Hi guys! After all this time, I finally am posting after a year! I'm bringing to you my personal opinion of this year's GP paper.
I retook GP this year. Having experienced GP in both 2017 and 2018, I bring some insights into the paper this year.
Paper 1
This year's presented 12 questions that covered a wide range of topics. However, those students that focussed on Science and Environment were stunned over the mixing of these well-loved topics with other unconventional topics like one career and our work-life balance.
This year's MOST popular question was Question 2, which discussed economic growth and its impact on the lives of us. As a student that loved Econs, I would have died to do this topic if it came out for H2 Economics. BUT, I avoided this question at all cost for this paper. I will discuss why...
This question was an obvious TRAP for students. I would not be surprised if students who attempted this question scored mediocrely for GP this year. Why?
1. Cambridge is cognisant of the fact that many students would fall back to what they know most of to attempt their paper. Of course, Econs students (which are the many of us) would love to do this as we have A LOT of examples of this. But remember, General Paper tests your argumentative skills, not your skills to show off your knowledge. You use your knowledge to create your arguments. The knowledge should not be the main attraction of your GP essay. Those students who fell into this trap have forgotten the true purpose of GP.
2. Even if you avoid falling into the trap, you will fall into the trap eventually. That's because your mind has always been programmed to think economically when you see the keywords of Econs. General Paper heavily emphasises you to write in laymen terms. Jargons are frowned upon by the GP markers. It is inevitable that you fall back to using 'demand', 'supply', 'standard of living' when constructing your essay here if you learn Econs.
3. The more preferred way of answering this question is to link it to the concept of 'consumerism' and 'politics and governance', not really economics to avoid you from falling into their trap. Surprise surprise, these topics are not really studied intensively by the majority of students in GP. That's another trap.
Personally, I attempted Question 1 'How far is failure an essential part of success?' This is so cliche, but it would one of those questions that create the most impact if you develop the more mature responses. It should be important that a 'setback' is very different from a 'failure'. Do not fall into this trap. For example, Nick Vujicic's lack of limb can be considered a setback as it is a disadvantage given to him. However, it cannot be considered as nothing has been specified of him not being to do. However, Lego's decline in the sale the past can be considered as a setback as they have been disadvantaged in the process (such as their reputation). Its decline in sale can also be considered a failure as they have been unsuccessful in achieving their goal of profits. Failures are a subset of setback. Failure can be caused by setbacks. A person that has been through a setback may not necessarily fail if he/she has bounced back from it.
Another important note is the term 'part of' in the question. This implies that success is a journey that has many things intermediate to its attainment.
Other questions that I felt that many candidates would find popular:
Question 12: Work-life balance (Our personal well-being in the modern milieu)
Question 11: Foreign Intervention (Should foreign nations help other nations?)
Question 7: Young People (Are we really the 'Strawberry Generation'?)
Question 6: Culture (The worth of tradition and its product today)
All in all, GP Paper 1 requires arguments. Show that you fighting for your stand and answer your question fully. If you achieve that, you are on the right track!
Paper 2
This one was on political apathy. Perhaps candidates don't really follow the political scene in Singapore. That's why so many in Reddit and other social media platforms all lament on the difficulty of the paper. I, for one, think that this paper discriminated students very effectively based on their broadness of understanding world issues.
What discriminated students the most this Paper 2 was the Application Question (AQ). Cambridge quoted a portion of Paragraph 3 and asked candidates whether they agreed with it with reference to Singapore and themselves. Many candidates were confused over they should quote from the passage, as that was the requirement of AQ from past years.
My stand is: YES.
The quote was the actual stand of the author! The first two paragraphs were just giving examples of how young people are actually more interested than they are credited for. The credit was based on their 'voting' habit. So it's basically asking you whether you agree with the author stand. The way you will answer this question was examined in many years of GP, such as 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2015. So many students overthought the question and did not quote. There is always the same standard way to answer the AQ. Just stick to it and answer it based on the topic that the AQ gives you and you can score.
The SAQs were generally do-able and similar to the standards of the past few years. The summary was generally do-able too. It's just that some of the points were hidden in the examples in all three of the paragraphs.
All in all, don't fret too much over GP! This subject is not as important as the other content subjects in determining your placing in a university in Singapore! Even if you fail GP, you can enter university if all your other content subjects can help to pull up your rank points. Come on, last national exam! Finish with a bang!
