Q&A - PSLE English
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bitchymum:
Don't panic. If you panic, your DD might feed off your anxiety and that would just makes things worse.My gal scored very badly for her English Prelim. Her English which was supposed to be her strongest subject becomes her weakest subject. Her weakest area is the vocabulary, comprehension cloze and comprehension OE. She is an avid reader, she reads a lot. So we are really puzzled why. Any tips to improve at least a little now especially on comprehension cloze and OE.
Really in panicked mode.
Ask her to think back to when she was doing the OE and the Compre cloze and try to identify the area of weakness. Was it due to a lack of understanding of the passage? (OE and Compre cloze) Was it due to a lack of understand of the question? (OE) Did she not understand the collocation of prepositions? (Compre cloze) Then work backwards from there and provide her with the skills to improve from there.
It could simply be that the Prelims were set to a very high standard in order to \"shock\" pupils into being more careful for the PSLE.
Remember, don't panic! It wouldn't help anyone... -
bitchymum:
One possibility could be that the questions in her Prelim papers are not set 'very well' by the setters. Sometimes such questions tend to penalize those with better command of English who 'think too much' into the questions. As you mentioned, your dd English is her strength, then most likely this could be the case. Don't worry, PSLE English questions are set by more 'professional' teachers and vetted more carefully and thus your dd should not face the same problems.My gal scored very badly for her English Prelim. Her English which was supposed to be her strongest subject becomes her weakest subject. Her weakest area is the vocabulary, comprehension cloze and comprehension OE. She is an avid reader, she reads a lot. So we are really puzzled why. Any tips to improve at least a little now especially on comprehension cloze and OE.
Really in panicked mode.
This could be a blessing in disguise as it will make her work harder and stay more focus during the PSLE. Cheerio! -
Sorry, I think I didn’t state clearly … she scored badly since P5 for those areas I mentioned. We keep practising the exam papers but there is not much improvement. I dunno how to improve on these areas. She already reads a lot and she reads a different types of books like Percy Jackson series, The Hunger Games series, I Am Number Four series etc.
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bitchymum:
Sorry, I think I didn't state clearly ... she scored badly since P5 for those areas I mentioned. We keep practising the exam papers but there is not much improvement. I dunno how to improve on these areas. She already reads a lot and she reads a different types of books like Percy Jackson series, The Hunger Games series, I Am Number Four series etc.
For OE Compre, as the name suggests, its about pupils' ability to comprehend both the text and the questions. Seek to assess which is the one that is giving her difficulties, is it not understanding the text/ the questions or both.
Difficulties Understanding the Text
Usually for that, I would have pupils learn annotation in order for them to have a better understanding of the text. However, this takes time... They need to have a grasp of what kinds of questions to pose themselves and what to annotate for.
Given the time constraints, a simple annotation task might be for her to give a quick summary of the main ideas in each paragraph. It would be a good idea to have her identify specific evidences from the text which supports her summary. This would help build rigor.
Difficulties Understanding the Question
There are various types of questions for OE compre; Identify, Recall, Compare/contrast, Infer. (There are others, but these are the typical ones for MS PSLE) Figure out which ones are her particular weakness and teach her how to answer those question types. Usually, pupils are weak in answering inference questions. If that is the case, have her ask herself the following questions which facing an inference question;
- How can I paraphrase the question?
- Is there any evidence in the text that possibly points towards the answer?
- Why do I say so? (To help her gain clarity or to activate PK)
- Are there other supporting evidence from the text?
- Is what is written in the text/question literal or figurative?
- How should I frame/craft my answer? (only after she has a good sense about what the question is asking for)
Can't get into the specifics for dealing with each question type, as that would take too long and wouldn't really make sense without a text and accompanying questions. But essentially, provide targeted help by finding out which skill set she needs to improve upon and work on that.
Hope this helps in some small way... -
Thank you so much.
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Some of the words in the vocab cloze has very close answers. For eg the word ‘predicament’ can also be crisis or dilemma. Both crisis and dilemma are in the options. Is the meaning of predicament closer to crisis or dilemma? Checked the dictionary they all are synonyms
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notredame:
Q: My mother asked, \"Did you do the homework which your teacher gave you?\"
My Mother __________________.
A: My mother asked if I had done the homework which my teacher had given me.
Is the following answer also acceptable:
My mother asked me if I had done the homework which my teacher had given me.
Based on the S&T book published by Marshall Cavendish, both with and without \"me' are acceptable. -
Q: This plot of land is bare. Many years ago, Empire Hotel used to stand here.
A:where_______.
The answer provided is:This bare plot of land is where Empire Hotel used to stand many years ago.
Is this answer also accepted?
This plot of land, where Empire Hotel used to stand many years ago, is bare. -
thehybrid:
I don't see anything wrong with it. You are just using an inserted clause to express the same idea.Q: This plot of land is bare. Many years ago, Empire Hotel used to stand here.
A:_________________________________where________________________________________.
The answer provided is:This bare plot of land is where Empire Hotel used to stand many years ago.
Is this answer also accepted?
This plot of land, where Empire Hotel used to stand many years ago, is bare. -
AdvancedAcademia:
I don't see anything wrong with it. You are just using an inserted clause to express the same idea.thehybrid:
Q: This plot of land is bare. Many years ago, Empire Hotel used to stand here.
A:_________________________________where________________________________________.
The answer provided is:This bare plot of land is where Empire Hotel used to stand many years ago.
Is this answer also accepted?
This plot of land, where Empire Hotel used to stand many years ago, is bare.
Hi, depends on the emphasis writer desires...where he/she wants to draw the reader's attention to...
The prescribed answer puts the emphasis on the fact that Empire Hotel used to stand there years ago.
The second alternative answer, by inserting the relative clause, is putting the emphasis on the bareness of the land instead.
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