“I Failed My Exams”: Why Do Students Do Badly In JC?

It can come as a shock when you receive the results from your first test in JC. You might have thoughts like: What happened to the Bs and As I used to get? I even failed some of the papers! What went wrong?

Getting lower grades in JC compared to secondary school is a very common phenomenon, but it doesn’t always mean you are bad at studying or you have become dumber. Poor results may be a result of external and internal factors, so it’s always good to think about what caused your drop in grades and how you can address those issues.

Below, we highlight some of the common issues JC students face that cause them to do badly in tests, along with suggestions on how you can overcome them.

Shift in exam focus from secondary to JC

The JC syllabus is far more in-depth, and emphasises application and higher order thinking instead of recall questions. To excel in JC, you can’t just study to memorise facts, but you need to really understand and be used to tackling novel problems (especially in science and math). For humanities and language subjects, examiners are looking at how you engage deeply with the reading material to express an opinion, demonstrating critical thinking through sound arguments.

Moreover, you may even need to unlearn and relearn some things. For example, everything you knew about valence electrons in secondary school is ‘wrong’ and your JC syllabus will tell you something much more complicated than what’s in your O Level textbook.

Suggestion: Allocate more time to do practice questions and hone your answering skills rather than just focusing on the content.

Different grade average in JC

Even if you come from a secondary school where most of your peers are getting As and Bs (and C is considered ‘bad’), your schoolmates in JC may be barely passing their exams. It is not uncommon to fail as well. You are not abnormal for getting poorer results in JC than in secondary school. Everyone’s grades tend to drop.

So, while there is definitely room for improvement, our Physics JC tutor often tells her students that failing some tests in JC is normal! Just passing the exams can be a great achievement in some tougher subjects. If you manage to get an A, you are exemplary!

Suggestion: To know your current standing compared to your peers, compare your result against a bell curve rather than the letter grade that you received. In subsequent tests, you can compare your results to your earlier test results and focus on improving your own score.

Not knowing how to study in JC

The pace of study in JC is much faster, with a lot more content to cover within the short 2 years. While in secondary school, you could wait until nearer tests and exams to study, in JC it is much harder to study at the last minute. If you have not been regularly keeping up with revision, the content may prove to be too much when you decide to cram.

Interestingly, we find this an issue with IP school students – they don’t know how to study for tests. Because IP school students don’t have the experience of studying for O Levels, they may not have established a good study system to study for a major exam like the A Levels.

Suggestion: Plan out your study schedule to account for regular revision (e.g. weekly review of topics you have learnt), as well as spacing out your revision for tests and exams to build up momentum and avoid last-minute cramming.

Conclusion

Getting worse grades in JC compared to secondary school is an experience that most JC students would have. However, instead of being discouraged by it, why not see it as a chance to identify which areas you need to work on and strive for further improvements? You can start by reviewing your recent test papers to see what went wrong, and craft an action plan to tackle the problem areas.

Being part of a tuition class can also help you keep your studies on track, by providing an organised schedule to practice and revise topics, along with access to regular feedback from an experienced JC tuition teacher. Should you find this additional support beneficial for you, we welcome you to join us at our JC tuition centre in Singapore to take charge of your learning.