ladeline28:

Hi all,


I downloaded the softcopy of 2011 sch exam papers but realized that there are no answer sheets. Can anyone who has the softcopy of the 2011 answers share them with me? I would really appreciate the help. Thanks in advance.

janet_lee88:

For Math, son's tutor used her materials to teach. She also has questions in worksheets using her Math strategies to practise. However, that is insufficient. Past year papers have different types of questions. Son has almost completed all the exam papers from 2011.


Same goes for Science. Assessment books have 'standard' way of testing...but when students face exams, these questions can be twisted to ask in another way. So, for Math & Science, I feel that past year papers are necessary. But do not take answers provided as accurate.

atutor2001:

Hi teh oh


Just some personal opinion that I thought may be useful. I feel that the current emphasis on heuristic in Pr sch is not good for the kids. Many kids have to struggle through simple mathematical methods such as algebraic manipulation or solving simultaneous equations in sec school. What is worse is that their presentation of the solution is so bad that till O level, many still could not get out of the primary school habits. They ended up getting only a C although they have got most of their answers correct because they got zero marks for their working. For example, for a 3 mark question, a student will only get 1 mark (for correct answer) if their presentation is not acceptable. I understand that now, sec schools are very strict on presentation.


So I think it may be good to teach them to accept mathematical methods at Pr sch and present the solution in a proper mathematical way.

Cheers

atutor2001:

I once tried out with a nephew (an intelligent but playful boy) by practising a particular question type. Later, I gave him only 2 pages of exam paper with one similar question inside. He couldn't do it. When I show him the exercises he had done earlier, he then went ohhh.. and proceeded to solve it. I concluded that if the heart is not \"bothered or interested\", a few practices alone, is not enough.

Cheers

teh_oh:

....I use assessment book as additional practices for weak areas identified using past year papers.
.....while questions in assessment books are either too difficult (referring to application questions that may not be so prevalent in P3 standard yet) or too dry. Wonder if the same will apply to P6.

atutor2001:

If my child love to do assessment book or do well only in assessment book and does not like doing pass year paper, I am worried.


If my child love to do pass year papers and can do well, I feel comforted.

Assessment book is designed to \"repeat\" - by topics or question types. The objective is to make the child understand or if not, at least remember the steps. It is actually not useful in my opinion because the only group of kids who would benefit from such method are kids who are slow in learning but extremely hardworking. Playful boys will simply repeat the steps and all will be forgotten the moment the exercise is over. Intelligent kids will find such an approach unbearable.

atutor2001:

If my child love to do assessment book or do well only in assessment book and does not like doing pass year paper, I am worried.

If my child love to do pass year papers and can do well, I feel comforted.

Assessment book is designed to \"repeat\" - by topics or question types. The objective is to make the child understand or if not, at least remember the steps. It is actually not useful in my opinion because the only group of kids who would benefit from such method are kids who are slow in learning but extremely hardworking. Playful boys will simply repeat the steps and all will be forgotten the moment the exercise is over. Intelligent kids will find such an approach unbearable.

atutor2001:

If my child love to do assessment book or do well only in assessment book and does not like doing pass year paper, I am worried.


If my child love to do pass year papers and can do well, I feel comforted.

Assessment book is designed to \"repeat\" - by topics or question types. The objective is to make the child understand or if not, at least remember the steps. It is actually not useful in my opinion because the only group of kids who would benefit from such method are kids who are slow in learning but extremely hardworking. Playful boys will simply repeat the steps and all will be forgotten the moment the exercise is over. Intelligent kids will find such an approach unbearable.

Chenonceau:

My take on the Top School Exams VS Assessment Books is...

(1) Top School exams are good diagnostic tools to highlight topics we need to cover or strengthen.

(2) Top School exams (in the past 2 years at least) seem to give a good approximation of the level of difficulty of my son's school exams (give or take some)

(3) Assessment books come in useful after the diagnosis. I dun buy any English nor Science assessment books because there are other more fun ways to teach these 2 subjects. For Science, I used to read Horrible Science books with my son... and we indulge in his love for experiments. However, there are drawbacks. Once, he tried to build a mini Tesla coil and almost set our house on fire. Another time, he was studying mould growth on chitin and I found a tarantula in a box all covered with furry fungus. And then there was the time he was breeding mealworm beetles. I strenuously objected when he wanted to see what would happen to his skin if unwashed for 1 month. This way of teaching Science is fun and builds scientific thinking skills. He is now quite independent in experimental design. He wanted to know why birds sitting on electric wires don't get roasted, and he went and concocted an experiment with light bulbs, controls etc to get his answer. I was actually quite amazed because I didn't help him at all. However, we built these skills in P3 and P4. So P3 and P4 parents may wanna steer away from assessment books and build these foundational scientific thinking skills by doing practical experiments. I realize I have an advantage here because even a social scientist (I am a psychologist) is trained in scientific thinking so all this came naturally to us. However, there are many many \"101 Fun Experiments\" type of books that explain each step etc... and the more you do these experiments, the easier and more natural it'll be to internalize scientific thinking skills. Dun need to get too serious. A lot of learning can be unconscious. In fact, I never really explained to my son scientific thinking, I just did simple experiments with him... giggle about the effects, and then later, he was on auto-pilot. So... you dun have to be a scientist to teach science.

For English we let him read. He is currently reading a book by Howard Gardner called the Science of Fear... and another book on The History of Money. He also likes Time magazine. Last year, I channelled him to fiction but I realize that PSLE has a fair amount of non-fiction compre-clozes so we've been reading more non-fiction this year. There was a happy side effect too because my boy enjoys non-fiction more than fiction. We only really work hard on compo writing for English. He does one compo every week for me. These methods gave him a good grounding (and all by himself, he had already progressed beyond his level) in P3 and P4 so these 2 subjects worry me least. In a way, he pre-taught himself. All I did was shop for stuff he wanted to buy.

(4) For Math, I had one topical assessment book in P3 and P4. Step-by-step by Simon Eio. Once he has completed the topics required for SA1, I give him Top School papers. This year (P5) we lost our footing because the Step-by-Step Simon Eio book covered the basic topics without the complex skills. I didn't know these complex skills were needed because we had only identified topic gaps when we did a diagnostic earlier this year. So... I now use Onsponge to teach topic and skills. For the moment, I have completely stopped Top School Exams because we already have a diagnostic, and until he has completed Onsponge, he is not ready for exam drills. This is a departure from our normal practice because his work schedule in the past 2 years always involves Top School Exam drills (dry runs that teach him to manage time and exam techniques) 6 weeks before exams. But Top School Exam drills are no point if there are questions asking for stuff he has not been taught. It is demoralizing to do and score exam practices and run into stuff that has not been taught. When he does exam practices, I wanna be sure that he knows enough so that he gets a good grade because good grades at exam practices build confidence and gives pleasure (and studying must be pleasurable). No doubt studying isn't all fun but if I can engineer a positive experience to make him feel good about studying, I do that. So, I am shelving the Top School Exams for the moment.

I notice that P5 SA1, P5 SA2, P6 SA1 and P6 SA2 are all of pretty equivalent difficulty. In effect, P5 SA1 paper is 90% of a PSLE paper. There's no way to do well at any of these practices right now (for us)... even if we do a lotta it simply because skills tested have not yet been covered. Hence, I have decided that I won't give him Top School exams to do until he has covered all the topics reasonably thoroughly.

Maybe he'll be ready by Aug this year? I dunno... This PSLE thing has thrown us so many curved balls since the start of the year that I am not sure of myself anymore. That may be good because no matter how experienced the mother, pride goes before a fall... one mustn't believe that one knows everything about motherhood and become complacent. I guess I'll just have to make it up as I go along... and pick up some ideas from parents here.

QuiteKSMum:

DS didn't skip any MCQ qns in the papers - he enjoyed doing them! Definitely by upper pri, besides accuracy, speed also plays an impt part; even in paper 1 (50 mins - need to do 10 1 mk MCQ, 5 2 mks MCQ, 10 1 mk short problem sum, 5 2 mks short prob sum - avg 1.67 min per sum). Hence, IMO, practising Paper 1 consistently will help to build up his speed too. Just my 2 cts (as I did minimal Maths with him, DH guided him...). :celebrate:

QuiteKSMum:

Brenda10 wrote:[quote]Need your advice as your ds had gone through the PSLE last year. We also doing purely in past year papers and would you think that is sufficient if dd don't have much problem with it?

QuiteKSMum:

Brenda10 wrote:[quote]Need your advice as your ds had gone through the PSLE last year. We also doing purely in past year papers and would you think that is sufficient if dd don't have much problem with it?