2019 PSLE Discussions and Strategies (Children born in 2007)
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FantasyLandDreams:
DD just told me today, her Maths teacher told the class to expect 30~40 marks drop for SA1 when compare to P4. :shock: :shock: :shock:Hi Dylanmummy
My P5 SA1 results just streamed in slowly and it is scary too.
Basically those getting 90s are in the 70s or even 60s now, partly because SYF took away a lot of their time this time round. Basically the whole March holidays was in school almost everyday for camp and SYF. And some SYF only ended a week before SA1, for the band event.
I was told half the cohort failed the maths paper, not sure how true. Our case is a 10-15 marks drop roughly. To be honest the 15 marks drop was not within my expectations but well, let's see what went wrong and work from there this June holidays. Jiayou Jiayou.
I have yet to see the papers though as they have not come back.
Heard that the P6 classes did not do too well too and one of the form teachers had written a letter to all parents not to scold the children badly but walk the journey with them and be more encouraging instead.
they do not have CA1. they did a Maths review paper 2 month ago and only 6~7 passes in her class. highest was only 64/100. she was in the 2nd best class for Maths. she score 64/100. when i heard about the 30~40 marks drop, i heart drop... she only average around 75 in P4. if drop 30~40 marks, i will faint...
Science is her weakest. only ave around 65 in P4. dont dare see her P5 SA1 Science paper -
phtthp:
DD still can manage her Situational writing well. her oral and listening compre is also manageable. her weakness is compo. and this year, they have editing and compre cloze added to paper 4. this is the section that pulls her marks down. now only hope oral, listening compre can pull her overall result for Eng up.Hi Dylanmummy,
In my daughter's school, P5 Science was most challenging, for the entire cohort : -
many 2018 P5 students in her school encountered the greatest drop in Science, at P5 CA1, because far too many Topics coming in concurrently, now. Many of us couldn't finish revision on time, because everyday, so much school homework pouring in, leaving us with hardly time left, for revision, on so many subjects, plus Cca activities / SYF commitment. As such, some of us barely passed Science.
P5 English language :-
the drop, because now got two different type of English composition coming in now (Situation writing, plus another Continuous 3-picture given compo writing), instead of just one composition in P4 SA2 last year :-
although also experienced by some students, is still not so drastic, compared to Science (the most challenging of all, amongst the 4 core subjects)
At P5 CA1, Science paper :-
once a P5 student got more than 7 mcq questions wrong, become hard to salvage the Science paper.
What more, when come to tougher Section B Open-ended Section ?
Each mcq : carry 2 marks.
if a student get 7 mcq wrong :
means 14 marks lost, in Section A (mcq) alone. That's a lot !
For SA1 :
Science paper is 1 hour, 45 minutes
if we count down to 2019 PSLE next year, from now (May 2018) until August 2019, where PSLE Oral starts, minus away the time spent on DSA preparation (for those students intending, planning to DSA) ... we are left with only ... One year (short, remaining time)
Science is really tough for her. the Syllabus is kind of tough for me and hubby to cope. we got no choice but to engage tuition for her. she was in sport sch team, so beginning of the year, her time are all taken up with training and competition. only started to tone down after April. which causes her to have lots of catch up to do. keeping fingers crossed she can at least manage a pass for Science. -
Estéema:
thanks for the advice! will definitely make use of June holiday to close up the gap for her!Parents of P5 shld settle their kids with support to close gaps in their learning journey by this year. No time to loose!!!
ENGLISH
Compo - seek one year of tutor's help to teach techniques. Let the child hone in skills & techniques with compo writing practices for each technique. If home tutors, not many wld hv given a set of interesting ideas to kids. As I've shared before, Ms Agnes of Writers@Work was skillful in teaching kids to start with her suggestions & then let her students generate more ideas on her whiteboard (think on their feet) before discussing all their ideas. So her students get to see what other ideas they've missed out. At a small learning centre, kids of P5 level wld be conscious to motivate themselves to healthy competition & want to do better in their work, compared to 1-1 learning with a tutor. I've to qualify tho, parents must know their kids whether suitable for classroom learning. I've a frd whose girl is with autism & 1-1 home tutoring works better.
Oral - must encourage yr child not to loose marks here. Try to identify if yr child is shy or can chat when given any topic. Then get yr child to practice speaking with different ppl (aunties, uncles, PIL, etc) just to help overcome tongue-tight with strangers. Remind yr child invigilators are all different & not their own school teachers but no need to panic coz they're all very friendly teachers fr other schools.
Written Paper Components
- Grammar Revision to ensure strong foundation
- Vocab must be fr habit of reading widely over time. Can't rush
- Get lots of Cloze passages for yr child to practice
- S&T seems to be the toughest for kids to consistently score full marks. So, need to teach them the basics of Tenses, Direct/Indirect or Reported Speech, Modals, etc. Even then, I found it challenging & had to send my child to Academia for a professional to teach how sentences are converted & what to watch out for in every type of changes. I'm not an English teacher so guess I hv my limits as a mum
- Situational Writing need to remind the child impt to take note of Time, Date, Venue, Event. I believe most working parents hv the ability to discuss with the child the diff communication format & what tone (formal/informal) to write, what info u need to tell yr frd or report to an authority, etc. This can be an easy or a very difficult component depending on how much confidence the child has been guided to apply well.
- Comprehension requires technique in reading & ustand'g passages, reading qns & marking out possible answers fr the passage, besides those qns requiring inference or reflections. I taught my child to use highlighters & put in pencil markings Qn 1, Qn 2, etc. Must train the child to re-read an exams passage at least twice. Check answers!
Go thro mistakes for all errors with your child. It's pointless if the child keep doing work that has not been pointed out how he/she shld correct themselves to learn correctly.
SCIENCE
MCQ - Booklet A
Try to revise all Sc topics & assess yr child's strength on topics with a list of strong/weak. Once gone thro one round, focus to help yr child u'stand how the topic(s) work in those weak areas. Mine used to mix up all the diff types of FORCES, so I go thro thoroughly. Then went thro diff qns to test out & guide. When errors committed, I giving leads to help guide to the correct answers by asking what happens when an obj falls, what kind of gives; what happens when u put a magnet & then what force do do think introduced, etc.
Aim to score & forgive yr child with 1/2 qns done wrong for MCQ.
Structured Questions/ OE - Booklet B
This section rides on foundation knowledge of all the Sc topics.
Teach yr child to write the key word(s)/concepts; describe the Sc processes in detail (most boys tend to write what they see in the beginning & the results at the end & not good at elaborating the full processes. Once they read the qn, get them to write points of key word(s)/concepts, then expand on their answers step-by-step. This need lots of practices & children learn by topics. So don't think as adults we ustand how to elaborate of key concepts they shld grasp yr ability. P5 still need adults to guide them in writing & expressing OE answers for each topic.
June school holiday is very precious to revise ALL work that's been done IP to Term2.
Pls only pull out the appropriate Year of exam papers & term for yr child bcoz anything beyond their years will only discourage them & add stress. I used to go to topical practice books for practices for Booklet B.
By year-end, my kids on their own initiative started writing out all the topics they've learnt. What happened was I bought 4 diff colored note cards. They wrote point form & for Sc, my child even drew colorful plants, cells, stomach, etc and it became an easy to carry cards for our Dec holidays & they enjoyed learning coz they own their learning.
Btw, I learnt sth fr Chinese tutor - buy the very year of P5 past year exam papers for yr child to keep practicing esp 理解问答 & 写便条 as they'll be other school's papers to practice.
I guess for some who wish for more English practices, can do the same.
Don't forget to hug them for every effort they put in & give them R&R time. Mine goes for swim, badminton, tennis or bike ride every afternoon for an hour. In fact, P6 CCA ends early for them in May but my child wants to go for CCA till July.
ALL THE BEST to your kids! -
dylanmummy2003:
Most schools had completed P5 SA1, by the end of last week (last Friday).hi parents! 1st time posting in this thread. DD is in P5 this year, PSLE next year.
just wonder, is it really 'normal' for P5 results to dip? DD's English averages 70~80s in P4. her SA1 paper 2, she only gets 54.5/95. i find the dip is too drastic. :(. she mentioned that her English teacher says only a handful passed the Paper 2.
still not sure what is the marks for Paper 1, paper 3 & 4 though. this has put me in a panic mode now.
Results are slowly being released, in slow trickle.
Some P5 girls in schools failed Maths, others failed Science. These 2 subjects faced high casulty rate, at P5 SA1.
some girls who failed Maths / Science ... hid inside the toilet cubicle today (after the release of results) and cried, feeling very demoralized. Sg education system : very stressful ! -
poor thing, maybe they didnt know that it is quite 'normal' for a drop. Guess we know in advance so not much shock. on a lighter note, my gal told me her kaki strategise how to present the papers to parents to manage shock
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Schootopia:
... Drop in grades is usually due to lack of work / guidance for SG students ...
I tend to agree. -
sky minecrafter:
Tend to agree too..dd just managed to do some P5 sci revision and did few past year papers. Not really a shock to me with her results.Schootopia:
... Drop in grades is usually due to lack of work / guidance for SG students ...
I tend to agree. -
Drop in Pri 5 is very common, especially in Chinese and English; first time /200 marks.
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mylulaoshi:
Drop in Pri 5 is very common, especially in Chinese and English; first time /200 marks.
Hi mylulaoshi, is it common to have quite (big) difference between CL and HCL marks and usually CL will see better score than HCL? -
MrsKiasu:
poor thing, maybe they didnt know that it is quite 'normal' for a drop. Guess we know in advance so not much shock. on a lighter note, my gal told me her kaki strategise how to present the papers to parents to manage shock
Reminds me of how my dd told me her results a few years back. She started off with “mum, Cher said this was a really tough paper. Almost half did not clear. Know what? I was one of those that clear....” :slapshead:
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