Prior to the June holidays, some Primary 6 teachers might have given their classes a holiday revision plan, to suggest which topics could be covered on each day. Although this is a thoughtful gesture, it’s not uncommon to find that students are still unsure about what it means to “revise” for a topic.

With months to go before the exams, it’s important to help your child gain clarity about what needs to be done. To minimise stress for the whole family, we recommend keeping things simple, and working with what you have. Now is not the time to be purchasing new guidebooks or assessment books, unless you’re looking to replace existing materials that you’ve found ineffective.

Starting to feel jittery about the preparation process? Do try your best not to transmit your anxiety to your child. Instead, ask yourself if there are any actions that you can take to support your child’s revision efforts. In fact, one of the most constructive things that you can do at this point is to approach your child’s teachers and tutors for revision advice. 

If your child’s school teachers have given the go-ahead to contact them during the school holidays, please don’t hesitate to do so. If not, you can wait till school reopens, or consult your child’s enrichment teachers or tutors instead.

Not sure what questions to ask your child’s teachers and tutors? Use our list below!

What’s the top priority revision activity for my child? What topic or exam component does he or she need the most practice in? Does he or she need to memorise anything for this topic or exam component? 

The answers to these questions depend on how your child is currently performing in school. For average-to-high performers, teachers will usually recommend two self-testing methods:

• Reading notes from a school-endorsed guidebook, and using the guidebook’s review questions to check that information has been retained.
• Working on topical review questions or a sample practice paper — better still, make this a timed practice (where your child aims to finish all the questions within a given time).

If the feedback from teachers is that your child is weak in several areas, you may want to get an assessment book that offers practice questions arranged by topic or exam component.. To speed up the process, ask the teachers to recommend an assessment book that would suit your child’s ability.

Would you recommend just doing P6 practice papers, or is there a need to get a PSLE guidebook with notes?

Again, this boils down to how your child is currently performing in each subject. 

In families where English is the primary language spoken at home, many parents don’t see the need to purchase any assessment books at all. Here are some alternatives that you can consider:

• Purchase just one guidebook that will tell you everything you need to know about the PSLE English papers, from letter writing formats and composition tips to common grammar mistakes. (Here’s an example.)
• Get an older teen or trusted adult to practise conversations with your child, in a fun way.
• Send your child for short ‘bootcamps’ to pick up oral or composition writing tips.

In contrast, the Mother Tongue Language (MTL) is often trickier for children, and chances are, your child already has additional support in the form of a weekly enrichment class or tuition. Practice papers are considered essential for MTL revision, and some parents also find ways to increase language exposure leading up to the exams, by:

• Increasing the frequency of tuition to twice a week
• Watching videos and listening to podcasts and audiobooks in Mandarin
• Hiring a teen who is fluent in Mandarin to chat with their children once or twice a week (this can be done remotely)

For maths, most teachers will say that children need a lot of practice. You can buy a book of PSLE formulas (such as this) for reference, but the main focus should be to complete as many sample papers as possible before the actual exams. 

And finally, science is where your child may need a guidebook with notes. Chances are, your child’s school is already using a guidebook or supplying their own notes — your best bet is to stick with what your child’s school recommends. 

Many science guides include lists of review questions, so if you’re following a revision plan to cover one or two science topics a day, you can test your child using the review questions to see what information he or she has retained. If your child can’t answer the review questions, they should then read the relevant notes, and you can retest them after. When they are familiar with most of the science concepts that will be tested in the PSLE Science paper, they can proceed to work on practice papers.

What questions would you like me to reprint for retesting?

If your child has tutors, a great way to support them is by helping with retesting. 

Typically, when a child answers a practice question incorrectly, they copy down a solution and move on to attempt new questions. Often, they may not have fully understood the solution, and it is only through retesting that this will be revealed.

You can set up a routine with your child’s tutors where they will send you questions for retesting, and you can reprint these for your child to complete before the next lesson. 

Depending on how your child has fared in a practice paper, your child’s tutor may recommend:

• Redoing the entire paper again
• Redoing selected questions, after a specific period such as two weeks
• Redoing selected questions as soon as possible

Can you look at our PSLE guidebooks and assessment books, and let us know which ones are most useful?

If your child feels overwhelmed by the piles of PSLE guidebooks, assessment books, and practice papers at home, it may be time to declutter. With only several months left for exam preparation, your child can’t possibly use everything, and your tutor may have a better sense of the materials that are most useful for your child at this stage. 

Don’t feel bad about trimming your PSLE collection before the exams — your child’s peace of mind comes first. You can always place good-condition books at the National Library’s Book Exchange corner, to benefit other families who may need these resources.

Will you be covering everything that my child needs to know for the PSLE by July or August?

Although one would assume that all school teachers as well as tutors would do this, it never hurts to ask. While some tutors focus on covering topics in advance, others may take extra time to focus on your child’s weak spots, leaving them with insufficient time to cover all topics. By knowing this in advance, you can help to fill the gaps.

Want more revision strategies for the PSLE? Join the conversation on the KiasuParents forum!