2012 PSLE Discussions and Strategy
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kitty2:
Marking themselves or swopping papers are common too,latest stylejanet_lee88:
[quote=\"kitty2\"]Most of the teachers will flash answers,will not explain.If the kid's lucky will be able to copy the answers if not don't even have answers.This's the style now :siao:
They swop papers to mark. When the answer is wrong, kids will just write the correct answer beside. Then when same question is asked again, the answer given is wrong AGAIN. I do ask my boy to show me what has been done occasionally...sometimes he will ask for explanation of the question.
My son was absent from school last week (3 days) as he caught the chill from younger daughter. When he returned home yest, he was awarded with 100 Math questions, 2 comprehension annotations + OE, 15 synthesis questions :faint:
Kids will learn wrong things if not careful with the markings.They can give alot of work but all not marked!!!![/quote]DS sch did the paper swopping thingy too, and also quite a lot of work that are done are not marked as well. When ds has less hw for the day, I wonder is the teacher too lax. When his hw are not marked, I question what's the point of doing -- no time to mark then don't give. Teacher really pai-tan hor. My sis says she let her students swop papers, but she will ask the class to give a show of hands how many students got it wrong. If majority, then she will explain in class. If a few, those few will go see her during recess to get a full explaination. My ds may or may not be lucky to have dedicated teachers. So, I rely on the psle booklet answer sheet, then get him to redo if wrong. As for mock papers on other schs, hopefully they will eventually find time to go through.
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These days I’m monitoring whether every piece of homework done is marked & I scan through to see what kind of answers r provided. I’m prepared to stop DS from doing any homework that is not helpful to DS revision. I’ve started to keep DS at home to revise work with me. I tell e teacher that’s what I’m doing. Teacher has not objected. DS also understands rationale so its bn a good arrgt.
Right now for my child, I feel its abt conserving energy & attention on what really matters. Its quality & not sheer quantity.
For myself as parent I feel from now till psle, it’s abt letting go what I cannot control, accept my child’s effort, however big or small, be a good source of strength, encouragement & inspiration to DS child. Some days will b harder, and those days when I’m at my wits end, feeling discouraged, I know it’s time to take care of myself. My child also needs a break from me. I’ve started to go for more regular exercise to take breaks. -
beanbear:
Wow!!Your son's teacher is awesome,can don't attend school.Some school don't even allow the kids to be set free from SUPPLEMENTARY!!!!They rather kept the kids in school to watch video during supp :siao:These days I'm monitoring whether every piece of homework done is marked & I scan through to see what kind of answers r provided. I'm prepared to stop DS from doing any homework that is not helpful to DS revision. I've started to keep DS at home to revise work with me. I tell e teacher that's what I'm doing. Teacher has not objected. DS also understands rationale so its bn a good arrgt.
Right now for my child, I feel its abt conserving energy & attention on what really matters. Its quality & not sheer quantity.
For myself as parent I feel from now till psle, it's abt letting go what I cannot control, accept my child's effort, however big or small, be a good source of strength, encouragement & inspiration to DS child. Some days will b harder, and those days when I'm at my wits end, feeling discouraged, I know it's time to take care of myself. My child also needs a break from me. I've started to go for more regular exercise to take breaks. -
My DS is the only child in his class who doesn’t attend supp classes at all. At first I received calls from the Teachers who told me what he’ll miss and they also said they will teaching new topics, etc. The teachers were quite reluctant for him to miss the lessons, and I had to write a letter to state my reasons. I was prepared to face the Principal if the teachers didn’t agree.
I made the judgement call as I felt DS will benefit more from coming home on time and I will address the gaps myself or his tutors will help him in areas he missed. Since P3, DS had attended supp classes 3 times a week and his attendance at school was impeccable but the last straw for me was when he did so badly at SA2 in P5 where he flung Maths and was borderline pass for English & Chinese.
Insanity is doing more of the same thing and expecting different results so I decided to things differently.
I wasn’t sure if DS needed a one-on-one Tutoring and the exorbitant rates Tutors were charging, I wasn’t sure if their teaching methods will really plug the gaps for DS. I knew that more time spent at school with a class of 30-40 kids definitely WAS NOT going to address the gaps DS had. DS goes for small class tuition and I keep a close eye on what’s been covered by the tutors. I spend a fair amount of time to help bridge any gaps that I’m able to address.
Schools will always tell you supplementary classes are compulsory. I also believe that parents have a right to let the school know if they feel the child’s learning needs are better addressed with a different approach. My DD who is in P5 also don’t attend any supplementary classes since the start of this year. The VP called me recently to address this issue. I also explained my stand and they agreed with my decision. Right now DD & DS are the only children in their class who don’t attend supp class. I suspect that other parents may not want their kids to attend supplementary classes but they don’t dare to question the school’s decision, especially if the letter is worded as compulsory or they may have fears that their child will miss out something important.
Yesterday DS didn’t attend school and when he returned to school, he just told the teacher that he was revising work at home with mummy. Teacher gives him the homework he missed and that’s that. My plan is to have DS skip school probably once a week now so that I can spend the day with him revising. Time is a finite resource and I plan to use that resource to meet DS’s needs rather than comply to school rules. I guess why DS teachers have not objected vigorously so far is that DS has been handing in good work and he did fairly well in CA1 & SA1. DS is not a high-flyer, he performs at 70+ with all this effort put in. Hopefully, we build more momentum and at PSLE he could get good As, if not, good Bs. -
beanbear:
I wish I can stop my son from doing homework that is not helpful either. I want quality work given and then marked. My son does not attend suppl lessons as he is home for lunch, bath and nap before his tuition. You are lucky your son's teachers did not object to him staying at home to revise. I am planning to do that once his prelims finishes next month. Actually it is quite late by then (end Aug).These days I'm monitoring whether every piece of homework done is marked & I scan through to see what kind of answers r provided. I'm prepared to stop DS from doing any homework that is not helpful to DS revision. I've started to keep DS at home to revise work with me. I tell e teacher that's what I'm doing. Teacher has not objected. DS also understands rationale so its bn a good arrgt.
Right now for my child, I feel its abt conserving energy & attention on what really matters. Its quality & not sheer quantity.
For the month of Sep, he will be home mostly to revise. -
HAPPYH:
Yes, I agree with you. We should not demoralise our children at this crucial time.[/quote]Dd's new Maths tutor gave her a few sets of top school papers to practice & was shocked that dd couldn't do them. I felt demoralised too but thankfully my dd has very good attitude. Even though she finds the questions tough, she still presses on & keeps doing the papers. Tutor would patiently explain to her her mistakes & tell her to re-do those questions.
When attempting other schools' papers, one has to be very careful coz the level of difficulty may be very high. May have negative effect on the kids if they get a low score doing those papers. But if use mostly for revision purpose, without the 'scoring', I think it's OK.Nebbermind:
[quote=\"SAHM_TAN\"]I will only experience PSLE \"hell\" 5 years later but can't help to peep into this thread.
I'm trying to understand. I did 10yrs series to prepare for my exams, I think it was A levels. Doing other schools' and past yrs exam papers, is it something like 10 yrs series? If it is I found it useful when I was doing mine becos I have to apply what I've learned. I figured by now the teachers have covered all the syllabus?
I told dd nevermind about the score. It is better to be exposed to more questions than give ourselves the impression that PSLE is not going to be that difficult so don't do those papers to discourage ourselves cos in reality PSLE is not going to be easy. The important thing is to learn from those mistakes, make sure we know where we have gone wrong & what is that that we don't know & grow from there. -
[quote="Honey]I told dd nevermind about the score. It is better to be exposed to more questions than give ourselves the impression that PSLE is not going to be that difficult so don’t do those papers to discourage ourselves cos in reality PSLE is not going to be easy. The important thing is to learn from those mistakes, make sure we know where we have gone wrong & what is that that we don’t know & grow from there.[/quote]
PSLE is not easy especially this year. Son’s tutor gave him a 2011 prelim paper as homework. Son sweat…but we told him to try his best. If he really can’t do, then ask and learn from it.
Score is not important when attempting past year papers. It’s better to see what kind of questions to expect NOW than PSLE itself. -
Honey:
Hi Honey,
Dd's new Maths tutor gave her a few sets of top school papers to practice & was shocked that dd couldn't do them. I felt demoralised too but thankfully my dd has very good attitude. Even though she finds the questions tough, she still presses on & keeps doing the papers. Tutor would patiently explain to her her mistakes & tell her to re-do those questions.
I told dd nevermind about the score. It is better to be exposed to more questions than give ourselves the impression that PSLE is not going to be that difficult so don't do those papers to discourage ourselves cos in reality PSLE is not going to be easy. The important thing is to learn from those mistakes, make sure we know where we have gone wrong & what is that that we don't know & grow from there.
I think good attitude towards learning is most important. As long as your DD doesn't give up and is willing to learn, half the battle is won.
As i always tell my DD - It ain't over until the fat lady sings !
:grphug: -
fightingmom:
Honey,
Hi Honey,
I think good attitude towards learning is most important. As long as your DD doesn't give up and is willing to learn, half the battle is won.
As i always tell my DD - It ain't over until the fat lady sings !
:grphug:
attitude is important. make sure her 'fire' keeps on burning, PSLE is just part of the journey, there is still secondary and so on
Fightingmom,
what does it mean by the fat lady sings? who is she?
trying to learn some english here
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BeContented:
Honey,fightingmom:
Hi Honey,
I think good attitude towards learning is most important. As long as your DD doesn't give up and is willing to learn, half the battle is won.
As i always tell my DD - It ain't over until the fat lady sings !
:grphug:
attitude is important. make sure her 'fire' keeps on burning, PSLE is just part of the journey, there is still secondary and so on
Fightingmom,
what does it mean by the fat lady sings? who is she?
trying to learn some english here
It's not over until the fat lady sings. (informal)
something that you say when someone is losing a game or competition but you think there is still a chance they might win.
From : Cambridge Idioms Dictionary
The Chinese version of 不到最后一分钟，你不知道谁是赢家！ :rahrah:
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