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Which of the following organisms are used to convert milk to yoghurt?
Is it bacteria, protozoa, viruses or algae?*
If you had made a guess, you would have just answered a typical science question found in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), a worldwide study that compares fourth and eighth graders' (Primary 4 and Secondary 2 students) performance in the two subjects.
Results of the latest study, released today, reported that Singapore students have come out top in the science category, ahead of Japan and Hong Kong.
According to a media statement from the Ministry of Education (MOE), Primary 4 students from Singapore beat 58 other education systems to emerge first in science and a very close second in mathematics, after Hong Kong.
Secondary 2 students from Singapore fared equally well - They took first place in science and third in mathematics, behind Korea and Taiwan.
Of the students from Singapore who took part in the study, the top five per cent fared well, scoring the highest for Primary 4 science with an average score of 727 compared to the TIMSS scale set average of 500.
Other countries that took part in the study included Taiwan, the United States and Australia.
Singapore has consistently ranked within the top three positions ever since the study was introduced, with the exception of Primary 4 Science, which ranked seventh in 1995, TIMMS' inaugural year.
*Answer: bacteria
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