2014 PSLE Discussions and Strategy

[pixiedust]

smartmummy, I'll give my feedback here incase anyone else would like to share their \"methods\" as different ways may work for different kids :


P5 is the first year the kids will be exposed to actual PSLE format papers in school exams. My son's P5 English score was also lower than P1-P4. He also reduced reading of story books as there was just so much else to do.

For English Vocab - this is very wide scope as the passages can list any words and most of the answer options are very closed related meanings. For this, we use school papers to practise. After each paper, ALL words/options answers provided for each question - lookup the meaning and make some notes next to it. We also use the \"Creative Vocabulary\" book by RedSpot. Ongoing basis, I'll explain to him about pre-fix, suffix, root word etc and to infer or guess the best answer if he doesn't know the word. Honestly, I think this section rely a bit on luck as during the actual exam, it could be any word/context under the sun.

Phrases/Idioms - I bought the whole set of \"Idioms In Action\" through pictures series by Rosalind Fergusson. DS reads them for relaxation If he loss any marks in Vocab or Cloze passages, I will use a red ink pen to write the phrase on the first page of the mock paper. We will revise these before the exams. After one year, we actually accumulated quite a lot of these.

Spelling and grammar rules - Similar approach. I know some children are able to pick up spelling and grammar rules through reading but not my son. He reads a lot since young but his spelling is weak. Hence, I decided to go through spelling rules with him. Something like this :
http://www.dyslexia.org/spelling_rules.shtml
I will also use a red pen and write down all the words he cannot spell on the first page of the mock paper. I try to link the words to the rules and revise with him frequently. It is a long (and rather painful) process but after one year of work, I can see some improvement in his spelling.

For Grammar MCQ, it should be full marks. Any incorrect answer, I'll search for the relevant rule and then we write it down on foolscape with more examples. Before exam, we just revise these notes.

For Cloze passage : I'll go through the passage with him and draw arrows to link to the clues. Also remind him that there's one best answer and not just any word that seem to fit into the sentence, need to see the whole passage/context.

Hope this help. Press on 加油 and Best of Luck !

[smartmummy]

thanks a lot pixiedust!

I will follow your method.cos its not possible to learn all those in the grammar book.Its a painful work for me too.When we do the paper he doesn't know so many, then look here and there

[HAPPYH]

pixiedust:

smartmummy, I'll give my feedback here incase anyone else would like to share their \"methods\" as different ways may work for different kids :


P5 is the first year the kids will be exposed to actual PSLE format papers in school exams. My son's P5 English score was also lower than P1-P4. He also reduced reading of story books as there was just so much else to do.

For English Vocab - this is very wide scope as the passages can list any words and most of the answer options are very closed related meanings. For this, we use school papers to practise. After each paper, ALL words/options answers provided for each question - lookup the meaning and make some notes next to it. We also use the \"Creative Vocabulary\" book by RedSpot. Ongoing basis, I'll explain to him about pre-fix, suffix, root word etc and to infer or guess the best answer if he doesn't know the word. Honestly, I think this section rely a bit on luck as during the actual exam, it could be any word/context under the sun.

Phrases/Idioms - I bought the whole set of \"Idioms In Action\" through pictures series by Rosalind Fergusson. DS reads them for relaxation If he loss any marks in Vocab or Cloze passages, I will use a red ink pen to write the phrase on the first page of the mock paper. We will revise these before the exams. After one year, we actually accumulated quite a lot of these.

Spelling and grammar rules - Similar approach. I know some children are able to pick up spelling and grammar rules through reading but not my son. He reads a lot since young but his spelling is weak. Hence, I decided to go through spelling rules with him. Something like this :
http://www.dyslexia.org/spelling_rules.shtml
I will also use a red pen and write down all the words he cannot spell on the first page of the mock paper. I try to link the words to the rules and revise with him frequently. It is a long (and rather painful) process but after one year of work, I can see some improvement in his spelling.

For Grammar MCQ, it should be full marks. Any incorrect answer, I'll search for the relevant rule and then we write it down on foolscape with more examples. Before exam, we just revise these notes.

For Cloze passage : I'll go through the passage with him and draw arrows to link to the clues. Also remind him that there's one best answer and not just any word that seem to fit into the sentence, need to see the whole passage/context.

Hope this help. Press on 加油 and Best of Luck !

Thank you for sharing.

[33mama]

My DD is finding CL and Maths much more difficult compared to P4. For EL and Science she is still coping well. Is that normal?

[fruittypie]

33mama:

My DD is finding CL and Maths much more difficult compared to P4. For EL and Science she is still coping well. Is that normal?

Definitely!

The schools are preparing them for PSLE. Papers are getting tougher nowadays.

My older girl, i started her tuition late. Her foundation was terrible. She struggled real bad when she was in P5. I got a recommendation and sent her to my current tutor..not too bad. Did see great improvement.

[JohnYeo]

33mama:

My DD is finding CL and Maths much more difficult compared to P4. For EL and Science she is still coping well. Is that normal?

It's definitely normal...papers are getting more difficult and just by looking at how they phrase the questions, most are like short stories...

papers will continue to get more difficult as the expectations set by the management and HODs on students get higher...and really it depends on their mindsets...recently i learnt that some papers are meant to be hard to filter out those better students so they can be \"groomed\"...oh well, this affects the overall performance of the school and their ranking so im not surprised this has always been their focus....

so what matter most (since we cant change their mindset and their focus), it is important to learn more effective learning strategies to cope with the harder questions...yes questions can be hard....but as i told all my students, the tested concepts are still the same....so be exam smart...

here's the moe pri math syllabus.
http://www3.moe.edu.sg/cpdd/doc/Maths_Pri.pdf

[pchong]

JohnYeo:

33mama:

My DD is finding CL and Maths much more difficult compared to P4. For EL and Science she is still coping well. Is that normal?

It's definitely normal...papers are getting more difficult and just by looking at how they phrase the questions, most are like short stories...

papers will continue to get more difficult as the expectations set by the management and HODs on students get higher...and really it depends on their mindsets...recently i learnt that some papers are meant to be hard to filter out those better students so they can be \"groomed\"...oh well, this affects the overall performance of the school and their ranking so im not surprised this has always been their focus....

so what matter most (since we cant change their mindset and their focus), it is important to learn more effective learning strategies to cope with the harder questions...yes questions can be hard....but as i told all my students, the tested concepts are still the same....so be exam smart...

here's the moe pri math syllabus.
http://www3.moe.edu.sg/cpdd/doc/Maths_Pri.pdf

Thanks for sharing the Maths Syllabus....that really helps us to plan our topics

[JohnYeo]

pchong:

JohnYeo:

[quote=\"33mama\"]My DD is finding CL and Maths much more difficult compared to P4. For EL and Science she is still coping well. Is that normal?

It's definitely normal...papers are getting more difficult and just by looking at how they phrase the questions, most are like short stories...

papers will continue to get more difficult as the expectations set by the management and HODs on students get higher...and really it depends on their mindsets...recently i learnt that some papers are meant to be hard to filter out those better students so they can be \"groomed\"...oh well, this affects the overall performance of the school and their ranking so im not surprised this has always been their focus....

so what matter most (since we cant change their mindset and their focus), it is important to learn more effective learning strategies to cope with the harder questions...yes questions can be hard....but as i told all my students, the tested concepts are still the same....so be exam smart...

here's the moe pri math syllabus.
http://www3.moe.edu.sg/cpdd/doc/Maths_Pri.pdf

Thanks for sharing the Maths Syllabus....that really helps us to plan our topics[/quote]No worries...there are in fact many pdf documents available in moe website.
just enter \" site:moe.edu.sg + pdf \" into google search.

[newuser]

http://www3.moe.edu.sg/cpdd/doc/Maths_Pri.pdf

This could be outdated. Now no longer em1, em2 or em3. Only foundation. Or standard, right?

[JohnYeo]

newuser:

http://www3.moe.edu.sg/cpdd/doc/Maths_Pri.pdf

This could be outdated. Now no longer em1, em2 or em3. Only foundation. Or standard, right?

I believe so.

\"6. MOE will do away with the distinction between EM1 and EM2 streams, so as to provide schools the flexibility to organise their classes in ways that add the best educational value. \"

source: http://www.moe.gov.sg/media/press/2004/pr20040318.htm