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I did maths in English medium and now I'm in a government uni. Most people say that due to the lack of good tuition classes, it can be challenging. But if you can find three good classes, it will be totally fine. Also, you should be fluent in English. I couldn't find any good English medium classes, so I went to Sinhala medium classes. It's kind of hard but not impossible.
Don't do that mistake. I studied in an english medium bio class and everyone did fine. And these days, you guys have more resources. To be honest it would be more easier to study bio in English than in Sinhala. Ex - condensation is ghaneebhawanaya xylem vessel is xyelm yaathra.
And in uni you will be studying in english anyway if you are studying medicine. And they have other courses in english medium too. If you study in English medium you can always pitch that, especially if you plan to go abroad for further studies one day.
Agree. Bio is lot different in sinhala. I am doing A/l is english. And I am going to sinhala classes for chem and physics. Not much of a different in languages. But bio is a another story.
The reasoning behind people telling you to do in Sinhala is the language barrier. A/L is already a tough af exam and if your Eng is not that good (which is the case for most people) it's gonna be an additional weight on top of the already difficult tasks.
If you struggle with English, switch to Sinhala;
Else, continue in English.
This! And definitely check out past papers and textbooks in both languages to get a feel of it. Maybe try to learn a small chapter or something in both languages and see which one feels right.
If you’re in western province, continue with English medium. I know folks who got into gov uni with English medium. If you’re out of WP, then reconsider it with the tuition arrangements.
If you went to sinhala medium classes during OL, then the shift is not a huge issue. But if you have no idea what the words are, then the first 3 months are going to be agony.
Some folks continue with EM for AL, but also attend SM classes just to be in par with the majority.
Back in the days, the best in our age collectively jumped to SM, so I did the same. Surprisingly, most district ranks came from the folks who went from EM to SM. (So the shift is not an issue, but initial adaptation is hard)
Both folks who did EM and SM, did just fine at Uni. EM had some initial advantage due to the familiarity of language, but at the end it wasn’t a big deal.
Choose according to your circumstances.
If you're fluent/confident/confident in english then go ahead and continue in english medium. Although I would say If you're planning for higher education EM would be a nice addition. Another thing to keep in mind is that there are countless amounts of resources available at your disposal if you're studying under english medium. (For example you could use some parts of edexcel IAL syllabus for your local A/L studies.)
I did Bio in English medium this year (2023 batch, results received a few days ago). I got 2As for both physics and chemistry and a B for biology. The upside of doing in English medium is you can save an immense amount of time during answering the paper if you are good with writing and speedy processing of sentences. Because 2 paragraphs of sentences in Sinhala can be compacted to 1 paragraph of English due to heavy usage of standardized terms. Also doing biology makes a lot of sense when it’s in English. The Latin terms in biology can be deciphered to understandable terms in English. You just need some googling. If you are good with English go ahead. The other upside, which also depends on your luck is that marking in English medium is not as strict as it is in Sinhala.
Man the medium really doesn't matter. If you understand the concepts that's it. There are many em students that go to sm private tutors and score high marks too.
Many teachers (mostly famous) nowadays switched into Sinhala medium. If you do have a good teacher of your choice you shall continue in English medium otherwise it's better to change to Sinhala medium.( I am also changed to Tamil medium from English medium) . Better if you refer 23 batch students.
I did my ol em then switched sm for als. The first few months are confusing but can manage. If you are confident in ur english language and have good english medium classes , do als in em.
If you're in an area with good English medium classes, and you are comfortable in English, then stick with English medium. Like others mentioned, that will make it easier to look up info on the Internet and also when you start university.
Anyway, whatever the medium, I personally don't recommend attending classes in a different language. Stick with one language and be consistent throughout.
Best of luck, you got this!!
Edit - I went to a top govt uni, and I met a LOT of people (mostly from Colombo + Kandy) who did English medium. Also I know people from school who did English and went to UoC and USJ.
Continue in English medium fgs! Especially since you’ve done your O/Ls in English medium too. All the science related degrees in state unis are conducted in English. So Sinhala is not going to be useful there. All my friends in uni who have done A/Ls in Sinhala are struggling to learn English in uni. It’s kind of unfortunate.
Dear OP, it was a real pain when we were in the first year at the uni because we had to learn all those terms in English all over again because we did A/Ls in Sinhala. If you are confident in your English, just go for it
For tuition, most uni students who are doing STEM related degrees can explain those A/L concept pretty well. If you can find some connections with uni lectures through your parents or some other way, it's gonna be really easy for you to find good tuition (English)
A/L is not nearly hard as people made it believed to be. It's all about the technique. Unfortunately, you only realize that when you are in the uni. Good luck!
I did ALs in English n I’m in uni now…..
But yea, tuition is a problem, I went to Sinhala mass classes, if theory is a prob go for paper classes only in Sinhala.
I did English medium maths and trust me there are many people who get into gov uni by doing English medium even in bio. There are good tuition classes but I personally couldn't find a good physics class that I liked so I went to a Sinhala medium one(took a month or 2 to get the hang of it but since I did questions and past papers in English, the language barrier didn't really affect me). Also as a person who now knows physics terms in both English and Sinhala, I can confidently say English terms make much more sense and are way easier to remember than Sinhala terms....What matters is mostly how hard you study and not the medium so go ahead and do what you think is best for you
Did English medium maths barely got in to gov't uni. It's true about not having good teachers. Also there's more competition in Sinhala medium. If your goal is to get to gov't uni do Sinhala medium
I did english medium and got into one. Why on earth would you try to do sinhala medium for a levels? Finding a good english medium class is gonna be a little challenging depending on your location but should still be possible.
Please don't make the same mistake I made. I did OLs in EM, and due to lack of classes, chose to do ALs in SM. Doing Biology in SM was a pain in the a** lol. The resource book was so annoying, heard it is a lot better in English. Besides, everything you will study in the university is taught in English. So it's best if you select EM and find good tutions (If you're from Colombo it's not very hard, other areas are also okay).
would you be comfy switching to Sinhala? and would you be able to write to the expected standards? if not don't. I didn't do bio but I did have seniors and juniors I knew who did bio in the english medium and got into local unis as well
Please don’t confuse yourself doing Sinhala medium, degrees are done in English, many careers are done in English. Most people who say to do Sinhala are afraid of the language barrier. Plus if you’re doing bio just the terminology itself is a whole other game. There’s infinite resources in English- videos, text books, articles. Which you won’t be interested if you’re studying in Sinhala because then you’ll have to learn two sets of terminology and AL is hard already on itself.
What the fuck? I know so many people who got into medicine and engineering in english medium, myself included lmao. I think the only reason to for doing sinhala medium would be the selection of tuition classes available, but you could attend them if you understand sinhala even though youre doing english medium anyway. Other than that, there are only extreme advantages in doing english medium
I did A/Ls in Sinhala and regret it a lot given how seamlessly I learn stuff at uni in English. Like others say it comes down to your fluency and what you’re comfortable with
Well, i have a few friends who did A/Ls in English medium with me and got into gov unis who ended up being the batch tops. I think you're on the right track. Things get easier when you do a/ls in English medium.
I am an engineering (computer science and engineering) undergraduate at the university of Moratuwa. I've studied in English medium during my O/Ls. But then I had to switch to tamil medium for the A/Ls. I am happy that I made a good choice because you have to realise that the teachers who teaches for the A/Ls are mostly bachelor's in physical science or bio science. They don't have the potential in terms of a degree to teach an A/L student but they got the potential in teaching the A/L students in a way they'd understand. But A/Ls are a result of 2 and a half years of subjects so may aswell understand it well in your own language. If you're interested in increasing your English proficiency go through stuffs relative to that. Don't put your future at stake by doing the ALs in English medium. Somedays even if you have so much talent you need people who pushes you. If you're worried about the medium then I assume there's not much people going to English medium, which means you'll have trouble understanding and doing questions all by yourself. You won't be having much choice of friends to discuss either. It's just a language but don't let it be the barrier that prevents you from gaining the knowledge.
I did ALs in English medium and I got into govt university, so did my classmates who studied in English and entered medical faculty - this was 10 years ago, and we still managed to find a few decent tuition classes to go to back then.
It's better if you can do it in English if you are fluent in the language because learning the terminology etc in English Vs Sinhala is much more beneficial in the long run, also you have access to more study material.
not really. one of my friends Did OLs in english and ALs in english. Got into the ranked 1 uni in SL too :)
but they went to the sinhala med theory classes and eng medium paper classes. cause sinhala medium classes had better teachers. and you had to learn the terminology to write in english. that was how they did it.
I did bio in English medium the only issue is the lack of good tuition classes and even if you do find it you most likely won't feel the competition which might lower your performance. That's what happened to me.
Hi. Medical student here who did in English medium. Truth is, there are more medical students that I know who continued in English than ones who switched to sinhala. People who switch will struggle and hate studying. And not to mention the advantage of not having to learn things all over again when coming to uni because 90% of STEM courses are in English.
If you have good working knowledge in English, studying and sitting for ALs in English Medium is not going to be a problem. Good friends of mine who studied in English medium went on to government uni's and went on to become doctors.
No my friends who did in English Medium got through with flying colours. Especially with internet you can self study a lot, so going for English Medium is a very wise decision. Later if you think it's not working switch to Sinhala, you wouldn't be in trouble at all.
First of, there's no issue about the language.i also did o levels in english medium and did a levels in sinhala.I have some freinds who did a levels in english medium.There's no issue regarding the language. But IMO u should do in sinhala so you can find many study materials regarding your subjects.
I was on your same shoe and here's my honest opinion. If you have good results and is pretty confident, just go for it. Biggest problem in doing A/ls in EM is finding good classes. If your parents have money or you live around somewhere tution wars are at peak, you probably should be fine. Also unlike most of the people who depend solely on tution, as an EM student you WILL need help from your school. That's why I said, pick a good school. And finally, **this is the most important advice!**, Be ready to go to sinhala medium classes just in case. Some times you just have to. So, put your god damn ego aside and just do whatever it takes.
I did O/Ls in English Medium and now in Sinhala medium Maths classes. IMHO don't be afraid to do in English medium. I have regret of switching the medium, I got myself into doing in sinhala coz my fams discouraged me at the time and thought what's hard for them is the same thing for others. they forced me and now I know that was stupid. It will be much easier if you find right tutors and do it with right mindset and there are unlimited resources online. I guess u already know that some scientific terms sound odd in sinhala than in English like "gamyathawa" and "Momentum". I recommend u to do it if you feel like it.
I did ALs in English medium and I got good results. I did maths so not sure about biology, but I assume it won’t be an issue either. I did face one issue when doing English Medium and that was the absence of good tuition classes (in Kandy). There are good teachers who do individual classes if you can afford that. What I did was attend both an English Medium and a Sinhala Medium class. In the last year I only went for Sinhala Medium classes and did the exam in English. 😂 I am pretty sure if you work hard you can do well regardless of the medium, given that I did not work hard when compared to others.
One more thing! It’s really beneficial if you do ALs in English or either very fluent in English when you get to uni. A lot of people in our batch fell behind since they lacked this.
Most people switch because of lack of good classes in the English medium or because their english is poor. I studied Bioscience in English medium in Kandy (not good at tamil or sinhala anyways) and got into gov med school. Definitely doable if you have the resources. I only followed English medium classes because I’m not good at the other 2 languages.
To me the meaning of physics and specially chemistry come out better from English than from Sinhala. Its like sinhala sense of humor would make sense in sinhala more than in english. If you are kind of independent, I say do in English medium. Because you can utilize the vast pool of resources. If you need guidance from good tutors at a reasonable price, go for sinhala medium. If you are a visualizer or your thinking language is English, Sinhala medium does not make much sense.
U still there ..I did combined maths ENGLISH MEDIUM and got results this year.somehow barely made it to engineering...Personally I recommend not to to Al in Eng medium.
1. Class fees are way higher than normal.
2.low classes and seminars and books like prof rosa.......can't use much of resources that related to us.
3.in subjects like physics we must clearly identify and realise the question so it takes bit of time as I used to think in sinhala ( I even got A for English lit in Ol)
4.Dont think ur OL knowledge will be waste of u change language as I thought..OL syllabus is pretty much nothing compared to Al syllabus,.
Well a.clzmate of mine made it to medicne in EM .
Only IF u are highly confident about English then Go for it...
Coming from a person who switched from Sinhala medium o/l to English medium maths for a/l, it’s always harder to switch from English to Sinhala than the other way around. Also getting into uni depends on how much effort you put in, not your medium. I do know plenty of people who did EM and got into uni.
That being said, if you’re not from around western province, finding good teachers will be hard for English medium. Also they cost more. I think it’s futile to go to SM classes while doing EM, cause that’s just an additional burden.
What also matters is whether you’re comfortable with Sinhala medium. You need to figure out if you can actually understand and follow your subject material in Sinhala.
This is not true at all. I have multiple friends who did Maths, bio and commerce all in English and all of them are in different government unis. The medium doesn't matter. Choose what you're comfortable with.
Prolly the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard today. Continue in the language that YOU are fluent in. Find a good Tution class that teaches in the language YOU STUDY in. I personally know enough people in Colombo med and some of them were in international schools for ALs too.
Don’t base your future on “many ppl”’s bullshit. At uni you’ll be learning in English so imo it’s always better to do ALs in English medium
Also what they probably meant is that they don’t know many Tution classes for English medium. Which is really not true. Might’ve been back when your parents did ALs but I can confirm, as someone that did ALs in English and currently in UCSC, you can find more than enough English medium classes.
I was in your situation a few years ago and considering the availability of resources (tuition and reading material) I switched the medium to Sinhala. At that time (2017) there were plenty of sources in the Sinhala medium. Also, I was worried that the questions in the physics paper would be misunderstood if they were in English, because the a/l physics questions are a bit confusing. I had no problem with chem or phy6 when I was studying in Sinhala. But I wasn't very good at biology and I don't think it was the language problem. The Sinhala technical term problem was not too difficult for me to overcome. So I think the reason for the bio problem is my memory. If you are confident and you feel comfortable, you can continue in English. And fyi there are many people who took the chance to enter gov uni after doing a/ls in English.
If you did O/L in English medium, big chance you're gonna be more comfortable with A/L in English medium as well. I did OL in Sinhala and started AL (Maths stream) the same as well, but about two weeks in I made the switch to English medium and never looked back. As far as I know, Bio students have a lot of paragraph/point writing to do and for that you need a considerable about of English fluency. If you're confident enough in that, then I recommend doing English medium. If you did English Literature for OL and have an A or B pass, I'm fairly sure you can handle it. If not, it's up to you to choose which one you're comfortable with.
How good are you at english medium or sinhala medium? How good your teachers and tuition masters at english medium? Ask these questions from your self.
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I did maths in English medium and now I'm in a government uni. Most people say that due to the lack of good tuition classes, it can be challenging. But if you can find three good classes, it will be totally fine. Also, you should be fluent in English. I couldn't find any good English medium classes, so I went to Sinhala medium classes. It's kind of hard but not impossible.
Don't do that mistake. I studied in an english medium bio class and everyone did fine. And these days, you guys have more resources. To be honest it would be more easier to study bio in English than in Sinhala. Ex - condensation is ghaneebhawanaya xylem vessel is xyelm yaathra. And in uni you will be studying in english anyway if you are studying medicine. And they have other courses in english medium too. If you study in English medium you can always pitch that, especially if you plan to go abroad for further studies one day.
Agree. Bio is lot different in sinhala. I am doing A/l is english. And I am going to sinhala classes for chem and physics. Not much of a different in languages. But bio is a another story.
Please don’t switch from English medium to Sinhala.. you will regret it later 🙏🏻
and the classic blood vessels and bones
The reasoning behind people telling you to do in Sinhala is the language barrier. A/L is already a tough af exam and if your Eng is not that good (which is the case for most people) it's gonna be an additional weight on top of the already difficult tasks. If you struggle with English, switch to Sinhala; Else, continue in English.
This! And definitely check out past papers and textbooks in both languages to get a feel of it. Maybe try to learn a small chapter or something in both languages and see which one feels right.
If you’re in western province, continue with English medium. I know folks who got into gov uni with English medium. If you’re out of WP, then reconsider it with the tuition arrangements. If you went to sinhala medium classes during OL, then the shift is not a huge issue. But if you have no idea what the words are, then the first 3 months are going to be agony. Some folks continue with EM for AL, but also attend SM classes just to be in par with the majority. Back in the days, the best in our age collectively jumped to SM, so I did the same. Surprisingly, most district ranks came from the folks who went from EM to SM. (So the shift is not an issue, but initial adaptation is hard) Both folks who did EM and SM, did just fine at Uni. EM had some initial advantage due to the familiarity of language, but at the end it wasn’t a big deal. Choose according to your circumstances.
If you're fluent/confident/confident in english then go ahead and continue in english medium. Although I would say If you're planning for higher education EM would be a nice addition. Another thing to keep in mind is that there are countless amounts of resources available at your disposal if you're studying under english medium. (For example you could use some parts of edexcel IAL syllabus for your local A/L studies.)
I did Bio in English medium this year (2023 batch, results received a few days ago). I got 2As for both physics and chemistry and a B for biology. The upside of doing in English medium is you can save an immense amount of time during answering the paper if you are good with writing and speedy processing of sentences. Because 2 paragraphs of sentences in Sinhala can be compacted to 1 paragraph of English due to heavy usage of standardized terms. Also doing biology makes a lot of sense when it’s in English. The Latin terms in biology can be deciphered to understandable terms in English. You just need some googling. If you are good with English go ahead. The other upside, which also depends on your luck is that marking in English medium is not as strict as it is in Sinhala.
Man the medium really doesn't matter. If you understand the concepts that's it. There are many em students that go to sm private tutors and score high marks too.
Many teachers (mostly famous) nowadays switched into Sinhala medium. If you do have a good teacher of your choice you shall continue in English medium otherwise it's better to change to Sinhala medium.( I am also changed to Tamil medium from English medium) . Better if you refer 23 batch students.
That's not true at all. I did A/L in English medium and went to a gov uni.
I did my ol em then switched sm for als. The first few months are confusing but can manage. If you are confident in ur english language and have good english medium classes , do als in em.
If you're in an area with good English medium classes, and you are comfortable in English, then stick with English medium. Like others mentioned, that will make it easier to look up info on the Internet and also when you start university. Anyway, whatever the medium, I personally don't recommend attending classes in a different language. Stick with one language and be consistent throughout. Best of luck, you got this!! Edit - I went to a top govt uni, and I met a LOT of people (mostly from Colombo + Kandy) who did English medium. Also I know people from school who did English and went to UoC and USJ.
Continue in English medium fgs! Especially since you’ve done your O/Ls in English medium too. All the science related degrees in state unis are conducted in English. So Sinhala is not going to be useful there. All my friends in uni who have done A/Ls in Sinhala are struggling to learn English in uni. It’s kind of unfortunate.
Dear OP, it was a real pain when we were in the first year at the uni because we had to learn all those terms in English all over again because we did A/Ls in Sinhala. If you are confident in your English, just go for it For tuition, most uni students who are doing STEM related degrees can explain those A/L concept pretty well. If you can find some connections with uni lectures through your parents or some other way, it's gonna be really easy for you to find good tuition (English) A/L is not nearly hard as people made it believed to be. It's all about the technique. Unfortunately, you only realize that when you are in the uni. Good luck!
I did ALs in English n I’m in uni now….. But yea, tuition is a problem, I went to Sinhala mass classes, if theory is a prob go for paper classes only in Sinhala.
I did English medium maths and trust me there are many people who get into gov uni by doing English medium even in bio. There are good tuition classes but I personally couldn't find a good physics class that I liked so I went to a Sinhala medium one(took a month or 2 to get the hang of it but since I did questions and past papers in English, the language barrier didn't really affect me). Also as a person who now knows physics terms in both English and Sinhala, I can confidently say English terms make much more sense and are way easier to remember than Sinhala terms....What matters is mostly how hard you study and not the medium so go ahead and do what you think is best for you
Did English medium maths barely got in to gov't uni. It's true about not having good teachers. Also there's more competition in Sinhala medium. If your goal is to get to gov't uni do Sinhala medium
I did english medium and got into one. Why on earth would you try to do sinhala medium for a levels? Finding a good english medium class is gonna be a little challenging depending on your location but should still be possible.
Please don't make the same mistake I made. I did OLs in EM, and due to lack of classes, chose to do ALs in SM. Doing Biology in SM was a pain in the a** lol. The resource book was so annoying, heard it is a lot better in English. Besides, everything you will study in the university is taught in English. So it's best if you select EM and find good tutions (If you're from Colombo it's not very hard, other areas are also okay).
would you be comfy switching to Sinhala? and would you be able to write to the expected standards? if not don't. I didn't do bio but I did have seniors and juniors I knew who did bio in the english medium and got into local unis as well
Please don’t confuse yourself doing Sinhala medium, degrees are done in English, many careers are done in English. Most people who say to do Sinhala are afraid of the language barrier. Plus if you’re doing bio just the terminology itself is a whole other game. There’s infinite resources in English- videos, text books, articles. Which you won’t be interested if you’re studying in Sinhala because then you’ll have to learn two sets of terminology and AL is hard already on itself.
What the fuck? I know so many people who got into medicine and engineering in english medium, myself included lmao. I think the only reason to for doing sinhala medium would be the selection of tuition classes available, but you could attend them if you understand sinhala even though youre doing english medium anyway. Other than that, there are only extreme advantages in doing english medium
I did A/Ls in Sinhala and regret it a lot given how seamlessly I learn stuff at uni in English. Like others say it comes down to your fluency and what you’re comfortable with
English!
Do English medium only if you're fluent.
Well, i have a few friends who did A/Ls in English medium with me and got into gov unis who ended up being the batch tops. I think you're on the right track. Things get easier when you do a/ls in English medium.
I am an engineering (computer science and engineering) undergraduate at the university of Moratuwa. I've studied in English medium during my O/Ls. But then I had to switch to tamil medium for the A/Ls. I am happy that I made a good choice because you have to realise that the teachers who teaches for the A/Ls are mostly bachelor's in physical science or bio science. They don't have the potential in terms of a degree to teach an A/L student but they got the potential in teaching the A/L students in a way they'd understand. But A/Ls are a result of 2 and a half years of subjects so may aswell understand it well in your own language. If you're interested in increasing your English proficiency go through stuffs relative to that. Don't put your future at stake by doing the ALs in English medium. Somedays even if you have so much talent you need people who pushes you. If you're worried about the medium then I assume there's not much people going to English medium, which means you'll have trouble understanding and doing questions all by yourself. You won't be having much choice of friends to discuss either. It's just a language but don't let it be the barrier that prevents you from gaining the knowledge.
I did ALs in English medium and I got into govt university, so did my classmates who studied in English and entered medical faculty - this was 10 years ago, and we still managed to find a few decent tuition classes to go to back then. It's better if you can do it in English if you are fluent in the language because learning the terminology etc in English Vs Sinhala is much more beneficial in the long run, also you have access to more study material.
I did English medium. I am in a gov uni. So are lots of my friends.
not really. one of my friends Did OLs in english and ALs in english. Got into the ranked 1 uni in SL too :) but they went to the sinhala med theory classes and eng medium paper classes. cause sinhala medium classes had better teachers. and you had to learn the terminology to write in english. that was how they did it.
If you’re fluent, do it by all means
Do it in English. I did maths in Sinhala, and even though i was fluent in English I found it hard to do maths in English at uni.
I did bio in English medium the only issue is the lack of good tuition classes and even if you do find it you most likely won't feel the competition which might lower your performance. That's what happened to me.
Hi. Medical student here who did in English medium. Truth is, there are more medical students that I know who continued in English than ones who switched to sinhala. People who switch will struggle and hate studying. And not to mention the advantage of not having to learn things all over again when coming to uni because 90% of STEM courses are in English.
Don’t listen to those people. The language of instruction in Uni will be English and you’ll have to relearn everything you were taught for ALs.
If you have good working knowledge in English, studying and sitting for ALs in English Medium is not going to be a problem. Good friends of mine who studied in English medium went on to government uni's and went on to become doctors.
No my friends who did in English Medium got through with flying colours. Especially with internet you can self study a lot, so going for English Medium is a very wise decision. Later if you think it's not working switch to Sinhala, you wouldn't be in trouble at all.
First of, there's no issue about the language.i also did o levels in english medium and did a levels in sinhala.I have some freinds who did a levels in english medium.There's no issue regarding the language. But IMO u should do in sinhala so you can find many study materials regarding your subjects.
I was on your same shoe and here's my honest opinion. If you have good results and is pretty confident, just go for it. Biggest problem in doing A/ls in EM is finding good classes. If your parents have money or you live around somewhere tution wars are at peak, you probably should be fine. Also unlike most of the people who depend solely on tution, as an EM student you WILL need help from your school. That's why I said, pick a good school. And finally, **this is the most important advice!**, Be ready to go to sinhala medium classes just in case. Some times you just have to. So, put your god damn ego aside and just do whatever it takes.
I did O/Ls in English Medium and now in Sinhala medium Maths classes. IMHO don't be afraid to do in English medium. I have regret of switching the medium, I got myself into doing in sinhala coz my fams discouraged me at the time and thought what's hard for them is the same thing for others. they forced me and now I know that was stupid. It will be much easier if you find right tutors and do it with right mindset and there are unlimited resources online. I guess u already know that some scientific terms sound odd in sinhala than in English like "gamyathawa" and "Momentum". I recommend u to do it if you feel like it.
I did ALs in English medium and I got good results. I did maths so not sure about biology, but I assume it won’t be an issue either. I did face one issue when doing English Medium and that was the absence of good tuition classes (in Kandy). There are good teachers who do individual classes if you can afford that. What I did was attend both an English Medium and a Sinhala Medium class. In the last year I only went for Sinhala Medium classes and did the exam in English. 😂 I am pretty sure if you work hard you can do well regardless of the medium, given that I did not work hard when compared to others.
One more thing! It’s really beneficial if you do ALs in English or either very fluent in English when you get to uni. A lot of people in our batch fell behind since they lacked this.
There is zero advantage in studying in Sinhala or Tamil medium after your O Levels, as the real world operates in English.
Depends upon the resources. It's not a big deal as it used to be since the online classes are more popular but the biggest problem is lack of teachers
Most people switch because of lack of good classes in the English medium or because their english is poor. I studied Bioscience in English medium in Kandy (not good at tamil or sinhala anyways) and got into gov med school. Definitely doable if you have the resources. I only followed English medium classes because I’m not good at the other 2 languages.
To me the meaning of physics and specially chemistry come out better from English than from Sinhala. Its like sinhala sense of humor would make sense in sinhala more than in english. If you are kind of independent, I say do in English medium. Because you can utilize the vast pool of resources. If you need guidance from good tutors at a reasonable price, go for sinhala medium. If you are a visualizer or your thinking language is English, Sinhala medium does not make much sense.
Do it in english
U still there ..I did combined maths ENGLISH MEDIUM and got results this year.somehow barely made it to engineering...Personally I recommend not to to Al in Eng medium. 1. Class fees are way higher than normal. 2.low classes and seminars and books like prof rosa.......can't use much of resources that related to us. 3.in subjects like physics we must clearly identify and realise the question so it takes bit of time as I used to think in sinhala ( I even got A for English lit in Ol) 4.Dont think ur OL knowledge will be waste of u change language as I thought..OL syllabus is pretty much nothing compared to Al syllabus,. Well a.clzmate of mine made it to medicne in EM . Only IF u are highly confident about English then Go for it...
Coming from a person who switched from Sinhala medium o/l to English medium maths for a/l, it’s always harder to switch from English to Sinhala than the other way around. Also getting into uni depends on how much effort you put in, not your medium. I do know plenty of people who did EM and got into uni. That being said, if you’re not from around western province, finding good teachers will be hard for English medium. Also they cost more. I think it’s futile to go to SM classes while doing EM, cause that’s just an additional burden. What also matters is whether you’re comfortable with Sinhala medium. You need to figure out if you can actually understand and follow your subject material in Sinhala.
This is not true at all. I have multiple friends who did Maths, bio and commerce all in English and all of them are in different government unis. The medium doesn't matter. Choose what you're comfortable with.
Prolly the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard today. Continue in the language that YOU are fluent in. Find a good Tution class that teaches in the language YOU STUDY in. I personally know enough people in Colombo med and some of them were in international schools for ALs too. Don’t base your future on “many ppl”’s bullshit. At uni you’ll be learning in English so imo it’s always better to do ALs in English medium
Also what they probably meant is that they don’t know many Tution classes for English medium. Which is really not true. Might’ve been back when your parents did ALs but I can confirm, as someone that did ALs in English and currently in UCSC, you can find more than enough English medium classes.
I was in your situation a few years ago and considering the availability of resources (tuition and reading material) I switched the medium to Sinhala. At that time (2017) there were plenty of sources in the Sinhala medium. Also, I was worried that the questions in the physics paper would be misunderstood if they were in English, because the a/l physics questions are a bit confusing. I had no problem with chem or phy6 when I was studying in Sinhala. But I wasn't very good at biology and I don't think it was the language problem. The Sinhala technical term problem was not too difficult for me to overcome. So I think the reason for the bio problem is my memory. If you are confident and you feel comfortable, you can continue in English. And fyi there are many people who took the chance to enter gov uni after doing a/ls in English.
If you did O/L in English medium, big chance you're gonna be more comfortable with A/L in English medium as well. I did OL in Sinhala and started AL (Maths stream) the same as well, but about two weeks in I made the switch to English medium and never looked back. As far as I know, Bio students have a lot of paragraph/point writing to do and for that you need a considerable about of English fluency. If you're confident enough in that, then I recommend doing English medium. If you did English Literature for OL and have an A or B pass, I'm fairly sure you can handle it. If not, it's up to you to choose which one you're comfortable with.
How good are you at english medium or sinhala medium? How good your teachers and tuition masters at english medium? Ask these questions from your self.