2012 PSLE Discussions and Strategy

[Chenonceau]

oxyleo:

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.

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.

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:

:thankyou:

[beanbear]

: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.

[fifiyeo]

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.

[Chenonceau]

fifiyeo:

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.

:rahrah: :rahrah: :rahrah: Jiayou!

[janet88]

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:

[fightingmom]

janet_lee88:

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:

PSLE is a test of stamina not just on the child but also the parents. As long as 孩子父母一条心 , we can \"ride it out\" together

And yes, take whenever breather or breaks instead of couping up at home all day long.

:rahrah: :rahrah: Jia you , everyone :rahrah: :rahrah:

[HAPPYH]

janet_lee88:

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:

Ya I really wonder whether these intensive courses are effective. Teaching the kids all year long itself sometimes did not bring fruitful outcome. Just in a week or so, how can they grasp so many things? Very puzzled. May be smart kids can catch balls but smart kids already should be smart, then why attend these courses? Big Sigh!

Janet, take a good break and start on the revision. Don't worry too much. Everything will be fine.

[fifiyeo]

Chenonceau:

fifiyeo:

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.

:rahrah: :rahrah: :rahrah: Jiayou!

Thank you!

I was glad to hear that from DS's teacher. So he gets rewarded.

Sometimes it's so stressful because we can't really tell if our DC imporve or is doing worst as the standard of the papers don't stay consistent.

[HAPPYH]

fifiyeo:

Chenonceau:

[quote=\"fifiyeo\"]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.

:rahrah: :rahrah: :rahrah: Jiayou!

Thank you!

I was glad to hear that from DS's teacher. So he gets rewarded.

Sometimes it's so stressful because we can't really tell if our DC imporve or is doing worst as the standard of the papers don't stay consistent.[/quote] :rahrah: :rahrah: That is very good. This will motivate you and your DS to put in more efforts. All the best.

[Chenonceau]

fifiyeo:

Chenonceau:

[quote=\"fifiyeo\"]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.

:rahrah: :rahrah: :rahrah: Jiayou!

Thank you!

I was glad to hear that from DS's teacher. So he gets rewarded.

Sometimes it's so stressful because we can't really tell if our DC imporve or is doing worst as the standard of the papers don't stay consistent.[/quote]In terms of absolute marks, DS improved across the board in all subjects. But his ranking in class dropped. This means he did worse than when his marks were low. In a way, I am glad for this drop in ranking.