2012 PSLE Discussions and Strategy

[buds]

psle2011mum.. this is definitely an apt place for your sharings!

The \"discussions n strategies\" shared by your good self are in relevance to current examination requirements/standards as you have observed from your daughter's recent sitting. While hubs n I are not expecting As of any kind, we hope to provide a less painful learning process for her by standing by her efforts n diligence together with the extraordinary work of her teachers (they do more than just teach AND supplement what's available from external vendors!) to hopefully aid her steadily n pave the way to PSLE (without much stress ... if there even is such a thing! ), especially since she isn't the type who can manage last minute mugging. By supporting her at all times n and sometimes taking the back seat role (to gauge how much she too yearns to taste bigger successes after the small ones)... coupled with your excellent pointers... we hope we are on the right track with her. Whether we are active participants of the discussions here or only silent readers trying to capture a tip or two, our motivation as parents (stay-home-mommies or working ones) are the same.... to help our children be better prepared.... to be there for them n have them quietly realize that regardless of their varying capabilities.... we are here for them. PSLE is only the beginning of our journey together with them.

I've recently picked up a book from the library that had this quote...

\"The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces the ones we love, they bloom like flowers.\"
~Thich Nhat Hanh~

In short, the gift of love (our love!) is spelt as....... T.I.M.E.

Looking forward to more of your sharings.

[speedmaths.012624com]

For pupils taking PSLE in 2012:


Limited places left for our final Maths camp of this year:

PSLE Creative Maths Camp on 17 Dec 2011.

For more details, please see:

http://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=25433&p=661081#p661081

http://www.speedmaths.com


Speedmaths.com

[autumnbronze]

dovetail:

Yes, I can attest to the benefits of starring far. My kids dd 11 and ds 14 and not myopic. I attribute their good eyesight to balance of outdoor activities.


Just to add another starring far poetry, with permission from my dd who wrote this a week ago.

Starry Night

When you look far far away,
on a cloudless night, not day,
don't you feel happy at what you see?
Don't you feel for one moment that you are really free?

When you see the the twinkling stars,
like the lights of hundreds of cars,
don't you feel that the two are different somehow?
Don't you feel that great feeling of \"Now\"?

You don't have to worry about this or that,
about doing your homework or losing your hat.
You just enjoy the present, the now, the here,
the presence of loved ones, of those who are dear.

So next time you leave that starry night,
try to look at the world in a new light.
Don't worry about the future, or grumble about the past,
leave all these things alone, to collect dust.

For remember, these are chains that tie you down,
that make you unhappy, and make you frown.
Hold fast to the present, and those who are dear,
for the most important time is now, and the most important place is here.

Donata, Written on the spot
- Donata - All Rights Reserved - 2011

I LOVE THIS :goodpost: :goodpost: :goodpost:

[Sun_2010]

dovetail:

Yes, I can attest to the benefits of starring far. My kids dd 11 and ds 14 and not myopic. I attribute their good eyesight to balance of outdoor activities.


Just to add another starring far poetry, with permission from my dd who wrote this a week ago.

Starry Night

When you look far far away,
on a cloudless night, not day,
don't you feel happy at what you see?
Don't you feel for one moment that you are really free?

When you see the the twinkling stars,
like the lights of hundreds of cars,
don't you feel that the two are different somehow?
Don't you feel that great feeling of \"Now\"?

You don't have to worry about this or that,
about doing your homework or losing your hat.
You just enjoy the present, the now, the here,
the presence of loved ones, of those who are dear.

So next time you leave that starry night,
try to look at the world in a new light.
Don't worry about the future, or grumble about the past,
leave all these things alone, to collect dust.

For remember, these are chains that tie you down,
that make you unhappy, and make you frown.
Hold fast to the present, and those who are dear,
for the most important time is now, and the most important place is here.

Donata, Written on the spot
- Donata - All Rights Reserved - 2011

Very good one by your DD dovetail.
Children are creatures of the present unlike us adult.
But few realise it. No wonder as we grow we let the baggages of past and worries of future mar the beauties of the present.

Your DD is quite mature to understand it at such a young age.

Keep writing Donata !!
:rahrah: :rahrah: :rahrah:

[sunj1252]

No short cut - do as more exercise as your ds/dd can

[kitty2]

psle2011mum:

Hi Parents


This [very long] post [ I apologise in advance] is about how I helped DD with her English Compo. I'm not an expert at all [really more desperate than expert] but my work involves English language skills so I used some of that to help DD.

DD's English compo writing had been really poor in P3 not because she lacked ability, but because (a) she did not understand the requirements for Compo Writing and (b) she had nothing to aspire to, not having sighted \"good writing\" pieces.

I've shared that DD is a reader but she read for entertainment. She likes Fantasy - Narnia, Bartimaeus, Harry Potter -- it's hard even for a reader to translate anything from reading this genre of books to a composition which asks you to write about a girl you find crying in a shopping centre; so I had no choice but to roll up my sleeves and help.

Again I reiterate my lack of qualified expertise; I can only say both DDs did well in English Compo with the following strategies.

I learnt the hard way that Compo writing is NOT creative story writing [ my apologies to the many \"creative writing tutors out there\" ; I can only say that this is my perspective on the issue and parents still have to make their own assessment about what works best for their child] .

I don’t recall having had any special training for compo writing in school, but I recall I did well enough. Yet, when I turned my hand to the compos my DD had to write, I was stumped.

I tried analysing my DD1’s problem with the teachers then, but didn’t get too far as they were really busy. Through a friend though, I learnt of an English Language trainer [she trains some of our teachers]and I had 3 group sessions with her. The benefit of this was that I could ask an expert what was expected, what was rewarded with marks and what didn’t work, and also very importantly, why. This trainer critiqued DD’s efforts [ DD had to write pieces and submit these to the trainer before the sessions] and this trainer explained to me clearly the requirements for composition writing.

These were some things that “turned on the light” for me:

a.\tIn Compo writing, what is tested is language ability -I know, I know, it’s a bit of a no-brainer right – but I had started off on the wrong foot thinking it was like my own primary school days when teachers asked us to write stories [ I remember mine being liberally peppered with Enid- Blyton- like elves and characters drinking English tea! I am sure a gollywog or two put in an appearance too.]

b.\tIt is perfectly all right to write the Obvious [aka “boring story line”] Story - in my bid to write “stories”, I tried getting DD to write beyond the obvious –“creative” stories with plots , myriad characters and twists; it was a strategy that failed miserably because she tripped up everywhere-- and it was so unnecessary. If you accept Premise (a) above, then you can accept that your child will not be marked down because he/she wrote the Obvious Story. On the other hand, if there is a logic lapse [because your child got confused in all that creativity], your child may well be marked down for it. What is the Obvious Story ? Well, it’s a simple one liner for each part of the story. I’ll try to illustrate with examples below.

c.\t“Show” don’t “Tell” – you may have heard the teachers tell the children this in class but kids being kids, DD didn’t understand what it meant. Perhaps I can illustrate this better with an example. A simple, quite typical sentence many of our kids can write without any problem is something like : “He cried out in pain”. This is an example of “telling” - the sentence can easily be in answer to the question “Tell me what happened”; but if the question is not “tell me what happened “ but ‘ show me what happened”, a child might well take it to mean that he/she has to “act it out’ to “show” you what happened -- and that was what I taught DD to do – only her “acting” had to be in words; maybe something like this -- “Pain wrecked his body. Tears streamed out of the corners of his eyes even as his lips compressed into a thin line. He could contain it in no longer – his mouth opened and his shriek of agony filled the room.” We used a rough 'one for three' formula to \"show\" and \"not tell\" ie for the one simple “tell me what happened “ line, DD was trained to write 3 descriptive lines. See how this links to Premise (a) – the child can write “ He cried out in pain” but if he/she can achieve the 3 descriptive lines in place of the one “telling” line, he/she has shown his/her linguistic ability/prowess and will be rewarded with marks.

d.\tPractice makes perfect – in DD’s school, the time table provided for 10 compos to be written in a year. Simply put, it was not enough for DD to count on the school to provide the needed practice – we had to do quite a bit more on our own. We used the past year PSLE questions from other schools for practice and also the Hokkien Huay Kuan published exam papers [ you can get these tomes from Popular].We bought the latter mainly because of the English compo questions which tended to be missing from the past year papers purchased from Jeremy’s Examsutra. In the P5 holidays, DD wrote compos for me in earnest and I would correct them just as dilligently [see the next section].

e.\tCorrections are Crucial – I did not agree with the way corrections were done in school but I emphatised fully. The teacher has 40+ students to handle and each student has multiple varying needs. I only had to help one DD, and I already had my hands full. But since DD had put in the effort to write a compo, I decided I would put in the effort to correct it so that she would learn from her mistakes. I won’t go into the details but I did require the following – spelling errors were re-written out 10 times and the mis-spelled word was thereafter put into our Spelling file for further practice; if the punctuation error revealed that DD didn’t know how to use that punctuation well, then we did a lesson ( or more, as necessary) on how to use that punctuation correctly; if a part ( or more) of the compo was badly written, I explained why I felt it was bad and made suggestions for improvement, reiterating lessons such as Points (a) to (c) above and (g) below, then DD would re-write another attempt. It was a slow and laborious process but we stuck with it and DD slowly but surely improved. I hastened the process somewhat by modeling for DD ie I wrote the compositions after she had done her “re-attempts” and then took her through the various parts of it, showing and not merely telling her, how it was to be done.

f.\tNo time for re-visits : Based on my earlier PSLE journey with DD1, I knew we would have no time for re-visits, so as we wrote and corrected, I collected the best of the works into a file and junked the rest; this was used for “revision” right before the PSLE.

g.\tThe Science to the Art : I worked out a formula/strategy [based on my abilities and suited for DD’s strengths and weaknesses] which DD could apply to any question that could come out in the PSLE, so that it didn’t depend on whether she liked the topic set or otherwise. DD understood this well because she had by this time understood Point (a) – composition writing is a writing exercise – it is an exercise to showcase writing ability and it didn’t depend on her magically being able to conjure a fantastic story line out of thin air within 50 minutes.

Our composition had 4 main parts [yes 4 not 3] : a beginning, a body, a resolution to the problem and a reflection.

Rule No. 1: the composition had to be balanced; in the early days, DD tended to start off beautifully, very descriptive and full of enthusiasm, but whether it was because she got tired or because she ran out of time, the other parts of her composition quickly went back to the ‘telling” mode, especially at the end. I explained that the end was perhaps the most important part of the compo since this was the point just before the teacher awarded the marks, so DD could not afford to start well but end badly.

Rule No. 2: the body was usually divided into two parts, (a) introducing the problem [Telling statement [ citing from a past psle picture composition question]: boy fell into a hole in the ground while flying a kite in the park]and the other (b) showing the process of how the problem was solved [Telling statement: the boy was rescued from the hole by his father using a long stick].

In this “body” part of the composition, we usually employed 2 main strategies – what the trainer termed “make the problem worse” for (a) and “ the magic of 3’ for (b).

In “making the problem worse”, instead of just making our poor boy fall into the hole [ we did nonetheless use 3 descriptors to show and not simply tell about his falling into hole– flailing arms, ear-piercing yell, deafening thud] , we might have him hurt his arm in the course of the fall [ we would have another 3 descriptors showing and not telling: eg. bent at an awkward angle, excruciating pain, limp and immobile arm] and then have the boy also feel sick and vomit from having swallowed clods of earth as he fell in [and another 3 descriptors showing and not telling: eg lumps of earthy debris rained onto him, filling his nose with the stench of dung even as clods of earth lodged deep within his throat, silencing him in mid-yell] . Each of these 3 small scenarios for one telling statement was simple enough for DD to manage and she had ample material to write about.

In the “magic of 3” [a suspense strategy] , our rescue was never a success at the first attempt; it was a minimum of 2 or a maximum of 3 attempts for success– eg in the first attempt, the dad finds a tree branch but this breaks the moment the boy touches it; in the second attempt, the dad manages to find something stronger but boy’s hands are slippery with sweat and he falls off halfway; only in the third attempt, does the rescue succeed. With this strategy, DD never ran out of material to write and her simple ideas were not a chore to derive or write about.

Rule No.3 : there must be a resolution to the problem; in my example, DD would probably ahve resolved this simply – the boy was saved by his dad; he had cuts and scratches but otherwise didn’t need any further treatment. The compositions our kids are often tasked to write are based on what PSLE setters think is a “problem” which is within their experience [ reality narratives] and set in a familiar context [ hence no “ Holiday in Hokkaido” types of titles for PSLE because not everyone has stepped onto a plane]. They therefore expect the problem to be satisfactorily resolved by the child in his/her compo. For this reason, use of deus ex machine [ a term I think which roughly translates to the equivalent of “intervention of a super machine” ]is not acceptable and neither is “death” or “ I woke up and realised it was a dream” as these are too ‘pat” and convenient a solution for a “real” problem to be resolved.

Rule No.4 : there needs to be a reflection; I wrote a “set” piece for DDs to memorise and adapt to the various common themes [ done a good deed and felt happy; relived that a harrowing incident had not turned worse; regret for a foolish act etc] ; it helped to bring the composition to a rounded end.

Eg. As the evening sun set and threw out hues of pink and gold, [Andy] was filled with a sense of relief that his harrowing ordeal had come to an end. Nestled in the comfortable confines of his room, he thanked his lucky stars that he had not been more seriously hurt. Soon, lulled by the warmth and safety of his bed, Andy closed his eyes as he drifted off to Dreamland.

Variation ie adpated for \"done a good deed\"

Eg. As the evening sun set and threw out hues of pink and gold, [Andy] was filled with gladness at the good deed he had done. The magnificent sunset was indeed a fitting end to an especially significant day.



Even if you deem the above examples commendable, I DO NOT recommend you/your child uses this – PSLE markers are going to start wondering why an inordinate number of compositions have this paragraph]. However, I do recommend you/your child either write your own reflection paragraph or adapt it from some of the good books [ I adapted one for DD from a children’s classic ].

With the above framework, we did not have to “plan” that much – just the few telling statements [which were obvious anyway] from which DD then applied the above “Rules” . The teachers did issue some notes along these lines to DD this year but it happened rather late in the year. As you can tell, these skills take time to develop, so earlier practice is always better. The upside is of this massive effort was that even with a little success, DD felt motivated enough to “keep the standards up” and I had relatively little trouble keeping her at the practice because she could clearly see the benefits.

h.\tWe avoided some common errors: we started our compos right at the point just before 'the Body'. instead of writing 3 paras of a beautiful beginning at the expense of the “more important” end ; we always tried to minimise the number of characters in our story so that we did not have to write for so many – eg if you played ball with 5 friends and you have one character involved in an incident, one ‘hero” in charge , you will have 3 kids standing by in stony silence; we watched it when we wrote in the first person as then we needed to ensure the compo could continue if we decided that our first person story-teller should faint away; we avoided difficult names ending in ‘s” like “ James” because DD sometimes got confused how to use it as a possessive -- “ James’ or James’s”; we avoided complicated story lines and flashbacks as a writing style like this made DD commit logic lapses and unfortunately, DD did not always flash back to the same time zone.

i.\tTypically, DD’s composition would be about 400+ to 500 + words; the mandate is 150 words but I feel that you cannot showcase much linguistic ability in 150 words.

j.\t40 out of 40 – if you accept Premise (a), 40/40 at PSLE for English composition is possible and according to the teachers, has been achieved. DD’s score was typically 30+ out of 40 in a school which tested for English at a reasonably high standard. Prior to my learning more, DD was languishing in the 24 to 29 range.

k.\tIf you think this is a lot of work then I will tell you it is; but take the challenge I did – do a P6 compo question and assess for yourself whether it is a walk in the park; if you agree that it is not, then I think you will agree that your DChild needs help – specific and directed guidance to do well; you cannot expect [save for the geniuses amongst us] the child to achieve this on his/her own.

l.\tTime – DD was fortunate; I learnt the above when DD was in P4; so when DD was in P5, we started implementation in serious. But all is not lost; for DD1 I only got these worked out in April of the year she took her PSLE and she did an A* for English too.

m.\tTuition – I was the main tutor but DD did attend one session with the trainer [we had parent-child teams in that workshop] but I think it was of limited value because this is an on-going process.

n.\tReferences – Since 2008, I have only found one model compo book resource I was happy to use; it was called \"PSLE model compositions 2002 - 2007\" published by MultiNine Corporation. As far as I can ascertain, it has been out of print after 2008. I bought my original copies from Popular. It contained the past PSLE questions with model compos and they were simple enough with very interesting story lines and amazingly done within 250+ words. I have given all my copies away over the years as we out-grew this. A word of caution about using these model resources : many other students had access to this little gem and the teachers were hence treated to highly similar stories from various girls in the class when they ‘borrowed” liberally from this book. Nonetheless, it was of value to us because I wanted to show my DDs what good compos looked like. I am unsure why, but only on odd occasions did the English teachers show the girls samples of good writing done by other girls in the class or their seniors [ yes, the compo questions were unchanged at least from 2009 to 2011]. The Chinese teacher however typed out and issued as notes the good Chinese compos the class girls had written and even underlined the good phrases and paragraphs to highlight to the students; so I’m not sure why the English teachers were reticent in this respect. Anyway, I modeled the compos for my DDs, for better or worse.

I think that’s largely it for English Compo. Remember that Rome wasn't built in a day, so small steps and bite-size sessions in the course of implementaion are highly recommended.

If you have read till this end, I commend you – it made me rather tired just proof reading all this.

I also apologise if you cringed at my writing; I can only say that there is a fair bit of personal preference when it comes to style.

I’m not sure whether this has been of any help to anyone but if it has encouraged you to step up and help your child [ so many of them do struggle mightily when it is largely not their fault], I would have achieved my main objective.

Have a great night ahead everyone!

:goodpost: :thankyou: :udawoman:

[psle2011mum]

Good evening HAPPYH, buds and Kitty2,


Glad to have shared and hope it is of some help. Yes, I totally agree that a parent’s time and involvement with your child is the objective during this rather stressful for our P6 DSs and DDs.

Will put up my post for Science next - stay tuned.

[Champion]

psle2011mum:

Glad to have shared and hope it is of some help. Yes, I totally agree that a parent's time and involvement with your child is the objective during this rather stressful for our P6 DSs and DDs.

Will put up my post for Science next - stay tuned.

Hello psle2011mum,
:thankyou: for your write-up ; indeed benefits a lot from the reading alone! :udawoman:

Will definitely stay tune for the post on Science!

[buds]

psle2011mum:

Will put up my post for Science next - stay tuned.

:drool:

:rubhands:

[psle2011mum]

Hi Everyone


I’m back again, this time with what worked for us for Science.

I realised that there were 2 main parts that had to be tackled for Science. The first was Content and the second was answering skills.

For Content, DD was trained from the start [P3] to memorise the Science Statements to word perfection. I explained along the way why we had to do this and showed her numerous examples when we used other words and lost some accuracy because of our choice of less definitive terms. After some time, DD accepted that memorising the Science Statements that appeared in all the assessment books, textbooks [even the ones we found least useful] and notes was a simpler way to achieve accuracy; so we seldom deviated from these Science Statements. Teachers like to term this as the use of ‘key words’ but somehow DD understood better when she was convinced how concise and accurate these Science Statements were compared to some of the language she used. As in math, Language skills play an important role in doing well in Science too.

If you read below what we did for Content, I am quite confident that these tips are general enough to help most children. However, what we did to boost DD’s ability for the second part – answering skills was/ is unorthodox; so please do carefully consider if this is suited for your child.

a.\tOur own notes from P3 onwards

We discovered early on how limited our textbooks were and since we did not find them useful [ the “i-science” series we found less useful than the series published by Perfect Match], we created our own ‘textbooks”. These were simple plastic folders for each Science topic. I had purchased the “usual” Science assessment books published by EPH [ we used 3 : 3-in 1, Science Companion and Science Revision, simply because back when DD1 was in P3 these were the most readily available] and then trawled through them to put together one set of notes for each topic. Material which was duplicated throughout the 3 assessment books was culled and consolidated into one piece (instead of appearing 3 times in our files) and such parts of each of the assessment books which were beneficial eg certain tables and diagrams which presented the information better/clearer, would all be put together into a single file. As we progressed, we ‘collected” questions we had problems with and had researched answers to, and also put these into the files. We put in our “inherited” notes from enrichment centres that did an excellent job of putting together the Science Statements and we also put in notes from school which collated these same Science Statements by topic. Everything was topically filed. We had a Common Science Misconceptions List the school issued and I re-photocopied/cut this and placed them into each individual file by topic. I think you get the general idea here – everything on that topic was filed into one place. We tried to be judicious in what we put into our files because ultimately this became our final revision file for that topic for PSLE. For every Science exam, these files were what we revised, so by the time DD was in P5, a lot of the P3 and P4 topics' Science Statements [ based on our files] had already been committed to memory. I must say that while I required DD to rote learn, we did so only after there was understanding on her part. I always taught the topics ahead of school so that DD had no excuse not start practicing on the many exam papers I had purchased.

b.\tPast Year Papers from Schools

From P3 to P5, DD did the 3 assessment books published by EPH [ now re-invented into Lower Block and Upper Block versions] but I made her do this primarily for content practice and to ensure that her foundation in the Science Statements was strong. The questions in these books are not similar to what I knew DD would encounter in PSLE. School did some worksheets from MPAH [the Tests series I believe] but when I assessed these, I also found them not terribly similar to PSLE questions either. We thus largely practised using the past year papers from other schools [purchased from Jeremy] as they were the closest thing I could find to the PSLE questions.

c.\tCorrections Are Crucial

I said this before in relation to Compo but I think it applies across the board for all subjects. Again I disagreed with how the school did the corrections [DD tended to copy the model answer without a clear understanding of why what she had earlier written was not acceptable] so we spent a fair bit of time going through DD’s answers and explaining to DD why her answers merited less marks or none at all, and why the “correct” answer merited more marks. DD usually did about 70+ % on the practice papers but often the corrections for the last 30% took as long as the duration of the whole paper to “go through”. This was largely because, instead of providing the correct answer [ not useful since we seldom saw questions repeated], DD had to verbalise her thought processes [this sometimes took what seemed then to be forever] and I “scaffolded” with leading questions. I think you will agree that school has no time to do this so I guess that’s why so many of our kids go for tuition and there is a proliferation of supp classes. You can’t really short cut this process too much for most kids.
\t
One other note about the papers we did; I knew we would have no time to revise/look at them in the run up to PSLE so I made sure that as we went through the papers, we did them thoroughly. DD also circled the questions she was unsure of and in addition to the ones she got wrong, we went through the ones she guessed right. Once the paper was “done”, we junked it. Our final revision was to ‘revise” our files of notes

d.\tThe mystical “correct answer”

I had this problem particularly for Science. Math answer keys are mostly accurate; English I was confident enough of my own answers but for Science, the answer keys were notoriously dubious. This was a problem not addressed by the assessment or guide books I could find and it took excellent answer keys like those done by the RGS teachers and many emails with DD1’s teachers before I found some footing here. The problem is compounded by “poorly set” questions. I am sorry if I offend anyone by saying this but I point this out because sometimes parents think it is them who are at fault when they can’t explain the answers to their kids. It is not always the case; I had a stack of questions which I ran by an MOE Science Curriculum Specialist in 2009 and she largely agreed [very diplomatically and in a very politically correct manner] that the questions I ran by her “could be improved and better set”.

From having looked at so many questions and answers, it struck me that after all the “bells and whistles” in this game, if I took a 100% correct paper [ eg answer sheet from RGS] and looked only at the answers and not the questions, I realized that the answers looked amazingly like the Science Statements DD had been memorising. Galvanised with this discovery, I stopped trying to second guess and mind read the teachers and instead, focused on strenghtening DD’s Science Statements and then analysing the questions with her – ie I asked her which part/topic of the Science Statements did she think was being tested by the question. This meant a process of not even looking at the questions as such [ applies for both MCQ and OE sections] but examining all the data that was supplied to us in the question [ note -- data can come in many forms and not just through the words – it can be pictoral, graphical, data listings, combinations of these]and then discussing what were the Science Statements related to that topic. More often than not, the topics tested were the same ones which came out time and time again but they were presented in many forms [we did quite a lot of papers and I do not recall any clear repetition/duplication of questions]. I call this process – questioning the question, and this is a higher order skill in my books as I only learnt this effectively at tertiary level [what I can say – I was a slow learner].

There is a resource I looked at this year which sets out this process in a far more succinct and clear way. It’s sold by an enrichment centre called Science Heuristics and it’s a series of books called “LISC”. (By the way, I just realised that some of you might think I am ‘promoting” these resources because I have some sort of affiliation/relationship with these places; but really, hand to heart, I paid in full for all these resources and gladly did so because the resources turned out useful.) I only came across this resource this year so it was mostly validation for me more than anything else, but if you are at the starting blocks, I do recommend a good look at this series of books. It’s expensive though and I only explored one in the series but I think it’s a useful resource. I did not use this method exactly because by the time I read it, I had already settled DD into my hotch-potched method of Science Statements and Questioning the Question.

There is another resource I briefly browsed at AFTER the PSLE [habits are hard to break and assessment books still call out to me every time I pass a Popular outlet] and this has been highlighted in this Forum too – it’s the SAP series of NAIL THOSE MCQs. I like this book’s concept – you do need to explain to the child why the MCQ choice is the best amongst the 4 given choices and just as importantly, you need to explain to the child why the other 3 choices are wrong. That said, I haven’t examined this book in detail but I do think the way this book is set up is good.

After we questioned the question and DD figured out which topic/concept was being tested, we had both our question parameters and our content [Science Statements] and DD would then write out her answers based on these. The last part of her efforts was “linking” [applying specifically] the final answer to the first 2 parts of question parameters and content [Science Statements]. This is where we deviated from all that was recommended.

Early on in our Science journey, we started off by feeling really frustrated that we couldn’t read the teachers’ minds, because we could never arrive at the teacher's answers exactly. Well, let’s just say that even by the end of the PSLE, DD should not be looking for a career in mind reading anytime soon. We never got this last part to look anything like the teacher’s model answer and I eventually realised this was because I was dealing with a child with a child’s thought process [ more literal and linear] and not one with an adult’s thought processes. So I let DD explain it in short clear sentences but she almost always took more words to say it then the teacher’s succinct summary. But to my mind, this skill of being able to succinctly summarise is another higher order skill [that’s why they teach you to write compositions first in primary school, before you move on to do summaries in secondary school] and DD did not have it yet, so I did not push it. Instead, I worked with this “constraint”.

The downside? Time. DD’s answers would always exceed the number of lines given [even after taking into consideration her rather large handwriting] and the comments her teachers would make was always, “try to shorten your answer” but accorded her the marks anyway because it was correct and logical. This was very important too because it helped build DD’s self-confidence without ‘cramping her style’ but gently reminded us that there was room for improvement.


In 2010, I worked with a Science trainer [ a Science HOD who has since retired I believe] and once again sent her DD’s P5 SA2 paper for critique; she came back with the validation that DD’s answers were clear and correct and would be accorded the full marks. I only needed to ensure that DD had enough time to finish the paper. Between that and teaching DD another higher order skill which she probably would mature into in due course, I chose to train her to manage her time. Again, we did not go with the conventional/school's recommendation that the MCQ be done and checked in 45 minutes. DD had only 30 minutes for 30 MCQs with 5 minutes to check and she had 30 minutes for OE Life Science and 30 minutes for OE Physical Science with 5 minutes to check. Like I said earlier, this is not for everyone and you really need to take a good critical look at what works for your child before you implement something like this.

DD’s target for Science – max 2 MCQ mistakes [this was the maximum allowance but the aim was for full marks since the marks were ‘easier” to score in the MCQ secion than in the OE] and at least 16 out of 20 for each of the OE sections. Not a terribly high level but this was the consistent target and DD worked very hard to exceed the target.

I never found a resource which had questions which were close to what I found in the PSLE books [ by PSLE books I mean the S$2/- past PSLE questions books every school gets each P6 child to practice with] but with the above, DD came back with an A*,Mummy’s hare-brained schemes and hotch-potched methods notwithstanding.

Chenonceau has shared what helps her son do well in Science, and I do think that her recommendations are certainly worth a good look since they are infinitely more fun than what I put DD [and myself] through.

DD did like reading Science encyclopedias and magazines and there was one which was published by EPB : (http://www.panpaceducation.com/panpacdoc/console/DocumentDetail.aspx?id=44329&viewType=) which we found really useful [it was very syllabus focused, had lots of pictures of the organisms DD learnt about and was written by a parent --my guess is that he/she no doubt put one or more kids through PSLE!]. But somehow, DD fared better within a structured environment, so we did Science the tedious way.

Side Note

I’ve had some questions asking me about Secondary School and I have also been asked particularly if I continued to support DD1 and will continue to support DD2 in this same way as they rise. The answer is a categorical “No”. DD1 is 2 years ahead and in 2010 when she started school, I simply told her to call on me if she needed help. Over the 2 years, I’ve had to re-fresh my memory on 3 occasions [quadratic equations, valencies and DNA replication] to help, but I no longer take charge of DD1’s studies. DD1 found that whatever we had done in the run up for PSLE for math and science was “good enough” through to the first half of 2011 [even in a higher ability class] with minimal help from me.

I would add though that while I did not take charge of DD1’s studies, I did maintain the position that I know my children best; so when DD1 was not faring well in a subject and I suspected it was not a case of lack of effort on her part, I did take the issue up with the powers that be [which made me highly unpopular as you can well imagine]. The story has a happy ending though: inspite of having been shocked by my methods, the teachers helped and a couple of emails later (including one where I did a piece of homework with DD1 and the teacher kindly critiqued it) plus a 1-on-1 session with the teacher, DD1 “improved” 3 grades for the subject and learnt in the process not to accept ‘labels” [especially those from the “you are no good at [●] “ category]. By sharing this with you, I am not advocating anarchy, but I hope that it will encourage and empower you to journey along this road with your child, critcally thinking what is best for your child always, even though not every one or for that matter any one else, subscribes to it.

All the best!