How to prepare child for next week's Selection Test GEP ?

[david59]

yellow-dk:

puppylove:

Hi I am first time parent with child selected for selection test. Any experienced parent who has trained their child? Just want to give my child the best i can. Don't want to sit by and not do anything. Read some of your postings already... friends say Olympiad type maths good for practice. What else ?

I don't think parents should prepare the kids for GEP. GEP programme is very tough and if the child is prepared just to get into GEP, they may eventually suffer and not be able to cope with the syllabus.

I certainly agree. This kid in my student care centre who has just completed PSLE has never had tuition at all. He did not go through any preparatory classes to take the GEP selection test. I would say he is just simply gifted with the ability to analyse complex ideas. Such kids will go very far. Like I said in another thread, he is already given a place in RI, Hwa Chong and NUS High. He is still taking his time to decide which choice to make.
This is why it is called GIFTED Programme. High memory power and analytical brain and self motivation are very essential to thrive in the GEP grilling environment.

[acforfamily]

How to prepare?

Actually I would only recommend that you teach the child what to do when he / she faces questions that stump them. Some of these smart kids are so used to ‘easy’ questions that they may be shocked to see questions that they have not seen before.

My 2 cents worth:
1. Read the questions carefully
2. Do not linger too long on the question if you do not understand it. Move on to the next question. Come back to it only after you have completed the rest of the paper.
3. Answer to the best of your ability. Try not to leave it blank.
4. Sleep well the night before.
5. Do not try to do any last minute cramming of new ideas.
6. If your kid enjoys doing Maths, no harm doing the Maths Olympiad questions. They are actually quite interesting. Even if they are useless as preparation for the GEP test, they do require the kids to think differently.

Most importantly, tell the kid that not going past the 2nd round is not the end of the world.

[ApronMama]

CMF:

Understand that it's mostly logic Qs, and where there are maths Qs - it requires some degree of logical analysis.


Understand that the following are some examples of the Qs tested.

(1) 1 cat can catch 2 mice in 3 days. How many cats are needed to catch 100 mice in 30 days?

(2) A and B started at the same point and walked in opposite directions.For every 20 metres A walked, B walked 12 metres. If A walked 1 km, what was the total distance between them ?

(3) This question came with a diagram. It was a square with 2 diagonals crossed at the centre of the square. The length of each diagonal of the square was 8 cm. Find the area of the square.

Would yoiu pls share how many maths qns, whether there will be open ended short qns or problem sum in rund 2 ? how many GAT qns?

[Rosie]

Heard that not all the questions in selection test are important or carry equal weightage when computing the overall scores. Some of them could be distractors. So even if students who sat for the test could remember and share some of the questions, these may not be the important ones. Last year, my DD found the selection test very difficult and according to her was not able to do some of the questions but to our surprise, she was selected for the programme …this could be because she provided the correct answers to the so called ‘right’ questions. If this is true then it may be difficult to prepare your child for the test and in some cases it may back fire 'cos the child may focus too much on the ‘trained’ but unimportant questions and may actually missed out on the ‘right’ questions. Just my 2cts worth…

[Zann]

So how did your child who took the GEP selection test feel this monring? Easy, so-so, or difficult?

[nancygoh77]

For GEP preparation i think the best is to


-for math practice i recommend math Olympiad questions.

for english , i would recommend the kids to read widely

gep quite hard to get in . really nid a lot of preparation…sigh

[kiasimom]

Hi.

I called MOE up and was informed the results will be out on 31st Oct.
So the school will most probably be informed the next week.

[ApronMama]

kiasimom:

Hi.

I called MOE up and was informed the results will be out on 31st Oct.
So the school will most probably be informed the next week.

Really! :!:

[lego]

Just curious - roughly how many students will be selected for GEP programme every year?

[keroppi]

lego:

Just curious - roughly how many students will be selected for GEP programme every year?

About 500-550.