Secondary school cut-off points, 2023 to 2026: what changed

The IP schools

The 16 Integrated Programme schools have the lowest cut-off points in Singapore. Here is each one's IP cut-off for the last 3 intakes. A lower number means harder to get in.

A letter after the number (6M, 7D) means the last place also came down to a Higher Chinese grade: D for Distinction, M for Merit, P for Pass. For Sec 1 in 2025, 11 of the 16 became harder to get into. For 2026, 7 became easier and none became harder.

The 10 hardest schools to get into outside IP

These have the lowest PG3 cut-offs among schools without an IP track.

All schools: easier or harder, year by year

Each school is compared with itself the year before, in PG3. If its cut-off went from 15 to 14, it became harder to get into. From 15 to 16, easier.

For 2026 in the other groups: PG2, 21 easier and 9 harder; PG1, 33 easier and 19 harder.

The schools that changed most since 2024

10 schools became harder to get into by 2 points or more, and 2 became easier by 2 or more.

The 2 that became easier:

Why cut-off points move

A school's cut-off point (COP) is the PSLE score of the last child it took in. The school doesn't set it. It depends on who chose the school that year and how many places there were.

MOE has said that when more children with the same score pick the same school, it becomes harder to get into, and that the bigger 2024 PSLE cohort may have added to this at popular schools. That cohort entered Sec 1 in 2025, the year the most schools became harder to get into (77).

Using this when you choose schools

MOE's advice is to treat past COPs as a guide only, and to put two or three schools in your six choices that your child's score would have got into last year.

The cut-off point table, linked below, checks every school against a score and can show the distance from home.

The fine print

2023 was the last year children were posted by stream, mapped onto the Posting Groups on the same AL scale. That's why the school tables start at 2024.

In the counts above, a change in the Higher Chinese letter alone (7D to 7M) counts as no change. Nothing here predicts next year's cut-offs.

Where StudyLah fits

Most cut-offs move by a point or two. Your child's score can move by more between Primary 4 and the PSLE.

1. 1See how we mark first. Ten minutes, no account. Three exam-standard questions, with the working shown afterwards. Try it free
2. 2Then register your child and let them practise. Practice follows the weak topics, and an exam paper comes back with an Achievement Level (a Band at P3 and P4). Start free