2012 PSLE Discussions and Strategy
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psle2011mum:
MOE being the copyright owner of the PSLE questions designates authorised publishers to publish their questions. Since MOE doesn't charge for their Intellectual Property rights viz a viz these publishers, the publishers just print and sell and hence the books are cheap.HAPPYH:
[quote=\"janet_lee88\"]For SAP, the answer booklet is sold separately, which is why the question paper is sold cheaper than the EPH one. I calculated the cost earlier and realized it is about the same price for both publishers.
But it is strange to sell the answer sheet seperately.
The answers are a market response to the fact that MOE allows publication of the questions but do not provide any answers; so these answer booklets are not from MOE but they exist because the publishers eg SAP/EPH hire their own people [ not sure who they are but I guess the same ones they hire to push out their assessment books ] to produce the answer booklet. That's why they are sold separately and that's why the answers are different and that's why you get mistakes in some of these answers.
DD's teacher did mark the Science PSLE book she did, but it took a long time getting back to us... I understand this well... there was a point of time I dreaded to set DD any Science papers because I knew I would spend hours marking it and doing corrections with DD on it. But mark it DD's Science teacher did and it was such a blessing to us because this had been DD's effort which I had corrected and gone through with her and the teacher validated our strategy and understanding when she marked them largely correct.
If you have a senior who has a marked set of these answers [ ie school marked or school issued the answers to these PSLE questions], it may be worthwhile borrowing these to see how the answers were structured. Reverse engineering helped me understand what the teachers were looking for.
I analysed alot of the great answer keys the RGS teachers did, plus DD1 had a Science teacher who was prepared to answer my email questions as to why a certain answer merited marks while another did not and I had an MOE curriculum specialist contact who was kind enough to point this blur mum in the right direction; so with a lot of God-sent help, we finally got a handle around Open ended questions for Science. I further validated this late in the day with the LISC books but before that, it had taken a lot of time going through many many questions and what I was sure were good answers to them, before I reached this stage.
As a very small step towards better resources for everyone, teachers can issue their answer key \"RGS style\" for each of their schools. They already have this because amongst a group of teachers who teach the level, the setter for that particular paper would have his/her answers and this would have gone round some QC meetings to arrive at an answer key for consistent marking. If each school did this for each of their exam papers, the market forces are already in place to make sure this gets out to the kids who need them-- aka Jeremy Exam Papers, mrswongtuition, orlesson, misskoh...
As another very small step, MOE can publish the MOE answer key \" RGS style\" for their questions.
Too much to ask? I don't think so -- TLLM.[/quote]Thank you psle2011mum. I bookmarked most of your postings. Really helpful. Wow, the amount of hard work you put in for your DD is amazing. :salute: :udawoman: -
Teachers marking the science paper have a standard format answer key…yes, the RGPS answer key is the best. I use it to explain to my son what the marker wants…how the marks are allocated and answer expected to get full marks. In fact, I saw ACS past year paper also having this answer key but not consistent.
If MOE can give that answer key, we will know how to prepare our kids better. -
Holidays is good...but slacking attitude from kids really make me :stompfeet:
Not moving fruitfully and getting stress up :nunchuk: :rant: -
DS didn't do great. He dropped from 2nd position to 9th in class. He is quite anxious to put in work. But he is still a Little Boy. The mind is willing but the flesh is weak so I need to help him structure his day... remind him to do corrections... look through all his practices and remind him to \"not anyhow do\".
It is a tough regime of work for an 11 year old. So I don't mind sticking around to nudge him back on track when he loses focus.
We found it amusing that he was depressed. He doesn't seem to realise that 9th in class is already way better than ranking somewhere at the bottom... which was where he used to be when I left him alone to work hard on what the school taught him. It's funny how his perspective has changed. When he climbed from bottom to 8th position... he was overjoyed... in 7th heaven. Now, he is 9th and he cried huge drops of tears into his spaghetti bolognaise. :siao: -
Chenonceau:
Chen, you must be so proud. You have a winner in your hands. He has the right motivation and drive, and importantly the desire to do well. This will see him very well through education and career life later on.DS didn't do great. He dropped from 2nd position to 9th in class. He is quite anxious to put in work. But he is still a Little Boy. The mind is willing but the flesh is weak so I need to help him structure his day... remind him to do corrections... look through all his practices and remind him to \"not anyhow do\".
It is a tough regime of work for an 11 year old. So I don't mind sticking around to nudge him back on track when he loses focus.
We found it amusing that he was depressed. He doesn't seem to realise that 9th in class is already way better than ranking somewhere at the bottom... which was where he used to be when I left him alone to work hard on what the school taught him. It's funny how his perspective has changed. When he climbed from bottom to 8th position... he was overjoyed... in 7th heaven. Now, he is 9th and he cried huge drops of tears into his spaghetti bolognaise.
Remind him that the sky's the limit for all of us , and remains ours to reach, so long as we pick ourselves right up and try again.
All the best! Cheering you and him on! :rahrah: -
oxyleo:
:thankyou:
Chen, you must be so proud. You have a winner in your hands. He has the right motivation and drive, and importantly the desire to do well. This will see him very well through education and career life later on.Chenonceau:
DS didn't do great. He dropped from 2nd position to 9th in class. He is quite anxious to put in work. But he is still a Little Boy. The mind is willing but the flesh is weak so I need to help him structure his day... remind him to do corrections... look through all his practices and remind him to \"not anyhow do\".
It is a tough regime of work for an 11 year old. So I don't mind sticking around to nudge him back on track when he loses focus.
We found it amusing that he was depressed. He doesn't seem to realise that 9th in class is already way better than ranking somewhere at the bottom... which was where he used to be when I left him alone to work hard on what the school taught him. It's funny how his perspective has changed. When he climbed from bottom to 8th position... he was overjoyed... in 7th heaven. Now, he is 9th and he cried huge drops of tears into his spaghetti bolognaise.
Remind him that the sky's the limit for all of us , and remains ours to reach, so long as we pick ourselves right up and try again.
All the best! Cheering you and him on! :rahrah: -
:rahrah: We came back from our 4 day staycation at Sentosa and it was a great break!! Pontang school was a great feeling for our kids too and we didn't have to fight for breathing space with other staycationers.
Finally saw DS's report book and got a shock of my life. We didn't do a single revision for his Chinese other than he attending Berries class, and that was his best performing subject!!! He made a 20 mark jump from CA1. In fact, he topped the class for Chinese! Should I stop revising other subjects?? :yikes:
Maths was most disappointing - put in most effort and yet was worst performing. He lost 17 marks from sums that were within his ability!!! Maybe the good news is that's the unrealized potential that can be realized in the coming PSLE.
English DS has made marked improvement and our grammar strategies have worked very well indeed. DS scored almost full marks for most questions which require him to use grammar rules. Our intensive spelling bee sessions have also worked out. I'm most happy about this!
Science DS has maintained and I can see that's really still good room to do better in both papers.
Lessons learnt from the SA1:
1. Topical revision is most effective. One topic at a time, one section at a time. We didn't do whole papers at one go. We targeted specific skills and topics and that will be our strategy for Prelims.
2. Annotation works! We used that strategy for Chinese Compre OE - I got DS to write his annotation in English and he did very well - that was what got his high marks. But it didn't work as well for English Compre OE. Lots of analysis to do for why he didn't do well. I don't think it's the annotation issue but teaching him inferential skills.
3. Maths - I've done a gap analysis and realized that DS still has gaps in conceptual understanding. So this holidays, it's plugging those gaps. Lesson learnt - focus on ensuring the concepts are really learnt properly before going into intensive practices. You can do hundreds of sums but if there is a gap in conceptual understanding, child cannot apply whatever heuristics he has learnt.
4. Continue to reinforce the use specific exam techniques such as highlighting, slowing down the reading, annotation, time management. DS & I didn't set specific marks as our goals. My only goal for him is to use the exam techniques. I believe the marks will fall in place if we have done the work. It's always about PROCESS & PROGRESS. I told DS when I examine the exam papers, I look for evidence of his thinking & application of strategies & skills, not the final result. -
DS did badly for CA1. Don’t know what got into him but he was up to all sorts of mischief then and exams didn’t seem to be of any concern.
For SA1, his grades fell again!!!
Don’t about CL and EL but his Math / Sci teacher told me that she was pleased with his improvements compared to CA1. Moved up 30 positions for Math and 60 positions for Sci against his mainstream peers in school. DS was so pleased with himself. Hope that’s some kind of motivation and not run out of steam again after a week. -
fifiyeo:
:rahrah: :rahrah: :rahrah: Jiayou!DS did badly for CA1. Don't know what got into him but he was up to all sorts of mischief then and exams didn't seem to be of any concern.
For SA1, his grades fell again!!!
Don't about CL and EL but his Math / Sci teacher told me that she was pleased with his improvements compared to CA1. Moved up 30 positions for Math and 60 positions for Sci against his mainstream peers in school. DS was so pleased with himself. Hope that's some kind of motivation and not run out of steam again after a week. -
PSLE is really tough...saw the shots on channel 8 about program on P6 intensive tuition during June hols. I brought son out to orchard rd on tue as there was no tuition...or else I will go :siao:
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