School Placement Exercise for returning S'porean children

[Mummylicious]

backhomela:

my daughter is in Singapore and she is preparing her exam 13/10/2011. I dont know how to help her, want to find a tuition teacher to hit her English and Math, about test paper, anyone here can give me some advise, where can find past paper. Now it is like fly with head. Please help us! :frustrated:

Hi backhomela
How was ur dd experience taking d spers exam. My dd sat for d same exam.

[Song22]

Mummylicious:

backhomela:

my daughter is in Singapore and she is preparing her exam 13/10/2011. I dont know how to help her, want to find a tuition teacher to hit her English and Math, about test paper, anyone here can give me some advise, where can find past paper. Now it is like fly with head. Please help us! :frustrated:

Hi backhomela
How was ur dd experience taking d spers exam. My dd sat for d same exam.

Hi Backhomela and Mummylicious
It will be great if you could share your kids' experience in spers-test and posting, I am currently living oversea and plan to have my kids return to take the Sec 1 spers test in 2- 3 years time. I also note some schools conduct direct entrance exam for returnees; and I guess returnees are also eligible for DSA.
Good luck to both of you!
Thanks!

[daylight]

Hi my dd is going to take the SPERS-sec test this year 2012 to gain admission to sec 1 in 2013. My dd is not under the singapore curriculum. I need to find tutors or tuition centers who can prepare my dd for the tests during this summer. Would appreciate if anyone could give me some suggestions. Thank you.

[resgmom]

On the contrary, I think one of the biggest advantage of returning to Singapore for us (DS entered P4, born and raised in a Western country) is to be bilingual - DS still hates Chinese, but he’s coping with family’s help. We had been coaching him on Chinese since young, while overseas. We had never considered MT exemption, since we’re not aiming for him to be a high scorer in PSLE (at the expense of not studying his MT).


We never took the MOE placement test. DS entered one of the "better" neighborhood school through the school’s own placement test. Since they did have spaces at P4 (understood that some kids moved to GEP, some parents moved overseas, etc), they let him enter as long as he passed everything (including Chinese).

[nurtureKids]

Did anyone with children who did Spers and stop normal school for half year to prepare for Spers - thro intensive tuition. I m thinking of doing that as my friend told me her dd says its as hard as the psle mock papers she tried. at the same time, I feel it’s a bit strange to not go to regular school

[sgt]

My daughter did PSLE and Sec 1 in Singapore before we moved to the US. She will be appearing for SPERS-Sec exercise this year for placement to Sec 3 academic year which begins in Jan 2015.


Information on this thread is very useful. If there are parents whose children appeared for SPERS-Sec placement exercise more recently, please write in your experience.

Will be glad for guidance with the following:

1) Where can I get exam prep material for SPERS-Sec such as syllabus and past question papers.
2) Are there websites or online tutors who prepare a student for SPERS-Sec exams?

Many thanks.

[sharonkhoo]

sgt:

My daughter did PSLE and Sec 1 in Singapore before we moved to the US. She will be appearing for SPERS-Sec exercise this year for placement to Sec 3 academic year which begins in Jan 2015.


Information on this thread is very useful. If there are parents whose children appeared for SPERS-Sec placement exercise more recently, please write in your experience.

Will be glad for guidance with the following:

1) Where can I get exam prep material for SPERS-Sec such as syllabus and past question papers.
2) Are there websites or online tutors who prepare a student for SPERS-Sec exams?

Many thanks.

My daughter just took the SPERS-JC/MI exams. I don't think there are assessment books or tutors specifically for these exams. However, they are modelled closely on what students do in schools here. You can ask a relative in Singapore to get some Sec 2 assessment books and exam papers for your daughter to practise. You might also want to get Maths textbooks.

[sgt]

slmkhoo:

My daughter just took the SPERS-JC/MI exams. I don't think there are assessment books or tutors specifically for these exams. However, they are modelled closely on what students do in schools here. You can ask a relative in Singapore to get some Sec 2 assessment books and exam papers for your daughter to practise. You might also want to get Maths textbooks.

Hi,

Thanks for the reply and the guidance.

Regards.

[totallyeclipsed]

Hi everyone!


I have just been reading all previous posts and the wealth of information on this is something that MOE will not even dare to share.
We have just returned (2weeks!) to Singapore and we have decided that our daughter will sit for the SPERS-Sec in October. I was initially considering to go via DSA but the criteria for some is immense and would imagine great competition with local students who have been doing CCA all through primary.
From reading the post, I find that our decision to come back mid-year is good move to give my child the time to prepare and review for this test. She has finished the school year (Year 6) in EU and so essentially, she is not skipping a school year. Timing is just right for preparation however, the teachers believe that it is a short period (3.5 months before exam!) I have gotten her an English tutor and Maths tutor (2x/wk). There are no teachers who will teach just for SPERS exam… they will generally cover the P5 & P6 syllabus in tuition at a faster pace though, so the child needs to be prepped mentally that she is sitting for an important exam that is different from EU examinations.
I am quite relieved however, reading from previous posts that the exam does have non content based questions (i.e. general aptitude Q’s) and not purely singaporean maths and english.
For those who have recent experience with SPERS, please do share your child’s observation with the more recent exam content. It will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

[sharonkhoo]

Don’t worry too much about the 3.5 mths preparation - tutors here are used to preparing for PSLE over 2 yrs! Your child will only have to focus on the 2 subjects. My daughter took PSLE in 2011, and I had been doing about 45 mins a day of prep with her for about a year, on top of her international school workload, and she did fine. I can’t comment on the SPERS exam itself as my other daughter took the SPERS-JC/MI.