What PSLE score should we aim for?
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Should just target for best efforts, not the score.
Aiming to stretch the child during this last leg of her PSLE can work both ways, either work wonders for her self esteem or totally kill it.
At P6, I would opt for consistency (aka no change to routine / enrichment classes / CCA / ECA, etc) almost identical to P5’s routine so there is no additional pressure.
In any case, I believe the target should be something the child wants, not what the parents want. Ever heard of children who completed Grade 8 in piano, handed the cert to the parent and declare never to play piano again? -
Hear what you’re saying Bluebells, however I do strongly believe in setting targets.
Can be sure that throughout the year, will be measured etc to see if on target, or if there are areas need to focus.
Don’t they have some sort of projection in P5?
To add on - the purpose is to try and measure and give her the sense of accomplishment that she is "ahead of target" as this is the first time she has been having regular tuition and work.
The plan is that she can "see" the results of her effort, and how it is helping so can know that it is "worthwhile". I think this will help with her motivation to keep coming to see me, if the results of her efforts cannot be quantified it is just a chore - but if she can see / feel the benefits then it might motivate to do more. -
It helps if you know what secondary school she is looking at.
Look at the COP of the school for the last few years and use the highest of the lot to be the aim, but set the target 20 points higher, and put in effort worthy of that 20 points.
My secondary school PE teacher said this that I found to be true in most situations: you aim for a gold, you get silver; you aim for silver, you get bronze; you aim for bronze, you fail.
Try to aim for 5-mark improvement for every test/exam so that by psle, the child would ideally have made at least 10 to 20 marks improvement for the subjects. 5 marks would also seem and sound realistic to achieve to the child and the child is more likely to try for a 5-mark improvement rather than a 10- or 20-mark jump. -
rains:
5 marks improvement per test - I like this approach!!It helps if you know what secondary school she is looking at.
Look at the COP of the school for the last few years and use the highest of the lot to be the aim, but set the target 20 points higher, and put in effort worthy of that 20 points.
My secondary school PE teacher said this that I found to be true in most situations: you aim for a gold, you get silver; you aim for silver, you get bronze; you aim for bronze, you fail.
Try to aim for 5-mark improvement for every test/exam so that by psle, the child would ideally have made at least 10 to 20 marks improvement for the subjects. 5 marks would also seem and sound realistic to achieve to the child and the child is more likely to try for a 5-mark improvement rather than a 10- or 20-mark jump.
Just another note - this is not my child - I see her once a week (Saturday) for tuition. -
I am not advocating against setting goals, I am just cautioning against stretching too thin at this point; P6s have crazy busy schedules, within school (supp classes and CCA) and outside schools (tuition and enrichments).
I am not sure how to put all my thoughts down though …
In my opinion, there are two major traits in children - the competitive trait and the nonchalant trait. The former can be easily motivated by external factors and self. The later is more of a self-motivator, meaning, unless it is what the child wants, external factors has little impact motivating him.
You said it, if the child has been taught projection in P5, then it would just be a matter of keeping check and following through in P6; which should equate to consistency, right?
If there is no projection or goal setting done, then one of the methods now would be to bring her to the open house of her dream school; let her feel the ground and feed her desire to get in, and hopefully it will translate into great motivation for her. -
When do open houses start happening? And what is the best way to proactively find out about them? (I have found school websites to be less than helpful in this area)
Is it reasonable to try to contact her teachers to get a feel for what she is capable of at PSLE? -
bochap daddy:
This is an OK plan as long as the papers you use are of the same standard. This is where I feel the plan may not work - papers from different books or different schools will vary in difficulty. If you set a goal in terms of marks, then there is a chance that the child will not be able to deliver, and both you and the child will be disappointed. Also, I feel that whatever targets set should be achievable for the child, so if she is really weak, then setting a high target may be demoralising and counter-productive.rains:
Try to aim for 5-mark improvement for every test/exam so that by psle, the child would ideally have made at least 10 to 20 marks improvement for the subjects. 5 marks would also seem and sound realistic to achieve to the child and the child is more likely to try for a 5-mark improvement rather than a 10- or 20-mark jump.
5 marks improvement per test - I like this approach!!
Just another note - this is not my child - I see her once a week (Saturday) for tuition.
I have a child who is weak at Maths, and what we do with her is to assess her based on other measurables like no. of computation errors, no. of copying errors etc. We will praise her if the no. of avoidable errors decreases, and warn her to be more careful if the no. increases. We do tally up the marks for the whole paper, but we don't obsess on that. If the questions were really hard, we acknowledge that and don't make a fuss if she couldn't do them. We know that there are some that are just beyond her. For her, our aim with Maths is for her to try her best and get as many marks as she can, and if that is only 60%, we are OK as long as she has worked hard. -
bochap daddy:
Is it reasonable to try to contact her teachers to get a feel for what she is capable of at PSLE?
Her parents could probably do that. I'm not sure they would reveal this to someone who isn't a parent. But since PSLE scores are a T-score based on 4 subjects, I don't see how that will help you set targets for her in individual maths tests. -
slmkhoo:
This is an OK plan as long as the papers you use are of the same standard. This is where I feel the plan may not work - papers from different books or different schools will vary in difficulty. If you set a goal in terms of marks, then there is a chance that the child will not be able to deliver, and both you and the child will be disappointed. Also, I feel that whatever targets set should be achievable for the child, so if she is really weak, then setting a high target may be demoralising and counter-productive.bochap daddy:
[quote=\"rains\"]Try to aim for 5-mark improvement for every test/exam so that by psle, the child would ideally have made at least 10 to 20 marks improvement for the subjects. 5 marks would also seem and sound realistic to achieve to the child and the child is more likely to try for a 5-mark improvement rather than a 10- or 20-mark jump.
5 marks improvement per test - I like this approach!!
Just another note - this is not my child - I see her once a week (Saturday) for tuition.
I have a child who is weak at Maths, and what we do with her is to assess her based on other measurables like no. of computation errors, no. of copying errors etc. We will praise her if the no. of avoidable errors decreases, and warn her to be more careful if the no. increases. We do tally up the marks for the whole paper, but we don't obsess on that. If the questions were really hard, we acknowledge that and don't make a fuss if she couldn't do them. We know that there are some that are just beyond her. For her, our aim with Maths is for her to try her best and get as many marks as she can, and if that is only 60%, we are OK as long as she has worked hard.[/quote]Please note that \"only 60%\" is still a very solid, middle of the road mark.
There is nothing wrong with that...
60% across all papers is still a good solid 230 - 250 at PSLE right?
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