NOTES · PSLE TO SEC 1
PSLE AL score for secondary school: posting groups, cut-off points and Sec 1 maths
Method & Mark · · updated
SEAB has set Tuesday 24 to Wednesday 25 November 2026 as the tentative window for this year’s PSLE results. The Maths AL does two jobs. It is one of the four ALs that add up to the PSLE Score, which decides the posting group. For students in Posting Groups 1 and 2, it also decides whether maths can be taken at a more demanding level from Sec 1. This note covers both, shows how to read the PSLE score range MOE publishes for every secondary school, with the 2025 ranges for schools near Beauty World, then sets the P6 maths syllabus beside the Sec 1 one to show what is new in January.
When results come out
- 2026 results
- Tentatively 24 to 25 November 2026. SEAB confirms the date once marking is complete.
- Last year
- 2025 results came out on 25 November. School choices, six per student, were submitted on the S1 Portal from 25 November to 1 December, and posting results came out on 18 or 19 December.
Expect a similar timeline this year, but check MOE’s announcement for the 2026 dates.
How the Maths AL is worked out
Each PSLE subject is scored in one of eight Achievement Levels. The AL depends on the student’s own mark, not on how the rest of the cohort did.
| AL | Mark (%) |
|---|---|
| AL 1 | 90 and above |
| AL 2 | 85 to 89 |
| AL 3 | 80 to 84 |
| AL 4 | 75 to 79 |
| AL 5 | 65 to 74 |
| AL 6 | 45 to 64 |
| AL 7 | 20 to 44 |
| AL 8 | Below 20 |
The PSLE Score is the four subject ALs added together, from 4 (the best) to 32. Foundation Maths is graded AL A, B or C, which count as AL 6, 7 and 8 in the PSLE Score.
The bands are narrow at the top and wide in the middle. AL 6 covers 20 marks, from 45 to 64, so two students with AL 6 in Maths can be far apart in what they can already do. The AL decides the posting. It says much less about which topics a child is secure in.
From PSLE Score to posting group
Since the 2024 Sec 1 intake, students are posted through Posting Groups 1, 2 and 3 instead of the N(T), N(A) and Express streams. Each group starts most subjects at one level: G1, G2 or G3. G3 is the old Express standard, leading to the G3 papers that replace the O-Level from 2027.
| PSLE Score | Posting group | Most subjects start at |
|---|---|---|
| 4 to 20 | 3 | G3 |
| 21 to 22 | 2 or 3 | G2 or G3 |
| 23 to 24 | 2 | G2 |
| 25 | 1 or 2 | G1 or G2 |
| 26 to 30 | 1 | G1 |
Posting Group 1 for a score of 26 to 30 also needs AL 7 or better in both English and Maths. Students in Posting Group 3 take every subject at G3, including maths.
What AL score each secondary school needs
There is no fixed AL score for a secondary school. Each year MOE publishes, on every school’s SchoolFinder page, the PSLE scores of the first and last student posted there in the previous year’s Secondary 1 Posting. The second number is the school’s cut-off point (COP): the score of the last student who got in. A lower score is a better one, so a low COP means a school that was hard to get into.
A school has one range for each posting group it takes, and some show separate ranges for affiliated students (from its own affiliated primary school) and everyone else. An asterisk means the school still had places after posting, so its COP is shown as the bottom of the posting group rather than a real cut-off.
2025 ranges near Beauty World
Three secondary schools in Bukit Timah near the centre take most or all of their students through the six-year Integrated Programme (IP). Non-affiliated, their 2025 IP range was 4 to 6 at Hwa Chong Institution, Nanyang Girls’ High and Methodist Girls’ School. Methodist Girls’ also takes students into its G3 (O-Level, then SEC) track, where the range was 6 to 8.
For the government schools in Bukit Batok and Bukit Panjang, these are the 2025 non-affiliated ranges from MOE SchoolFinder. None had an asterisk.
| School (area) | Posting Group 3 | Posting Group 2 | Posting Group 1 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Swiss Cottage (Bukit Batok) | 8 to 11 | 21 to 22 | 25 to 26 |
| Bukit Batok (Bukit Batok) | 8 to 15 | 21 to 23 | 25 to 26 |
| Hillgrove (Bukit Batok) | 13 to 18 | 21 to 24 | 25 to 27 |
| Bukit View (Bukit Batok) | 13 to 20 | 21 to 24 | 25 to 29 |
| Zhenghua (Bukit Panjang) | 14 to 20 | 21 to 24 | 25 to 27 |
| Greenridge (Bukit Panjang) | 11 to 22 | 21 to 25 | 26 to 28 |
| Assumption English (Bukit Panjang) | 10 to 22 | 22 to 25 | 26 to 29 |
| Dunearn (Bukit Batok) | 11 to 22 | 22 to 25 | 25 to 29 |
Hwa Chong and Nanyang Girls’ are SAP schools, so their SchoolFinder ranges also show the Higher Chinese grade of the first and last student admitted: Distinction at 4 and Merit at 6. Some Posting Group 3 ranges run past 20 because students with a score of 21 or 22 may choose Posting Group 3.
Reading a range: an example
Take a PSLE Score of 20 and Bukit View’s Posting Group 3 range of 13 to 20. The last student posted there in 2025 had 20, so 20 was just enough last year. Three things can still change the outcome this year.
- The COP moves. MOE says a change of one point either way is typical, and two or three is possible, because it depends on how the new cohort scores and which schools it picks.
- Meeting the COP does not guarantee a place. When students with the same score compete for a school’s last places, MOE applies tie-breakers in order: citizenship (Singapore Citizens, then Permanent Residents, then international students), then how high each student ranked the school, then computerised balloting. MOE says about one in 10 students in the 2025 exercise went through balloting.
- Choice order matters. Students list up to six schools in order of preference, and a school ranked higher wins a tie. Since 2021, more than nine in 10 students have been posted to one of their six choices.
A score of 20 at a school whose COP was 20 is a reach, not a safe choice. A sensible list mixes schools whose COP was close to the child’s score with at least one or two whose COP was comfortably above it. Check each school’s current SchoolFinder page before submitting choices: the ranges are updated every year.
Maths at a more demanding level
Students in Posting Groups 1 and 2 can take English, Maths, Science or Mother Tongue at a higher level than the rest of their subjects, depending on their AL in that subject.
- AL 5 or better
- Standard Maths: can take Maths at G3 or G2.
- AL 6
- Standard Maths: can take Maths at G2.
- AL A
- Foundation Maths: can take Maths at G2.
For example, a PSLE Score of 23 with AL 5 in Maths means Posting Group 2, most subjects at G2, and the option of Maths at G3. MOE says about 65% of the 2025 students eligible for Posting Groups 1 and 2 could take at least one subject at a more demanding level.
A student who takes Maths at G3 from a G2 start covers the full G3 syllabus, at the G3 pace, from the first week. The next section matters most for them.
What G2 and G3 maths each cover in Sec 1, and how a student moves up a level later, is in Full SBB and Sec 1 maths.
What Sec 1 maths adds to P6
This year’s P6 cohort is the first to sit the PSLE on the 2021 primary maths syllabus. Set beside the Sec 1 content of MOE’s G3 (Express) maths syllabus, six areas are new or much harder.
| Area | Primary syllabus | Sec 1, G3 |
|---|---|---|
| Numbers | Whole numbers, fractions and decimals. No negative numbers. | Negative numbers, integers, rational and real numbers, and their four operations. |
| Factors | Factors and common factors, and common multiples of two 1-digit numbers. | Primes and prime factorisation. HCF, LCM, squares, cubes, square roots and cube roots by prime factorisation. |
| Algebra | Simplifying simple linear expressions without brackets. Evaluating by substitution. | Brackets with negatives, such as −2(3x − 5) + 4x. Linear expressions with fractions, common factors, and the nth term of a pattern. |
| Equations | Simple linear equations with whole-number coefficients only. | Linear equations, including fractional ones such as x/3 + (x − 2)/4 = 3, and forming an equation from a word problem. |
| Graphs | No coordinate graphs. | Cartesian coordinates, linear functions y = ax + b, and gradient. |
| Ratio | Whole numbers only, no fractions or decimals. | Ratios involving fractions and decimals. |
Most of these build on each other. Algebra in Sec 1 assumes negative numbers are already easy, and fractional equations assume brackets are.
Two Sec 1 questions, worked
The usual slip is writing −2 × −5 as −10. P6 algebra never multiplies a negative into a bracket, so this is new work, not revision. To check, substitute a number into both forms. With x = 1, the question gives −2(−2) + 4 = 8 and the answer gives 10 − 2 = 8.
Multiply every term by 12, including the 3 on the right. Keeping (x − 2) in a bracket makes sure the −2 is multiplied by 3 too. Check: 6/3 + 4/4 = 2 + 1 = 3.
What to do between results and January
- Make negative numbers automatic. Every Sec 1 algebra topic uses them, so slow sign work slows everything else.
- Practise brackets with a negative in front. Expand, then check by substituting a small number into both forms, as above.
- Write each step on its own line. In secondary maths most marks are for the working, not the final answer. See how method marks work.
- Keep P6 percentage work fresh. Sec 1 builds on percentage increase and decrease with reverse percentages and percentage points.
Sources
SEAB, Important dates for candidates. MOE, Release of 2025 PSLE results, PSLE scoring system What are posting groups, Understand PSLE score ranges, How posting works and Balloting and placement data for the 2025 Secondary School Posting Exercise (4 February 2026). School ranges from each school’s page on MOE SchoolFinder, read on 15 October 2026. MOE, 2021 Mathematics Syllabus, Primary 1 to 6 and 2020 Mathematics Syllabuses, Secondary 1 to 4. Details can change, so check these pages before making a decision.
How we teach for it
Our Sec 1 Headstart runs as single-day sessions from late November to December, at Beauty World Centre, in groups of about five. Headstart is a morning of Sec 1 algebra. Headstart Accelerator is a full day that adds factors and multiples and the real number system. Message us on WhatsApp for available dates. From January, Sec 1 students can join our Mathematics (E Math) classes, or book a trial class.