Q&A - PSLE English

[PiggyLalala]

ridcully:

chrisu:

The single piece of printed lines (only 15 lines) was given during my daughter's SA1, though that situational writing was report writing. The teacher made it very clear - only 1 piece will be given.

That doesn't sound right for the PSLE. Fifteen lines is way insufficient. The Composition Booklet is much more generous, although I do not have a copy of one and have not seen one for many years.

My son took PSLE last year. From what I know, for situational writing, you need not write too long, just make sure you have included all the pointers ( that is answer all the questions listed in the situational writing.) Also ensure that you have the correct format. Hence 15 lines should be sufficient for the situational writing. I have read my son's situational writing before. They are all quite short. My son usually spent only 10 mins, max 15 mins on this component. This is a very easy component to score according to the school teachers.

[PiggyLalala]

ridcully:

chrisu:

Thank you ridcully. I'm rather worried for her PSLE English Picture Discussion and Converstion. Those are her weakess...

Two pieces of advice for your daughter:


1. Before going in to meet the examiner, ask her to smile and imagine that it is simply going to be a chat with a favourite grandparent;
2. It is better to speak too much than too little.

All the best!
R

:goodpost: Good advice. Smile more and be confident. Just talk. Do not be too nervous if the examiner prompted you in the oral. Unlike chinese oral where prompting may mean you did not talk enough, it is not so in english oral according to my ds. ( that was last year; not too sure it is the same this year. )

All the best and best of luck. Hope it will be some easy pictures that your ds/dd has seen in the assessment books or somewhere.

[chrisu]

Thank you for the info. For other situational writing topic like email, report, speech, is fine with 15 lines. But when comes to letter writing, especially formal letter, with both sender and receiver address, already occupy at least 8 lines, and minus the dear, names, and yours sincerely, how many lines are left for writing?

PiggyLalala:

ridcully:

[quote=\"chrisu\"]The single piece of printed lines (only 15 lines) was given during my daughter's SA1, though that situational writing was report writing. The teacher made it very clear - only 1 piece will be given.

That doesn't sound right for the PSLE. Fifteen lines is way insufficient. The Composition Booklet is much more generous, although I do not have a copy of one and have not seen one for many years.

My son took PSLE last year. From what I know, for situational writing, you need not write too long, just make sure you have included all the pointers ( that is answer all the questions listed in the situational writing.) Also ensure that you have the correct format. Hence 15 lines should be sufficient for the situational writing. I have read my son's situational writing before. They are all quite short. My son usually spent only 10 mins, max 15 mins on this component. This is a very easy component to score according to the school teachers. :)[/quote]

[PiggyLalala]

chrisu:

Thank you for the info. For other situational writing topic like email, report, speech, is fine with 15 lines. But when comes to letter writing, especially formal letter, with both sender and receiver address, already occupy at least 8 lines, and minus the dear, names, and yours sincerely, how many lines are left for writing?

Maybe other parents with P6 child this year could comment on this.
I dont think i ever worried about the writing space in the situational writing before. What I remembered was my son situational writings were always very short. When I questioned him, he said he just need to ensure all the necessary points are in it. As he usually scored very well in this component, I really did not check further. Sorry, cant help you much. Maybe you can check with the school teachers.

[Brenda10]

PiggyLalala:

Maybe other parents with P6 child this year could comment on this.

I dont think i ever worried about the writing space in the situational writing before. What I remembered was my son situational writings were always very short. When I questioned him, he said he just need to ensure all the necessary points are in it. As he usually scored very well in this component, I really did not check further. Sorry, cant help you much. Maybe you can check with the school teachers.

I rememebr the teacher advise is not to exceed 15 minutes and become run out of time for compo which is 40 marks.

One page should be sufficient for situational writing with all the required points.

[chrisu]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v160/guppiesonli/Misc/Letter-Writing-Sample.jpg\">


Above is the given printed sheet (15 lines) for the situational writing. I've done up the address portion for both the sender and receiver, date, saluatation, etc.. and only 1 line left for the content for Letter Writing topic.

Hope you all get my point and I'm not asking about other types of situation writing like memo, email, speech and just formal and informal letter writing. For others, I'm already fully aware it's more than enough.

Unless the new format is both the addresses can be left out and procceed straight to the Dear So and So.


Thanks and cheers.

[PiggyLalala]

chrisu:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v160/guppiesonli/Misc/Letter-Writing-Sample.jpg\">


Above is the given printed sheet (15 lines) for the situational writing. I've done up the address portion for both the sender and receiver, date, saluatation, etc.. and only 1 line left for the content for Letter Writing topic.

Hope you all get my point and I'm not asking about other types of situation writing like memo, email, speech and just formal and informal letter writing. For others, I'm already fully aware it's more than enough.

Unless the new format is both the addresses can be left out and procceed straight to the Dear So and So.


Thanks and cheers.

I can understand what you mean. Maybe you can check with the school teacher on the writing space and whether there is such new format to leave out the addressess.

All the best to your dd PSLE this year.

[chrisu]

Thank you PiggyLalala. I’ve already sent an email to the teacher and waiting for her reply. Will feedback here once I got the reply. Just to check with the rest of the P6 parents whether their kids encounter letter writing for their exam and how is it like?

[coolit]

ridcully:

P5G:

66. I have a million dollars. I would donate half of it to the Nation Kidney Foundation.

If I had _______________.

Worksheet answer: If I had a million dollars, I would donate half of it to the National Kidney Foundation.

Is this answer acceptable? If I had had a million dollars, I would have donated half of it to the National Kidney Foundation.

Both are grammatically correct within themselves: The worksheet answer is what is known as a second conditional; and your answer is known as a third conditional.

Based on the beginning 'If I had...\" I suspect they are after the second conditional, namely the worksheet answer. However, an examiner with heart would surely accept the third conditional so I say your answer is acceptable.

Rgds
R

My son is taking PSLE this year, he had a question like this for his exam and he was marked correct for writing the worksheet answer, one of his friend wrote
the 'had had' answer and was marked wrong because the teacher said that
they were looking for the past tense conditional and not the past perfect
conditional. Not sure if maybe in the PSLE, they would accept both but I would go with the worksheet answer. Its safer.

[chrisu]

The teacher just called me back on this letter writing in PSLE. No need to write both addresses, just start off with Dear So and So, content and sign off.


Great!

chrisu:

Thank you PiggyLalala. I've already sent an email to the teacher and waiting for her reply. Will feedback here once I got the reply. Just to check with the rest of the P6 parents whether their kids encounter letter writing for their exam and how is it like?