Successful DSA-SEC Admissions In 2024 ~ Mr Jariel Kang

20 Jan 2024
All About Dance Dance Competitions Dance Performances Direct-School Admissions (DSA-SEC)
DSA-SEC Admissions In 2024 - Our Student's Success Stories

 
In an academically driven society as Singapore where every parent's primary concern with school-going children is their educational results, we have encountered first-hand when dance is often sacrificed for extra tuition classes when a student's academic results need improvement. However, we are of the humble opinion that dance actually offers students an outlet to engage in an activity that betters their mental and physical wellbeing, leaving them recharged for their academic pursuits.


In recent years, our nation's leading education authority - Ministry Of Education has been pushing for a broad-based multifaceted learning approach as evidenced by the introduction of the new Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) scoring system - Achievement Level (AL) since 2021 and the introduction of Subject-Based Banding (SBB) in Secondary Schools from 2024 onwards. Thus, pursuing dance while striving for academic excellence at the same time is now a very viable option through MOE's DSA-SEC admission programme that takes into account a student's talent in Dance when they are vying for a spot in their preferred Secondary School. For our full in-depth review of this topic, please visit this link: https://stepup.sg/blog/DSA-SEC-How-Dance-Can-Complement-Your-Child-s-Admission-Into-Their-Preferred-Secondary-School.

 



Shown above are the 2022/23 Dance Competition achievements of Mr Jariel Kang who managed to receive a confirmed offer from his preferred Secondary School through DSA-SEC via the talent area of Dance. Read on to find out more of his personal insights with regards to his successful DSA journey in 2023: 


1. What are the most important personal attributes in a student for success in DSA using dance?

The student's confidence level is very important and so is his/her enthusiasm in dance. During the interview, I had shown my enthusiasm in dance and moreover, I had been asked to dance the genre of contemporary which was not strength since I had only been trained in Hip Hop. But the Secondary School CCA Dance Teacher clearly remembered me and shared his excitement to my Secondary 1 Form Teacher even before school started.


2. How have the DSA preparations at StepUp contributed to your success in DSA?

During the DSA webinar by StepUp, Mr Ng had clearly explained to both the students and the parents the required preparation and potential questions that could be asked during the interview. Therefore, this was very helpful to mentally prepare myself for the interview. During the Q&A session of the Webinar, my parents also had the opportunity to ask questions so that the other students and parents could benefit from the different questions asked and be even more well prepared. My teacher, Mr Chia had also helped me tremendously during my Solo practices and his words of encouragement provided me with the utmost confidence for the audition and interview during the DSA selection process. 


3. How has the dance journey at StepUp contributed to your success in DSA?

The multiple stage performance experiences definitely helped my confidence during the interview. I was well prepared for what I needed to do. I got my music ready and even brought along a speaker in case the school did not provide one to play the music. And this proved to be beneficial as the DSA assessor was impressed that I brought my own speaker. I prepared my portfolio of all the competitions/performances that StepUp had printed out as Certificates for their easy reference. I further shared confidently all the competitions that I had been to. My recent emcee experience at StepUp's recital in July 2023 also helped me to be even more vocal.


4. Why did you decide to take up DSA-SEC?

I was interested to go to Deyi Secondary as their dance club is strong so even if I may not have achieved the AL cutoff points required, but if I was successful in my DSA application, I could still enrol into Deyi which was my preferred choice.


5. Who would you recommend DSA-SEC to and why?

To anyone who has the passion in dance and wants to continue dance as a CCA in secondary school, DSA can help you to go to the school you like and honestly, it really takes away a certain degree of stress during PSLE.


6. What was the toughest part of the DSA-SEC submission?

The toughest part was to wait for the school response on whether I was successful in my DSA application. As in every interview, I had done my best and hope to create a great impression to the DSA teachers-in-charge. 


7. If you could redo the entire DSA-SEC submission again, what improvements would you undertake?

Nothing, because I had done my very best in the audition and interview. I had put in all the efforts in the dance audition portion as if I was on stage in a competition.


8. What was the differential between your average Achievement Level (AL) from Primary 4 to the actual PSLE results, and the AL cut-off score required by Deyi Secondary School?

My average AL was within a 0% differential from the requirements of Deyi Secondary School.


Thanks to Jariel for sharing his DSA-SEC journey and inspiring our juniors at StepUp with his success story! 

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