Preparing kids for P5 in 2011

[tisha]

P5 parents please don’t worry too much. Of all the primary years, P5 is the most difficult. Yes, even more so that P6. The leap is too big, the contents more complicated and the expectations by school extremely high. :x I don’t understand why, but the exam Q are so difficult and marking so strict that all students do quite poorly for CA1/SA1. Things slightly improve by CA2, and by SA2 you are all geared up for the dreaded PSLE.

So please be supportive of your DS/DDs and don’t push them too hard. They are already having a tough time. Try to identify weak areas and work specifially on those instead of more and more practise. You’ll get thru it successfully. Good luck.

[janet88]

pixiedust:

Janet, 加油 ! I think Brenda's suggestion is very good. I hope to do that too and we will improve in time management. We don't know Maths result yet but FT says >10 failed


We only got the CA1 Chinese paper back so far. 19 out of 39 in his class passed. Ds is only borderline pass. I am :stupid: This is just paper 2 and already I haven't seen the paper yet but he says OE compre and cloze lost a lot of marks. I can't imagine SA1/2 with compo and oral !

What else are you all doing about Chinese ?

Son's tutor couldn't make it for tuition last week as her daughter had fever. So I had to double up as tutor to coach him for CL CA :frustrated: bcos I don't know if I was coaching him the right thing...whew ! lucky no 作文 and 口试. Revised with him for Section A esp hanyu pinyin, 辨字测验 as well as some comprehension passages from past year papers.

Why must P5 be so difficult ? The jump from P4 to P5 feels so great. Exam papers are tough and marking is so strict.

[janet88]

tisha:

I don't understand why, but the exam Q are so difficult and marking so strict that all students do quite poorly for CA1/SA1. Things slightly improve by CA2, and by SA2 you are all geared up for the dreaded PSLE.

Try to identify weak areas and work specifially on those instead of more and more practise. You'll get thru it successfully. Good luck.

Results are making me worried...Son has CL tuition and once-a-week English enrichment...other than that I coach him for his English, Maths (hubby) and Science with the help of assessment books, focusing on his weak areas for grammar or synthesis. So I don't know what I'm doing is correct.

[ksme]

janet_lee88:

Results are making me worried...

Janet,
So sorry to hear about your son's results. Hope you stay strong and calm so you can encourage and support your son. I am sure he is feeling worried and lousy as well. Kids do want to do well in tests and exams. When they don't, they will feel bad and some may give up. Hopefully, your son doesn't give up, but instead, use this to spur himself forward.

I can't really help you much but hopefully you will find this helpful in some ways. Personally, if it was my kid, I would review if his enrichment classes are effective for him. Some kids do better with 1 to 1 coaching while others learn better with friendly competition in a class environment. Review if the centre he goes to is suitable for him, is the curriculum they teach comparable with his school standards. If he is weak in Maths, you may want to consider letting him go for Maths classes supplemented by guidance from your dh?

Anyway, it is just my personal thoughts. Hope it is useful to you. Don't be too discouraged by this first test. It could also be that your kid's \"motor\" has not geared up fully for tests yet. Or maybe, his foundations are not strong enough in which case, you still have time to strengthen his foundation before the major exams that truly matter, ie PSLE. Take care of yourselves (both mummy and ds) and wish you all the best as you move forward. :hugs:

[janet88]

ksme:

janet_lee88:

Results are making me worried...

Janet,
So sorry to hear about your son's results. Hope you stay strong and calm so you can encourage and support your son. I am sure he is feeling worried and lousy as well. Kids do want to do well in tests and exams. When they don't, they will feel bad and some may give up. Hopefully, your son doesn't give up, but instead, use this to spur himself forward.

Anyway, it is just my personal thoughts. Hope it is useful to you. Don't be too discouraged by this first test. It could also be that your kid's \"motor\" has not geared up fully for tests yet. Or maybe, his foundations are not strong enough :hugs:

I won't scream at him since it's his first CA and Maths is known to be super tough. Will work on his speed and accuracy like what Brenda mentioned. I've told hubby not to scream at him either...will discuss with his teachers during parent-teacher meeting on how improvements can be made.
Thanks for your encouragement.

[sydney]

Of all the subjects, Math has the biggest change from P4. Math for P5 is expected to be a big leap from P4. Schools would be pushing as much as they can from P6 down to P5 so that when the kid goes into P6, the school can focus on revision and lesser on teaching new topics. My neighbour's son in one of the Hokkien Huay Kuan schools in P5, shared that 16 of his classmates failed CA1 Math. My son now in P6 had similar challenges when he was in P5. He managed to catchup only in SA2. Prior, all was in a mess and I was in a loss.


Persevere, all will be fine.

[janet88]

sydney:

Of all the subjects, Math has the biggest change from P4. Math for P5 is expected to be a big leap from P4. Schools would be pushing as much as they can from P6 down to P5 so that when the kid goes into P6, the school can focus on revision and lesser on teaching new topics. My neighbour's son in one of the Hokkien Huay Kuan schools in P5, shared that 16 of his classmates failed CA1 Math. My son now in P6 had similar challenges when he was in P5. He managed to catchup only in SA2. Prior, all was in a mess and I was in a loss.


Persevere, all will be fine.

Hi Mummies,
Thanks for all your valuable advice.
My neighbour's son is in P6 this year...last year, she told me her son's whole class flunked Maths for CA1. So this big leap for Maths is across the nation.

[peterch]

Gosh....... Just realize that lots of P5 kids had quite a problem with CA1. Are they from neighborhood primary or from so called 'branded' primary?


As for my DS, I could see that consistency in doing assessments helped him. I let him enjoy last year end's holiday too much. He lost his 'skill' but luckily he got it back before CA1. I think, we had to let them do things in balance. Study, Play and Rest

Let's start preparing SA1 from today then.......

[janet88]

peterch:

Gosh....... Just realize that lots of P5 kids had quite a problem with CA1. Are they from neighborhood primary or from so called 'branded' primary?


As for my DS, I could see that consistency in doing assessments helped him. I let him enjoy last year end's holiday too much. He lost his 'skill' but luckily he got it back before CA1. I think, we had to let them do things in balance. Study, Play and Rest

Let's start preparing SA1 from today then.......

We do assessments daily but somehow his CA1 is not what I would expect since we are consistent. Wondering if it's because school uses a scare tactic to wake me and son up to the real world.

[Brenda10]

janet_lee88:

We do assessments daily but somehow his CA1 is not what I would expect since we are consistent. Wondering if it's because school uses a scare tactic to wake me and son up to the real world.

Hi Janet

For our case, I find that to work directly in the past year paper is more effective and time saving. Assessment book is acted as reference if we have problem to solve and can look out for similar question and from there we can do a few similar exercise and perhaps put the *marks to revisit again.