices for private candidates compared to SPM. We felt that iGCSE exam is also more "private candidate-friendly" because all their laboratory test paper are replaced with laboratory written exams. So one don't need to be competent in actually handling with all the scientific apparatus that may not be easily available for private candidates, unlike those in schools.
4. We can split the number of subjects into two or more sitting to spread the cost and also less pressure on the child to prepare for the exams. So we decided to register three subjects for the first sitting in November 2019 (He was 16). They are Mathematics, English and Business Studies. We spent around RM3000 for these three subjects.
After that first sitting, we thought that it was not practical to sit for more papers due to the following reasons:
We were aiming for a scholarship so minimum subjects he should take was nine if he was going to compete with other school students. That could cost us a total around RM10 thousands for registration alone, not including books and tuition fees. After contacting few resources, we found out that any admission into foundation using iGCSE will cost us private fees. Another tens of thousands. With many children sitting the exams in the following years, it is not a viable choice for us long term.
So we decided to finally settle down for SPM for him and the rest of the children.
1. SPM exams only cost less than RM200. Books are much cheaper and widely available. Online tuition also easily available with much cheaper options. Since our son took SPM in 2020 during the pandemic, there were an influx of exam tips and videos on every subjects available on YouTube. At the time, I have not found Telegram channels. So we only depends on YouTube videos and websites for online resources.
2. I figured out more opportunities to further studies with SPM, compared to iGCSE. Although we aimed for MMU at the time (which is a private government linked institution), there are more cheaper diploma courses can be applied using SPM (for the animation course he was applying, it was not that competetive. So even if it's harder to score, the minimum requirements were not that high. Less pressure for him academically.)
3. More scholarships or funding opportunities can be applied using SPM. Most scholarships that offer admission through iGCSE come from private institutions' scholarships. So the amount sometimes only cover tuition fees without monthly stipend. With SPM, a 'bumiputera' student can apply for fully funded MARA or government higher institutions on top of applications through UPU. Although one can register into public universities using iGCSE, only applications through UPU will get subsidized tuition fees (for foundation and diploma entry levels). So we decided to choose the less tricky, cheaper and more options pathway to higher institutions via SPM.
SPM is more practical if you have limited resources to spend on each child (and we have like eight or nine more next in line at that time (2020)!)
By all means, if you have the budget and already have scaled down your target university for your child, iGCSE can be the easier choice to go. In our case, it's not going to work long term.
So with that, we can then focus our expertise and resources (buying books and accumulating exams tips and experiences) on SPM. *deep inhale, release. InsyaAllah.
And by now, we are on our way with 3rd and 4th SPM private candidates masyaAllah tabarakallah!
How time flies. And alhamdulillah, they managed to face it despite the tears and late night stay up revision. By now, our worries about how hard the KSSM syllabus are has already gone, and we have lowered our expectations on the children as long as they manage to go through it healthy and alive!
May Allah bless all our SPM (and iGCSE) candidates and open up doors of more learning experiences for them. InsyaAllah Ameen.
All the best!