"Ten Year Series (TYS)" is a term used by

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

ans, in particular students, to refer to official compilation books of examination papers in past years for the

General Certificate of Education The General Certificate of Education (GCE) is a subject-specific family of academic qualifications used in examination board, awarding bodies in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Education in the Crown dependencies, Crown dependencies and a few ...

(GCE) Normal Level (N-level),

Ordinary Level Ordinary or The Ordinary often refer to: Music * ''Ordinary'' (EP) (2015), by South Korean group Beast * ''Ordinary'' (album) (2011), by Every Little Thing * "Ordinary" (Alex Warren song) (2025) * "Ordinary" (Two Door Cinema Club song) (2016 ...

(O-level) and

Advanced Level The A-level (Advanced Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational au ...

(A-level), approved by the

Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board The Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Education of the Government of Singapore. SEAB was established on 1 April 2004 as a statutory board overseeing national-based examinations in Sing ...

(SEAB) and

University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate The University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate (UCLES), branded as Cambridge Assessment, was a non-teaching department of the University of Cambridge. It merged with Cambridge University Press to form Cambridge University Press and A ...

(UCLES). In Singaporean schools, these books are known to be used extensively by teachers and students in preparation for similar questions that may be asked in upcoming examinations. Most students review these past examination papers in order to seek to reveal applications of concepts as well as encounter the forms of various new concepts which would be covered in examinations but not explicitly in the syllabus. Critics of the education system claim that this phenomenon to be signs of

rote memorization Rote learning is a memorization technique based on repetition (rhetorical device), repetition. The method rests on the premise that the recollection, recall of repeated material becomes faster the more one repeats it. Some of the alternatives to ...

, which goes against the emphasis for

creative thinking Creativity is the ability to form novel and valuable ideas or works using one's imagination. Products of creativity may be intangible (e.g. an idea, scientific theory, literary work, musical composition, or joke), or a physical object (e.g. a ...

as championed by the Singaporean government. Until 2007, the term had not always been truly literal since some of these books have compilations containing papers from more than two decades worth of examinations, which means that students will thus often be doing practice papers that are set even before they were born. SEAB has since implemented a new rule limiting the publication of papers to the past ten years, which resulting in a spike of demand for older ten-year series. Ten-year series should not be confused with assessment books (books containing questions on specific subjects for students to practice), which serve as an additional practice, or as a form of enrichment. The latter are privately authored and sold in bookstores.

References

{{Education in Singapore Academic pressure in East Asian culture Ten Year Series (TYS) Learning methods

See also

References