It doesn't really matter which JC you are posted to.

I know many students and their parents don’t like to hear this (the same way some people don’t like it when I said that being in an IP school doesn’t guarantee academic success). BUT IT IS TRUE.

All JCs have qualified teachers and good facilities. What will prevent you from getting good A-level results is your attitude towards your studies, your teachers and your school. For some strange reason, there are students from “branded” schools who just cannot get over being posted to a “neighbourhood” JC.

Whether you are in the “top” or “bottom” JC you will still end up doing the SAME A-level exams. And four As at the A-levels is computed the same way by universities for the purpose of admission, after taking into account subject prerequisites, NOT the JC you come from. Also, no point judging the teaching quality of a JC by the percentage of its students who make it to university. Obviously a JC which takes in only top students will generally have better A-Level results. So it largely depends on the students. Some “unbranded” JCs may have outstanding and caring teachers who add value to students; they take in weaker students and yet are able to coach them to get good A-level results.

Rather than appealing your posting, or moaning or sulking about your JC posting, you are better off hitting the books straightaway as your A-levels is about just 84 weeks away and your crucial Promos less than half of that. You know, teenagers can waste away 80 weeks quite easily.

However, appealing may be necessary if you have a physical or medical condition and it may be understandable too if the school you are posted to is very far from home. And if you are enrolled in a Poly course that you don’t want, then your posting DOES matter as poly courses are narrower in scope and you don’t want those industry-specific tasks to dominate your life for the next three years.

JC courses are broader, dealing with centuries-old themes such as the humanities, the languages and the sciences. This means to succeed in a JC, you’d also need to employ a centuries-old technique – READ. And read a lot you must, and think about what you have read, and think about the ways you think.

Every year, about 1000 JC1 students don’t get promoted to JC2. Thus you might want to seriously consider studying right away.

Ilyasa