Are you a ‘first-timer’ PSLE parent? Don’t worry, we’re here to help! 

First, be sure to download the official PSLE 2023 timetable for easy reference. Your child should also have a PSLE Examination Rules and Regulations booklet, which contains the exam dates as well. Based on these dates, you and your child can decide what to revise for each month leading up to the exams. 

Wondering where to begin? Read on for some study ideas that you and your child can implement right away.

July: Prepare for the Oral Exams

Here’s what you need to know: the PSLE oral exams will be held between 15 and 16 August 2023.  

Even if your child doesn’t have language tutors, you can still run oral practice sessions at home. For simplicity, purchase a book of past-year PSLE exam questions if your child doesn’t already have one — such books should feature reading passages and conversation prompts from previous exams. Next, decide with your child how often and when to have oral practice sessions; this could be once or twice a week. 

When practising read-alouds, this is what you can do:

• Focus on volume, pacing, and clarity of pronunciation first, as these are the basic requirements. 
• Have your child sit across a table from you to simulate exam conditions. Give your child a passage to read aloud, and see if you are able to hear your child. If not, work on helping your child to raise his or her volume. It could be that your child feels self-conscious reading aloud in front of you — if this is the case, you can demonstrate reading in a loud and clear voice. Alternatively, you can both read aloud at the same time, to help your child gain confidence. 
• In terms of pacing, children tend to read quickly when they spot familiar words, and slow down when they encounter longer or unfamiliar words. Encourage your child to read everything at a slower pace, so that they can always maintain a steady rhythm. You may even wish to tap out a gentle beat to help your child keep time. 
• For pronunciation, try to refrain from nitpicking. The priority is making sure that your child is pronouncing the ends of words clearly. Look up the pronunciations of unfamiliar words — to help your child remember them, use these words in your daily conversations. 
• Is your child fluent in reading? You can focus on reading with expression — demonstrate how to read a line that ends with an exclamation mark, or how to change one’s reading speed or volume to highlight emotions such as excitement or sadness. If you are enthusiastic about reading aloud, your child will catch on too.

As for conversations, you can use past-year exam prompts during your practice sessions. Ideally, do this over two days — on Day 1, choose a set of questions for your child to answer. Focus on being a supportive listener, and praise your child for effort. You can also show your child some videos or articles relating to the topic, to spark their interest and expand their knowledge. On Day 2, go over the same set of questions again, and this time, offer some ideas to help your child lengthen their answers.

Prefer a more organic process? Simply have more dinner-table conversations! Here are some tips:

• Engage your child by talking about current events, or something memorable that happened during the day. Ask them to share something interesting about their day too.
• To encourage children to think more deeply about a topic, seek their opinions, and prompt them to back these up with reasons and examples, using questions like “Why do you feel this way?” and “Could you give me an example of one thing that you liked?” 
• Try not to correct your child too much, to avoid breaking the flow of conversation and putting them on the spot. If you must, you can repeat what your child said, but rephrase it in a better way.

August & September: Work on Practice Papers

You should be aware that the PSLE Listening Comprehension exams are on 15 September 2023. Typically, school preparations should suffice, so you won’t have to worry about this.

During this final stretch, most students will be preparing for the PSLE written exams, which are from 28 September to 4 October 2023. Chances are, your child’s school or tutor would have been giving them sample exam papers to work on — this is the best way to revise, according to education experts!

Instead of piling on extra work for your child, focus on supporting the efforts that already exist. Look at the work that your child is doing in school, as well as during enrichment classes. Highlight mistakes and reprint exam questions for your child, in order to check their understanding. If they continue to answer a question wrongly, see if you are able to help your child — if not, get support from a teacher or tutor. 

Apart from multiple choice and open-ended questions, you can also reprint composition prompts for your child to retry. Writing multiple drafts of a composition is a good way to improve one’s writing — your child will get to incorporate a teacher’s recommendations, as well as some new ideas. In fact, parents who work as writers would highly recommend this!

To help your child feel more organised during this period, you can have a discussion to create a simple revision checklist like this:

Subject/Topic	What I Need to Know	What I Need to Do
English/Situational Writing	Format for situational writing: date, salutation, purpose, content, call to action, sign off The types of writing tested — formal letter, informal e-mail, report	Memorise the format for situational writing Practise writing the different types of pieces — do this once for each format.

To avoid stress, don’t create a long checklist — keep it minimal, with five or fewer to-dos per subject. Remember: your child also needs time for rest and a good night’s sleep, in order to stay healthy for the exams!

 

Want more PSLE tips and tricks? Find out what’s truly useful in the final weeks leading up to the PSLE. Or join the PSLE 2023 discussions on the KiasuParents forum.