Pros and Cons Of Sitting For The SUEC in Chinese Independent Schools

After completing SJKC, many students move on to SMK, Private or International Schools or Chinese Independent Schools. Each type of school will have its own challenges and special issues. This post is about UEC examinations in Chinese Independent Schools (CIS) and the questions that parents who choose this route must ponder at some point of time.

Students in CIS sit for the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC). Some Chinese independent high schools opt to teach the national secondary school curriculum (in Malay) alongside the independent school curriculum (in Chinese) and require students to sit for PT3, SPM or STPM in addition to the UEC.

Credit: The following is published with the permission of the parents who posted this topic on our Malaysia Secondary School Parents on Facebook group recently.

Common Question:

My son is studying at a Chinese independent Secondary school. I have no idea what is the choice of further studies after his SPM exam. His school offers both UEC & SPM exams. Should my son consider continuing higher secondary until UEC exam or just take the SPM results for studying in college, Foundation or switch to A level?

This question was raised recently on our Facebook group. We are reproducing the question and answer on this blog to reach out to more parents. We feel this is a really beneficial and useful topic for parents with kids studying or those who are thinking of sending their children to Chinese Independent Schools in Malaysia.

Answer:

There are pros and cons of sitting for the SUEC in Chinese Independent Schools.

Pros of sitting for SUEC

1. If you are undecided to proceed with what course, there's no harm to continue sitting for the SUEC in the meantime
2. When you sit for the SUEC, you will have no trouble adapting because of the familiarity in environment
3. If you leave after SPM you wont be given a certificate in CIS. You will only receive a school leaving certificate which rather defeats the purpose of studying in a CIS
4. It is way cheaper compared to doing Pre-U, GCE A levels, AUSMAT and etc to prepare yourself for further studies
5. A shorter course period, you will need just another 10 months and you can start immediately once school begins session in January
6. The UEC paper may be accepted internationally in most universities
7. It depends on each CIS. In some CIS subjects would be taught in English, in some others it is fully Chinese (for example main subjects like advanced maths/ physics/chemistry may be taught in English except Biology but you could still opp to answer the Biology paper in English during SUEC through self learning).

Cons of sitting for SUEC

1. There will be more subjects to handle
2. The paper is tougher especially for science stream students
3. Not many reference books are available
4. You have to cramp all subject from Sr 1-3 in 10 short months
5. The homework load is really heavy 
6. It is 100% exam based