2013 PSLE Discussions and Strategy

[HAPPYH]

I see several top students (in our school) in the mall during weekends. I guess they also need to relax and enjoy childhood. When it comes to serious work, they must be sincere.

[jtoh]

MMM:

Aberc:

Have most schools finished the prelims? Not sure when this year's prelim papers fr top schs will be available. Am not sure whether to buy them cos dd still has to go back for supp during the one week hol so am worried there's no time to do them. Do your kids have supp during the hols too?

I checked with the vendor contact listed in this thread. They are saying delivery on 1st week of September. It is $40 for 4 subjects.

I am contemplating whether to buy as well. I wonder what is the value add of doing last min crush prelim papers at this point. There is only so much they can do. I want to avoid over loading.

For Sept hols, dd's school does offer extra revision classes but it's not compulsory to attend. My thoughts are if there is nothing better for her to do at home, might as well go back to school for more revision.

Do you want to check with your dd's school if they'll be giving out the prelim papers of other schools for the students to prep? Schools do that and there's no point purchasing an extra set for your dd.

[TheAnswer]

HAPPYH:

I see several top students (in our school) in the mall during weekends. I guess they also need to relax and enjoy childhood. When it comes to serious work, they must be sincere.

Exactly.

[ngl2010]

TheAnswer:

Please express faith in your kids. Believe that they can do it. Guide them with love not impatience.


Sorry. I'm in a rather bad mood. Upset with certain aggressive parents (my students' parents).

Kids need timeout. Just like us.

:snuggles: I hope you will feel better. Do you have time to go for facial today?

[MMM]

elkniwt:

watch movies and korean drama (she says it helps for compo ).

My dd told me the same too.... She likes those chinese and korea drama. She said this gives her ideas during oral and compo.... it also help in her CL vocab... The funniest thing is that her EL teacher acknowledged her \"creative\" ideas during compo writing. So she told me that... see watching tv prog really helps me. :roll:

[TheAnswer]

ngl2010:

TheAnswer:

Please express faith in your kids. Believe that they can do it. Guide them with love not impatience.


Sorry. I'm in a rather bad mood. Upset with certain aggressive parents (my students' parents).

Kids need timeout. Just like us.

:snuggles: I hope you will feel better. Do you have time to go for facial today?

No time for facial this 2 weeks.
Too many crash courses. Crunch time for all my P6 and Sec 4 students. But I'm cutting down the work I give them. New practices only during tuition. Focus on revisiting previous mistakes and reinforcing memory.
Must reinforce memory otherwise all the work will be wasted.

[krz]

slmkhoo:

GLORYmum:

[quote=\"krz\"]Yes I totally agree

Dd practised past 5yrs papers from 8-9sch
So tat works out to 8or9 x 5 x 3subjects, when she was preparing last yr
Moz importantly. Practice practice practice
Exposure to various types of questions r def helpful

Thanks for sharing.
May i ask how early did you start yr dd to work on those papers cos they seem alot in addition to the homework and drilling provided by the school.

We always count school homework towards revision as that is what it's supposed to be, at least at this late stage. Also, we don't believe in over-drilling as kids get too tired and stop thinking. What is 'enough' varies from child to child - one of my girls has low stamina and we have to let her stop when she is tired even if she hasn't always mastered as much as we would like; the other one is usually on top of her work so we let her stop when she shows she has a good grasp of what she needs to know. Either way, my kids don't seem to study for very long hours. But we believe that sufficient rest is necessary, especially in the last couple of days before the exams. We don't allow last-minute cramming.[/quote]i agree, at tiz late stage, no point cramming n stressing e kids n ourselves up
it shd b concentrating on e weak areas nw
dd started early, march last yr
she did al e papers, while preparing for her prelims
n it was simply 'weak points targeted' for tat after prelims - before psle period

[Aberc]

MMM:

Aberc:

Have most schools finished the prelims? Not sure when this year's prelim papers fr top schs will be available. Am not sure whether to buy them cos dd still has to go back for supp during the one week hol so am worried there's no time to do them. Do your kids have supp during the hols too?

I checked with the vendor contact listed in this thread. They are saying delivery on 1st week of September. It is $40 for 4 subjects.

I am contemplating whether to buy as well. I wonder what is the value add of doing last min crush prelim papers at this point. There is only so much they can do. I want to avoid over loading.

For Sept hols, dd's school does offer extra revision classes but it's not compulsory to attend. My thoughts are if there is nothing better for her to do at home, might as well go back to school for more revision.

Thanks for the info! Our supp is compulsory - I'd rather her stay at home, cos at least she can sleep in a little longer. Ya, I'm also worried about overloading, plus we still have some prelim papers fr last year...

[Jennifer]

lexis:

is all this panicking because of poorer-than-expected showing at the prelims?


with less than 30 days to go, I don't think cramming is the way to go, maybe just focus on weak areas. By now, they should more or less have the necessary info/content in their heads, just need to hone up techniques and skills. and CONFIDENCE.

I wont think I am panicking. It is a fact that he did not do well in OE Sci due to his unorthodox answering technique despite knowing the concepts n how to apply.

Here's a typical day at home for ah boy:

come back from school
1/2 hour his ME time
after bathing, it is either completing sch assignments or private CL tutor or again his ME time if there is no homework from sch or private CL tutor until I sit down with him on some assignment in the evening (between 30 to 45 mins, sometimes not at all)

His ME time activities range from making paper crafts, reading story books, playing table tennis against the wall and an hour of TV programme of his choice.

Last week was prelims week. No sch assignments at all and sch was dismissed at 12.30pm.

The assignments I gave him last week was to do 2 other sch's prelim MA papers and to do 2 exercises each day for the CL assessments I bou.

No EL and Sci assignments from me. Bcos I trusted him to do well in these subjects as he told me he is ready for these 2 subjects as he has done quite many of these during the Jun hols.

Cramming? I do not believe in this either.

I have gone through 2009 PSLE with elder boy. Every day is his own day. No work from me at all. Reason: the sch is already pushing papers after papers to the pupils. I was a total hands-off mother.

This year is the FIRST year I bou other schools' exam papers.

This year is the FIRST year I personally coach ah boy in CL n HCL for PSLE.

The point I am trying to make here is every child is different, some need total freedom, some need to be guided, some can do well on a mix of these 2 styles.

I am not going to tell ah boy I love him regardless of his PSLE results. This is redundant.

He must know I sacrifice my ME time to guide him in PSLE bcos I love him.

I can accept he wont know every answer to all questions.

I cannot accept he did not do well due to carelessness or due to not following what had been taught by sch teachers, tutors and myself.

The suggestions to do Sci prelims paper and getting sb to go through is not working to work for us.

Reason:
1. time is tight. Do more Sci papers? A subj that requires marking n analysing. Where to find the time? Maybe take away all ME time can get some time out to do so, this is cramming to us.

2. who to mark? Me? Not going to work out as he thinks I know less than him in Sci marking scheme. Go find sb? Where? The last time I posted to ask for recommendations for centres to help with fine tuning answering techniques, I got no response.

I know I sound angry in this post. Tell the truth, I am not angry. Just a little tugging feeling that some posts are not considering the other side of the coin and are kinda of imposing their own thinking on people like me.

PEACE

[sharonkhoo]

ngl2010:

DS still watches TV everyday and play wii occassionally. We still go out during weekends to eat out and watch movies. Now I am worried that we are too relax :nailbite:

Assess your child's ability - is he performing up to his ability? Would extra time be counter-productive (make him too tired, resentful, stressed etc)? If so, sufficient relaxation is a good thing. My daughter only studied Mon-Fri up to the PSLE, didn't work in the evenings, read story books daily, and got regular doses of board games and wii. The only weekends she did some studying (just 1 afternoon of quick revision) were the weekends that fell in the midst of the prelim and PSLE papers. We judged that she had done enough so that extra hours could have been counter-productive, so didn't insist that she do more. Of course, you will always ask yourself whether those extra hours might bump the scores up a few points, but that is an unanswerable question so I refused to agonise over it.