<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
<?xml encoding="UTF-8"><html><body><div id="attachment_121763" style="width: 2570px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-121763" onerror="kspReplaceCdn(this)" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-121763 size-full" src="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u36736/pexels-august-de-richelieu-4260475-1-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1708" srcset="https://wp.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u36736/pexels-august-de-richelieu-4260475-1-scaled.jpg 2560w, https://wp.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u36736/pexels-august-de-richelieu-4260475-1-800x534.jpg 800w, https://wp.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u36736/pexels-august-de-richelieu-4260475-1-320x214.jpg 320w, https://wp.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u36736/pexels-august-de-richelieu-4260475-1-1536x1025.jpg 1536w, https://wp.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u36736/pexels-august-de-richelieu-4260475-1-2048x1367.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px">Image courtesy of <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/mother-helping-her-daughter-with-homework-4260475/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pexels</a></div>As parents who have been through the Primary School Leaving Examination or PSLE, we understand the frustration, anxiety, and sense of helplessness that parents may feel, leading up to the exams. We would like to reassure you that no matter what grades your child receives, there will be a path forward.&nbsp;
First of all, please know that it&rsquo;s quite difficult to &lsquo;fail&rsquo; the PSLE to the point where one is unable to progress to a secondary school. (Those of us who have tutored struggling children with little family support and spotty school attendance can vouch for this.) In fact, Singapore&rsquo;s Ministry of Education has said that the PSLE is a school placement exam, and there is no official passing or failing mark for each PSLE subject, or the PSLE as a whole. To be more specific, a student can<a href="https://www.moe.gov.sg/schoolfinder?journey=Secondary%20school&amp;q=*&amp;fq=school_journey_ss%3A%22Secondary%20school%22&amp;fq=(cutoff_points_dr%3A%5B30%20TO%2030%5D%20OR%20(normal_technical_affiliation_upper_i%3A%5B30%20TO%20*%5D%20AND%20normal_technical_affiliation_lower_i%3A%5B*%20TO%2030%5D)%20OR%20(normal_technical_non_affiliation_upper_i%3A%5B30%20TO%20*%5D%20AND%20normal_technical_non_affiliation_lower_i%3A%5B*%20TO%2030%5D))%20AND%20is_has_psle_b%3Atrue&amp;sort=slug_s%20asc" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> score 30 points</a> for the PSLE and still progress to a secondary school, to take subjects at the less-demanding <a href="https://www.moe.gov.sg/microsites/psle-fsbb/full-subject-based-banding/secondary-school-experience.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">G1 level</a>. Only one condition applies &mdash; the student needs to have scored an AL 7 or better in both English and Maths, or an AL B at the Foundation level for these subjects. (For details on the PSLE scoring system, refer to the <a href="https://www.moe.gov.sg/microsites/psle-fsbb/resources/score-calculator.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">official guide</a>.)
For<a href="https://www.moe.gov.sg/microsites/psle-fsbb/psle/faqs.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> PSLE scores beyond 30</a>, students may be offered the option to repeat the PSLE, or they can progress to<a href="https://www.nls.edu.sg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> NorthLight School</a> or<a href="https://www.aps.edu.sg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> Assumption Pathway School</a> with their principal&rsquo;s endorsement. For reference, in <a href="https://www.moe.gov.sg/news/press-releases/20231122-release-of-2023-psle-results" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2023</a>, about 600 children out of a cohort of 40,000 students would have considered these options.
We&rsquo;re also aware that for most of our readers, the concern is more likely to be whether or not their children can enter a &lsquo;good&rsquo; secondary school. In our community, we do have parents whose children have scored quite differently in the PSLE, despite having access to similar resources. One parent with an older child who qualified for the <a href="https://www.moe.gov.sg/secondary/courses/express/integrated-programme" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Integrated Programme (IP)</a> and a younger child in a neighbourhood school shares this:&nbsp;
&ldquo;If you&rsquo;re used to a certain level of achievement and aspirations in your social network, it is disorienting to suddenly face a different reality. But by being open and visiting a few secondary schools that were previously not on our radar, we met many impressive teens who were articulate, attentive, and did their best to attend to our queries. We felt lucky and relieved when my younger child qualified for his first-choice neighbourhood school last year, and after half a year, we can see that he&rsquo;s happy in his new environment &mdash; he has supportive new friends, speaks up more in school, and even seems physically healthier.&rdquo;
With an optimistic mindset, things are likely to turn out fine eventually, or at the very least, better than you expect. Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, there are a few things that experienced PSLE parents wish they had known beforehand, and we&rsquo;d like to share these thoughts with you below.
<h2>Mistake #1: Being Close-Minded about Secondary Schools</h2>
As parents in Singapore, many of us can easily name a few &lsquo;top&rsquo; secondary schools. Most likely, these are the Integrated Programme or IP schools, where students will &lsquo;skip&rsquo; the O-Level exams that secondary school students typically take after four years of studies. Instead, IP students will only need to prepare for either the A-Level or International Baccalaureate exams in their sixth and final year of the programme.
However, in a typical cohort of about 40,000 Primary 6 students, only<a href="https://www.moe.gov.sg/news/parliamentary-replies/20221130-students-who-dropped-out-of-the-integrated-programme" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> about 10% (or almost 4,000 students)</a> will qualify for an IP secondary school. Most students will enter secondary school via the G3 (formerly Express) pathway, while<a href="https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/psle-results-984-cent-students-can-progress-secondary-school-2054256" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> around 30%</a> of students will take subjects at either the G2 (formerly Normal Academic) or G1 (formerly Normal Technical) levels.
There are no official statistics for what an &lsquo;average&rsquo; PSLE score is. However, those who have previously scored AL17 to 18 for the PSLE might have noticed that they were able to meet the entry requirements for about half the secondary schools in Singapore. This not only suggests that it&rsquo;s a score range that many students achieve, but it&rsquo;s also reassuring that there are still many schools to choose from.
Although schools that accept students with double-digit scores may not be on your mind now, it&rsquo;s useful to find out about them, especially while there&rsquo;s still time to do the research. Talk to those in your social network, look at what these schools are doing on their social media pages, and check discussion forums for insights. Not sure where to begin? Our guide to <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/article/hidden-gem-secondary-schools/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">hidden-gem secondary schools</a> is a great starting point!
<h2>Mistake #2: Believing There is a Foolproof Method to PSLE Success</h2>
Around this time of the year, you will be seeing many sponsored social media posts, urging you and your child to sign up for classes that will teach students the right keywords, frameworks, and other tricks to ace the exams.&nbsp;
If you have the financial resources, it&rsquo;s tempting to think that you can assemble an &lsquo;all-star&rsquo; set of PSLE classes or tutors to get desired results. However, we&rsquo;ve seen enough bright children from supportive, well-to-do families, who are extensively tutored in multiple subjects and still receive scores like AL17 and up.&nbsp;
For some of us, if we had known the outcome, we would have devoted far less time and money to these PSLE preparatory efforts, in order to give our children more time for pure enjoyment, bonding with loved ones, as well as meaningful learning.
<h2>Mistake #3: Relying on Wishful Thinking</h2>
We do hear of children who defy the odds and wildly surpass expectations during the PSLE, and we may hope the same for our child. This explains why many parents try to ramp up the tutoring or increase the time spent on practice questions leading up to the exams.&nbsp;
But to be realistic, you should also be aware that many children simply match their school exam scores for the PSLE, and some may even do worse. To guard against wishful thinking, remember that the best estimate of your child&rsquo;s performance in the PSLE will be their current school performance, especially their grades in the P6 preliminary exams, which are typically held in August.&nbsp;
<h2>Mistake #4: Viewing PSLE Results Through a Short-Term Lens</h2>
Although it may seem like students who do well enough at the PSLE to enter the Integrated Programme or IP in secondary school are set for life, the truth is that today&rsquo;s fluid environment offers little assurance to anyone.&nbsp;
To spell it out: in a world marked by deep divides, rapid tech advancements, and an unpredictable international climate, we all need to recognise that the path ahead is uncertain, and be ready to face it with adaptability and resilience.&nbsp;
In other words, knowing how to score high marks for the PSLE English composition or the best way to frame an answer for the PSLE Science exam probably won&rsquo;t be too meaningful in the long run. Once we can acknowledge this, it will be easier to shift our focus away from teaching kids to be exam savvy &mdash; or judging them based on their results &mdash; and place a greater emphasis on helping them develop <a href="https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2023/digest/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">skills for the future</a>.

Want to talk to other PSLE 2024 parents? Join the conversation on the <a href="https://kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=69&amp;t=94737" target="_blank" rel="noopener">KiasuParents forum</a>!
</body></html>

PSLE 2024: 4 Parent Mistakes to Avoid

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
<?xml encoding="UTF-8"><html><body><div id="attachment_113421" style="width: 710px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-113421" onerror="kspReplaceCdn(this)" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-113421 size-full" src="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u36736/pexels-anil-sharma-10580315.jpg" alt="" width="700" height="467" srcset="https://wp.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u36736/pexels-anil-sharma-10580315.jpg 700w, https://wp.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u36736/pexels-anil-sharma-10580315-320x213.jpg 320w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px">Photo courtesy of <a href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/a-girl-wearing-headphones-writing-in-a-notebook-during-an-online-class-10580315/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pexels</a></div>Are you a &lsquo;first-timer&rsquo; PSLE parent? Don&rsquo;t worry, we&rsquo;re here to help!&nbsp;
First, be sure to download the <a href="https://www.seab.gov.sg/docs/default-source/examination-timetable/2023psleexamtimetable.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">official PSLE 2023 timetable</a> 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.&nbsp;
Wondering where to begin? Read on for some study ideas that you and your child can implement right away.
<h2>July: Prepare for the Oral Exams</h2>
Here&rsquo;s what you need to know: the PSLE oral exams will be held between 15 and 16 August 2023. &nbsp;
Even if your child doesn&rsquo;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&rsquo;t already have one &mdash;&nbsp;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.&nbsp;
When practising read-alouds, this is what you can do:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Focus on volume, pacing, and clarity of pronunciation first, as these are the basic requirements.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">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 &mdash; 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.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">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.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">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 &mdash; to help your child remember them, use these words in your daily conversations.&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Is your child fluent in reading? You can focus on reading with expression &mdash; demonstrate how to read a line that ends with an exclamation mark, or how to change one&rsquo;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.</li>
</ul>
As for conversations, you can use past-year exam prompts during your practice sessions. Ideally, do this over two days &mdash; 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:
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">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.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">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 &ldquo;Why do you feel this way?&rdquo; and &ldquo;Could you give me an example of one thing that you liked?&rdquo;&nbsp;</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">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.</li>
</ul>
<h2>August &amp; September: Work on Practice Papers</h2>
You should be aware that the PSLE Listening Comprehension exams are on 15 September 2023. Typically, school preparations should suffice, so you won&rsquo;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&rsquo;s school or tutor would have been giving them sample exam papers to work on &mdash;&nbsp;this is the best way to revise, <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/article/whats-truly-useful-in-the-final-week-of-psle-prep-answers-to-your-last-minute-revision-faqs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according to education experts</a>!
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 &mdash;&nbsp;if not, get support from a teacher or tutor.&nbsp;
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&rsquo;s writing &mdash; your child will get to incorporate a teacher&rsquo;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:
<table style="border-collapse: collapse; width: 100%;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="width: 33.3333%; background-color: #000000;">Subject/Topic</td>
<td style="width: 33.3333%; background-color: #000000;">What I Need to Know</td>
<td style="width: 33.3333%; background-color: #000000;">What I Need to Do</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="width: 33.3333%; vertical-align: top; border-color: #000000;">
English/Situational Writing
</td>
<td style="width: 33.3333%; vertical-align: top; border-color: #000000;">
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Format for situational writing: date, salutation, purpose, content, call to action, sign off</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">The types of writing tested &mdash; formal letter, informal e-mail, report</li>
</ol>
</td>
<td style="width: 33.3333%; vertical-align: top; border-color: #000000;">
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Memorise the format for situational writing</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1">Practise writing the different types of pieces &mdash; do this once for each format.</li>
</ol>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
To avoid stress, don&rsquo;t create a long checklist &mdash; keep it minimal, with five or fewer to-dos per subject. Remember: your child also needs time for rest and a good night&rsquo;s sleep, in order to stay healthy for the exams!
&nbsp;
Want more PSLE tips and tricks? Find out <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/article/whats-truly-useful-in-the-final-week-of-psle-prep-answers-to-your-last-minute-revision-faqs/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">what&rsquo;s truly useful in the final weeks</a> leading up to the PSLE. Or join the <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=69&amp;t=92232&amp;start=340" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PSLE 2023 discussions</a> on the KiasuParents forum.
</body></html>

PSLE 2023 Dates, And How To Create a Study Schedule

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
<?xml encoding="UTF-8"><html><body><img onerror="kspReplaceCdn(this)" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-91215" src="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u170058/IMG_2565-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="2560" height="1920" srcset="https://wp.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u170058/IMG_2565-scaled.jpg 1200w, https://wp.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u170058/IMG_2565-800x600.jpg 800w, https://wp.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u170058/IMG_2565-320x240.jpg 320w, https://wp.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u170058/IMG_2565-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https://wp.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u170058/IMG_2565-2048x1536.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px">
There&rsquo;s not much left to do in the last days before the PSLE, or is there? Can any effort at this point make a significant difference? What do scientists feel are the most effective study methods?
To help you resolve your last-minute revision dilemmas, we&rsquo;ve turned to the book Make It Stick: The Science Of Successful Learning (<a href="https://catalogue.nlb.gov.sg/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/ENQ/WPAC/BIBENQ?SETLVL=1&amp;BRN=200303433" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">available at the NLB</a>) for some evidence-based advice.
<h4>Should my child review notes or work on practice questions?</h4>
There&rsquo;s no doubt about this one: you should skip the re-reading, note taking, and highlighting, and focus all remaining study time on quizzing oneself or attempting more practice questions! Why? Well, answering a question requires one to put effort into retrieving information from one&rsquo;s memory &mdash; research has found that the very act of doing this will change the memory and make it easier to retrieve again later.
Does rereading one&rsquo;s notes or model answers not help at all? According to Make It Stick, research has indicated that compared to reading, testing &ldquo;can facilitate better transfer of knowledge to new contexts and problems, and&hellip; improves one&rsquo;s ability to retain and retrieve material that is related but not tested.&rdquo; Given that this is the eleventh hour, it&rsquo;s better to pick the science-backed option, rather than one that may only give the illusion of knowledge.
<h4>Should my child skip MCQs entirely and focus on practising open-ended questions?</h4>
Empirical evidence from studies has suggested that working harder to retrieve information results in greater retention of that information. This means that practising open-ended questions or more challenging questions should result in greater brain gains than merely answering MCQs or True/False questions.
That said, you will also need to consider other factors such as your child&rsquo;s morale and motivation levels. Working on easier questions such as MCQs can still help your child to retain information. If you sense your child may be losing steam at this stage, it&rsquo;s wiser to keep things light so that your child doesn&rsquo;t feel burned out and demoralised.
<h4>Should my child work on topical exercises or exam papers?</h4>
Unless your child is struggling with basic concepts, you should go with exam papers. Working on exam papers would count as &ldquo;interleaved practice,&rdquo; involving the mastery of two or more skills at a time. Research has found that being tasked to solve problems in a mixed sequence &mdash; as opposed to working on sets of similar problems &mdash; results in improved performance over time. Why? The <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-interleaving-effect-mixing-it-up-boosts-learning/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">main justification</a> for interleaved practice is that it improves the brain&rsquo;s ability to distinguish between concepts, because one isn&rsquo;t relying on a rote response. The other explanation is that interleaved practice continually engages your brain into making connections, and this enhances learning.&nbsp;
At home, your child can attempt interleaved practice by working on exam papers or even switching between subjects, e.g. 15 minutes of math practice, followed by 15 minutes of science revision.
<h4>Should my child work extra hard during this last week?</h4>
You may not like this answer, but it&rsquo;s a firm &ldquo;no.&rdquo; Here&rsquo;s what Making It Stick has to say:
&ldquo;Cramming, a form of massed practice, has been likened to binge-and-purge eating. A lot goes in, but most of it comes right back out in short order. The simple act of spacing out study and practice in installments and allowing time to elapse between them makes both the learning and the memory stronger, in effect building habit strength.&rdquo;
If your child is already working on practice papers in school, you may want to keep home revision sessions short and sweet &mdash; one strategy for the final week could be to look at your child&rsquo;s work from a week or even a month ago, and pick out a few questions each day for your child to reattempt. Giving a child an old problem to solve requires him or her to work harder to retrieve the necessary information, and as mentioned previously, the harder you work, the better it is for future retention.
But above all, your priority in this final week should be on making sure that your child is well-rested &mdash; it <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/article/exam-strategy-fix-your-sleep/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">can boost your child&rsquo;s grades</a>! In fact, if your child is not getting an average of 10 to 11 hours of sleep each night, do see how you can tweak his or her routine to incorporate more time for rest.
<h4>What if there&rsquo;s crucial information that my child keeps forgetting?</h4>
The first and easiest thing you can do is have your child <a href="https://uwaterloo.ca/news/news/study-finds-reading-information-aloud-yourself-improves" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">read the information out loud</a> &mdash; the dual action of speaking and reading makes the information more memorable for the brain and increases the likelihood of retention.
Another common memory hack for students is the use of <a href="https://www.learningassistance.com/2006/january/mnemonics.html">mnemonics</a>, such as the name &ldquo;ROY G. BIV&rdquo; to represent the colour spectrum, or &ldquo;My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Noodles&rdquo; for the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/20/science/a-new-planet-mnemonic-pluto-dwarf-planets.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">order of the planets</a>.
You don&rsquo;t want to introduce overly complicated memory techniques at this point, so a final memory hack that your child could try is visualisation, or linking an image to a word or concept &mdash; using creativity to make it distinctive. For instance, when trying to remember the meaning of the word &ldquo;ameliorate,&rdquo; one could imagine a nurse named Amelia who always makes others feel better.
Need more last-minute PSLE advice? Read <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/article/last-minute-psle-prep-tips-primary-school-teacher/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">what a local primary school teacher would do</a>, or find out about the <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/article/avoid-these-15-mistakes-during-the-psle/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">15 PSLE mistakes that your child should avoid at all costs</a>!
</body></html>

What’s Truly Useful In The Final Week Of PSLE Prep? Answers To Your Last-Minute Revision FAQs!

<img onerror="kspReplaceCdn(this)" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-76487" src="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/122593856_s.jpg" alt="PSLE" width="600" height="408" />
Are you feeling overwhelmed by the demands of helping your child to prepare for the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE)? Is your child dealing with poor grades in one or more subjects? 
If you wish to help your child, you will have to do some research, or spend time talking to experts, to understand how academically weak students <a href="https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/partnering-with-childs-school/instructional-strategies/5-common-techniques-for-helping-struggling-students" target="_blank" rel="noopener">learn best</a>. You will also have to accept that what qualifies as “good” for a struggling student could be a B or a C grade, rather than an A. 
Yet, when carried out in the right spirit, helping your child at this critical stage can be extremely rewarding — read on to find out how to work together with your child for effective change.
<h2>Set Realistic Goals</h2>
For students with focus and motivation issues, they may have no desire to score As at all, or they may feel that an A is simply out of reach. 
Indeed, it is unrealistic to expect your child to be able to jump from, say, a B grade to an A*. If you are not sure about how to set exam goals for your child, you could consult your child’s teachers to find out what they feel your child is capable of, and set the goals accordingly.
Some educators recommend assessing where your child currently stands — or you can use the year’s tests and exams as a guide — and aiming for a 10% increase in any skill that you’re working on. Of course, what constitutes “10%” will have to be defined by you. A good way to assess your child’s progress is through topical worksheets: if he is currently scoring 5 out of 10, you can set a goal for him to improve the score to 6 in his next try. 
It’s also important that your child understands what the success criteria is for every task that she takes on. Telling a child, “You need to improve your composition score by five marks” is meaningless to the child. Instead, your child needs to be clear on what she needs to do, for instance, she can aim to use five new vocabulary words — or five phrases that she has memorised — in her next composition. (Read about <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/article/every-parent-know-goal-setting/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">realistic goal setting</a>, and helping <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/article/these-5-tips-can-dramatically-change-how-your-children-view-studying/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reluctant learners</a> to get started.)
<h2>Draw Up A Reasonable Study Plan</h2>
Your child’s study plan should take into consideration work that has already been done in school, as well as time spent on enrichment classes after school. If your child has already completed an exam paper in school, does she really need to work on another paper once she returns home? If your child is having maths tuition for the day, is there a need to practise maths again at home? If your child is physically tired and mentally exhausted, what she needs most is rest. 
What can be useful for you and your child is a weekly planner, where you can indicate after-school commitments, as well as create a to-do list of revision tasks for each day. Ensure that your child understands exactly what needs to be done for revision. An example of a vague task would be, “revise for second language.” Instead, indicate exactly what needs to be done, such as “practise writing the new words for chapter 1 (five times each), and testing myself until I get all the words correct.”
When planning study sessions, here are some helpful things to know: students are thought to <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/article/make-last-minute-revision-count/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">learn best</a> during the first 10 minutes of a study session when they are still fresh, and in the final 10 minutes, where a surge of adrenaline propels them to the finish line. 
<img onerror="kspReplaceCdn(this)" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-76488" src="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/psle.jpg" alt="PSLE" width="600" height="270" srcset="https://wp.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/psle.jpg 600w, https://wp.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/psle-320x144.jpg 320w" sizes="(max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px" />
The middle stretch of a study session can almost be regarded as wasted time, which is why it is commonly recommended that study or reading sessions should not stretch beyond 30 minutes. If students have plenty of material to cover, they can get back to work again after a five-minute break. 
To maximise learning and retention, sessions can be further broken down this way:
<ul>
<li>20 to 25 minutes: reading or working on an exercise</li>
<li>5 minutes: review</li>
<li>5 minutes: break</li>
</ul>
For more tips, see a KSP member’s PSLE <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/article/psle-a-sample-study-plan/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study plan</a>, or refer to <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/article/p6-revision-timetables-parents-share-their-kids-study-routines/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">this article</a>, where KSP members share their children’s study routines. 
<h2>Don’t Let Mistakes Pile Up</h2>
Check the work that your child is bringing home daily, or take note of any homework that has been returned, to see what mistakes have been made. Have your child try those questions again to see if he or she is able to answer them satisfactorily. If not, see if you are able to help your child to tackle the problem, or alert the teacher that your child may require more instruction and practice on this particular type of problem. (Read about the <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/article/avoid-these-15-mistakes-during-the-psle/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">15 mistakes to avoid</a> during the PSLE.)
Many teachers, especially Primary 6 teachers, would have given their contact details to parents and encouraged parents to get in touch as often as needed. If your child’s teachers have given you the go ahead, don’t hesitate to seek their help. If they have not, now’s the time to make contact, to ask if you can check in with them more frequently leading up to the PSLE. 
<a href="https://shopeesg.onelink.me/3203413121?pid=merchant&amp;c=Brands_ChickenEssence_280519&amp;af_dp=shopeesg%3A%2F%2Fhome%3FnavRoute%3DeyJwYXRocyI6W3sid2ViTmF2Ijp7InVybCI6Imh0dHBzOi8vc2hvcGVlLnNnL0JSQU5EUy1Fc3NlbmNlLU9mLUNoaWNrZW4tRm9yLUNoaWxkcmVuLUFscGhhTXluZC1XaXRoLUx5Y2l1bS1pLjM0NDIwMTM3LjE5OTAzMzQxODMifX1dfQ%253D%253D&amp;af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fshopee.sg%2FBRANDS-Essence-Of-Chicken-For-Children-AlphaMynd-With-Lycium-i.34420137.1990334183%3Futm_source%3DFB_BrandsChickenEssence%26utm_medium%3Dmerchant%26utm_campaign%3DFB_BrandsChickenEssence&amp;is_retargeting=true"><img onerror="kspReplaceCdn(this)" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="aligncenter wp-image-76489 size-full" src="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/BRANDS-AlphaMynd-KS_Parents-336x280pixels.jpg" alt="brands" width="336" height="280" srcset="https://wp.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/BRANDS-AlphaMynd-KS_Parents-336x280pixels.jpg 336w, https://wp.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/BRANDS-AlphaMynd-KS_Parents-336x280pixels-320x267.jpg 320w" sizes="(max-width: 336px) 100vw, 336px" /></a>
<h2>Correct Poor Work Habits</h2>
With reluctant learners, you may notice the following habits whenever they sit down to work:
<ul>
<li>Poor posture (head on arm, head on table, or slouching), which creates sluggishness and a sense of inertia</li>
<li>A fixation on how much work remains, instead of focusing one’s attention on answering the question at hand</li>
<li>Wanting to get work over and done with quickly, rather than properly, which leads to careless and sloppy work</li>
<li>A general aversion towards seatwork</li>
</ul>
These habits have likely not been formed overnight, and as such, it is unrealistic to expect your child to change overnight as well, just because the PSLE is looming. 
Instead, gauge where your child stands in this area — is he able to devote his full concentration to a task for 15 minutes? If so, that should be your starting point for setting work for your child. For instance, you can have him work on a set of questions for 15 minutes, take a five minute break, and resume working on another set of questions for the next 15 minutes, until the day’s work is complete. You may also need to adjust your expectations about the amount of work that your child should complete — if this is work assigned by the school or a tutor, do have a discussion about how the workload can be adjusted to suit your child.
Once your child is able to maintain good work habits for the full 15 minutes, you can stretch each work session to 20 minutes, and so on. Be sure to use a timer to help your child (as well as yourself) to keep track of work sessions and breaks. For some children, a jarring alarm can trigger stress, so choose a gentle tone to signal that time is up. When the work for the day is complete, let your child have something to look forward to, be it family bonding time, or an activity that he can indulge in for rest and relaxation.
<h2>Reinforce The School’s Teaching Methods</h2>
Many local parents have access to a wealth of resources on the best ways to tackle the PSLE papers, but with time running short, less is certainly more. 
It only serves to confuse your child if he or she has to contend with different exam strategies and materials introduced by a school teacher, a tutor, as well as you, the parent. Ideally, you should follow the lead set by your child’s teachers in school, and check in with them regularly (daily even) if your child is unable to grasp what they are teaching, so that they can give your child extra guidance in school or suggest an alternative. Give clear instructions to your child’s tutors as well, so that everyone is on the same page.
If you feel that there are troubling issues with the teachers’ PSLE preparation efforts that need to be addressed, find out if others in your child’s class feel the same way. With strength in numbers, there is still time to approach a higher authority in the school, such as the subject head, to seek a better solution for the weaker pupils. 
<h2>Weave Practice Into The Family’s Daily Routine</h2>
Is there a way for your child to practise a PSLE skill in a daily life setting? 
For instance, you could discuss the news over the dinner table, and encourage your child to share her opinions using phrases such as “I feel” or “I disagree with this because&#8230;” During conversation, you can use words that your child may not be familiar with, to expose her to more advanced words and how they can be used in daily life. Encourage her to use any new vocabulary words that she has picked up as well, or find opportunities to show her how they can be used in conversation. This will be far more effective than any vocabulary book that you can buy. (Read our article on how to practise for the <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/article/psle-oral-how-to-improve-in-just-15-minutes-a-day/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PSLE oral exam</a> in just 15 minutes a day.)
You can also examine your own speaking habits at home, to see if they may be contributing to any of the language errors that your child is making. If so, try to avoid making these errors in casual speech — in the long run, it can only benefit the entire family to work on their language skills together.  
<h2>Master Exam Checking Techniques</h2>
If you notice that many of your child’s marks are lost to carelessness, you can work out some <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/article/how-to-check-test-and-exam-papers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">strategies</a> together for checking test and exam papers. 
For maths, your child can circle or “star” challenging questions, and prioritise checking these questions once she has completed the paper. Another strategy involves “working backwards” to see if she can obtain the original values provided by the question.
For science, students need to check that they have used the appropriate terms to answer questions — for instance, “simpler substances” does not mean the same thing as “smaller parts.” They should also check if they have provided the information required by the question.
For English, teach children to pause at tricky choices, especially if they involve contractions such as “it’s/its,” and “they’re/their.” It helps to write out or read aloud the contraction in full (e.g. “they are”) before deciding if it can fit well into a sentence. Getting children to read out their written answers (albeit softly) can help them spot some simple errors or omissions that could cost them points. 
Need more advice on helping struggling students? Bookmark <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/article/last-minute-psle-prep-tips-primary-school-teacher/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">these last-minute PSLE tips</a> by a neighbourhood school teacher.

Success In The PSLE: Helping Weak Students To Improve

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
<?xml encoding="UTF-8"><html><body><img onerror="kspReplaceCdn(this)" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-68979" src="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/300577_s-800x533.jpg" alt="PSLE result" width="530" height="335">
For Primary 6 children and parents, this is the culmination of a six-year journey: the release of the PSLE results.
How will you and your child respond to the results? A lot may well rest on the expectations of parents and children. But no matter what the results may be, there is one thing that all parents should do, says occupational therapist <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/article/exam-results-how-should-parents-respond/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Anita Leo</a>.
<blockquote>
&ldquo;Give your child a hug. Your child has completed a milestone, and this should be celebrated.&rdquo;
</blockquote>
What&rsquo;s next? Find out how to give healthy praise for good results, and how to support your child if results are less than ideal.
<h2>Celebrating Good Results</h2>
Local parents&mdash;including our KiasuParents community&mdash;are <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/article/rewarding-children-for-good-grades-yes-or-no/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">divided</a> on whether or not to reward children for good results. KSP member Chenonceau has advised parents to &ldquo;flee rewards like the plague&rdquo; because &ldquo;[the] higher the external motivation, the lower the self-motivation.&rdquo;
For parents like her, the reward of good results is the sense of achievement that the child feels.
<img onerror="kspReplaceCdn(this)" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-69015" src="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/psle1-800x461.jpg" alt="psle results" width="529" height="273">
Other parents, on the other hand, are not averse to using treats such as a trip abroad, a gift, or a special outing as motivation.
&ldquo;It is better for children to secure good grades first. Later, when they are older, parents can find opportunities to explain to them that they should not expect rewards all the time,&rdquo; says KSP member limlim. &ldquo;The alternative is to miss the chance to motivate them, and when they grow up, they may regret not putting in enough effort to get good grades.&rdquo;
Regardless of your stand on rewards, it&rsquo;s easy to rejoice over the results if your child has met or exceeded his or her targets. However, be careful with your praise, as what you say could shape the way that your child chooses to grow.
For instance, if you praise a child for being &ldquo;clever,&rdquo; you could be hindering the child&rsquo;s ability to persevere with difficult tasks. Here&rsquo;s why:
&ldquo;When we praise intelligence, what we&rsquo;re saying is that the reason you did well is that you have a natural ability,&rdquo; says Dr Paul O&rsquo;Keefe, an assistant professor of psychology at the Yale-NUS College. &ldquo;So it&rsquo;s communicating to them that intelligence is an entity that you have or you don&rsquo;t.&rdquo;
Education experts today often cite the concept of &ldquo;<a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/article/5-ways-to-transform-your-child-s-learning/">growth mindset</a>,&rdquo; a term popularised by Stanford professor Carol Dweck. According to her seminal study, carried out in 1998, students who were praised for intelligence later avoided a challenging task, as they wanted to maintain their reputation for being &ldquo;smart kids.&rdquo; In contrast, those praised for effort saw the challenging task as an opportunity for learning.
If your child has received good results, be sure to focus your praise on hard work and a job well done&mdash;the message should be that effort pays off. (Read more about how certain types of praise can backfire on <a href="https://www.schoolbag.sg/story/why-certain-types-of-praise-can-backfire">Schoolbag.sg</a>.)
<h2>Dealing With Disappointment</h2>
Imagine this scenario: your child has consistently scored well in primary school, but receives a lower-than-expected score for the PSLE.
<img onerror="kspReplaceCdn(this)" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="alignnone wp-image-69016" src="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/77514096_s-800x533.jpg" alt="psle results" width="529" height="308">
KSP member Gisten <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1148730#p1148730" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">experienced this</a> several years ago when her daughter received her PSLE results. Her daughter had been in the top class since Primary 3, and the expectation was for her to score above 240. However, her daughter&rsquo;s score was 210.
If you should find yourself in a similar situation when the PSLE results are released in November, here&rsquo;s some advice from occupational therapist Anita:
<blockquote>
&ldquo;If there is disappointment, ask yourself, &lsquo;Who is feeling it?&rsquo; It is not uncommon to find children worrying about their parents&rsquo; expectations, rather than their own. If you must express disappointment, make it clear that you are disappointed with the result, but not with your child. &lsquo;You did badly&rsquo; means something different from &lsquo;Your results were not as expected.&rsquo;&rdquo;
</blockquote>
As for school placements, Anita&rsquo;s advice is to leave this discussion for later.
&ldquo;Wait till your child has had some time to let the results sink in,&rdquo; she says. &ldquo;In the meantime, equip yourself with information. When your child is ready to talk about secondary schools, you can ask, &lsquo;Would you want to look at what schools we can apply for?&rsquo;&rdquo;
A positive mindset is essential for helping your child to move forward, and a resource that you can consult together is the School Information Service <a href="https://sis.moe.gov.sg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">website</a>, which helps you in your search for suitable schools based on criteria such as programmes and co-curricular activities.
Remember: there will be many challenges for your child to face in life, and these experiences will help your child to grow. As parents, our role at this stage is to help our children put events in perspective, so they don&rsquo;t lose hope in themselves, or in the future.
&ldquo;There is no evidence that the PSLE matters in the long run. Not everyone from an elite school will become part of the cr&egrave;me de la cr&egrave;me later in life,&rdquo; says Anita. &ldquo;A parent may argue that if one does well in school, one will have more educational and career paths to choose from. But these choices will never dictate your life unless you allow them to. It is when you have confidence in yourself, and are intrinsically motivated, that the world becomes your oyster.&rdquo;
</body></html>

PSLE Results: Tears Or Cheers?

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40/loose.dtd">
<?xml encoding="UTF-8"><html><body><img onerror="kspReplaceCdn(this)" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="wp-image-58235 alignleft" src="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/files/u133359/66575413_s.jpg" alt="" width="237" height="353">
If your child is in Primary 6 this year, what is his or her revision strategy? 
 A study plan is particularly useful for <a href="https://www.seab.gov.sg/pages/nationalExaminations/PSLE/general_information" target="_blank" rel="noopener">PSLE</a> preparations, to give students not only a big-picture view of what needs to be accomplished, but a clear idea of the daily steps that they should take. Ideally, students should come up with their own plans, but many primary schoolers will still require a little hand-holding. Here&rsquo;s what parents in our community have to say.
<hr>
For my daughter in Primary 6, co-curricular activities have almost come to a halt, but the weekdays are still packed with extra lessons and schoolwork. To me, this already counts as revision work and I don&rsquo;t assign more. Her mid-year exams begin in end-April, and these are the expectations that we&rsquo;ve discussed for the four subjects:
English: My daughter&rsquo;s scores for oral and composition could be better, but as her grammar is sound, I&rsquo;m fine to let her be&mdash;in time, her conversational skills will improve as she gains social exposure, and she will gradually incorporate depth into her writing as she matures. Our current priority is vocabulary, and she spends 10 minutes a day testing herself using a <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/article/power-up-your-childs-vocabulary-and-yours-too-a-mom-tested-approach/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vocabulary app</a>. I&rsquo;ve also asked her to work on a handful of practice papers running up to the exam, although I&rsquo;m sceptical of the long-term benefits of working on English test and exam papers. The saving grace for me is that she encounters new words through these papers, which she feeds into her vocabulary app. In all, I don&rsquo;t expect her to spend much time &ldquo;revising&rdquo; for English; it&rsquo;s more important to me that she spends an hour or so on daily reading, for pleasure, and that she eventually gains enough interest and confidence to be inventive with the language, in her own way.
Chinese: Each week, my daughter has a one-hour supplementary Chinese class in school, and for now, a one-hour lesson with her tutor&mdash;in preparation for the PSLE, we may increase the tutoring to twice weekly during the school holidays. As we&rsquo;re an interracial family that doesn&rsquo;t speak Mandarin at home, the tutor has asked my daughter to memorise some choice phrases for the oral and composition exams. Apart from that, she&rsquo;s had to learn how to write the characters that she will be tested on, and she&rsquo;s been working on practice papers since the start of the year.
Math: I asked my daughter to choose between working on practice papers and topical exercises, and she picked practice papers. To save time, I&rsquo;ve told her to focus on Paper 2 problem sums, and I&rsquo;m shortlisting five papers from schools that are known for their exacting standards, such as Nanyang, Tao Nan, Nan Hua, and RGPS. My daughter marks her own work, and I would also want her to spend time redoing the questions that she got wrong, to make sure that she fully understands how to solve these problems.
Science: My daughter attends a weekly two-hour Science enrichment class, where the tutor plans to wrap up the Primary 6 syllabus by May so that they can launch into revision mode before June. She also attends a one-hour supplementary class in school, so there has already been consistent weekday revision taking place. All the same, my daughter has made a list of the topics that she will be tested on for the mid-year exams, and next to each topic, she has put two checkboxes, one for reading (her notes), and the other for review (topical exercises). She would probably need about two hours to go through the upper primary topics, and perhaps an hour for the lower primary topics.
Click <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/article/school-holidays-a-time-for-work-and-play/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a> to view a sample of my daughter&rsquo;s holiday study plan, as well as some of the assessment books she is using this year. &mdash; <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/author/thebottomsupblog/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">thebottomsupblog</a>
<hr>
When my daughter was in Primary 6, I planned a timetable for her during the school holidays, and not on school days. On school days, her time was spent on homework and remedial classes. 
For the holidays, her daily routine would kick off between 10:00 and 10:30 a.m., and these were her responsibilities:
<ol>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Do assessments (one subject a day)</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Piano practice</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Lunch time, bath</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Read newspapers (alternating between English and Chinese newspapers each day)&mdash;write out the difficult words, find the meanings, and compose a sentence with the difficult words.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Read storybooks (we borrowed Chinese and English storybooks from the library for her to read during the holidays)</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Play time</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400;">Holiday homework</li>
</ol>
Before bedtime, we watched the Chinese news at 10:00 p.m. together. If she didn&rsquo;t understand what was going on, I would explain it to her. We would pick a news event to discuss if we had the time. &nbsp;
I would also mark her assessments and go through the mistakes with her at night. &mdash;<a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?p=23859#p23859" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> daisyt</a>
<hr>
My son&rsquo;s teacher gave the class a holiday timetable for the November/December school holidays in 2017. Each day&rsquo;s schedule incorporated two hours of revision for each subject. In between these two-hour sessions, time was allocated for meals, TV, and reading. It even stated the total time taken for these activities: 8 hours (revision), 6.5 hours (rest and relaxation), and 9.5 hours (sleep). The recommended daily routine started at 8:30 a.m. and ended at 11:00 p.m. 
The topics for Science&mdash;from Primary 3 to Primary 5&mdash;were suggested for each week. The timetable didn&rsquo;t take overseas vacations into consideration, so the kids were expected to revise every day during the holidays. &mdash; <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=69&amp;t=84699&amp;p=1819866&amp;hilit=timetable#p1819866" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Nadine</a>
<hr>
Need more study plan ideas? Click <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?t=67310" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a> to read a KSP member&rsquo;s year-long PSLE study plan, and <a href="https://www.kiasuparents.com/kiasu/forum/viewtopic.php?f=69&amp;t=84699" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a> to participate in the 2018 PSLE discussion thread. 
</body></html>