H2 Art
Examination Structure
H2 Art is broken down into two sections:
Study of Visual Arts (SoVA)
40% weightage
3 hour paper, with 3 sections (a lot of writing)
A levels for H2 Art: usually falls on the same day as GP/KI (not good for your brain cells and hand)
Coursework
60% weightage
Approximately 9 months long
8 prep boards + final product
Study of Visual Arts (SoVA)
The SoVA syllabus involves studying the concepts, techniques, influences etc. Your study experience may vary depending on your school: in Hwa Chong, we were given readings and students took turns to present on the artists during lectures before teachers did a sum up. There’s a lot of filtering of content and self-directed learning to be done, but I heard that other JCs do compile notes for students.
Also, on top of having general knowledge about each artist, you have to be well-acquainted with at least three of their works for each and everyone one of them because for some questions in section A and the entirety of section C, you would have to use these works as supporting examples.
Exam Structure for SoVA
In the past, the questions used to be more standard; there are key-phrases that can be used. However, in recent years, setters are becoming increasingly creative and the questions have thrown us (and the teachers) off. In such cases, it is impossible to just throw in content that you have memorised. You have to repackage it and answer the question CLOSELY to avoid going out of point.
At the start of J1, SoVA can be quite challenging if you are not that great at writing, and Section C (a 30 mark essay) was especially intimidating for me, but as time passes, most students will tend to get the hang of it. To be very honest, I am occasionally unable to understand what went wrong with my responses or what I did well in, so SoVA was a somewhat smoky experience for me. But once again, the most important thing in any essay is to communicate your argument logically and be sure that it is relevant to the question. Therefore, by all means, utilise your GP/KI skills!
Coursework
In Hwa Chong, AEP lessons are twice a week, and each lesson is 2 hours long. One lesson was for SoVA lectures, while the other was for mentors to do 1-to-1 consults with students. Treasure the precious consult sessions and prepare sufficient materials to go through with your mentor. These “trial-and-error” content will not be wasted even if you decide to abandon them, as they can be inserted into the prep boards which express your thought processes and experimentations.
Coursework is pretty chaotic, and you would benefit greatly from planning. However, it’s probably not a good idea to plan to an extreme extent, as random unforeseen disruptions can pop up along the way. This is especially the case if you choose to embark on more unconventional projects - sometimes materials go out of stock, experimentations fail and proposals get rejected during consults, etc. It would be best if your plan is somewhat flexible to avoid a mental meltdown when things don’t work out the way you planned for it. Time-management is always crucial, so just try your best to stick to the checkpoints and deadlines that teachers suggest because they exist to make your life easier (I didn’t, and it was nAsty). However, these deadlines are, very often, near quiz dates for other subjects, so you might feel overwhelmed, or might even have to make sacrifices. Nonetheless, once coursework is over in September, it essentially means that 60% of the subject is down and you can focus on other subjects and SoVA.
My friends and I always complain that H2 Art takes up twice as much time as other non-coursework subjects, but at the end of the day, I cannot deny that it was a super awesome experience of suffering alongside friends who share an equally strong passion for art, especially during holidays where we spent entire days working on our projects (and goofing around) in the art studio. It is really the place where you create indelible memories with your art friends :’)
Question-and-Answer Segment:
(extracts here were obtained from Reddit)
What are the biggest challenges you faced when taking H2 Art?
My biggest challenge was planning my study schedule. Coursework is a 9-month long project and it is due in September so you basically start grinding from the start. Most schools set deadlines to help you stay on track, but this also means that you would have less time to study compared to your peers that do not take Art for CT studying, as these checkpoints are often placed 3/4 weeks before major exams like Promos. Time-management is a big issue as many Art students lose a lot of time compared to their peers and have to make the extra effort to catch up on revisions in J2.
But once coursework is over in September, things get a lot easier and most of us catch up with our work during this period of time when others are busy consulting teachers or having tuition so that's a plus.
Is H2 Art difficult to score?
I would say there is no fixed recipe for an A for any niche subject like Music, Art, etc. It all comes down to the level of commitment you are willing to give.
Also, H2 Art is NOT just about drawing and painting. To anyone out there who is constantly struggling with writing, be warned that you are going to have a hard time, and sometimes no matter how hard you try, you may not score as well as you wish (from personal experience). Although SoVA is not graded as heavily as coursework, it is still 40%! Personally, I feel like it is harder to score an A in Art compared to other subjects like Economics.
What are some things that you truly enjoyed in Art?
Firstly, I learnt things that I could never have picked up on my own - such as the ability to analyse art, understand the art world, and study how contemporary artists respond to issues in the real world through their works. It opened up a new world to me. Even if I don't take an art-related course or job in the future, I am still willing to keep myself informed about the happenings of the art world, because of the foundations that H2 Art has established.
I also enjoyed the friendships that grew out of the tough times. A whole period of our J2 life exists in the coursework studio, which helps to build and forge really beautiful and amazing friendships.
H2 Art was brutal, and till this day I ask myself how I have survived the past 2 years. But despite this, I don't regret taking Art at all. Although I may have made H2 Art sound scary, it is a great learning experience, and I would take Art again if I'm given the choice. H2 Art is not for those who are not prepared to be lost at some point, nor is it for those who seek an easy, challenge-free option. The programme is where you discover your own creative voice, get blown away by incredible, significant artists that you learn about, and walk a very unique path in JC.
Good luck! For more information about taking Art as a subject, it might be beneficial to ask your seniors who may have a different experience than I did.
Contributed by Chew Yue Qing (NYGH '18, HCI '20)
HCI Art Elective Programme
Edited by Ho Song Yee and Judith Ko
H2 Knowledge and Inquiry (KI)
Introduction
H2 Knowledge and Inquiry (KI) teaches epistemology (a branch of philosophy concerning the nature and construction of knowledge). It isn't just one single subject, but rather the study of many subjects through an epistemological lens; that is, learning about and critically assessing the means by which different disciplines (science, art, mathematics) obtain their knowledge. Examples of questions you will learn to answer are:
How do we know if an art piece is beautiful?
How do we know that 5+7=12?
Is there such a thing as scientific knowledge?
If these questions intrigue you, then you may be a good fit for KI.
Content in KI is split up into different topics, each regarding a different body of knowledge. The first content topic you will encounter is General Epistemology, which will introduce you to epistemological concepts and lay out the groundwork for each of the following topics. Each topic covers the different thinkers and theories associated with the subject. In science, for example, you will become acquainted with names such as Karl Popper and Thomas Kuhn. The content, although seemingly daunting due to the new words and concepts, is just as manageable as any other H2 subject.
Another aspect of KI is critical thinking. One of the first things most schools will teach will be how to logically assess a piece of argumentative writing and critique its reasoning. You will be taught different kinds of logical reasoning and logical fallacies (e.g. strawman, appeal to pity).
Not all schools will offer KI, and some schools such as CJC may or may not depending on cohort size. However, if you're lucky enough to land in a school with a KI class, you will find it an enriching and perspective-broadening experience. You will pick up reasoning and writing skills which will prove useful across the board. In addition, H2 KI is both a replacement for H1 GP and both a Science and Arts subject. That is, a Science student could take PCM-KI, and an Arts student could take HEL-KI instead of PCME/HELM. Of course, many KI students take H1 Econs/H1 Math anyway so as to have something to fall back on. The H1 Econs cohort in RJC in my batch, for example, was approximately 25% KI students. There will also be lots of people who think like you, and the environment is friendly and open to inquiry.
Differences between O Level English and KI
GP and KI are commonly thought of as A-Level English, and this isn't wrong; both subjects require skills such as comprehension and essay-writing which components of O-Level English impart. However, KI has no 'comprehension' paper. There are no structured, step-by-step questions like in O-Level English: you will instead be asked to write more essay-like responses, and there is greater rigour with regards to content accuracy and logical flow. Where O-Level English doesn't set out a precise set of content for candidates to learn, KI requires precise knowledge and application of concepts (which actually helps with answering in a way, since you can roughly guess what content they want and score off of it).
Examination Structure
There are 2 papers in KI, one on essay writing and another on critical thinking.
Paper 1: Essay (3h)
This paper is a classic essay paper, where you get several questions of which you will be asked to write two, one from each of the two sections. The questions will be regarding one or two specific topics and will assess your knowledge of the concepts from those topics as well as your explanation and application of them to the question at hand. For example, in a question such as "How can we know that 5+7=12?", you would need to bring up concepts relating to mathematical knowledge and apply them in a manner which answers the question (i.e. explaining how these concepts let us know that 5+7=12).
Paper 2: Critical Thinking (2.5h)
This paper will assess your critical thinking skills as opposed to content. You will be given 3 short passages and 1 long passage, of which you have to assess 2 short passages and the long passage. The short passages will require only critical thinking, while the long passage requires both critical thinking and content knowledge input as specified by the question.
Paper 3: Independent Study (~6 months)
The Independent Study (IS) is a short 3,000 word paper on a topic of your choice, relating to the nature and construction of knowledge. It does not need to be constrained within the content taught (someone wrote a paper on aesthetics in anime). You do all the structuring and research yourself, though you will have consultations for proposals as well as one consultation for your actual IS.
Exam Tips / How do I study for KI?
Mindful practice is invaluable in KI. Writing for critical thinking in particular is something in which doing papers actually helps, but only if you're paying attention to your performance and points for improvement. I encourage you to consult your teacher frequently with your practices. Practice is actually less necessary with essays; once you get the writing technique down, it becomes a matter of simply knowing your content. Speaking of which, not knowing your content precisely enough can easily cause your grades to tank in this subject, so make sure you understand the necessary concepts. I would say good understanding supersedes memorization here; often enough, you will need to employ your own critical thinking in deciding how to use and present your content. Concepts may be presented a certain way in notes, but it may not make sense to present them that particular way for a particular question. For example, in a question about aesthetic judgements in math, it doesn't make sense to just print concepts relating to aesthetic judgements and math separately; you need to understand them enough to mesh them together for an essay that actually answers the question.
Being concise is key. It's tempting to write in flowery, extravagant language, but doing so will obscure the necessary content points your examiner is looking for and will also slow you down in exams, making it hard to complete your papers.
Don't sweat it if you can't finish your papers or get good grades right off the bat. Many KI students in Raffles get terrible grades for assignments, but the actual AB rate is quite high. Just keep putting in the work and you'll eventually get there.
Pick a good topic that you're interested in for your IS. This topic will be something you see for the next 6 months, and you will get sick of it. Hence, pick something you can tolerate (and are confident of finding content for). You should receive plenty of guidance for your IS proposal, so make the best of it and don't waste your proposal drafts. Pace yourself during IS writing so you don't burn out and give yourself plenty of leeway between deadlines. Double and triple check for plagiarism, as even unintentional plagiarism can disqualify an IS.
Choosing between KI and GP
Let me preface this section with the fact that most schools, if not all, have certain grade requirements for KI, as well as an entrance test. The grade requirements are usually A1 (or a certain GPA) for English, though this can be appealed. The entrance test varies between schools, but usually assesses your logical reasoning ability (not actual KI content). RJC gave us some multiple choice questions and a scenario about which you write a short essay.
KI is not necessarily harder than GP. While there is more to do with the IS and the additional rigour demanded from answers, the content can also be more interesting for some than GP content. There is greater room for your own thoughts and you also benefit from the smaller class sizes resulting from a smaller cohort. There will be a good amount of discussion and the content tends to be more philosophical (some may describe it as abstract). I encourage anyone interested in KI to go for the entrance test. It's not an easy subject, but it will be fun for anyone interested in philosophy, and it will be worth your time.
Contributed by Geng Heqin (RI‘20)