2017 PSLE Discussions and Strategies

[Ganjiongspider]

BePersevere:

Dear Parents,


I am at my wit’s end how to help my son with science open ended portion. He used to do reasonably well for paper 2 but in recent prelim, he failed horribly. While revising the upper block yesterday, he suddenly broke down and told me he does not even know what kind of answers the teachers are looking for. I was totally taken aback as this is the first time in 6 years that he snapped while revising. He claimed he does not even know what he does not know. Even when most or all key words are there, it was zero mark everywhere on the paper which he could not understand why. I am not sure if the above is a common problem for science.

This is one subject that I am unable to help him at all. I asked him to check with teacher what was wrong with his answers and to me, his wrong answers appear similar to the corrections. He said his classmates did check with teacher but all were brushed off as teacher said ‘wrong means wrong, sit down and copy down the correct answers….. go back to revise and memorise’. To me, science is more than just memorizing.

Normally we use the top school papers but I think the issue is with the wrong answers in the answer sheet. Unless parents are able to understand and mark on their own instead of relying on the answers, top school science paper may end up doing more harm than good.

As PSLE science is just 2 weeks away, I hope experienced parents here can share with me how I can help my child to gain back his confidence and study effectively. The last I want is for him to get burnt out and suffer a mental breakdown.

If it is not appropriate to share or post here, I hope some kind soul can send me a PM. Thank you in advance.

Dear BePesevere,

For Science, it is indeed a very challenging subject whereby school teachers or parents cannot justify kids's answers in OE as to \"What Is actually Wrong With My Answer????\" Since it is only 1 wk plus to PSLE Science, I suggested your son to just review only the mistakes from school's worksheet or past year exm paper marked by school teachers/any tuition works only. Just rewrite the answers from the school's corections. That is the only thing he can do now. Don't do any new paper from now. As for practice, you can let him work on MCQ questions. BC MCQ questions are the easiest to mark & explain. Questions that are wrong from MCQ can be worked on it at this stage bc it reinforces the science concept. So if your son able to pass the MCQ portion, I reckon it shld be on safe range. Just work on concepts, & have a really early sleep before PSLE. At least it will regain some confidence on your son for this PSLE. Good luck to your son! ^-^

[Amethyst]

My gal is studying in a neighbourhood school. Her SA1 and prelims Math Papers are rather easy. In fact, for her class (the best class), a lot of them get high marks for the prelims. My concern is that it may not reflect the true standard of the PSLE Math paper. or is this the new direction of the PSLE paper now, where they do not set killer questions like previously (a friend told me so)? May I ask the other parents if your school Math prelim paper is also pretty easy? My gal has no problem with her prelims, but when doing the get me thinking assessment bk, she is not able to solve many questions, so i really fear that she cannot do if the PSLE paper is hard and the school has not prepared them enough. She has no Math tuition.


I heard that Nanyang Math prelims is very tough. Is it true? Can anyone share the paper with me please? I would like to let her try a few tough questions.
Thanks in advance.

[Estéema]

Ganjiongspider:

BePersevere:

Dear Parents,


I am at my wit’s end how to help my son with science open ended portion. He used to do reasonably well for paper 2 but in recent prelim, he failed horribly. While revising the upper block yesterday, he suddenly broke down and told me he does not even know what kind of answers the teachers are looking for. I was totally taken aback as this is the first time in 6 years that he snapped while revising. He claimed he does not even know what he does not know. Even when most or all key words are there, it was zero mark everywhere on the paper which he could not understand why. I am not sure if the above is a common problem for science.

This is one subject that I am unable to help him at all. I asked him to check with teacher what was wrong with his answers and to me, his wrong answers appear similar to the corrections. He said his classmates did check with teacher but all were brushed off as teacher said ‘wrong means wrong, sit down and copy down the correct answers….. go back to revise and memorise’. To me, science is more than just memorizing.

Normally we use the top school papers but I think the issue is with the wrong answers in the answer sheet. Unless parents are able to understand and mark on their own instead of relying on the answers, top school science paper may end up doing more harm than good.

As PSLE science is just 2 weeks away, I hope experienced parents here can share with me how I can help my child to gain back his confidence and study effectively. The last I want is for him to get burnt out and suffer a mental breakdown.

If it is not appropriate to share or post here, I hope some kind soul can send me a PM. Thank you in advance.

Dear BePesevere,

For Science, it is indeed a very challenging subject whereby school teachers or parents cannot justify kids's answers in OE as to \"What Is actually Wrong With My Answer????\" Since it is only 1 wk plus to PSLE Science, I suggested your son to just review only the mistakes from school's worksheet or past year exm paper marked by school teachers/any tuition works only. Just rewrite the answers from the school's corections. That is the only thing he can do now. Don't do any new paper from now. As for practice, you can let him work on MCQ questions. BC MCQ questions are the easiest to mark & explain. Questions that are wrong from MCQ can be worked on it at this stage bc it reinforces the science concept. So if your son able to pass the MCQ portion, I reckon it shld be on safe range. Just work on concepts, & have a really early sleep before PSLE. At least it will regain some confidence on your son for this PSLE. Good luck to your son! ^-^

:goodpost:

I like gangjiongspider's advice to BePersevere.

Good strategy to just help him focus on revisiting school worksheets coz he'll be familiar with what science teacher taught in class.

At this 11th hour, really need to bring his confidence level up. Don't make any kid panic now - it's not healthy for their mental & emotional state. Just encourage him to ustand & learn as much as he can. Don't worry abt the outcome. In Spore, they'll excel at some stage and find their niche. Don't stress him.

Like janet88 has been highlighting - hv enuf rest, drink more water & take care.

I wld say lots of hugs and love as all P6s had been working very hard & deserve the extra love, kisses & hug to affirm them.

[Estéema]

– delete –

[Estéema]

Amethyst:

My gal is studying in a neighbourhood school. Her SA1 and prelims Math Papers are rather easy. In fact, for her class (the best class), a lot of them get high marks for the prelims. My concern is that it may not reflect the true standard of the PSLE Math paper. or is this the new direction of the PSLE paper now, where they do not set killer questions like previously (a friend told me so)? May I ask the other parents if your school Math prelim paper is also pretty easy? My gal has no problem with her prelims, but when doing the get me thinking assessment bk, she is not able to solve many questions, so i really fear that she cannot do if the PSLE paper is hard and the school has not prepared them enough. She has no Math tuition.


I heard that Nanyang Math prelims is very tough. Is it true? Can anyone share the paper with me please? I would like to let her try a few tough questions.
Thanks in advance.

Hi Amethyst,

If yr DD is P6, don't worry abt trying to do GetMeThinking anymore if the difficult was will stress her up as next week is PSLE week alr.

Diff schools hv diff strategies - some schools deliberately make Prelims more difficult then PSLE paper wld be as scare tactic to get them to work harder; some do it easy to help pull the kids' confidence level up do they don't loose heart. Whatever sch does, parents hv to determine what adjustments u hv to help yr kid make. Whatever sch does, diff parents will still complain either too easy & sch shld've make it realistic or more difficult whilst the other camp wld complain sch shld not use scare tactic to cause unnecessary stress burden on young kids.

Boils down to how parents want their kids to turn out to be & each child is different. Some can't take stress type, whereas some (like my restless one) must be kept occupied every moment owise complain non-stop getting bored. Threshold to stress is very high but I still tone down with other activities coz I scared to see burnout kids.

This is too close to next week's PSLE, so as parents, we need to accept let our kids go into exam halls as is, don't squeeze in anymore heavy load & stress them. Light revisiting to keep momentum OK if yr kid don't react. If u see unhappiness, etc better not push too hard. All hard work shld be undertaken long before this & next week.

Just pray for your kids' good health - mind, emotions, physical, etc. So in terms of action, back to what janet88 suggested - drink plenty & sleep enuf. Take care.

[lee_yl]

Anyone’s P6 DC not going to school from next Monday onwards?

[fanren]

lee_yl:

Anyone's P6 DC not going to school from next Monday onwards?

The school will allow that?

[Estéema]

fanren:

lee_yl:

Anyone's P6 DC not going to school from next Monday onwards?

The school will allow that?

Apply leave fr FT. Some parents do that. I did previously for my girl but ano parent frd clobbered me for teaching kids to ponteng class.

As PSLE starts on a Thurs, Mon-Wed out of sch will cause the kid to feel funny when walking in for PSLE? Might wanna think again...

[AnneY]

phtthp:

for Maths, due to tight schedule, amongst these Top schools' Maths paper (Tao Nan, Nan Hua, Nanyang) : which one should a P6xer practise from ?
(no time to practise from all the 3 schools, but only one)

Nanyang : For Maths - Practice paper 2 if no time to do whole paper. The harder questions are in Paper 2.

For Math, one technique I have taught my kids is to not spend too much time on the difficult questions, but spend some time to check that they have the easy questions 100% correct.

[Hollywood]

Does anyone have the Nanyang 2017 prelim paper for maths . Thanks so much