In my opinion, you should first consult your child on why he/she doesn’t enjoy the class. Try to coax him into thinking school is fun. You may want to discuss this with his/her teachers to look into their teaching techniques so you get a better understanding from both sides.


If your child still plays with stationary, minimise the number of stationary that you give him. Two pens, a pencil, and another one of each are good enough.

I’ll give my thoughts as a teenager on the situation.


It’s good to have complete PSLE past year examination papers for students, definitely, as it helps to give them an understanding of the format and probability of questions asked. However, the Singapore government is trying to move away from rote learning (memorisation), so there would be more variety of questions that would require logical thinking skills.

Honestly speaking, tuition centres are using the wrong strategy to help children excel in PSLE. Practice is perfect, but only with the right kind. I honestly prefer if tuition centres actually focus on skills that enable students to:

-Understand the context of the question and teach students what to think about first when faced with a question phrased in such a way it’s hard to decipher.
-Thinking skills that encompasses a variety of topics enabling students to achieve better understanding of variety of questions. The MOE format for PSLE Maths is on their website, so they could actually use teach these skills through various means, and apply them in various circumstances, giving them an idea of how it is to be used.
-Answering of scripts - how to phrase responses to ensure maximum marks achieved.
-How to efficiently check the paper.

Schools need to set their papers from the bottom up, batch by batch. They need to evaluate from the very beginning of their education in primary school, and then work their progress from there. It’s not fair to suddenly set a hard paper when the class isn’t prepared. It’s like running a marathon - slow and steady goes the race.

I think the best way to evaluate is to actually analyse the responses of students to each question, and find the problem in three areas:
-Knowledge of topic
-Intepretation of question
-Phrasing of responses

…and other areas if necessary. Then, they should focus on them, and then set the same difficulty for those particular questions. Other questions must have a raised difficulty in that case.

I think 20 exam papers, one per week for each subject, would be good enough for each student. For the remaining time, they must develop their thinking skills - analytical, observation, and try to get practice on how to improve them. For English, Chinese and Science, it’s definitely hand to (causally) read books, especially National Geographic. That’s going to help them all the way until Uni.

The by-election in Hougang is certainly going to be interesting. Although the Worker’s Party is likely to win, there’s definitely going to be an increase in PAP votes, even as Hougang residents maintain their solidarity with the WP.


I’m actually hoping for a three-cornered fight this round. Entering into the election is cheaper this time, since it’s a BE, so I’m hoping another opposition party like NSP or the Reform could try their luck at this. It’ll certainly make the BE more interesting.

csc:

After what has happened to Prince Charles and Princess Diana, I no longer find Royal weddings romantic anymore...


Hopefully this wedding will have a good ending and they will live happily after!

I don't want to be a heartbreaker here, but it seems a bit awkward that Prince William only proposed at a time when the couple were not dating, so there's a bit of doubt here and there...

But since they still love each other for so long even after their break-up in 2007, it proves that this won't end up like Diana.

I survived through two and a half hours of the wedding. It was nice, but I was trying to look for the part when they OFFICIALLY get married.

Indeed even teachers are very close to our hearts. I fear my tuition teacher, at the age of around 70…you know what, I better not say it. Superstition.


I could sympathize with your feelings. Even though I had never lost a loved one before, my close connection with them sparks these emotions.

The Gods shall bless her.

What immature behavior! To insult seniors in such a way. Are you sure that the child pointed the middle finger at you? Was it stuck out and pointed upwards or was the nail pointing at you? There are two different meanings, for the former is the insulting gesture.

Sorry, I originally written an item that was not related to the question. I apologize for this message.

I treat my maid as my godmother. I’m thirteen, for your information.

The best way for your child to improve Chinese, under such circumstances, is to communicate in Chinese with anyone who is able to understand the language. Otherwise, there is a number of tuition centers offer June holiday workshops.


Encourage your child to go to the library each recess and read more advanced Chinese novels or newspapers. That’s another way.