2011 PSLE Discussions and Strategy

[Leanne]

Pixiedust,


Honestly, what we did was do as many compre as possible(toughest to do as ds takes ages to write), do compos on different title, discuss the plot,(ensure no wrong chinese word is written, so no marks deducted) and for oral, just practise with him.

Maybe lately ds picks up reading as in chinese story book, and that thus helps a bit, tho its a bit late.


rgds
Leanne

pixiedust:

wkong, the chinese teacher's email reply is so inspiring. I wish all schools take that approach. is your child naturally strong in Chinese or you did some magic ?

Leanne, agree lucky you ! compo,compre and oral are really difficult areas to tackle..very elusive. Appreciate if you can share some tips what you do regularly ?

Pen88n
EL - which sections ? Mine loses marks in OE compre and cloze (no more helping words). or it is Grammar MCQ or S&T? Grammar MCQ/S&T - need to practise, esp Grammar, must understand the rule instead of purely rely on 'sounds right'. OE compre is the killer due to the inferential questions. My ds's EL is stronger than CL but he still gets lots of marks deducted for EL OE. I must admit I neglect EL and focused more on the other subjects....now also thinking about how to tackle this issue.

CL - I always tell him HYPY and all MCQ questions must get full marks else the 2 compre will reduce marks further. The graphic stimulus compre (advertisement/notices), I use the greenleaf assessment and drill, teach him how to look for the usual questions : purpose of notice, dates, etc. Just my 2cents worth.

[Leanne]

Hi Brenda,


Good job that you have done...

Your dd like chinese?If yes, can really aim for a good sap school.

Am sure she will improve with your constant guidance.


Cheers
Leanne

Brenda10:

Leanne:

Hi Brenda,

Well done...Keep it up.

I know this section can score full marks.Jia you.


cheers
Leanne

Hi Leanne

Thank you.

Dare not to aim so high. I will be happy as long as she can maintain this grade or get 1 - 2 marks higher.

[janet88]

Brenda10:

janet_lee88:

Dear Brenda,

Thanks for coming to my rescue all the time.:hugs:
Do I focus on his accuracy or speed for Maths Part 1 now ?

Dear Janet

My opinion is go for accuracy first. The speed will gradually improve once he has more exposure to the questions. At this time don't emphasis the timing to him otherwise he will feel very stress. However, you can observe the timing yourself.
Just my 2cents thought.

Ok...got it. Thanks.

[pixiedust]

Leanne:

..discuss the plot,(ensure no wrong chinese word is written, so no marks deducted) and for oral, just practise with him.

Ah, I see ! That's really a lot of hard work. No wonder he did well.
I also emphasised to my ds no wrong chinese word but he still makes plenty. Just very poor memory and sensitivity to the language. Nevertherless, it is good to know your hardwork paid off...inspires me to head the same direction too. Thanks for sharing.

@Janet, for ds, I found that doing the school papers for Maths really helped. For the questions he had problems, I put a sticky and revisited just before CA1. After a while we noticed the maths problem of similar 'styles'...just that the numbers and words are different. SA1 will include more fractions and ratio <-- known to be challenging. Hence, it will be a good idea to clear up Term1 topics first then move on.

[Leanne]

You are welcome, pixiedust.



No pain no gain, I guess this applies to all subjects.The only difference is which subject the kid has to work on.


Cheers
Leanne

pixiedust:

Leanne:

..discuss the plot,(ensure no wrong chinese word is written, so no marks deducted) and for oral, just practise with him.

Ah, I see ! That's really a lot of hard work. No wonder he did well.
I also emphasised to my ds no wrong chinese word but he still makes plenty. Just very poor memory and sensitivity to the language. Nevertherless, it is good to know your hardwork paid off...inspires me to head the same direction too. Thanks for sharing.

[wkong]

pixiedust:

wkong, the chinese teacher's email reply is so inspiring. I wish all schools take that approach. is your child naturally strong in Chinese or you did some magic ?

Hi Pixiedust,

DS was never strong in Chinese, in fact he dislike it alot. Been asking me if possible send him overseas study cos he will not need to take CL or HCL. But I told him he has to face the fact and work on it.

Basically what I do is each time the CA or SA results are out, I will SMS or email to his teachers to understand which area I need to focus on him, and what I should take note. I will then re-enforce it when I am revising with him.

[wkong]

Chenonceau:

Is your son in P5? If so, maybe can try memorizing compo using digital audio tracks+ glossary list+ printed text? My son's compo grades went from 8/20 to 16/20 from November 2010 till now. His teacher can't believe it. He has memorized 19 compos and writes an average of 1 compo in 2 weeks.

I also get grandma to read 3 newspaper articles with him everyday.

Hi Chenonceau,

How did you manage to convince your DS to writes an average 1 compo in 2 weeks? I can never convinced my DS to do it. Any tips for that?

Cheers,
wkong

[janet88]

wkong:

Chenonceau:

Is your son in P5? If so, maybe can try memorizing compo using digital audio tracks+ glossary list+ printed text? My son's compo grades went from 8/20 to 16/20 from November 2010 till now. His teacher can't believe it. He has memorized 19 compos and writes an average of 1 compo in 2 weeks.

I also get grandma to read 3 newspaper articles with him everyday.

Hi Chenonceau,

How did you manage to convince your DS to writes an average 1 compo in 2 weeks? I can never convinced my DS to do it. Any tips for that?

Cheers,
wkong

Son's tutor said he must start memorizing some 开头，结尾 and add in conversation from now...no time to learn this in P6.

[wkong]

Leanne:

Pixiedust,


Honestly, what we did was do as many compre as possible(toughest to do as ds takes ages to write), do compos on different title, discuss the plot,(ensure no wrong chinese word is written, so no marks deducted) and for oral, just practise with him.

Maybe lately ds picks up reading as in chinese story book, and that thus helps a bit, tho its a bit late.

rgds
Leanne

Hi Leanne & KS parents,

Do you have any tips for CL picture composition writing? My DS can never relate picture 1 to picture 2 and so on.

Thanks,
wkong

[Pen88n]

Thanks, everyone, for all your tips. DS is in P6 now, so not much time to catch up for languages. I’m gonna put aside time for him daily to do the languages and improve on the various sections. Unfortunately, he is not weak only in some section, but lose marks in overall. His EL marks lost in S&T, cloze and compre. CL MCQ and compre both lost equal marks. So more work need to be put in.


For a guide, can anyone advise what should be the range of marks to aim for for EL (/95) and CL (/90) for paper 2 for a high A or low A*, taking into consideration compo will lose more marks?? DS is only getting in the range of the 70s and I’m pretty worried that may not be enough to get him even a A and will pull down his T-score for PSLE.

Thanks again for all the advice.