Once you have completed Standard 6, you will advance to the secondary school where you will join Form 1. For students who are graduating from the Chinese or Tamil schools, you will have to join a Remove year where you are required to undergo one extra year to familiarize yourself with the language and common practices in the secondary school. From Form1 to Form3 you will be prepared for the PMR examinations, which is a federal examination to determine which stream you are eligible for when you approach the next level. The results of your PMR will determine if you are qualified to join the Science Stream or the Arts stream, which are the most common specializations.

Science stream would usually provide subjects like Chemistry, Biology, Physics and Additional Mathematics while the Arts Streams do not provide these subjects instead replacing them with the less technical ones like Commerce, Accounts and English Literature. This will prepare you for the SPM (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia) examination. All Form 5 students from the whole of Malaysia will take this examination simultaneously which is the equivalent to the British ‘O’ Levels. The rule of thumb is that the SPM is the most basic qualification for anyone who wished to graduate from education. After that you can decide if you want to continue to Form 6 where you will have to undergo 2 years of education in Lower and Upper 6 to sit for the STPM (Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia) which is the British equivalent of the ‘A’ Levels.

The STPM is a much harder examination and is known to be one of the hardest examinations in this level around the world. In STPM, you are required to take 5 main subjects of which you must pass all 5 in order to stand a chance to gain an entry into the local public universities. However, if you decide that you want to continue your undergraduate programmes with a private education institution, 3 passes are sufficient.