2012 PSLE Discussions and Strategy

[Chenonceau]

pertunia:

Hi, my son is taking PSLE in 2013. Just wondering if any schools finish the P5 syllabus early and start on P6 syllabus during the P5 year? I see 6A and 6B syllabus for Maths, Science and Chinese. Does it mean the schools cram all the syllabus within half year in P6? Can the students absorb so much? Just thinking ahead so I can help my son better. Thanks a lot.

DS' school targeted to finish the textbook material in May 2012. This did not prevent them from testing things that were not in textbooks (and not in any notes)... and not yet taught in class... e.g. Science answering technique etc... The kids all did very badly in CA1.

The P6 textbooks document so little of what is required for PSLE that if you fear you cannot absorb the material therein by end P5, then you will be ill-prepared for PSLE. For DS, we covered all the P6 basics at home by end P5... and then from Jan to March of P6, we did the extras NOT in textbook but tested in PSLE. DS still did quite badly in CA1 because we had not had time to practice the skills not yet taught but tested.

By SA1, we had had enough time to practice. He did better there.... and then he got bored so I signed him up with an American high school to do a literature module. All that practice can get boring but better master the textbook basics early, than late. This said, it still depends on how well your child can absorb.

[pertunia]

Chenonceau,


Thanks for your quick reply. I find that if I teach the Maths basics in advance, my son absorbs a lot better. He needs more time to grasp the concepts and it works well for him. Just wonder if we can manage to cram the entire P6 syallabus into the p5 holidays. For P5, we started on the basics for P5B in the June hols so that’s only half a year of work. We will need to do entire P6 year in the year-end hols.

How about the Chinese? My boy’s character recognition is not so strong so he takes longer time to master too. Do you do the entire Chinese syllabus in the P5 year-end hols?

Thanks so much for your inputs. Really appreciate it.

[Chenonceau]

pertunia:

Chenonceau,


Thanks for your quick reply. I find that if I teach the Maths basics in advance, my son absorbs a lot better. He needs more time to grasp the concepts and it works well for him. Just wonder if we can manage to cram the entire P6 syallabus into the p5 holidays. For P5, we started on the basics for P5B in the June hols so that's only half a year of work. We will need to do entire P6 year in the year-end hols.

How about the Chinese? My boy's character recognition is not so strong so he takes longer time to master too. Do you do the entire Chinese syllabus in the P5 year-end hols?

Thanks so much for your inputs. Really appreciate it.

For Chinese, I dun do the textbooks at all. I leave that to the school. My son is not stupid so I dun need to cover what the school is covering already. 75% of PSLE Chinese tests BEYOND textbooks... I used the following strategies for Chinese...

(1) Potato Chinese - http://petunialee.blogspot.sg/2012/07/potato-chinese-from-reciting-to-writing.html
(2) Chinese Oral Practices - http://petunialee.blogspot.sg/2012/08/preparing-for-psle-oral.html

Chinese, unlike Math, you dun need the textbook basics to read/learn other things. For both English and Chinese, we put in place an aggressive reading program.

In fact, in NONE of the subjects did we use textbooks. We used textbooks as a guide to what to cover only. I taught DS from other books. Our textbooks are useless. We only looked at them once or twice. Can't do well at PSLE by studying textbooks.

But yes... my son mastered the P6 tingxie lists for the whole year by March 2012. You can find it in Popular. It's called a 手册.

[pertunia]

Which 手册 did you buy? Do you have a pic or the name and publisher? Will go pick this up.


My son is just an average student plus he needs a longer time to master concepts compared to his peers. With a longer lead time, he can perform quite ok, like average or above average. He is definitely not a top student. And I can’t push too hard cos he is epileptic. (His epilepsy started 4 years back. Had status epilepticus and landed in ICU for a month and warded for 3 months. After discharge, he has been good so far). He needs a lot of sleep and can’t be overly stressed. Teaching in advance takes stress off his homework that the teacher gives so that’s good for him. Otherwise he will be sweating over the homework every day and worrying that he cannot complete them in time.

Thanks for the tips. Comes in really handy!

[happyheart]

Bedoktutor:

happyheart:

Need help from experienced mummies here...DS is not strong in MT so chinese oral is a struggle. We did picture discussion but it will not take long for him to forget almost everything 1) chinese name for the place 2) descriptive words about the people and happenings 3) Thoughts and opinions of what happened.


How do you organise the notes and drill them into your children? DS is taking psle next year, I am afraid whatever we do this year will be forgotten by next year!

Hi,
There are quite a number of useful CL oral books available at Popular bookstores. These books do contain words in EL but translated to CL. Eg like what do you call shop asistants, cashiers, dentists, pharmacists in mandarin. They also have model answers for picture discussions. Pupils can do self-learning or taught by parents. Memorising some useful phrases can come in handy during the oral exam.

To be proficient in languages, daily speaking, listening ( TV and radio) and wide reading, all these are proven effective.

I agree, Bedoktutor. The translation from EL to CL is quite a challenge :p. I am now trying to get him to remember the terms in CL. Hopefully, we can pick up slowly with more practice. Thanks for your advice.

[mummy so kiasu]

Don’t stress the kids too much, especially during this period of time. A lot of kids already drowned by their daily homework & can’t afford to do anything extra. We have to go for quality & not quantity. The recent P6 boy went missing a day before oral exam case has reminded us not to push our kids too far. We have to be realistic in term of goal setting & praise them for their effort regardless of the outcome.

[janet88]

mummy so kiasu:

Don't stress the kids too much, especially during this period of time. A lot of kids already drowned by their daily homework & can't afford to do anything extra. We have to go for quality & not quantity. The recent P6 boy went missing a day before oral exam case has reminded us not to push our kids too far. We have to be realistic in term of goal setting & praise them on their effort regardless of the outcome.

:goodpost:
Yes, QUALITY is crucial now. If my son is piled with tons of past year papers, I tell him to do what he can and write a note to the teacher. Inject time to destress or the child will be burnt out. Schools push for glory but we have to take care of our kids.

Drawing the line is tough. My son's CL tutor told me my son was stretched before his PSLE oral last week & he needed to let go or everything will be forgotten. So the 2 nights before the oral were spent watching TV.

[pchong]

Chenonceau:

pertunia:

Chenonceau,


I used the following strategies for Chinese...

(1) Potato Chinese - http://petunialee.blogspot.sg/2012/07/potato-chinese-from-reciting-to-writing.html
(2) Chinese Oral Practices - http://petunialee.blogspot.sg/2012/08/preparing-for-psle-oral.html

Chinese, unlike Math, you dun need the textbook basics to read/learn other things. For both English and Chinese, we put in place an aggressive reading program.

You can find it in Popular. It's called a 手册.

Hi Chenonceau, I went into the website mentioned by you and saw that they have this motivation book. Is it good? Do you recommend it? Can you share with us your coaching strategy to prepare kid for PSLE.

[alng]

pchong:

Hi Chenonceau, I went into the website mentioned by you and saw that they have this motivation book. Is it good? Do you recommend it? Can you share with us your coaching strategy to prepare kid for PSLE.

Haha! That motivation book is written by Chen. I will recommend you. It is a great book!

[mummy so kiasu]

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