SGPsychStud: Diploma or A levels? A post for the secondary schoolers

I just gave a psychology talk in a secondary school recently, and noticed that there are many students in the secondary level who are interested in psychology.  Hence this post is directed more to those in the secondary level.

A lot of people are interested in psychology in Singapore, and this is quite evident from the number of people applying for entry into psychological programs in the polytechnics, universities, and private institutions in Singapore.  As compared to more than 10 years ago, there has a surge of students who are interested in psychology these recent years.  Many reasons may have caused this to happen, such as people becoming more insightful at a younger age, or less interested in normal programs like engineering, science or business,  or other reasons.  However, as this may be a personal reason and differs from person to person, I should not delve into it further.

Psychology is not a subject or area of study that is available in the secondary level in Singapore, hence your only first contact with psychology would most probably be really during the diploma or universities programs that you undertake.
The question here would be when should you come into psychology?  Should you do a psychology diploma directly or should you do your A levels and try to get into the local university psychology program?

My recommendations are:
If you are interested and quite certain (> 80% sure) that this field is something you are interested in, then a diploma might be a good choice to try it out.  Obviously your final ideal choice would not be too far off such that even if you do not choose psychology but something else in university, it would still be a similar or related area.
However for those who are unsure of what you want to do, probably doing the 2 years in Junior College and "A" levels would be a good way for you to buy some time to reconsider what you want to do in your career.  Ultimately this choice you are going to make will affect your careers and your life in the next few years (tertiary schooling and working lives).

This will be written with the assumption that students are able to enter the programs with their current results.  Obviously we know that results can pose an issue for entering the programs; "however there is always a way." (My quote to the students during the psychology talk)

For more information on degrees, please view this post; and here it is for the diplomas.
If you wish for me to provide a free psychology talk to the students in your school, please send me an email at sgpsychstud@gmail.com.

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