School Examinations Too Difficult
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I fear the situation is going to get worse. I see advertisements in the papers : Prepare your P4 P5 kid for the PSLE. The pressure is mounting from before P6 now.
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Chenonceau:
optimistforum:
Chenonceau. It is both the journey and the destination. Regardless of whether the system is hard or easy, you still need to a have test at the end of it to judge the performance levels.
I am glad you think that. The destination may be worth the while... but the journey there is not up to par. Until schools stop testing what they have not taught, Singaporeans will have to do their learning outside school in order to cope with school exams.
In Singapore too, we get these difficult differentiating exams (instead of formative exams) every quarter from Primary 3 onwards... it is not just at the end that we get differentiating exams where material not taught is tested.
:goodpost: -
Chenonceau:
Something has changed,PSLE getting more difficult each year!!!Wow! I now realise that parents like tianzhu have tried to raise in 2008 the same issue that faces us today in 2012.
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
5 years ago... and NOTHING has changed. It looks like the government is intent on cramming down our throats an educational system they think is perfectly rational but that has made no sense to parents for at least FIVE years.
Best reason to shut up and suck it up. Feedback is a waste of time. Superior minds don't believe our pain... and cannot see it. Kids MUST fail for the exam to be a good one? I too learnt this theoretical principle when being trained to write exams. BUT see... I use theory to help me. I don't allow theory to tyrannise me. Some sort of practical observation of the effects of blindly following theory is in order...
One thing is sure... as batch after batch of parents go through PSLE, more and more people will realize the system is sick... and the numbers will add up despite MOE's best efforts at rationalising the why and wherefore of today's system.
No one cares about the why and wherefore... people are only interested in the daily experience of being educated. For 5 years now, that experience has not been good. -
kitty2:
Dont think PSLe papers have become more difficult past 2-3 years. PSLE papers are more systematic - a proper mix of difficulty levels.
Something has changed,PSLE getting more difficult each year!!!Chenonceau:
Wow! I now realise that parents like tianzhu have tried to raise in 2008 the same issue that faces us today in 2012.
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
5 years ago... and NOTHING has changed. It looks like the government is intent on cramming down our throats an educational system they think is perfectly rational but that has made no sense to parents for at least FIVE years.
Best reason to shut up and suck it up. Feedback is a waste of time. Superior minds don't believe our pain... and cannot see it. Kids MUST fail for the exam to be a good one? I too learnt this theoretical principle when being trained to write exams. BUT see... I use theory to help me. I don't allow theory to tyrannise me. Some sort of practical observation of the effects of blindly following theory is in order...
One thing is sure... as batch after batch of parents go through PSLE, more and more people will realize the system is sick... and the numbers will add up despite MOE's best efforts at rationalising the why and wherefore of today's system.
No one cares about the why and wherefore... people are only interested in the daily experience of being educated. For 5 years now, that experience has not been good.
But school exams have been really made difficult. Too many questions are difficult. And some questions are just difficult for the sake of making it difficult and different - this can make the question irrational :faint: -
Standards are unrealistic
by Ian Tan Yong Hoe 04:45 AM May 02, 2012 (TODAY)
[quote]The primary school system here has been a point of much debate among educators and parents for a long time.
As a product of the system in the '80s and now a father of two children in lower primary, I fear that the system has become one of irrelevant, unrealistic standards.
And I come from the perspective of someone who excelled within the old system, yet always questioned the relevance of the education content to real-world settings. Sadly, the situation has gotten worse.
Take primary school mathematics as an example: Why are pupils being asked to solve questions of higher level logic at such a young age? Does it make them more creative in problem solving?
Does it help them when they are faced with heuristic problems that even adults do not have to deal with in the workplace? No, it only leads to more rote learning of, ironically, heuristic methods.
The vast selection of assessment books and tuition centres that teach heuristics is testimony to this.
Another observation is that teachers sometimes do not have the opportunity to reinforce the basics of simple arithmetic and are forced to make their pupils do sums that are more useful in sifting for maths geniuses than genuinely imparting knowledge. Within the crammed periods of each school day, it is impossible for teachers to cover all the bases in today's punishing curriculum.
It is no longer a matter of excelling in class; to simply pass maths today, it is mandatory to have tuition to fill the gaps that teachers sometimes struggle to fill.
If so many pupils require tuition, it means our education system has failed in its basic goal of imparting the correct skill sets.
My wife, a university honours graduate, quit her job to coach the children at home, but is herself exasperated at the standards required of pupils today.
I have yet to observe any beneficial effects of pushing children so hard in primary school, apart from high stress levels and sapping of intellectual curiosity.
Besides removing the joy in learning, another side effect of today's education system is that my children hardly have time to enjoy childhood.
They have less time to play outdoors, to read their favourite books (which is a great way to improve one's English), to explore new hobbies or to learn about the world around them - all because of so much homework.
The scenarios are the same with other subjects. The schools are not teaching less, nor are the pupils learning more.
The writer's children are in Primary 1 and 3.[/quote] -
Nebbermind
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Current school exams are not just difficult, they are also testing the speed of the children in solving the question. That is especially so in Maths. Imagine for Paper 1, the children are supposed to solve 30 questions in 50 mins. That is practically almost 1.5 min per question (no calculators allowed) and for Paper 2, a total of 1h40mins is allowed to solve some complex problem sums which works out to be about 3-4min per sum.
I must admit - i can’t solve some of the questions within 10 mins ! I pity our chidren that they are being pressured and drilled over and over again to complete such tasks within that short period of time. -
kitty2:
We should seriously touch our hearts and ask ourselves, are our kids getting smarter every year IF WITHOUT ANY OF OUR COACHING AND EXTERNAL TUITIONS!
Something has changed,PSLE getting more difficult each year!!!Chenonceau:
Wow! I now realise that parents like tianzhu have tried to raise in 2008 the same issue that faces us today in 2012.
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
5 years ago... and NOTHING has changed. It looks like the government is intent on cramming down our throats an educational system they think is perfectly rational but that has made no sense to parents for at least FIVE years.
Best reason to shut up and suck it up. Feedback is a waste of time. Superior minds don't believe our pain... and cannot see it. Kids MUST fail for the exam to be a good one? I too learnt this theoretical principle when being trained to write exams. BUT see... I use theory to help me. I don't allow theory to tyrannise me. Some sort of practical observation of the effects of blindly following theory is in order...
One thing is sure... as batch after batch of parents go through PSLE, more and more people will realize the system is sick... and the numbers will add up despite MOE's best efforts at rationalising the why and wherefore of today's system.
No one cares about the why and wherefore... people are only interested in the daily experience of being educated. For 5 years now, that experience has not been good.
NO. They are still the same children like us when we were young! Just that nowadays kids get to travel more, see more but sadly PLAY LESS than us! Poor things! -
Nebbermind:
[/quote] :goodpost: Great article indeed!Standards are unrealistic
by Ian Tan Yong Hoe 04:45 AM May 02, 2012 (TODAY)
[quote]The primary school system here has been a point of much debate among educators and parents for a long time.
As a product of the system in the '80s and now a father of two children in lower primary, I fear that the system has become one of irrelevant, unrealistic standards.
And I come from the perspective of someone who excelled within the old system, yet always questioned the relevance of the education content to real-world settings. Sadly, the situation has gotten worse.
Take primary school mathematics as an example: Why are pupils being asked to solve questions of higher level logic at such a young age? Does it make them more creative in problem solving?
Does it help them when they are faced with heuristic problems that even adults do not have to deal with in the workplace? No, it only leads to more rote learning of, ironically, heuristic methods.
The vast selection of assessment books and tuition centres that teach heuristics is testimony to this.
Another observation is that teachers sometimes do not have the opportunity to reinforce the basics of simple arithmetic and are forced to make their pupils do sums that are more useful in sifting for maths geniuses than genuinely imparting knowledge. Within the crammed periods of each school day, it is impossible for teachers to cover all the bases in today's punishing curriculum.
It is no longer a matter of excelling in class; to simply pass maths today, it is mandatory to have tuition to fill the gaps that teachers sometimes struggle to fill.
If so many pupils require tuition, it means our education system has failed in its basic goal of imparting the correct skill sets.
My wife, a university honours graduate, quit her job to coach the children at home, but is herself exasperated at the standards required of pupils today.
I have yet to observe any beneficial effects of pushing children so hard in primary school, apart from high stress levels and sapping of intellectual curiosity.
Besides removing the joy in learning, another side effect of today's education system is that my children hardly have time to enjoy childhood.
They have less time to play outdoors, to read their favourite books (which is a great way to improve one's English), to explore new hobbies or to learn about the world around them - all because of so much homework.
The scenarios are the same with other subjects. The schools are not teaching less, nor are the pupils learning more.
The writer's children are in Primary 1 and 3.
Since it has been 5 long years and no actions have been taken from the govt/moe, shall we have a petition to voice out our frustrations! -
lim72:
Let me laugh first... for every point of pain that we've tried to point out, the MOE has a historic rationale. For example, lousy textbooks with only a SINGLE key word in the whole chapter, can be explained by the fact that MOE had decentralized the curriculum to schools. This excuse was reported a in the newspapers few months back to explain lousy textbooks. I noted it and rolled my eyes but wrote nothing about it till now... In other words, it is not the MOE's fault that textbooks are lousy. Parents need to work directly with schools to fix issues of curriculum because MOE is no longer in charge of curriculum. Makes you wonder what the headcount for Curriculum Specialist is doing at HQ level eh?
:goodpost: Great article indeed!
Since it has been 5 long years and no actions have been taken from the govt/moe, shall we have a petition to voice out our frustrations!
Petitions and feedback are no use because the intelligent people at MOE have a rationales to explain away all the pain parents and children face... INCLUDING why we should continue to live with lousy textbooks.
I don't think parents care whose fault it is. We just want a nationwide fix to the issue of lousy textbooks because textbooks are so important a learning tool. At this moment, even if we don't BUY the textbooks, our kids can still do well as long as parents invest in the necessary guidebooks from Popular and give their kids high quality resources written by tuition centres.
How can textbooks be so easy when exams are so difficult?
So... there is a stalemate lor... it is likely we will have to live with lousy textbooks as a necessary consequence of the benefits of giving schools the power to decide curriculum. Everything got pros and cons mah... so living with lousy textbooks is the price parents and kids have to pay for the benefits of letting schools have more flexibility in deciding curriculum.
This esoteric and highly sophisticated argumentation, the product of superior minds, can convince Minister Heng and perhaps even LHL... It can buy peace for a while... but I doubt it'll convince batch after batch of PSLE parents who will go to the polls in 2016. The same criticisms will come back louder and louder... by different people... and eventually, we will reach a tipping point. Change at that point will be even more unpleasant for some people in MOE, than if they were to develop some degree of empathy and understanding NOW of parents' and children's pain.
The same thing happened for flooding in Singapore... for HDB prices that skyrocketed... for SMRT issues. Feedback was given over many long years but nothing was done because civil servants had nice explanations that lulled our politicians into complacence. Problems cannot get explained away. They disappear for a while when explained but will come back in another form and with a vengeance as evidenced by Ian Tang's article.
It's a matter of time. We can wait.
Meanwhile... why not sign this petition? http://www.petitiononline.com/SgEd2011/petition.html
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