Q&A - P1 English

[Jing Wen]

If you no sure about what is expected from your kid, see the top 10 primary school exam paper for Primary 1 to 6. You can download it free from http://www.testpaper.biz. Share it with your friends.

[micollh]

thanksa Jing Wen !! downloaded all… hee

[sagacious.04440sg]

Hi, just curious. Do parents send their kids for phonics when they are 4 yrs old? Does it help them during P1? Is there a lot of reading required at P1?

[mummy of 2]

I didn’t send DS for phonics lessons. He learnt phonics in school (PCF) and I reinforced at home. He was able to read independently in the beginning of K1. By mid-K2, he started to read cheapter books. He is coping well in P1. He may be better in phonics had I sent him for lessons but I think the benefits are not tremendous. Hope this helps.

[laughingcat]

sagacious.sg:

Hi, just curious. Do parents send their kids for phonics when they are 4 yrs old? Does it help them during P1? Is there a lot of reading required at P1?

Sharing on my own experiences.....I self taught phonics on my DS1 and he was able to read on his own by 4.4yrs old. His kindy has spelling at K1 and dictation at K2 and I only spend 5- 10mins testing him. Because DS1 has good grasp of phonics, he is able to read chapter books before K1 and his spelling is very much easy to handle. So for my experiences, phonics do help alot.

[usa-sing-1]

As a native English speaker, I have been looking at the supplementary exercise books available in bookstores such as Popular, etc. I have purchased a few for my daughter to work through in addition to what is taught in school. I also found a site which includes test papers from the top schools, in later years like P5/6. It seems like the top schools in particular teach and test at a level of a native English speaker, in the top 10% or so of their cohort. Some of the material I read would be quite challenging for a non-native speaker, especially someone who has not read English literature extensively and not conversed in advanced English on a daily basis.

[Lenny08]

Hi KSP,


Can someone please advice what are the common oral conversation topics for English?

Thank you.

Lenny08

[fable]

tweetyng1980:

Need help!


The pair of goggles _______ the water out of his eyes. He could see clearly underwater.
(1) kept
(2) keep
(3) keeps
(4) keeping

Answered as (1) kept. Thought that could is past tense of can and hence also need to use kept. The right answer should be (3). Anyone can help to explain..

The answer is kept because the second sentence uses the past tense as well \"could see\". If the second sentence is in the present tense (he can see clearly), then keeps would be the correct answer.
[quote]potentialkp wrote:
Question :
My sister and I _____ studying in the same school.
(1) is (2) am (3) are (4) was
My DD choose (3) are
Answer Sheet is (2) am

I ask around and there are many arguments, so i am very confuse now. Pls help....


ans: \"are\"[/quote]yup, definitely \"are\".

[usa-sing-1]

I am a native English speaker from the US…I have read through some of the review books that are commonly sold in bookstores here as supplementary material, etc. for P1. Although the books are generally adequate, there are obvious errors in many I have seen (including some of the materials my daughter is using)…some chapters appear to be poorly written and not proofread adequately, and sometimes the questions and examples presented in the review books do not logically and unambiguously flow to choose one correct answer. I also note that some words they use may be technically correct English, but are themselves rarely used in common speech or create awkward sentences rarely encountered in friendly or business conversations in English. One review book my daughter uses introduces collective nouns such as "bitch" (female dog), "cripple" (for a physically handicapped person) and "spinster" (for an unmarried woman). These words may be correct by definition but are highly offensive in normal conversation (especially the last two)!

[MR06]

usa-sing-1:

I am a native English speaker from the US...I have read through some of the review books that are commonly sold in bookstores here as supplementary material, etc. for P1. Although the books are generally adequate, there are obvious errors in many I have seen (including some of the materials my daughter is using)...some chapters appear to be poorly written and not proofread adequately, and sometimes the questions and examples presented in the review books do not logically and unambiguously flow to choose one correct answer. I also note that some words they use may be technically correct English, but are themselves rarely used in common speech or create awkward sentences rarely encountered in friendly or business conversations in English. One review book my daughter uses introduces collective nouns such as \"bitch\" (female dog), \"cripple\" (for a physically handicapped person) and \"spinster\" (for an unmarried woman). These words may be correct by definition but are highly offensive in normal conversation (especially the last two)!

Since you had bought some of these books for your daughter, are you able to share which are the better ones with other parents in this forum?

It would be wonderful if you can inform us the pages with errors too.