2019 PSLE Discussions and Strategies (Children born in 2007)

[chenlaoshi]

sweetbaby:

Bochapmum3:

Yes..holidays coming to an end. Have you all managed to achieve most of your planned revision so far? I foresee that once school term starts, there will hardly be time to do any self revision. I plan to leave most of that to the school, rather than having grand plans and in the end stress ourselves up with no time to carry out our own plans. More worried about orals which tend to be overlooked by schools, and not sure if we have time to prepare that adequately ourselves...

From hearsays of friends and families, most schools do practices and mock trials for oral. DC's school also provide some phrases. From my observation, my DC marks rather stagnant. Not sure if we put more effort and time will equal to increased marks. Dilemma cos must balance with other subjects and rest/play time. My DC likely to protest. I feel keeping DC positive is important.

Some schools get students to stay back or come earlier (usually Term 2 on-wards) so that teachers and/or parent volunteers can guide/do oral practice with them on 1-1 basis.

For CL:
Most schools also provide oral guidebook/handouts - of which the contents are more than sufficient (esp. when compared to tuition centers). The key is read through them consistently, understand the pointers, develop one's train of thought and remember the good/key expressions and descriptive phrases.

E.g.:
List of nouns, verbs and descriptive phrases based on topics --->
https://i.postimg.cc/4xKMXxcq/oral1.jpg\">

Common topics to prepare for as well as to use as practice to strength the child's critical thinking and analytical skills --->
https://i.postimg.cc/43VSh2B1/oral2.jpg\">

Past year passages to read for practices --->
http://chenlaoshi.wixsite.com/psleprepclass/scope-of-curriculum
(notice some phrases' repeated occurrence over some of the years and how majority of the passages include conversation/dialogue - for students to score via the correct application of tone)

[janet88]

zac's mum:

I don’t understand. Why do each of them carry 100% weightage? I thought it would be 0% weightage because the PSLE is the one that matters. Even if anyone fails CA1 I doubt the school will force them to be retained one year. More likely they will ramp up the remedials for that child.

For the languages, I believe the kids will benefit from having more “exams” in P6. Especially for oral practice. Need exam conditions so that they can prep more realistically for the real PSLE Oral.

for kids not doing DSA, the CAs and SAs at p6 can be used as a form of revision...but don't get demoralised because schools always set tougher than usual. supplementary lessons would start after CNY.

[Blue Pearl]

mylilgirl:

If possible, invest in a kindle. My girl has been using one since P4. A basic one cost about $100+ I think but it’s good enough and super durable.


There are many free ebooks that you could download. For instance, we downloaded the whole series of Harry Potter FOC.

The advantage is if there are any words the kids do not understand, they can just tap on that word and the meaning is immediately shown. They could also save the word in the kindle word bank. Very useful and portable.

May I know where to purchase know Kindle? Tks

[mylilgirl]

Blue Pearl:

May I know where to purchase know Kindle? Tks

Recently, my friends bought their Kindle Paperwhite from Carousell. There are several sellers, you may browse around and get from someone with higher rating and has available stock (do not need to wait/ pre-order).

[phtthp]

zac's mum:

I don’t understand. Why do each of them carry 100% weightage? I thought it would be 0% weightage because the PSLE is the one that matters. Even if anyone fails CA1 I doubt the school will force them to be retained one year. More likely they will ramp up the remedials for that child.

For the languages, I believe the kids will benefit from having more “exams” in P6. Especially for oral practice. Need exam conditions so that they can prep more realistically for the real PSLE Oral.

P6, is like that. Every single exam (P6 CA1, SA1, SA2 prelim), is upon 100 %

For P5, they apportion into small parts (portion).

Eg, every subject, they apportion, say,

P5 CA1 (15 %),

P5 SA1 (25 %),

P5 SA2 (40 %)

[zac's mum]

phtthp:

zac's mum:

I don’t understand. Why do each of them carry 100% weightage? I thought it would be 0% weightage because the PSLE is the one that matters. Even if anyone fails CA1 I doubt the school will force them to be retained one year. More likely they will ramp up the remedials for that child.

For the languages, I believe the kids will benefit from having more “exams” in P6. Especially for oral practice. Need exam conditions so that they can prep more realistically for the real PSLE Oral.

P6, is like that. Every single exam (P6 CA1, SA1, SA2 prelim), is upon 100 %

For P5, they apportion into small parts (portion).

Eg, every subject, they apportion, say,

P5 CA1 (15 %),

P5 SA1 (25 %),

P5 SA2 (40 %)

Erm, I still don’t understand. 100% of something is like 1 whole fraction.

If there are 3 (or 4) tests spread throughout the year, then they should add up to 100% like how several fractions add up to 1. How could the total be >100%?

And, like I mentioned, the PSLE score is the only score that matters in P6. Would the school kick out any child and bar him/her from taking PSLE if he/she fails the CA1/SA1/prelim?? Already registered the candidate with the unique index number right?

[MrsKiasu]

I think it is like each tests are independent unlike prior P6 tests, different weightage for both SA1 & SA2, which will add up as 100% for each subject.


Maybe use the marks from one of the tests as the ‘formal’ one for the yearly award day/edusave kind of awards, if any?

[phtthp]

MrsKiasu:

I think it is like each tests are independent unlike prior P6 tests, different weightage for both SA1 & SA2, which will add up as 100% for each subject.


Maybe use the marks from one of the tests as the 'formal' one for the yearly award day/edusave kind of awards, if any?

What they do is since P6 (CA1, SA1, SA2) each exam is upon 100, so Total up 3 exam will be upon 300.

means for each subject (upon 300 marks), they will convert back into 100 %.


Then, for P6 level cohort, in each primary school, they will use Excel spreadsheet to sort out,

- the Top x percent, by both course (GEP vs. Mainstream, separated out by course) and by level (for us, is P6 level) :
whether awarded Edusave scholarship or awarded Edusave Merit Bursary or awarded Good Progress award, etc

[mylilgirl]

I think of all the test/ SA in P6, prelim is the most important. Just in case the child is unable to take PSLE due to medical reason, prelim marks will be used to convert to tscore.

[zac's mum]

That effectively means (eg. if there are 3 tests) that each test’s weightage is ~33.3% isn’t it?


I think the school is trying to con you. What they actually want you to think is: “every test is important. I must treat each test equally seriously.” As opposed to maybe last time CA1 is smaller weightage so I don’t study so hard.

Back to the consequences (awards calculation I’m not interested): zero consequences because zero actual weightage. VS earlier years (P5 and before) if overall fail could be retained, or if subject almost fail will be side-tracked to take Foundation level for that subject.

Do ALL schools specify this 100% per test?