2022 PSLE Discussions & Strategies (born in 2010)

[doveymum]

@floppy-- many thanks for your sharing,appreciate the insights

[doveymum]

@floppy-- many thanks for your sharing,appreciate the insights

[zac's mum]

If I may chip in a little bit here…The PSLE exam papers (with EPH answers) were useful for us, not for doing whole paper blindly, but:

- for Maths, I used it to build back the damaged confidence from facing too many tough qns in exams. Similar to what floppy shared, the strategy for kids who are not MO or Math-inclined is to master the easy Paper 1 qns first. Start from the MCQ, be able to do them quick and well. You will find the actual PSLE papers are much easier than school exam papers (forget about prelim papers, they are not for struggling students to train on) - show the child that PSLE is not so scary. Get whatever marks you can in Paper 1; as for Paper 2 last few qns, I have learnt to let go & tell child dont worry about them. We are not aiming for AL1-2 as that’s beyond his capacity.

- for English (his best subject), I used the PSLE exam papers (as far back as 10 years ago) to expose child to all the various permutations that have come out in the past. Better than using assessment books or school exam papers, whose answer keys are riddled with errors and provide zero explanations.

- i think later on in P6 (probably term 3) the school teachers will make them do the PSLE papers 3-year series in a timed fashion, so there’s no need to do that at home beforehand.

[Zeal mummy]

Hi, can anyone enlighten and share if it is necessary to train MO to do well in PSLE math? My child has not been trained in MO as he is not really interested nor has aptitude for math. SA1 was a challenge for him...alot of high order qn..I m panic, .school worksheets generally ok but high order is a problem .
... Is it due to no MO training? His friends with MO can do the papers! .... Is it in time to train? What to do to catch up on MO trg so short time to psle? ;(

No, you don’t need MO to do well for psle math. Working on those questions that he can’t do, will. Practice the same type of questions over and over, till he can go it well even with his eyes closed.

Exposure to MO is beneficial, but not needed, hmm because it’s too close to psle, I’m afraid it will further demoralise him.. I will advise him to work on those higher order questions specifically, till he understands how to do it. Practice!

[Zeal mummy]

Another qn,how many years of past psle abd prelims paper wld one expect to complete to be well prepared for a subject and do well? Do most p6 complete past year psle papers during June holidays?

About 3-5 years worth of past year psle papers. I recall they did those papers after the June holidays.

Doing full exam papers will help time management, but doing topical papers will help to identify areas that he doesn’t understand well. For weaker students, I would recommend topical first, correct the problem areas, before moving on to the timed environment to work on exams techniques.

[SG_KP1]

.....
To address your first question, it isn't necessary to have MO training to do well in PSLE math.
To do well in PSLE math (or any subjects), is to score well in the areas that you need to score well, and to try and score some points in the areas that you probably aren't expected to do well. Unless your name is God Wei, it's ok not to score 100% for the paper and still get a AL1 or 2 grade (which is one of the most welcome change to the PSLE AL system).

Wow, this guy is a real life Will Hunting.

I do agree that the calculus of the math paper has changed dramatically under AL system. Be efficient, get what you can get, and you should be OK. Perhaps you will even be on equal footing as God Wei...

[zac's mum]

Wow, this guy is a real life Will Hunting.

I do agree that the calculus of the math paper has changed dramatically under AL system. Be efficient, get what you can get, and you should be OK. Perhaps you will even be on equal footing as God Wei...

I predict that under AL system, there will be more “differentiator” qns otherwise there will be too many AL1s for Math (wait, is there even a quota?)

It’s not good news for the ones without aptitude for Math, but least I can tamper my expectations lower (max AL3 for DS I think).

[SG_KP1]

I predict that under AL system, there will be more “differentiator” qns otherwise there will be too many AL1s for Math (wait, is there even a quota?)

It’s not good news for the ones without aptitude for Math, but least I can tamper my expectations lower (max AL3 for DS I think).

Possible, but I would think it will not change any more than the papers fluctuated in the past (I also think the English papers fluctuate in difficulty but it isn't as obvious as the points lost are small dings here and there vs. cannot do a question at all).

I would bet a lot that Math had more AL1s than any other subject in the 2019 and 2020 simulations. I.e. whatever distribution of total AL scores is being produced year after year, Math just has more AL1s. They can reduce this by making the paper harder but it will shift the whole distribution of AL scores unless they make other papers consciously easier. I'm not really sure that's a good solution though.

At the end of the day the prep isn't really any different. There is no real way to tell which paper will be hard and which paper will be easy so just prepare the same.

I could be wrong though. Some people did complain about last year's math paper (2020 was supposedly very easy on back of the difficult 2019 paper); not sure if it is the normal rotation or if they are trying to have a specific number of questions / points to differentiate AL1 vs AL2...

[mystique_j]

Can I check if there’s any standard practice for schools to round up or down if there’s 0.5? Say 89.5 will be rounded up to 90, 84.5 rounded up to 85? Or will it be rounded down or remain as it is. So 89.5 will be AL2?

[zac's mum]

Can I check if there’s any standard practice for schools to round up or down if there’s 0.5? Say 89.5 will be rounded up to 90, 84.5 rounded up to 85? Or will it be rounded down or remain as it is. So 89.5 will be AL2?

Mathematically speaking, all 0.5 will be rounded up to the nearest whole number. I dont know any method that rounds down a 0.5.

If you’re asking about 0.4 maybe rounded down I dunno.

So far all my 0.5, 0.75, rounded up.

So your 89.5 is = 90 = AL1.