2013 PSLE Discussions and Strategy

[Chenonceau]

Sun_2010:

Hi Chen,
Get a sand bag toy, and bash it up . Or something that will make you feel better. Because while faking it is the next best thing to being emotional, it is very far from the real thing.
I guess you know better than anyone else that children can pick up parent's ' vibes very fast even without consciously trying .

I do feel better after venting here.

Sun_2010:

can you assess these questions he could'nt do- are they sensible question?
have they gone thru the solution in school, if so what is his opinion?
May be your son is the best person to assess -
Are they brilliant questions?
Solutions to brilliant questions help one get a new prespective. Or are sometimes simple that make you go , oh , why didn i see that?
Or were they just too complicated in words and/or in solution?
If it was then it belongs to the category of tought-question-for-the sake-of-it. Just ignore that set. :siao:
They are the outcome of some sadist, or misguided teacher who feel compelled to make it tough.

After that take out the marks of all those questions. Now calculate the percentage of marks he would get with this new total.
I believe you will have reason to celebrate. :celebrate:

Your DS has such cute twinkling eyes, wouldnt want to see them dampen. give him an extra :snuggles: , if he still lets you.

Papers have not been returned. I'll make sure I get Little Boy will need to analyze and explain to me these things when he gets back the paper.

[verykiasu2010]

Chenonceau:

verykiasu2010:

I just went to read your blog on the 69 marks

if he could do NY papers under exam conditions (timing etc) and self marked to be ok, then no fear, regardless of what the prelim marks say.

Thank you dear... this makes me feel a little better but not much. It's CL Oral tomorrow so I took him out for a nice meal at Liang Court. It was a strain for me to smile kindly at him throughout the meal.

verykiasu2010:

Just keep up the practice on those tricky questions.

Any lobang where to find these tricky questions? All I have are the Top School papers. I am so tired trying to source for materials. We've even gotten the Math Olympiad questions from Popular and found those easy. He's even done papers from the NY GEP stack and found them manageable.

verykiasu2010:

Most of the time the questions are not super difficult, just tricky, and watch the wordings! And for simple questions, it is simply easy to lose marks by being careless

He lost 5 marks to carelessness. The rest is really cannot do.

verykiasu2010:

in fact, NY has communicated to parents that they actually don't pitch the paper way above the PSLE standard - skill sets and knowledge imparted during curriculum time need to be boosted by self-confidence, which is more important in the run up to PSLE.

This is what I think is reasonable too. Self-confidence is important in performance. I am bottling all this in and putting up a smiling face just to ensure his self-confidence remains intact.

verykiasu2010:

Even after NY \"lowered\" the prelim standard, they still managed to get everyone scoring higher than prelim t-scores. So it is proven that setting extra hard prelim paper to so-called wake up the kids could be counter-productive in wrecking morale

Precisely so! I really do feel better now. I was confused a bit but now I am convinced that shielding him was the right thing to do. It took me 1 week before I could even bear to blog about it.

My heart goes out to those kids who failed the paper. Many kids in the 2nd best class failed. Some kids in the best class also failed. But I have no way to help others now. I can only help my own son. Giving feedback to the school is no use. I gave feedback in CA1 to a HOD... nicely and reasonably. No use. Just suck it up.

I think practising on past years PSLE papers and those top schools' prelim papers are good enough. MO questions may confuse the kid.

Last time we bought those top schools' previous year prelim papers but did not finish all. Be selective, spread out the practice days -- but discipline in doing it in exam condition is important.

Some schools do exchange of current year prelim papers and let the kids practise. May be your DS school does not do that but is okay, past years papers prelim papers are sufficient. Some of the answers in the pack could be wrong - just be aware if the answers look awkward

The PSLE past year papers are arranged by topic - tricky questions are there, mostly in problem sums. Probably you already have them - from Popular bookshop, if the school has not arranged bulk purchase for the class

You must first overcome your own emo before you can help him. Steel yourself and believe in your DS, you know that better than me.

[Chenonceau]

verykiasu2010:

You must first overcome your own emo before you can help him. Steel yourself and believe in your DS, you know that better than me.

Yeeeeaaaah.... I know that. I documented it in Chapter 4 of Petunia's Book. And yet I find it a struggle to follow my own advice. What a hypocrite, right!?

[verykiasu2010]

Chenonceau:

verykiasu2010:

You must first overcome your own emo before you can help him. Steel yourself and believe in your DS, you know that better than me.

Yeeeeaaaah.... I know that. I documented it in Chapter 4 of Petunia's Book. And yet I find it a struggle to follow my own advice. What a hypocrite, right!?

Nope. It is easier said than done. why self incriminate ? If it is effortless, then it won't be in the book I guess

[shawnlim88]

Dear all 2013 PSLE parents,


do you force your ds/dd to learn 成语？
i tried to ask my ds to learn 5 a week, with my own coaching,
but just didn’t materialise.

any method to motivate him though he doesn’t hate chinese. just plain lazy.

thanks for sharing

[shawnlim88]

Dear Goodluck8,


i don’t think simultaneous equation is taught in Pr class.
they now use models to solve.

yes, i agree that Simultaneous eq can be used to solve.
but is it acceptable if used in PSLE?

shawn lim

[Pen88n]

Chenonceau:

verykiasu2010:

You must first overcome your own emo before you can help him. Steel yourself and believe in your DS, you know that better than me.

Yeeeeaaaah.... I know that. I documented it in Chapter 4 of Petunia's Book. And yet I find it a struggle to follow my own advice. What a hypocrite, right!?

Chen, not a hypocrite, but a caring, loving mum. It is always easy to advise others but when it comes to our little darlings and seeing they are hurt, we can't help feeling more emotional and a little out-of-control.

Don't panic and get stressed, else the kid will pick up the signal from you. He may already be feeling the pressure from the school and his peers, who are already panicking. Just continue to let him practise as per normal, and if there is past year papers given by the school for practice, just make sure he follow that and the teacher's teaching. But if you feel the school is stressing him with too many papers, you may want to allow him more rest and play time. I know of kids who are over-stress and blank out during the PSLE time - that is the worst scenario. So, parents out there, watch out and let your PSLE kids have some breathing space and leisure!!!

[Pen88n]

shawnlim88:

Dear Goodluck8,


i don't think simultaneous equation is taught in Pr class.
they now use models to solve.

yes, i agree that Simultaneous eq can be used to solve.
but is it acceptable if used in PSLE?

shawn lim

It is acceptable if used in PSLE, but if the final answer is wrong (can be due to carelessness or otherwise), you will not be awarded any method marks at all!!! Take note of this!!!

Simultaneous equations can also be very tricky when it comes to the signs (+-X/) and eliminating one unknown. My suggestion is to only teach this to P6 kids who are very strong in Maths foundation (my personal take is should have a consistant Maths score of >90 to be considered very strong in Maths) so their concept is strong enough and not confused. It should only be used as a last resort in the exam. Imagine losing all 4 or 5 marks just due to one little mistake on the computation - I find it very expensive!!!

There are many other methods for solving problems taught by schools in P4 - P6 (model, branching, etc.). Most of the PSLE problem sums can be solved by one or more of these methods.

[Augmum]

Goodluck8:

Remember in year 2009, when the Maths PSLE paper is extremely tough, one of the question which is discuss throughout Singapore (even on TV) can actually solve by this method - quick and accurate.

I will always remember the 2009 PSLE Maths paper as that was my gal's yr
I could vividly recall how tired she was when she came home after her maths paper (both mentally and physically)

u mean \"the sweets and chocolates question\" ?
yes, it was discussed on TV.
Reporters were asking those sec pupils fr BT IP schools to solve them.....
some of them could not solve it or exceeded the allowable time....

gal told me that initally she tried to use model method to solve....
(so much thks to her teachers who often asked her to use model method)
but somehow could not derive an answer but have wasted quite sometime .....
afterwhich she cancelled the whole working and use simultaneous equation which i had taught her .......
within minutes , she got her answer and double checked the accuracy by substitution....

So P6 pupils , remember to leave some space for alternative method,
dont use up the whole page for yr first working. (think i have talked abt it in other threads, repeat it here)

[Augmum]

Pen88n:

Simultaneous equations can also be very tricky when it comes to the signs (+-X/) and eliminating one unknown. My suggestion is to only teach this to P6 kids who are very strong in Maths foundation (my personal take is should have a consistant Maths score of >90 to be considered very strong in Maths) so their concept is strong enough and not confused. It should only be used as a last resort in the exam. Imagine losing all 4 or 5 marks just due to one little mistake on the computation - I find it very expensive!!!

i agree.....kids exposed to use simultaneous equations basically need to have a solid maths foundation
in addition.....need to do lots of practices \"to master it\"....
and not to forget to do double check by substitution method....