2013 PSLE Discussions and Strategy

[Chenonceau]

verykiasu2010:

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

Yeah. That's true. You're wonderful to have around when the going gets tough. No wonder your kids turned out so well. Dun worry. I wasn't self-incriminating. I was just laughing gently at myself.

[Chenonceau]

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

Maybe Petunia's Book can help you? Just google Petunia Lee book.It should come up top of search.

[Chenonceau]

Pen88n:

Chenonceau:

[quote=\"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!!![/quote]Pen88n... :snuggles:

[PiggyLalala]

Chenonceau:

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.

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.

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

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.
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.

You are a great mother. I felt so ashamed of myself. Ds2 had his common test yesterday. After knowing that he lost 20 marks in the test, I was so angry that I kept scolding him and blaming him throughout the lunch and back at home. I was mad at him because he did quite badly in this subject in CA1 too.

Your children are so blessed to have you as a mother. Now I know why my boy is not as confident as other kids. I must really learn to control myself but it is quite difficult leh.

Maybe you can find out from your ds what are the topics that he is least confident in and improve on these topics. To me, Fractions, ratios, decimals and percentage = 1 BiG group followed by Area and Perimeter, Angles, Distance and Speed plus other smaller topics.

If not, you can also try to get hold of the prelim papers 2012 and let him practise under the exam setting. Speed and accuracy are very important in PSLE. I remember my ds GE teacher mentioned something like 1 mark is equivaent to 1 min of working time. You may want to take a look at the questions posted in the Maths PSLE thread. Some questions can be quite tough too.

Good luck and all the best to your ds in PSLE orals.
Jia You :rahrah: :rahrah:

[Chenonceau]

PiggyLalala:

I felt so ashamed of myself. Ds2 had his common test yesterday. After knowing that he lost 20 marks in the test, I was so angry that I kept scolding him and blaming him throughout the lunch and back at home. I was mad at him because he did quite badly in this subject in CA1 too.

No lah... I'm no angel. I was THIS close to exploding. It's just that in my job I have SEEN how unbridled anger unleashed upon grown men/women shriveled their spirits... that gives me the strength to bite back the angry words and push out a smile. Even then, Little Boy is extraordinarily sensitive. I asked a simple factual question today and after answering, he asked... \"Why do you ask? Are you disappointed?\"

PiggyLalala:

If not, you can also try to get hold of the prelim papers 2012 and let him practise under the exam setting. Speed and accuracy are very important in PSLE. I remember my ds GE teacher mentioned something like 1 mark is equivaent to 1 min of working time. You may want to take a look at the questions posted in the Maths PSLE thread. Some questions can be quite tough too.

I do hope someone sells these.

PiggyLalala:

Good luck and all the best to your ds in PSLE orals.
Jia You :rahrah: :rahrah:

Thanks Piggy... thanks for coming through for us.

[phtthp]

are pupils allowed to bring abacus into exam hall for PSLE, instead of calculator ?

[happyheart]

Does anyone know if the level of difficulty in actual PSLE (Maths) is the same as those published by EPH - specimen PSLE examination questions 2007 to 2011 compared to school exam? I find there is a big gap. The specimen paper seems more friendly whereas School paper seems to be more challenging.

DS did quite badly for his CA2. If the actual psle standard is similar to school paper, I worry for his PSLE next year! Very stressed.

[despmom99]

Goodluck8:

Hi happyheart


Correct me if I am wrong about the information given.
I heard from some parents that the specimen PSLE examination 2007 to 2011 does not revealed all the questions that appear in past year papers. Especially the more challenging (which takes up the last 10 marks of paper 2) is not revealed to public.

In fact, the questions give the kids a false impression that PSLE questions are easy. My DS is with a learning centre now and the teacher used to be Math HOD and supervisor for Math PSLE marking. Said only some of the challenging questions are published.

[despmom99]

Goodluck8:

Just curious :

Will u let your DC take up tution for next year without waiting for their SA2 result?

Most of the tution centres have come out the shedule for next year and most of the convenient slots will be fill up quite fast. Also, quite a number of tution centre include new course to push the kids for A* (of course the kids must perfomed A before he/she is being accepted).

Most of my friend said next year is the time to chiong all the way, so they already know what tution schedule they want for their kids and just waiting for the registration date.

Are you all also so well prepared for next year?

I know even many pupils from top class go for tuition. Some start going since P4 or P5 although they are doing well. They want exposure to challenging questions.

[happyheart]

Over the weekend, I heard from an ex teacher that indeed the questions in PSLE are harder. Sign…