The Ministry of Education published its Joint Admissions Exercise 2016 information booklet in Sep 2015.

And with it, MOE published the entry requirements for Junior Colleges, Polytechnics, and Institutes of Technical Education.

Blogfather mrbrown picked up on the cut-off points for Raffles Junior College and Hwa Chong Institution which requires prospective students to have a score of 3 for their "O" levels L1R5.

The L1R5 is the combined score of six subjects tested at the "O" Levels. The best score for one subject is A1 (1 point) and the worst is F9 (9 points). For a student that scored 6 A1s, his/her L1R5 score would be 6.

There are other factors such as Co-Curricular Activity grades and taking a Higher Mother Tongue that can reduce the score to 0.

Here's what mrbrown had to say about gaining entry to a top-tier tertiary institution and pressure:

"So if you are a 100% A1 O Level student who represented your school in an international Maths Olympiad for your Maths Club CCA, plus a school swimmer who won an ASEAN games medal, while being extremely gifted in Higher Chinese, and hail from an elite secondary school, you will have no problem.

No pressure, kids and parents. No pressure at all."

Here's his Facebook post in full: