Every year, thousands of international students pin their hopes on passing the Admissions Exercise for International Students (AEIS) to secure a place in Singapore’s public schools. The exam isn’t impossible, but it’s tough if you just study hard without studying smart. I’ve coached dozens of Primary 4 to Secondary 3 students through this test, and the ones who do best are never the ones who stay up until 3 a.m. every night. They’re the ones who work with the test instead of against it.
The AEIS has only two papers—English and Mathematics—and both reward clarity, speed, and familiarity with the Singapore syllabus more than raw brilliance. If you have three to six months (the usual window), a focused plan beats endless grinding. The centralized AEIS exam is the main gateway most parents and students target, and understanding its exact demands early saves months of wasted effort. Here’s exactly how my students prepare without burning out.
First, Know Your Enemy
Before touching a single practice paper, spend two full days dissecting the exam format. Download every past-year paper you can find from the MOE website or reliable tuition centres. Time yourself strictly. Most students are shocked at how little time they actually have:
- Primary level: 2 hours 10 minutes for English, 1 hour 45 minutes for Math
- Secondary level: 2 hours 15 minutes for English, 2 hours 5 minutes for Math (with two booklets)
Mark the questions you get wrong and group them. You’ll quickly see patterns—comprehension inference questions, fractions word problems, grammar cloze, ratio, etc. That list becomes your personal hit list.
English: Stop Learning Random Vocabulary
Singapore’s English paper is predictable. About 70–80% of the marks come from comprehension (open-ended and multiple-choice) and grammar/vocabulary cloze. Composition is only 20% at Primary and disappears completely at Secondary 3.
Week 1–4: Build the Core
- Read one Straits Times article every day (10–15 minutes). Underline phrases like “stem the tide”, “cast a pall over”, “a shot in the arm”. These appear again and again in cloze passages.
- Do 10 grammar cloze passages a week. Use the book “Primary 5/6 English: Mastering Comprehension Cloze” or the Secondary equivalent. Time yourself—8 minutes per passage.
- Memorise 15–20 high-frequency connectors and phrasal verbs daily (e.g., in light of, give way to, account for). Make your own Quizlet deck; don’t buy someone else’s.
Week 5–10: Comprehension Speed
- Do two full comprehension passages daily under timed conditions. Answer first, then check. Write down why the correct answer is right and why your wrong answer is wrong. This single habit raises marks by 10–15 on its own.
- Practise summarising passages in exactly 70–80 words (Sec level) or the required word count. Count every word. Teachers love students who hit the word limit exactly.
Composition (Primary only)
Situational writing is half the marks. Learn five standard formats cold: letter, email, report, postcard, notice. Situational writing always gives you four content points—include all four and you’re almost guaranteed 10/15 before language marks.
Continuous writing: pick three genres (personal recount, narrative, expository) and prepare reusable stories and examples. I tell my students to prepare one “fire in the flat” story, one “lost in a foreign country” story, and one “importance of perseverance” expository skeleton. Tweak them on the spot.
Mathematics: Master the Must-Know Topics
The AEIS Math paper follows the Singapore syllabus one year below the entry level. That means:
- P4 entry → P3 topics (fractions, decimals, area/perimeter, angles)
- Sec 3 entry → Sec 2 topics (linear equations, congruency, proportion, Pythagoras)
Make a checklist of every single topic from the SEAB syllabus. Tick them green, yellow, red. Spend 80% of your time turning red and yellow topics green.
Daily Routine That Works
- 30 minutes topical drill (10–15 questions) from assessment books like “My Pals Are Here” or “Think! Mathematics”.
- 60 minutes past-year or mock papers. Do Booklet A (MCQ) first, then Booklet B (short-answer and long-answer).
- Mark immediately. Any question you lose even half a mark on goes into an “Error Bank” notebook. Review the Error Bank every weekend.
Speed Hacks
- Learn the “model method” for Primary even if your home country never taught it. Almost every word problem below P6 can be solved with bars.
- Memorise the times tables up to 15×15 and perfect squares up to 25×25. It sounds basic, but half my Secondary students still count on fingers.
- For Secondary, master the calculator allowed in Booklet B. Practise typing long expressions in one go without mistakes.
The 12-Week Smart Schedule (Works for 90% of Students)
Weeks 1–3: Clear all basic concepts + build vocabulary/grammar foundation
Weeks 4–8: Intensive timed practice—2 full English papers + 3 full Math papers per week
Weeks 9–11: Review every single mistake from the Error Bank. Do one paper every two days.
Week 12: Light review + rest. No new questions after Wednesday.
Mindset and Lifestyle Hacks
Sleep 8 hours. Students who sleep 6 hours or less for weeks drop 10–15 marks on the actual day. I’ve seen it too many times.
Exercise 20 minutes daily—walk, jog, skip. Blood flow to the brain is real.
Tell your parents exactly what you need: two hours of uninterrupted work, no tuition classes that teach random things outside the syllabus, and healthy meals. Most parents listen when you show them your error list and weekly score improvements.
Final Two Weeks
Do one full paper every three days under exact exam conditions—same start time as the real test (8:30 a.m.), same desk set-up, no phone in the room. Mark it, log the score, then forget about it. Obsessing over small fluctuations causes panic.
On the night before the exam, pack your bag, set two alarms, and watch a funny movie. Your brain has done the work already.
Passing AEIS is less about being a genius and more about being organised, consistent, and familiar with the question types Singapore loves. Follow the plan above, adjust the pace to your starting level, and you’ll walk in calm and walk out smiling.
