phtthp:Joyymum:Recently enquired with Berries and according to the staff, from next year onwards, there is no longer pure compo class. Is it true for most branches ?
Any parents can comment how effective is Berries for P4-6? I requested to look thru their materials for higher chinese and i find the P4 materials quite easy not as challenging as other centres. Their 好词好句 not a lot.
Appreciate any comment thanks !
Berries (P3, P4) :
all along, do not split into pure compo, from the rest
(unlike other centre like Tien Hsia, Jiang lao shi, Wang lao shi, etc : they all
start to split into pure compo, from P3 onwards. That is how Tien Hsia, Jiang lao shi, Wang lao shi, package & market their Chinese primary school curriculum program)
Berries (P3, P4) :
everything lump together (combine both Paper 1, Paper 2 together), inside the same lesson
As such, parents find Berries very little exposure to zuo wen, insufficient coverage. Even if they do teach zuo wen that week, very little \"好 词 好 句\" taught
As a result, parents prefer to flock to other Chinese enrichment centre, from P3 onwards.
Consequently, Berries start to lose existing customers, come P3 onwards
She fail to cater to the need of some existing customers, who are hungry for a heavier dosage of zuo wen, come P3 onwards
(kindergarten K1, K2, P1, P2 : Berries still got customers)
As a parent of 3 kids, I can totally understand the anxiety of parents over how to help their children score in the major exams. Just sharing some info which I have gathered.
Many parents would naturally be most concerned about composition as it is seems to be usually the one to not be able to score during exams in sch. But while I was looking at the weightage of each paper I realized this:
In P4, paper 1 (Composition) was about 15%, paper 2 (comprehension and language use) was about 55% and paper 3 (oral and listening) was about 30%.
In the PSLE, paper 1 (Composition) - 20%, paper 2 (comprehension and language use) - 45% and paper 3 (oral and listening) - 35%
It turned out that Paper 2 actually holds the highest weightage.
Oral and listening is usually considered the easily to score during exam. As for compo, he could try to score by memorizing the 好词好句. Instead, paper 2, especially comprehension, would be one area that kids would lose marks in.
Therefore, we parents, would need to first analyze which areas are easier for the kids to score and help them to secure those first. At the same time, also consider which are the areas that they would normally lose marks in (those areas, they would need to learn the techniques to increase their scores). In this case, by putting all the time and resources in learning compo to ultimately achieve an increase of 1 to 3 marks in paper 1, from what I see, that doesn’t seem like the most practical way to help the child.
Just sharing my thoughts on this
