One of the most challenging parts of the JAE to understand is the complex relationship that a course’s Cut-off Points (COP), aggregate and choice selection have to do with each other.

A number of common questions we get are:

• What if I didn’t meet last year’s COP?
• What’s the likelihood of me getting into the course?
• If I place Course X as 1st choice but don’t get it, will my 2nd choice have a lower priority compared to someone else’s 1st choice?

We’ll try our best to clarify. Let’s first start with some general points about the JAE.

It’s important to note that the Joint Admissions Exercise assigns courses to students first and foremost based on grades. We’re going to be coming back to this point a lot.

This refers to your aggregate ELR2B2 after CCA bonus point deduction. If you scored A1 or A2 for your CCA, you can deduct 2 points off your overall aggregate. If you scored B3 to C6, you can deduct 1 point. The aggregate shown on your Form A is before CCA point reduction.

Now let’s look at how COPs are derived.

The COP for any given year is calculated once the JAE posting results are out. They act as both a benchmark for JAE appeals and as a gauge for how popular the course is among students. For example:

• Course X has 100 slots. 150 students apply for the course, and the best 100 are selected.
• The COP is the highest grade of the students who joined in, indicating at which aggregate does this course “cut-off” at.
• Let’s assume that there are 99 students who scored between 14 – 16 and 1 student who scored 17.

The COP therefore is 17.

But how are students for a course selected? Remember that the JAE selects students based on merit. Once again, we’re going to give a simplified example.

• Bobby chooses Course X as his 2nd choice. He scored an aggregate of 13.
• Amy chooses Course X as her 1st choice. She scored an aggregate of 15.
• After MOE processes the applications, Bobby doesn’t make the cut for his 1st choice, but makes it for Course X.
• Amy, unfortunately, doesn’t get this course, as her grades are not as good enough as the others who placed that choice down.

The priority the Ministry of Education gives to course placement lies with your grades, not with your course selection ranking. So even if you place a course as 2nd or 3rd choice, it doesn’t lower your chance of getting into the course compared to someone else who placed it as 1st choice.

This is why we tell people to choose based on their passions and interests.

When choosing your courses, always choose the ones you WANT first, even if you might miss last year’s COP by a bit. This is because there’s always the chance of a COP adjusting in your favour.

After your first few choices, place safer courses. Try to look for ones that are still related to your interests.

This ensures that if you don’t get your first few choices, MOE will still assign you to a course that you’d be interested in.

Your choice placements tell MOE, “These are the choices I have based on my interest in them. I’m most interested in Choice 1, rather interested in Choice 6 and sort of interested in Choice 12.”

MOE then says, “Okay, based on your results, we will assign a course to you accordingly.”

So in summary, you can’t control what other people choose, but you can control your own options. So if you like, say, TP’s Diploma in Early Childhood Studies – go ahead and put it down as your first choice. Even if you don’t get it when the posting results come out, it won’t “kill” your other options either.

Hope that helps! We’ll be more than glad to answer any of the questions you have, so please feel free to ask us anything.