2012 PSLE Discussions and Strategy
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fifiyeo:
My hubby also same, same one lah. Always thinking of playing first. Got posted out for work and some more ask me to bring kids over and pontang school!! :frustrated:[/quote]Mine the same, why are they so relaxed and only want to watch TV or computer?
I am so angry with hubby today...he doesn't seem to be aware that it's July already...whole of today said to visit this place and that :mad: this weekend is to get all homework done. Whole lot of crap from him :rant:janet_lee88:
[quote=\"fifiyeo\"]
Oh I'm so angry with my 2 boys. They are simply taking turns to annoy me with silly nonsense so I end up having to discipline them and not do any work. I think this is going to be another wasted weekend. :stompfeet:
My younger one is the trouble maker now! Maybe not getting enough attention??
don't know what the hell is wrong with him, can't seem to sacrifice going out these few months. Btw, I should be the one wanting to go out more than him.
Maybe we should group them together for their own TV time!!! -
I know nothing about Maths...more like no patience (and intelligence) for it
So I get hubby to teach daughter (P2)...or else he lagi free to watch TV, computer and go to sim lim.
Have separate time table for both kids. Like today being school holiday, I got him to coach her. Later when son has tuition, we go out somewhere to wait.
Next time I am getting him to take leave is after National day...or else daughter fails math :evil: -
My apologies for the radio-silence.. work and housework make a full plate.
I managed to do the below over lunch so hope this is of some help.
I have 2 more lined up which I hope to post by the end of this week and the focus of them all is to encourage you and your DC by showing you that English Compo at PSLE is really \"doable\" and I do believe many kids are not that far off from doing a really good piece at the PSLE.
Again, copyright is waived for you if you are a student and/or a parent who is helping guide your child in English Compo but not for any other person/entity.
As with the last piece, I am not saying that this is an A* compo but this is what I used to teach my Dds.
The question is from a school paper but it is also very similar to a past year PSLE picture composition.
Hope you find this useful, Gb!
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SA1 English Tao Nan 2009 Continuous Writing 1
\t“Oh, the weather is so hot Mary! Why did you even want to come out to walk?” Grandpa asked irritably, while wiping the sweat off his wrinkled forehead for what seemed like the millionth time.
Comment : This is how we DESCRIBE a hot grandpa - complaining ( through words), irritable ( emotions), wiping ( action), sweat ( descriptive object), wrinkled forehead ( describing old), millionth time ( superlative). With lesser linguistic ability, a child might write “It was a very hot day. Grandpa and Mary were walking in the park.” – this is telling not showing/describing.
\t“Come on Grandpa! The Sun is shining, the birds are in the air. It’s a glorious day! Right Mei?” I countered.
Comment : You can get a list of all the “say” words from most of the compo guide books ie words to use in place of “he said”.
\t“I am so hot, I wish I could jump into that fountain right there!” Grandpa grumbled cantankerously. “Well, I’m not walking anymore. I’m going to sit down on the bench there in the shade while you walk around with your sister, okay?” Without waiting for an answer, Grandpa trudged off towards the bench.
Comment: Again, description through words action and emotion (grumbled, without waiting for an answer, trudged)
\tRolling my eyes skyward, I tugged on my younger sister’s arm, dragging her along with me on my nature walk. Too young to enjoy anything but the fresh air and dancing butterflies in the park, Mei Mei happily skipped beside me. I hummed a song under my breadth while the Sun’s rays beat down on us mercilessly.
Comment: Description of 2 happy children enjoying a sun-lit day in the park.\t
“Mmmm ... Mmmm …” A chronic buzz sounded from somewhere behind me even as the smell of freshly cut grass filled the air. I glanced around and attributed the buzzing to the industrious grass cutters hard at work some distance away. Leaving them to their tasks, Mei and I carried on merrily with our stroll.
Comment: Focus 1 Buzzing Sound and for “suspense”, we attribute it to something innocuous/harmless – hardworking grass cutters.\t
“Mmmm... Mmmm... Mmmm...” The sound of the grass cutters seemed to come from right behind us. “Wow!” I thought to myself, “These grass cutters are really efficient!” Oddly, as the seconds passed, the buzzing sound continued to get closer and closer. Looking high and low for the source of the noise, I wore a puzzled frown until suddenly, my sister whimpered.
Comment : Continuing the “suspense” by bringing the action closer. \t
“Jie look!” she cried out, her voice trembling in fear as she pointed a shaky finger to the sky.
Comment : This is the problem which needs to be resolved and this is the main part of your story so note the description below of the bees – gray, moving, dancing cloud, innocent looking, with a life of its own, moving first this way than that, becoming bigger. A child who tells instead of describing may write “Suddenly, a cloud of angry, buzzing bees appeared.”
\tI turned in the direction she was pointing to. A gray moving cloud seemed to be dancing in the distance. It looked just like a small innocent rain cloud; but strangely the cloud seemed to have a life of its own, moving first one way then another. I screwed up my eyes for a better look as the cloud seemed to become bigger. It took me another few seconds to make it out! A hive of angry bees was swarming straight at us! Not wasting another moment, I let out a high pitched scream and pulled my sister with me as I ran.
\tGrandpa’s voice suddenly pierced through the air, shouting to us, “Run over here! Head for the fountain! The bees can’t follow us in!”
Comment: This is the resolution of the problem.
\tAlmost blinded by the perspiration dripping in rivulets into my eyes, I scooped my little sister up and dashed towards the fountain, hair streaming behind me and my legs pumping as fast as I could.
Comment: Note how we describe the run – blinded with perspiration ( sweating profusely), dripping rivulets into my eyes ( sweat running down my face), hair streaming behind me, legs pumping as fast as I could [ this is a picture of how someone looks when they are running fast]
\tWith a flying leap and a collective yell of “Argh!”, the three of us plunged into the fountain to get underwater and away from the vicious bees. After some long seconds, we braved a peak at the surface but by then the manic bees had all but disappeared.
Comment : This resolves the problem satisfactorily.\t
Relieved, we sat up in the fountain, hair plastered to our heads with dirty fountain water cascading down our faces. Spluttering and coughing, I grinned at Grandpa, “Thanks for helping us, Grandpa! Those grass cuters must have unwittingly disturbed the bees at their hive with their loud grass cutters, but you saved the day. You know what else Grandpa? Your wish to jump into the fountain really did come true!”
Comment: This describes the characters – hair plastered to our heads, dirty fountain water cascading down our faces, spluttering and coughing.
\tSitting in the water with us, Grandpa gave me a wry smile, “Yes, but certainly not in the way I expected!”
Comment: This is another way we could end our compos – tying in the end to sync with something in the beginning. But in exam circumstances, it is not always easy. Another reason to practice ahead to make perfect. -
:thankyou: psle2011mum! You are awesome ! Thanks for your selfless sharing ! :love:
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To all students, and of course, dear parents, from the PSLE Batch of 2012,
As you enter the final months leading into Term 3, I have been following you closely, reading many of these posts, silently cheering you on. Finally after much deliberation I have decided to write a post about my experiences thus far in schooling, and especially about PSLE.
It is during the Youth Day holiday that I am writing this. Outside, nature is weeping in a torrential downpour, and it is hard to ignore the chilly cold that winds blow through the open window, or the gloomily grey skies that watches over the island. Certainly this overcast, murky day has lent itself to affect my mood, and I can only imagine that it is more so for all the twelve-year olds across the island who sit at their desk in this relative gloom and chill pouring over assessments.
I still remember the feeling two years ago. I hated the mugging regimen for most of it and became feisty and rebellious. I wasn’t one who could sit down and do the assigned practice papers every day after school. Instead I procrastinated, all the way up till PSLE. I would go online, read far more entertaining novels and do anything but what I was supposed to do. And then nearer bedtime I would frantically finish my papers and also rush some before school the next day, and some others during class or recess. I barely went for a single recess that year. I would imagine also that I was not alone, that many others experienced what I had.
Sometimes, I am inclined to think that when planning lessons it is forgotten that we are children, and many have yet to attain high maturity levels necessary to drive oneself and cope with a suffocatingly boring regimen for an abstract goal of future success. Yet having fun and attaining success are not mutually exclusive.
For example, for English composition, instead of memorizing and then regurgitating phrases by rote, try to feel, to love and appreciate writing. Because writing is not just a checklist of skills to be mastered, it is also a form of communication beautiful as nature - because it is a representation of the human soul. It is spontaneous, like the falling leaves of autumn, or the lake’s rippling waves. Like music, like art, literature was never meant to be forced. To attempt to force it for the sake of marks is to do yourself (or your child) a great disservice. Instead, learn to experiment and develop a feel for sentence structure, play around with metaphors and similes and personifications. Try analogies one day - come up with creative imagery to describe sadness, or joy. Try to develop atmosphere, linking rain and other symbolic imagery to text. Try to give greater depth to the story - I still remember how I wrote the composition about the boy whose kite was caught in the tree for Prelims. I wrote that it was a gift and therefore it symbolized more than its materialistic value - and from there you can also bring in deeper feelings and concepts. I doubt I’ll ever become a best-selling author, but at least I love English. And loving the subject is not just for efficiency, or conceivable materialistic gains. It is about enjoying yourself and keeping sane - ideas that are lacking when PSLE comes into the picture.
Featuring just as prominently as success during PSLE is failure. I remember the day when I got back my P6 SA1 Math result - I had managed an extremely miserable score of 72. And I remember that I had cried, one of the few times I had ever cried because of studies.
I have the greatest admiration and love for European culture, for its grand displays of cultivated and learned traditions, of scholarship and divinity is especially prominent in European music, art and literature, because of the humanity that it brings out. And many art pieces depict failure so poignantly. Within a certain museum, the Musée d’Orsay in Paris hangs a picture that has always been a curiosity to me: The Absinthe Drinker, painted by Edgar Degas. It depicts a woman staring downward at her glass of Absinthe - an incredibly addictive substance that in itself resonates helplessness and enslavement. Despair is overpowering. However unlike the nobler depictions of the oppressed striving for freedom, there is some repugnance we must have associated with such depression. Absinthe is associated with the likes of men who have gone wrong, and attracts little empathy or understanding. This is a piece of art that in its every stroke conveys negativity in various tones. It is the resemblance of total capitulation to depression, when one has lost all hope; surrounded by darkness, nothing but stifling and overpowering darkness. You may see, but what do you really see? You may be slogging through life mechanically, but do you feel, do you live, do you cherish, do you hope?
Hope. It is something extremely intangible, and having been extremely fortunate in my schooling career I have always had that - hope. Therefore I can never fully comprehend what it would be like having truly and utterly been deemed a failure, just like how teachers who are themselves extremely educated and knowledgeable in their field may fail to understand how a child can fail to comprehend such simplicity. Few of us are as truly depressed, yet it is relative because many of us have at some time or another experienced a similar feeling in succumbing to failure. This is especially so during the PSLE, when children are at their most vulnerable, and the system is at its most cruel and demanding of performance. It is so easy to give up.
A few months ago I was writing my Chinese composition for SA, once of the god-most-awful experiences I have had in taking examinations. I had not revised as I was ill that period, and the topic was also one with which I was unfamiliar. I was staring at my blank paper and thinking into my equally blank brain while my ears were saturated with the weirdly magnified sound of my classmates’ writing. I knew I had to write something, so I grabbed my pen with sweating arms, willing myself to write something, anything, on that piece of paper. My essay was so ungrammatical, so inelegant and barbaric that I repulsed even my bilingually-challenged self. I knew that I was going to do something I had never before done - fail a Chinese composition during an actual exam, an an exam with relatively high weighting at that. I did not want to write anymore, but I knew it was my duty to carry on writing, writing on to certain failure. It took so much effort, so much will-power, just to write incomprehensible scribbles onto that piece of paper. At that time we were doing Romeo and Juliet for Literature, and immediately during the exam I was reminded of Fate, of the star-crossed lovers, of being Fortune’s fool. Fate, who transcended and overpowered everything - stature, society, and above all, love. They were all puppets in Fate’s show, or maybe Knights in Fate’s evening chess game. They were doomed from the very beginning, just like I was. A terrible feeling. No hope. Helplessness. Like the Absinthe Drinker in the bar.
But those were also a very humbling seventy-five minutes (and in the end I actually did pass the paper, albeit by an incredibly small margin, doing terrible damage to my GPA). You learn to continue despite all odds, to face Fate in the face, and to never stop writing. If you continue fighting, you still have a fighting chance; however if you choose not to continue, you fail by default. Because nobody really ‘fails’ PSLE, it is just a matter of succeeding to the best of your abilities and being at peace with yourself knowing that you tried your best.
Above all, remember that health, well-being and life is something that can never be replaced by an extra five marks in the Prelims (which you will forget about by the time you finish secondary school). Parents especially - we can’t take care of you much, can’t give you medicine, so please take care of yourself, for us as much as for yourself.
PSLE is an extremely difficult time, and you are all incredible heroes for having come so far. There are only three more months of this struggle, and you are done. Three more months of work, of stress, and you are done. But also remember that PSLE is but a part of life just like many other significant events and trials. Certainly they should not be a purpose in life nor what consumes life. Life should go on. Revision should be sustainable. Do not be too hard on yourself, take care of yourself. Let yourself go out and relax if you have had a hard day.
I know this isn’t a very well-written piece, and is extremely long-winded, and may or may not be helpful at all. But basically I was just trying to say this: Never forget to live life to its fullest.
Good luck, and remember that there are many of us cheering you on here!
This is written by a child from the PSLE graduands batch of 2010. -
achild,
That was a well worth reading post. Some commentsa child:
Then your education is complete, isnt it?I doubt I’ll ever become a best-selling author, but at least I love English.
And if you do turn out to be best-selling author do drop by KSP to let us know. i for one will want an autographed copy .a child:
Just loved these lines - so simple yet so thought provoking.
You may see, but what do you really see? You may be slogging through life mechanically, but do you feel, do you live, do you cherish, do you hope?
Your wisdom astonishes me.a child:
Life's lessons are experienced at unexpected moments. And the damage is well worth it.
But those were also a very humbling seventy-five minutes (and in the end I actually did pass the paper, albeit by an incredibly small margin, doing terrible damage to my GPA).
On a lighter note, I am reminded of this poke at RGS.
RGS girl - \"Aiyah, I fail my Chem you know, just got 90\" :evil:a child:
You learn to continue despite all odds, to face Fate in the face, and to never stop writing.a child:
What can I say to such words iof wisdom, I can only :salute:
I know this isn’t a very well-written piece, and is extremely long-winded, and may or may not be helpful at all. But basically I was just trying to say this: Never forget to live life to its fullest.
and wish you the very best in life. -
Dear a child,
Thank you very much for speaking up for all the children of PSLE 2012.
I really needed that because, to be honest, my DD and I (yes, we're a team), have been incorporating more R&R time to offset the stressful rigours the school has imposed since the 2nd semester - longer days and a lot more homework.
THANK YOU for the reassurance that I'm not nuts for bucking the norm.
:thankyou: -
shurley197323:
My dd's school completed both math and science topic last term. Doing revision paper now. They have two preliminary exam. 1st 1 start 2nd week of 3rd term. 2nd 1 will be after psle oral.My DD said they had already covered speed and all the science topic. Seeing all the posts here, I felt that my DD's school seems to be very relaxing, not much extra supp lessons, only extend 2 hrs for math and chinese each week.
I don't feel safe at all.
Luckily they have extra 1.5hr lesson every week for all 4 subjects since term 1 start. -
24hr_mum:
seems like your DS could be same school as BeContented's DS. same dates for the 2 Prelims.
My dd's school completed both math and science topic last term. Doing revision paper now. They have two preliminary exam. 1st 1 start 2nd week of 3rd term. 2nd 1 will be after psle oral.shurley197323:
My DD said they had already covered speed and all the science topic. Seeing all the posts here, I felt that my DD's school seems to be very relaxing, not much extra supp lessons, only extend 2 hrs for math and chinese each week.
I don't feel safe at all.
Luckily they have extra 1.5hr lesson every week for all 4 subjects since term 1 start.
All the best to your DC ! :please: -
It’s term3 week 2. Hw is minimal, math t absent. Haiz, tho hv substitute t still I prefer his own t as there was once this t make an interpretation error in qn to d whole class. & fr wat I see, additional hrs & more hw seem to be given to top class. Mayb cos their t more ks? prob that’s y ds quite ‘eng’. Gotta jia you on our own alrdy.
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