Course selection is an essential step to starting the journey in SCIE for both IGCSE and A-level students. Therefore, students need to carefully understand the details of each subject. A good understanding of that information can help them decide what courses to follow in the next few years. These decisions will affect the opportunities open to them in the future, so SCIE has a well-designed process involving course selections.
In our student handbook and optional booklets, you may find the following information that helps students to determine whether they should study those subjects or not:
Enjoyment:
Look at your level of interest in each subject: will it carry you through the 2-year length of the course?
Entry Requirements:
Do you meet the entry requirements for the courses that you are considering?
Ability:
Do you have the ability in the subject? Think how you have performed in the past. Do they feel you can manage the advanced work?
Breadth:
Are you choosing a mix of subjects that is so specialised that it leads in only one direction? If you are not yet certain of your career direction, it would be sensible to keep as many options open as possible.
Further study:
If you know which subjects you wish to study at A level or University, check the subject requirements.
Career:
If you know your career direction, check out what you will need; but keep in mind that you may change your mind later, or find you have been over or under ambitious for your level of ability.
A-levels are originally a UK qualification, now taught worldwide, aimed at students aged 17 and 18 in their last two years of schooling. A- levels provide a basis for selection of University entrants in UK as well as a qualification for students entering the job market.
The A level system is different from other pre-University qualifications, such as IB, in that it has no compulsory components; students are free to study whichever subjects they choose.
A-levels are split into two components: AS (comprising 50% of the A level and generally completed in the A1 year) and A2 (comprising the other 50% and generally completed in the A2 year).
Students may choose to continue with each subject for two years and gain a full A level or drop after A1 with an AS level. An AS level is a qualification in its own right and can be an important asset when applying to Universities.
Good students would be expected to leave the college with three or four A levels and one or two additional AS levels. Exceptional students may be able to gain 5 A levels and possibly another one or two additional AS levels.
For more information about A-levels, see the A level prospectus, ‘Studying A level at SCIE.’
My essay is on the recent development of China’s mental health care system and how it can help address this question. Though, I actually parried the question raised by the prompt, and I did not in the end emphasise too much that more care should be devoted to the socially vulnerable. Rather, I intended to underscore the complexity and ambiguity in any employment of these two notions — “socially vulnerable” and “responsibility” — in the concrete working of society. Through my study I discovered that the train of legislative efforts made in the 1980s to 2000s to legally recognise, to enhance public knowledge of, and to erect new asylums for, “the mentally ill,” in fact coincided spatiotemporally with government efforts in putting new agendas of foreign policies and city development to work. Thus, the recent development of China’s mental health care, from scratch to full maturity, is not solely the consequence of “humanitarian effort,” but also of some other ulterior motives. In my conclusion, I hinted that any answer to this question would entail empirical investigation into the concrete working of social institutions, and depending on the nature of this “socially vulnerable” group, claims of “responsibility” may be leveraged as veils for other purposes.
Before starting my research I did not by then have a well-formed hypothesis, but I did have Michel Foucault’s intriguing study on madness in mind. Due to the rather peculiar nature of the object of my study, I was not able to apply the sociological theories (Marxism, Functionalism, e.g.) I learnt in class to my own research. I must thank my sociology teacher for his encouragement and provision of many textbook resources and classical studies done in the field of mental health care. In addition to that, he prepared a statement of the school for my application to conduct short interviews at a local mental health hospital — this application, however, though quite expectedly, sank into oblivion — without his help this project would be very difficult.
I made a documentary “The Definition” about the situation of elderly in Shenzhen to enter this competition. As I have some previous knowledge in filmmaking, learning from TBU studio, I though it would be meaningful if I combined my filmmaking skills with sociology knowledge. In the meanwhile, after learning the very first chapter of sociology, The Family, I found out that the situation of elderly in the UK is different from that of elderly in Shenzhen. For instance, elderly have the responsibility taking care of their grandchildren and dance in the park for entertainment is distinctive in China. Therefore, I decided to make a documentary to record the interesting culture.
I learnt a lot during the preparation for the competition. I learned a lot about how to carry out an individual primary research when I was filming “The Definition”, which helps a lot in my current sociology study. Also, I understood sociology theories better. For instance, postmodernism used to be only a vague theoretical perspective for me, yet it amazed me knowing that elderly people participate actively in public activities can be considered as view of postmodernism.
Most importantly, I realized filmmaking can make some impacts on people, portraying problems of society. Experience of BSA opened my eyes and led me rethink about my future major in college. I want use my skills and knowledge to help more people, so I will probably try a major with humanity and filmmaking combined instead of pursuing the dream of being an artist alone.
Learning sociology gives me a new perspective in seeing how the world works, and it also lets me care more about the vulnerability in the society. Thank you to my sociology teacher, Richard Driscoll, who gave me lots of inspiration such as filming the dancing in the park, which is interesting to British people, and recommenced lots of sociological books about the elderly.
By listening to his advice, “The Definition” eventually divides into two parts: one is about the elderly in nursing home and the other is about people dancing in the park. Also, there is many interviews in the documentary to give a more well-rounded perspective.
I would like to thank my Math teacher Michael Jin and my friend Franchaska, who helped me with the voice over. Also, thanks to my family members, especially my dear grandmother, who gave me lots of insights related to the issue of elderly.
I made this documentary just before the deadline, thus it’s not so perfect. I’ll probably elaborate some shots and reedit it in the future.
If you are interested, you can click the link below and watch it.
Teng Xun Video:https://v.qq.com/x/page/u0862usad2v.html
Bilibili:https://www.bilibili.com/video/av38188271?from=search&seid=10452775157822232568