2012 PSLE Discussions and Strategy

[janet88]

Edureach:

I am amazed parents here are paying much attention to the details in their kids' psle preparations.

Can't help but expect many of your kids to do well.

There wasn't so much hype back then for PSLE...no so much emphasis in crash/intensive courses, remedial during holidays etc etc. Definitely not so commercialized as compared to now. I cannot bring myself to ignore PSLE and the importance of it. But i must remember not to push him over the cliff.

After my son's PSLE this year, I would have gained some experience what to expect when my younger one sits for it in 4 years time. But I will be facing double stress as one will sit for PSLE while the olde one has O levels.
But in meantime, focus on older one first.

[Chenonceau]

HAPPYH:

Chenonceau:

[quote=\"Edureach\"]I am now recalling the times my 2 kids took their psle exams in yrs 2005 and 2006. Comparing to most parents here, i think i wasn't half as devoted.


I am amazed parents here are paying much attention to the details in their kids' psle preparations.

Can't help but expect many of your kids to do well.

DD took her PSLE in 2005. It was almost a non-event for us compared to what I am going through now. Her syllabus was much less challenging... her exams were much less challenging... her school did not expect parents to take an active part in teaching.

Schools these days organise talks to teach parents how to help their kids with PSLE requirements at home... the system has gone out of control. I just discovered today that DS' Teacher marked his CA1 \"formal letter\" writing without picking up on the lack of a proper format. DS got 13/15 for this part of the paper when he should have barely passed because he had failed to format the letter properly and use the proper language register.

If I don't teach my son, he will be penalized at PSLE.

:yikes: What happens if the parents' english is not good? [/quote]I almost overlooked this actually. He was scoring so well for Situational Writing that I did not bother to look. I asked DD to look through his CA1 paper and she made the comment that it was strange how his CA1 formal letter has no format.

I looked at it, then I checked that PSLE requires letter format with address and date at the top etc... Then I went to Popular and realized that Situational Writing includes
- Instructions
- Review
- Postcard
etc... and my son had only learnt a half-baked no format letter writing in school. CA1 is suppose to be marked according to PSLE standard right... well, Teacher did not pick up the lack of format so we also didn't know.

Lucky I was DD for her opinion!!

[PiggyLalala]

Chenonceau:

DD took her PSLE in 2005. It was almost a non-event for us compared to what I am going through now. Her syllabus was much less challenging... her exams were much less challenging... her school did not expect parents to take an active part in teaching.

Schools these days organise talks to teach parents how to help their kids with PSLE requirements at home... the system has gone out of control. I just discovered today that DS' Teacher marked his CA1 \"formal letter\" writing without picking up on the lack of a proper format. DS got 13/15 for this part of the paper when he should have barely passed because he had failed to format the letter properly and use the proper language register.

If I don't teach my son, he will be penalized at PSLE.

:yikes: What happens if the parents' english is not good? [/quote]

I almost overlooked this actually. He was scoring so well for Situational Writing that I did not bother to look. I asked DD to look through his CA1 paper and she made the comment that it was strange how his CA1 formal letter has no format.

I looked at it, then I checked with someone I knew who knows TLL and she said that TLL requires letter format with address and date at the top etc... Then I went to Popular and realized that Situational Writing includes
- Instructions
- Review
- Postcard
etc... and my son had only learnt a half-baked no format letter writing in school. CA1 is suppose to be marked according to PSLE standard right... well, Teacher did not pick up the lack of format so we also didn't know.

Lucky I was DD for her opinion!! [/quote]

Hi Chen, I have the impression that for psle English letter writing, they do not need to follow the format anymore or they have a simplified format. I kind of remember there was a thread discussing about the format before. Other p6 parents please comment on this too as I could be wrong. Somehow when yr age hits the magic number, u don't seem to able to trust yr memory anymore.

[Chenonceau]

PiggyLalala:

Hi Chen, I have the impression that for psle English letter writing, they do not need to follow the format anymore or they have a simplified format. I kind of remember there was a thread discussing about the format before. Other p6 parents please comment on this too as I could be wrong. Somehow when yr age hits the magic number, u don't seem to able to trust yr memory anymore.

Oooooooh Piggy! Thanks! Do you know anything about the...
- Review
- Instructions
- Postcard etc...?

RGPS is still teaching the letter format and the review blah blah... my friend say one.

[PiggyLalala]

Refer to PSLE english thread, Page 87. There is a discussion on the format of PSLE letter writing

[Chenonceau]

PiggyLalala:

Refer to PSLE english thread, Page 87. There is a discussion on the format of PSLE letter writing

:thankyou:

[PiggyLalala]

Cant remember ds doing review. I think i ever see postcard and instructions but more on emails.

[pixiedust]

Ds’s school is same as Piggy’s and chrisu (in the psle English thread), no need to format the letter ie. start with ‘Dear xxxxxx’. I think there is no marks for format : 6 marks for content, 9 marks for language, total 15 marks.


So far we haven’t done any instructions or review, postcard - did one in P5.

Hope to hear other parent’s feedback too.

[janet88]

PiggyLalala:

Cant remember ds doing review. I think i ever see postcard and instructions but more on emails.

Regarding situational writing, I am totally hands-off. Absolutely dumb when it comes to compo. But I am thankful son's Eng teacher (this year) did teach class the proper way of writing emails, diary, postcard etc. His teacher last year also did a great job.

[fightingmom]

Hi all,


Regarding Situational Writing, so far my DD has done mostly emails & informal letter writing (to overseas friend or relative) but late last year (P5), her form teacher went thru complimentary letters (2 exercises) and earlier this year one report writing... Most of the practices done all started with \"Dear xxxx\" with no address needed.

Hope this helps !