8 Best AEIS Preparation Centres in Singapore (October 2026)

The AEIS (Admissions Exercise for International Students) is MOE's central admission test for international students who want a place in a mainstream government school. There are two sittings a year. The main AEIS runs in September for places the following January. The smaller S-AEIS (Supplementary AEIS) runs in late February or early March for places from April or May of the same year, and covers fewer levels.

AEIS registration is done online through SEAB's Candidates Portal, and SEAB says it takes at least four weeks for an application to show as registered. Places on each test are limited and applications for a level close once its test is full, so apply in the first days of the window. MOE hasn't published dates for the September 2027 AEIS yet. If it follows the usual pattern, applications open in July 2027.

The tests cover MOE's syllabus for the level below the one your child is applying to, so a Primary 4 applicant sits a paper on Primary 3 Maths. According to SEAB's test details, the Primary 4 and 5 Maths test is 35 minutes of multiple choice and then 50 minutes of short-answer and open-ended questions. Secondary English takes 2 hours 10 minutes, a composition plus 50 multiple-choice questions. Secondary Maths is 30 minutes of multiple choice and 1 hour 45 minutes of written answers. No calculators in any Maths paper. The 2026 tests ran on 1 September for Secondary 1, 2 September for Secondary 2 and 3, and 3 September for every primary level, per MOE's AEIS test page.

This is the part that catches families out. The AEIS for primary levels has had no English paper since July 2022. MOE announced in April 2022 that primary applicants would instead take a Cambridge English Qualifications (CEQ) test, run by Cambridge Assessment English, and reach a set score on the Cambridge English Scale before they can register for the AEIS Maths test. Secondary applicants don't need a CEQ. They still sit MOE's own English paper.

The CEQ has to be taken within the 12 months before the month you register, and you upload the statement of results, not the certificate. For the 2027 S-AEIS, MOE accepts a CEQ taken from January 2026. MOE also says a CEQ can be taken more than once, so a near miss isn't the end. Spring College International's brochure puts the exam fee at S$446.90 for A2 Key and S$490.50 for B1 Preliminary.

So what changed for 2027? Less than the search results suggest. The score bands in MOE's eligibility checker are the same ones Spring College International's December 2025 brochure quotes. What moves each year is which birth years fall into each band, because age is counted as at 1 January of the year your child would start school. The rule that is new on MOE's page is for children who missed Primary 5 in the 2026 AEIS: they can try for Primary 4 through the 2027 S-AEIS, if their age allows, using a B1 Preliminary score from the 12 months before they apply. Put your child's date of birth into the checker before you book any test.

There's no results slip. MOE doesn't release AEIS scores, and it doesn't publish a pass mark or a pass rate. You log in to the AEIS Internet System during a set window and see either a school offer or an unsuccessful outcome. For the 2026 AEIS, MOE's outcome page gives these windows:

• Secondary 2 and 3: 10 to 14 December 2026, then report to the school between 11 and 30 December.
• Primary 2 to 5: 17 to 21 December 2026, then report between 18 and 30 December.
• Secondary 1: 21 to 25 December 2026 (tentative), then report between late December and early January 2027.

MOE places your child. You don't list or rank schools. Placement depends on the vacancies in its schools and, where possible, the home address you declared, which is a good reason to settle where you'll live before you apply. The posting is final, and MOE won't consider a transfer request or release the scores. An offer can also come at a lower level than the one applied for: a Primary 4 applicant can be offered Primary 4, 3 or 2. Miss the reporting window and the place can be withdrawn.

A few rules follow your child into the school. Every student in a mainstream school takes a Mother Tongue Language, and an international student can only ask for an exemption through the principal after admission. International students in a primary school have to sit the PSLE to move up to an MOE secondary school, and MOE expects a child to be no more than two years older than the usual age for the level.

Unless your child already holds a Dependant's Pass, Long-Term Visit Pass or Immigration Exemption Order, they'll need a Student's Pass. The school issues a Registration Acknowledgement Letter, and MOE says to apply to ICA as soon as you have it. ICA charges a S$45 processing fee, then S$60 to issue the pass, plus S$30 for a multiple-journey visa where one applies. Children aged 12 and under who were born abroad also need their diphtheria and measles vaccinations verified first. If you're timing a move around these dates, my international movers guide covers the shipping side.

This is the number that makes the AEIS worth the effort. MOE sets its monthly fees by nationality, and international students pay far more than citizens but far less than private fees. These are MOE's 2026 rates from its school fees page, school fee plus miscellaneous fee, with GST included for international students. MOE's fee checker lists the same rates for 2027.

ASEAN here means Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Timor-Leste and Vietnam. Autonomous secondary schools add S$19.62 a month for international students.

Now set that against the alternative. Tuition at many international schools runs from about S$24,000 to S$59,000 a year for a school-age child, before buses, uniforms and building fees. At primary level those schools charge S$24,305 to S$49,040, so for a non-ASEAN family the AEIS route saves somewhere between S$11,700 and S$36,450 a year in fees alone. At secondary level the gap narrows. A non-ASEAN student pays about S$26,540 a year at a government secondary school, which overlaps the cheaper international schools, and that's worth knowing before you put a 13-year-old through six months of full-time prep.

Then there are the one-off costs of getting in: the AEIS application fee (S$370.60 for primary or S$686.70 for secondary, with 9% GST), a CEQ for primary applicants (about S$450 to S$490), ICA's S$105 for the Student's Pass, and a prep course if you use one. The full-time courses below run from about S$7,200 to S$16,100.

Prices include each school's own application fee where it lists one. Uwing, Dimensions and Amity say the SEAB application fee is extra, and Spring lists the CEQ exam fee separately, so budget for both on top wherever you go.

If you're looking for an AEIS preparation course in Singapore, these are the things I'd check before paying a deposit.

• EduTrust, if your child needs a Student's Pass. ICA says only EduTrust-certified private schools can offer places to foreign students who need a Student's Pass. A school without it can only enrol children who already hold a Dependant's Pass, Long-Term Visit Pass or Immigration Exemption Order. Ask for the certificate number and its expiry date.
• A course built around the test your child will sit. For primary that means CEQ English plus Maths on the syllabus for the level below. For secondary it means MOE's own English and Maths papers. A course selling "AEIS English" to a Primary 3 child is teaching for a paper that hasn't existed since 2022.
• MOE's syllabus, mapped. The tests follow the MOE primary syllabus for the level below, and you can read it yourself. Ask the centre to show you where its worksheets match it.
• Mock tests under exam conditions. Timed papers in the same format, no calculator, and written feedback afterwards.
• The full price, in writing. Tuition is often quoted without GST, application fees, materials, insurance and the AEIS fee itself. Ask for the total, and check the fees are covered by the Fee Protection Scheme, which protects unused course fees if a private school closes.
• Claims you can check. MOE doesn't publish pass rates or release scores, so any success rate a centre quotes is its own count. Ask which year it covers and how many students sat the test.

One more thing: make sure the school is registered at all. SWDA's guide to choosing a private school links to its list of registered schools, with each one's registration period.

I started from MOE's and SEAB's own pages, so every date, fee and rule in this guide comes from the official source, checked on 28 October 2026. Then I went through the AEIS preparation centres that rank for the AEIS exam and AEIS tuition, plus the private schools that run "preparatory courses for admission to government schools", and read each one's course page, fee sheet or brochure.

I ranked them on what they publish: levels, hours, class size or ratio, intakes, mock tests, a full price, and EduTrust status for families who need a Student's Pass. I didn't rank on Google ratings, because most of these are colleges that also teach diplomas and degrees, and their reviews are mostly about those. I left out centres whose own sites give no levels, hours or prices for their AEIS course (including some that rank well for it), one college whose AEIS pages now redirect to a general course list, and home tuition agencies, which match you with a tutor rather than run a course. I'll update the list once MOE confirms the 2027 S-AEIS dates.

The next AEIS exam is the 2027 S-AEIS. Applications open in early January 2027 and the tests run at the end of February or in early March 2027 (MOE still calls the date tentative), with school starting in April or May. The main 2027 AEIS should follow in September 2027.

That September sitting would be for a January 2028 start. The 2026 AEIS tests ran from 1 to 3 September 2026, and those outcomes come out in December. Check MOE's S-AEIS page in December for the confirmed 2027 dates.

The AEIS is MOE's main admission test for international students, held in September for Primary 2 to 5 and Secondary 1 to 3, with school from January. The S-AEIS is the supplementary sitting in late February or early March, for Primary 2 to 4 and Secondary 1 to 2, with school from April or May.

The subjects and fees are the same. Because there's no Primary 5 or Secondary 3 option at the S-AEIS, a child aiming for either of those levels has to sit the September AEIS.

The AEIS application fee is S$340 for primary and S$630 for secondary, plus GST, which comes to S$370.60 and S$686.70. Primary applicants also pay for a Cambridge English test, about S$450 to S$490. A full-time AEIS preparation course in Singapore costs about S$7,200 to S$16,100 for three to six months.

Once a place is offered, ICA charges S$105 for the Student's Pass, and school fees start. In 2026 that's S$609.17 to S$1,049.17 a month at a government primary school and S$1,111.80 to S$2,211.80 at a secondary school, depending on whether your child is from an ASEAN country.

If your child is unsuccessful in the AEIS, MOE won't release the scores, but they can apply for a later AEIS or S-AEIS while still within the age range for the level. A child who missed Primary 5 in the 2026 AEIS can try for Primary 4 at the 2027 S-AEIS.

If a second try doesn't suit, the international route is the fallback, and my IGCSE schools and IB schools guides list the ones I'd look at. A gap of a few months can also be filled with maths enrichment or group tuition on the Singapore syllabus, so your child doesn't fall behind the level they're aiming for.

The AEIS route costs far less: a non-ASEAN family pays about S$12,590 a year at a government primary school in 2026, against roughly S$24,000 to S$59,000 at Singapore's international schools. In return your child joins the local system, with Mother Tongue, the PSLE and a school that MOE chooses for you.

It works best for primary-age children who'll stay in Singapore for years. For a non-ASEAN teenager, government secondary fees of about S$26,540 a year come close to the cheaper international schools, and an IB or IGCSE school may suit a family that expects to move again.

Yes, by default. MOE says every student in a mainstream school must take a Mother Tongue Language, usually Chinese, Malay or Tamil, and international students are no exception. An exemption can only be requested after admission, through the school principal, and MOE looks at each request case by case.

If your child will be starting Chinese from scratch, extra help in the first year makes a real difference. My Chinese tuition guide lists the centres I'd look at.