PSLE T-Score Secrets Revealed

[kitty2]

HCH:

Found an interesting article about PSLE T-score. Reminded me of previous discussion in this forum about marks of A/A*/Pass. I have also verified with MOE that the marks of A/A*/Pass for different PSLE subjusts are confidential and not a fixed value.


Anyway, would like to share the article here. The interesting conclusion from this article is if you would like to get high T-score, you should work harder on language subjects, that is English and MT.

Happy reading.

http://www.greatminds.edu.sg/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=89:disclose-t-score-secret&catid=59:great-minds-club&Itemid=91

This's interesting,thanks for sharing

[looking4Tutor]

HCH:

I have also verified with MOE that the marks of A/A*/Pass for different PSLE subjusts are confidential and not a fixed value.

This is a known fact. It depends who is in the cohort sitting for the PSLE.

[daniel212]

The article is very interesting! Thanks for sharing :lol:

[MrBin]

verykiasu2010:

1. the advice to work harder on languages is probably due to smaller SD (standard deviation) in the t-score computation, hence you need to have higher raw score to ensure higher t-score for the subject. subjects like math & science based on observations at school exams tend to show larger SD, hence a difference by one SD can send the candidate to higher t-score for the subject compared with another subject with smaller SD


2. it has been repeated often enough that all 4 subjects carry equal weightage in PSLE. Even when the former Education minister tried to suggest a lower weightage for a certain subject, he quickly kena hailstones from all parents and PM Lee got to come out to assure all parents that all 4 subjects carry equal weightage. How can the teacher anyhow say MT has lowest weightage ??

the seemingly \"lower weightage\" is basically due to the smaller SD in the transformation of the raw score to the t-score, hence it looks like more difficult to achieve higher t-score for the languages

the smaller SD is not due to less weightage, it is due to most kids scoring around the similar marks, resulting in very close differences from the mean, giving rise to smaller SD

when the marks scored by the kids are widely scattered, it creates a larger SD, hence it is easier to get high t-score for that subject

it is now rather well established that if the exam papers are easy, more kids will get high raw scores, then the top PSLE aggregate t-score tend to be lower, eg last two years without any controversial papers, the top scores were only 282 / 283

every year when parents and kids cry over \"tough\" papers, the top t-scores are well beyond the high 28x, above 29x....294 in one year...

I think MT has the same weightage as the other subjects by theory.But look at the quality pass rate of MT which is more than 80% for every year. It's obviously there is a magic hand behind to control. It made MT test is very easy, it's benefit for the students whose MT are not strong enough, but it's not good for students whose MT are very strong. Give you an example, if you let P6 student test P3 maths, I believe most of the students can get very high mark, but no matter how good you are, you have a roof, it's 100 mark, in the end, the students who are good at maths can't be differenciated with the other students. MOE play the same game here on MT. If you really want to promote MT, instead of raising 100M fund, just redesign the MT test, let quality pass rate down to the same level as other three subjects (44%), I am sure all the students will work much harder than before on MT

[MrBin]

To make it more clearer, just make use of the formula below:

T = 200 + 10* ((English-70)/10.43+(Maths-64)/12.93+(Science-66)/12.33+(Chinese-73)/9.43)
According to above formula, The highest achieveable T-score for chinese is 50 + 10*(Chinese-73)/9.43 = 50+ 10*(100-73)/9.43 = 78.6

If we make chinese test much easy, increase its average score to 78, then the highest achieveable T-score for chinese will be 50+10*(100-78)/9.43= 73.3, down 5 points, if the other subjects’ highest achieveable T-score maintain around 78, then the weightage of chinese actually decrease.

In order to compare different MT, to be fair we need bring in one more factor to normalize the difference. For example we use Malay as a reference.

Then the T-score for chinese student should translate to the following formula:
50 + (highest achieveable Malay T-score/highest achieveable Chinese T-score)10(Chinese-73)/9.43. Only by doing so, different MT can compare at same level