AEIS Preparation
Rigorous preparation for the Admissions Exercise for International Students — taught online, from Singapore, to families anywhere in the world.
What the AEIS is
The Admissions Exercise for International Students (AEIS) is the centralised examination through which international students gain admission to Singapore’s mainstream primary and secondary schools. It is administered by the Singapore Ministry of Education, and it is the principal route by which a non-Singaporean child enters the local school system.
The examination tests two subjects: English and Mathematics. Both are tested in English. Both are pitched at the level of the Singapore curriculum at the relevant stage. For most international students, the AEIS is the most demanding examination they will have ever sat — not because the content is exotic, but because the standard is high and the medium is, for many candidates, a second language.
If your child does not pass on the first attempt, there is a second sitting, called the S-AEIS, held earlier in the year. After that, the family must wait until the next AEIS cycle.
The stakes, in short, are real. We treat them that way.
What makes the AEIS difficult
Many families come to us with the assumption that the AEIS is, fundamentally, a language test. It is not. It is two tests, and underestimating either of them is the most common reason capable students fail.
The English paper is harder than international families expect. The standard is the standard of Singapore-educated peers — students who have been reading, writing, and being taught in English since kindergarten. The vocabulary range is wide. The grammar expectations are precise. The reading comprehension demands not only understanding but inference. A student who is conversationally fluent in English but has been schooled in another medium will, almost without exception, find this paper challenging.
The Mathematics paper surprises families in the opposite direction. Many international students arrive with strong mathematical preparation — sometimes stronger, in raw computational terms, than their Singapore peers. But the AEIS does not reward computation. It rewards the ability to read a worded problem in English, to translate it into mathematical terms, and to choose the right approach. A student who can solve every textbook problem in his home country can still fail this paper, because the obstacle is not the mathematics. It is the marriage of mathematics with English.
This is why we teach AEIS preparation as one programme with two strands — not two separate subjects.
How we prepare students
Our approach to AEIS preparation is built on the same convictions that shape everything else we do at Albert Academy. We don’t drill past papers. We don’t sell shortcut tricks. We teach the underlying capabilities that make a student ready for the examination — and, more importantly, ready for what comes after it.
On the English side, we work systematically through the language structures the AEIS expects: vocabulary in context, sentence-level grammar, reading inference, structured writing. We do this without watering down the material. A student who works with us is reading texts at the level a Singapore-schooled peer would read, and writing to the standard a Singapore school would expect — from the beginning.
On the Mathematics side, we work through the Singapore syllabus at the appropriate level. We pay particular attention to the language of mathematical problems — the specific phrasing, vocabulary, and question conventions used in Singapore papers — because for international students this is where most marks are lost. A student who can compute but cannot read the question is, on this paper, a student who fails.
Across both subjects, we teach the student to think like a Singapore-educated peer would think — not by imitation, but by genuine understanding of the standards the system expects.
Who we work well with
Our AEIS students fall into two groups.
The first are families still living abroad — in China, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, and elsewhere — preparing their children for entry into Singapore schools. Because we teach online from the start, these families can begin preparation months before relocating. By the time the family arrives in Singapore, the child has already been studying in the Singapore curriculum, in English, for some time. This is one of the most valuable things online preparation makes possible.
The second are families newly arrived in Singapore who have realised that local tuition centres are not built for the AEIS — they are built for Singaporean students preparing for PSLE or O-Level. The pace, the assumptions, and the language level are calibrated to local children. International students often find themselves struggling to keep up not because the content is too hard, but because the teaching is not designed for them.
We are designed for them.
What students gain
A student who works with us in preparation for the AEIS gains, by the time of the examination:
A working command of English at the standard expected by Singapore schools — not just survival fluency, but the precision to read inferentially and write structurally. A confident grasp of Singapore-curriculum mathematics, including the specific question conventions used in Singapore papers. The composure to walk into an unfamiliar examination room and read each question carefully, rather than panicking when the phrasing doesn’t match what was practised. And, beneath all of these, the broader capacity to learn in English — which is, after all, the real purpose of the entire exercise. The AEIS is a gateway. What lies beyond it is years of education in this language and this system. We prepare for the gateway. But we also prepare for what comes after.
Format and logistics
Format. Live online lessons, cameras on, interactive throughout.
Class size. One-to-one, or small group of 3–6 students preparing for the same level.
Subjects. English and Mathematics, taught as a coordinated programme.
Lesson frequency. Typically two sessions per week per subject, adjusted to the student’s available time before the examination.
Time zones. We schedule lessons to suit families in Singapore as well as families in nearby time zones — China, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and India.
When to start. As early as possible. Six months of focused preparation is good. Twelve months is better. Three months is usually too late — though we have, in genuinely capable students, made it work.
Trial lesson. Available before commitment, in either English or Mathematics. We use it to assess the student’s current level honestly and to give the family a clear sense of the work ahead.
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If your child has time before AEIS — a year or more — and you would like the work to be paced for depth rather than driven by the calendar, you may also want to read about our Long-term Growth programmes, where the teaching is the same but the work has more room to breathe.