2014 PSLE Discussions and Strategy
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pixiedust:
Thank you for sharing.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 relaxationIf 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 ! -
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?
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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. -
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 -
JohnYeo:
Thanks for sharing the Maths Syllabus....that really helps us to plan our topics33mama:
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:
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.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
just enter \" site:moe.edu.sg + pdf \" into google search. -
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? -
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 -
JohnYeo:
For 2013 PSLE math syllabus refer to: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
http://www.seab.gov.sg/psle/2013_PSLE_Subject_Info/0008_2013.pdf
which states that :
\"PSLE MATHEMATICS
For Examination from 2009
PURPOSE OF THE EXAMINATION
The purpose of the Mathematics examination is to assess pupils’ attainment in
mathematics at the end of primary education with respect to the objectives of the 2007 Mathematics (Primary) syllabus.\"
From 2013 onwards, math syllabus will be updated level by level starting from Pri 1 in 2013 - http://www.moe.gov.sg/education/syllabuses/sciences/
cheers. -
Thanks MathIzzzFun. Appreciate it…was still searching for this but I didnt manage to.
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Joining this thread.
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ER:
Joining this thread.
Welcome! -
First tough SA1 for all the P5s this year. It’s over now. How’s your kids doing? My DS got the worst ever result since P1. Read some post said this is normal… but somehow through the understanding from classmates not true. Others are quite stable. No doubt he has tons of homework to complete but somehow I think he is not serious in completing the school work or rather just wanted to finish & pass up the next morning.
Using his score, I’m trying to explain to him the estimates t-score that he most likely will obtain if he continues with this attitutes. At this age, I don’t think scolding has any effect anymore. Hope talking sense will wake him a little… -
We got Eng & Maths papers. He did his best(mean get wrong that he didn’t know) except OE in Eng.lost marks due to careless in Maths.His standard dropped compare with other friends.Usually he was with them.Now 10 marks dropped for three subjects.I just stressed out.can he improve his marks?how?
How much is achievable for OE? -
For my ds, his Maths & science improved but Chinese and English dropped drastically. Not sure what happened. I shd focus more in his languages in future.
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same problem here with my dd. English dropped by 15marks and Chinese dropped by 20marks!!! Maths and Science maintain. What is happening to the languages?
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I have a P6 this year. Sort of went through that last year so we were mentally prepared for a drop especially for my P5 ds.
I was sort of \"relieved\" that his transition from P4 to P5 wasn't drastic so far for maths and science. He managed 75 for maths and 71.5 science (I thought he might fail as he is the type who cannot section b well...). With those scores, he was the top few in his average class. Alot of peers either fail or did 50-60 range. During P4, he did 70+ for science and 80+ for maths. Waiting to see report book to see where he stand versus overall cohort. Also asking him to ask his friends in top classes how was the score like to get a gauge of where he stand.
For HCL, he just scrapped through his main paper by 1.5 marks...and he was top few for HCL too :yikes: Alot failed HCL paper. I told him if he fails his HCL compo by 2 marks.... he will fail HCL too. So don't \"rejoice\" too early for being the few who passed the main paper.
In his case, I think what helped was that, I introduced him to top school papers since March this year and I time him as well. It was difficult initially meeting the time especially for maths. But it got better with practice. Even after SA1, I told him to do better for SA2 (no CAs...), he need to continue to practise those papers so that he will get better by then. This time round was a confidence booster for him that he can actually do it.
Another thing that was more personal to him was, we are positioning him for DSA next year. We already have a targetted school in mind since P4 and he probably saw how \"obsessed/ worried\" I was with my P6 overall score as for her target school, there is a min 70% overall requirement for DSA. So we told him that he need to try to hit that kind of level to be able to even qualify for a audition in his target school. The target schools will look at his P5 results so pls work hard.... -
I’m joining this thread too.
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:stupid: :stupid: my DS Eng drop by 30%??? have to see how to help him.
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hi there - joining this thread as well.
(a) any suggestions as to where to get/purchase/buy model EL and CL compositions? these are weak areas that need to brush up.
(b) with the CA1+SA1 results out, are some of you able to compute your DS/DD own t-scores against their school cohort? how good an indication is that? is the existing cohort in their existing primary schools as good presentation?