ARE students too reliant on the Ten-Year Series (TYS) assessment books?

Should schools produce their own assessment books comparable with, if not better than, the TYS?

These issues came to light after there was a delay in the publication of this year's series.

In March, The New Paper reported that copyright issues between the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) and The Cambridge International Examinations had stopped the publication of the series.

Last Friday, the Ministry of Education said the issue had been resolved, and that the TYS is set to hit the shelves next month.

A necessity

What started out as a supplement to textbooks seems to have become a necessity for many students.

Only four of the 100 students The New Paper spoke to felt that publication of the assessment books should be stopped.

And almost 70 per cent said they rely on the TYS to prepare for exams.

Said Liyana Othman, 19, who completed her A levels last year: 'All my friends used it to study for the A levels.

'The TYS was used as a gauge to see whether we were up to standard. If we couldn't solve the problems in the TYS, it meant that we wouldn't do well in the A's, that we needed more work.'

Miss Liyana graduated from Pioneer Junior College last year. She used the TYS and managed to get an A2 for General Paper (GP) and an average score of B for her other subjects.

Private tutor Mr Kenneth Tan, 21, said: 'The TYS books are useful in working out the average difficulty of past-year papers and are usually free from the usual tricks your prelim papers pull.

'Removing the TYS will make it harder for people who rely on rote learning to score.'

Miss Felicia Yip, 28, who has been teaching GP for three years, feels that the TYS is a 'safety net' for students that teachers will continue to use.

'Teachers in JC make A-level papers of the past three years available to students anyway, although we (teachers) hold on to the answer scheme,' she said.

Miss Yip added that students will find ways to get past-year papers, even if TYS is no longer in print.

A 21-year-old GP teacher, who only wanted to be known as Mr Chuah, agrees that there are alternative ways to get the practice papers.

He said: 'Even if the Government ceases publication of them, the private sector will meet the needs of students.'

The series has been used by students for over 40 years. An assessment book costs about $10.

Rachel Loi, 19, feels that the TYS could be a waste of money for some.

She said: 'It should be left to the student to choose whether to buy the TYS. Different students learn differently and the method of using TYS to study may not work for some.'

Mrs Jenni Yeap, mother of a 19-year-old daughter, feels that practising questions in the TYS may not necessarily be good. She said: 'Students have become too reliant on TYS to give them good grades. It would be better if students give answers based on their knowledge gained from attending classes and reading on their own, rather than memorising answers to questions.

'The TYS should be used as a reference to what they have forgotten.'

The recent change in syllabus in the Junior College system has proved that there may not be a need for the TYS.

Some, such as Miss Liyana, feel that previous years' exam papers no longer provide an accurate gauge of exams as they used to.

Preparing for the real thing

She said: 'Before the new syllabus was introduced, I think students relied heavily on TYS to get good grades. They're like mock exam papers and they prepare the students for the real thing, and the questions are quite similar.

'But with the new H1/H2 syllabus, I don't think that's the case. The questions are now quite unpredictable, and they require students to think out of the box.'

Even so, Miss Yip feels that students will continue to use them.

She said: 'The exam culture is so entrenched, it won't matter whether TYS is available or not. It will still be available unofficially, and students will continue to practise, believing they will score with the help of TYS.'

Pearly Tan, newsroom intern

Additional reporting by Han Yong Ming, Audrey Tan, Naveen Kanagalingam, Geraldine Yeo, Joanna Hor, Shea John Driscoll, Kay Tan and Kerri Teo.

This article was first published in The New Paper.