Developing IP-Level Problem-Solving Habits
Download printable cheat-sheet (CC-BY 4.0)20 May 2025, 00:00 Z
Join our Telegram study groupQ: What does Developing IP-Level Problem-Solving Habits cover?
A: Develop seven micro-routines and habits to continuously build your fundamentals.
“Real understanding means you can spot a pattern before the teacher points it out.”
You open your maths file at 10 pm, red pen ready, and stare at a page of un-done kinematics.
What one thing can you do in the next two minutes that improves the rest of the night?
This article answers that question seven times.
1 The IP Track at a Glance
- Length & goal Six years straight from Sec 1 to JC 2 (or IB Yr 6 / NUS High Yr 6).
- Skip an exam No O-Levels in Year 4; final credential is A-Level, IB Diploma or NUS High Diploma.
- Who gets in Top ≈ 10 % of each PSLE cohort-about four thousand students a year.
- Style More research and CCAs, but the syllabus is wider and moves faster.
The workload feels abstract only until the first common test hits.
The seven habits below are concrete guard-rails.
2 Seven Habits → Seven Micro-Routines
| Habit | Why it helps | 2-minute micro-routine | What it looks like |
| Spot Patterns | Cuts guess-work in algebra, graphs or titrations. | Dot & colour pass - put a ● next to anything that repeats \(\geq 3 \times\) and give each recurring item its own highlighter colour. | Chem: three pink dots on identical 25.00 cm³ readings. |
| Build a Model | Turns a word wall into one clean diagram or equation. |
