Friday, March 6, 2009

3)what are the advantages of taking IB Diploma? In comparison to others.Your main alternative in Singapore would be to take the Singapore-GCE A-levels. In that case, you have no advantage from an US/UK admissions point-of-view. It is widely held that the S-GCE A-levels, along with the HKALE, are much harder than the UK equivalent and thus on par or even surpassing the IB programme. RJ and HC should have better reputations among the US/UK universities so you might get a *tiny* boost from there as well
In short: IB is very widely recognised, but you do have to put a lot of effort in. It is tough to get 40+ points in the actual diploma. Statistically 40 points is equivalent to the 94th percentile. Your english seems fine, but some subjects will be more challenging than others. (eg. Business and possible Economics.)
If I am not mistaken you will need to take the UMAT, Undergraduate Medical Aptitude Test, and your chances of getting an interview is very much based on this. Not because they look solely on this, but because 3As in A levels only accounts for an ENTER score of 98.5, which isn't quite enough unless you do well in UMAT.However, obtaining a top 5% in UMAT(as in top 5% of all the people who took the test) and 3As in A-Levels will almost guarantee you an interview. Then, your interview will be the make or break.Some Unis are beginning to scrap the interview process and some do not require them for international students though, so I'm not sure about that

Thursday, March 5, 2009

As you can from the data above, the price plunges by more than 10% in a year only in 1997 and 1998during the Asian Financial Crisis. You must remember then that there was also a huge over-supply of new HDB then of which some still remain unsold today. Given that the government is trying not to over-supply with its BTO, rather than just build without order in the 90s, I personally think it's unlikely for the same sort of over-supply to happen this time round. In addition, the HDB rental demand is very strong too. In the 90s, HDB owners do not have the option of leasing their flats.The peak price was in 1996, 4Q (PPI=136.9). The current PPI is 131.7, still below the peak. In fact, my judgement says prices for resale HDB are very unlikely to fall like in 1997-98 even if we should go into a recession.My forecast for price fall is largely for private property where there is an accumulation of unsold units and where ROI is already low and rental yield is likely to see more downside

Wednesday, March 4, 2009


You have to pay the market rate or the man will stake out and join Morgan Stanley, Lehman Brothers or Goldman Sachs. You would have an incompetent man and you could lose money by the billions." — Lee Kuan Yew.

Lee Kuan Yew, NRIC number 0000003E, of 38, Oxley Road, Singapore

Monday, March 2, 2009


A third group is relatively untouched by the downturn. The individuals in this group have paid off their mortgages and, while their investment portfolios may be down sharply, they still have an adequate cushion. Nonetheless this group is also cutting back because engaging in conspicuous consumption seems like bad manners when so many other people are suffering. However, he says, people in this group are still traveling to places where they can be reasonably confident no one they know will see what they are spending.

Flaunting money is considered gauche: if you've got it, please keep it to yourself -- or give some away!