Express, N(A) and N(T) labels have given way to subject levels a student can mix. How PSLE scores map to posting groups, and what changes at Secondary 1.
By Marcus Toh · 2026-04-15
Under Full Subject-Based Banding, the old question, which stream is my child in, stops making sense. Subjects are offered at three levels, G1, G2 and G3, mapped from the old N(T), N(A) and Express standards, and a student takes each subject at the level that fits them, in mixed form classes rather than streamed ones. The pilot began in 28 secondary schools in 2020 and rolled out progressively from 2022 to 2024.
Posting still uses the PSLE score, but it now feeds three Posting Groups that set the indicative subject levels at the start of Secondary 1:
| PSLE score | Posting Group | Indicative starting level |
|---|---|---|
| 4 to 20 | 3 | G3 for all subjects |
| 21 and 22 | 2 or 3 | G2 or G3 |
| 23 and 24 | 2 | G2 |
| 25 | 1 or 2 | G1 or G2 |
| 26 to 30, with AL7 or better in English and Maths | 1 | G1 |
The load bearing difference from the old system is what happens next. The Posting Group guides the starting levels, not the ceiling: MOE states that students posted through Groups 1 and 2 can take English, Mathematics, Science and Mother Tongue at more demanding levels from Secondary 1 if they performed well in those subjects at PSLE.
Levels can also be adjusted at appropriate junctures through secondary school. A child strong in Maths but weaker in languages no longer has one label deciding every subject.
From 2027, the first Full SBB cohort sits a common national examination and receives a common certificate, the Singapore-Cambridge SEC, with each subject reflected at the level taken. Examination standards are unchanged, and we cover what the certificate change means in the SEC guide. The score system feeding all of this is the PSLE's AL scale, which we explain here.
I tutored through the streaming era, and the worst thing about it was never the curriculum, it was the label doing the talking. A child in N(A) heard, every day and from every direction, that they were an N(A) kid, and the label quietly set the ceiling on every subject including the ones they were genuinely good at.
Full SBB is the system finally saying what tutors always knew: ability is subject by subject, not child by child. So use the flexibility the way it was designed. If your child is posted through Group 2 but strong in Maths, ask the school about taking it at G3, because the option exists now and the earlier the stretch starts, the more natural it feels. And if a subject needs to sit at G2 while confidence rebuilds, that is not a demotion, it is the right level doing its job, and the single certificate at the end simply records the truth of each subject.
For the current final cohorts of the old system, yes, and MOE publishes the bar: schools may laterally transfer a Secondary 4 N(T) student to Secondary 4 N(A) if they obtained Grade A in both English and Mathematics and Grade B or better in one other subject at the N(T) Level exam.
MOE lists English Language, Mother Tongue Languages, Mathematics, Science and the Humanities subjects, Geography, History and Literature, as offered at G1, G2 and G3, which covers the full examinable core a Secondary 1 student meets.
The first Primary 6 cohort went through the new PSLE scoring and S1 posting system in 2021, which is why every current secondary cohort below Secondary 5 is already inside the Full SBB structure, and 2027 is simply the year the exit exam catches up with them.