ACS(I) is part of the ACS family, running an IB programme. Its cohort comprises of ACS(I) IP boys, MGS IP girls and O level students from various secondary schools. It is known for having a strong school spirit and nurturing all-rounded students with its various special programmes. These include Advanced Science Programmes(to develop Years 5 – 6 students with special science talents and potential for the international science arena), ACSians-in-action(to develop student’s entrepreneur dare by allowing them to take ownership in an overseas service-based project) among many others. ACS(I) also has a few awards to encourage students to speak eloquently in both English and Chinese. One of them is the Dr Lee Suan Yew Speaker of the Year Award that showcases a dazzling display of ACSian eloquence, wit and stage charisma.

Cut-off point: IB program 5

"I will be honest, I am not so sure about the culture of my school because of covid so we haven't really had that many experiences together. I'd say the people are really nice and orientation, although it was very scaled down, it was enjoyable. Not gonna lie, it was also abit hard to integrate as an olvl student but I guess that's the case for many schools as well. In AC we have a pretty small O level population because our cohort is very small compared to other schools. And alot of the o level peeps are from mg o level too so they have quite a lot of friends in the school already. " --- Senior A

"In my opinion, whether its competitive or not depends on whether you're trying to 'beat' other people. To me, I don't really compare with other people in my class because most of them have done something similar in mg or ac sec so they are more familiar with IAs and extended essay etc. Everyone is really helpful and friendly though. Is it stressful? I guess that depends on your own expectations. but yea i would say its rather academically rigorous because there isn't an answer in a textbook for most of our IAs. We really just gonna read a bunch of scientific reports etc and figure it out ourselves. Syllabus wise its said to be broader than alevel but less deep than alevel. i personally find that manageable as of now but it's still pretty tough lol" ---Senior A

" "Alot of IP people choose to continue with their secondary cca and for some ccas, they don't need to retry for it. It really depends which cca you choose to go for. Essentially, we just audition for the ccas, wait for results and if you get accepted then you just continue with that cca. But some people still don't have ccas till today and i guess the school isn't very strict about making cca compulsory." ---Senior A

"ACSI is part of the ac family which is really big. The ac family is international and in singapore, theres acjc, acsi, acs(i) international, ac barker etc so we have a pretty strong culture and family spirit. As for special activities and traditions, I would say founders day etc but to be honest, alot of things were cancelled because of the covid situation too so it's hard for me to say." ---Senior A

""Just a breakdown of the academic portion of IB: basically we take 6 subjects (language and literature or literature, a 2nd language, math, humanities, science, arts/humanities/sciences). from these 6 subjects, we take 3 at higher level and 3 at standard level, similar to your h2 and h1 subjects respectively. for all our subjects, we have both the internal (ia, 20% of our grade) and external assessments. so for example, chemistry ia would be a writeup and practical (basically very similar to sip in sngs sec 2) where we choose a research question and conduct experiments etc. for let's say econs, our ia would be finding an article and doing a commentary. then the external assessment would be the usual exams. in addition to that, we have an extended essay (3000 'research paper'), theory of knowledge (if i were to very loosely describe it, i'd say its like philosophy) and creativity activity service (cas) where it adopts to same concept as LEAPS in sngs.

so i guess i chose ib for a couple of reasons
- its an international programme so its recognised, well, internationally
- i didn't want to take As because i didn't want my whole grade depending on that one day im doing the exam, i didn't want to go poly bcos i didn't know what course to do so i guess im in ib lol
- i was intrigued by the structure of the ib diploma because there's a bunch of aspect to it
- i am not used to researching and so what better time to force myself to pick it up fast LOL
- it emphasises alot on time management because we are basically never ever done with our work. i kind of wanted to challenge myself and just give it a shot to see how i manage

" ---Senior A

"IB allows for a very very flexible subject combination and this is a pull factor for many people. In singapore, most of the schools here don't offer super whack subjects but some sg schools offer stuff like business management, dance, music, art, computer science. It is a very broad range. But that also makes timetabling difficult. The school tries to give students the subjects they want but because IB is quite rigorous academically, some students aren't allowed to take a certain combination. For example, to take sciences at higher level in acsi, we need to get a1 or a2 for that science in olevel. Those who don't meet the requirement have to go for an interview but most people get their first few choices" ---Senior A

"I guess in secondary school I didn't do that much research so that is a very significant difference for me" ---Senior A

" My friends and social circle was drastically reduced in jc because I wasn't from the IP section" ---Senior A

" hmm quite a few, from the top of my head, the more popular ones would be dance venia, rugby, ultimate frisbee" ---Senior A