There is no doubt that the PSLE is the most important exam for your child as their examination performance will determined the secondary schools which they are eligible to apply. It is understandable that parents might feel stressed when their child reached Primary 6. However, if helped your child to prepare themselves sufficiently, they should be able to do well during the PSLE.
Here are some tips which parents can help their child to prepared well before their examination.
- Show interest in your child’s studies - Use appropriate and goal-directed language when conversing with your child about school work.
- Be a role model: show your child you believe learning is both enjoyable and useful in your daily life – e.g. read books and surf the internet to find information together.
- Reduce distraction and provide a quiet place for your child to study at home.
- Show concern and be available to guide him/her to overcome anxiety and stress.
- Set high (but realistic) expectations of your child school work.
- Encourage your child to consistently seek to improve existing achievements.
- Reward your child’s efforts and achievements.
- Work with your child’s teachers to monitor his/her progress and emotional well-being.
- Use similar methodology as the teachers to avoid confusion (clarify with teachers when in doubt).
- Provide opportunities for time-based practices – i.e. see that your child completes his/her within time allotted.
Consistent Revision
- PSLE covers content from P3 to P6, revision schedule should be plan months ahead as they need to devote sufficient time to all their subjects.
- It is much easier to remember if you revise your subjects consistently rather than cramp all at the last moment.
- Pay attention to your child strength so that they know which subjects they are stronger and which subjects they need to spend more time on.
- If your child are weakness is in language, you need to help them to read widely to increase their vocabulary and expose them to correct grammatical structures.
- If your child are weekness in Math and Science, you must help them to practise tackling different type of questions so that they are ready to handle questions from different topics.
- Many parents have recognized that the Singapore Primary 6 questions are exceptionally difficult. If your child are weak in the subject and you are unable to help them, the next best alternative will be to send them for tuition.
- You need to monitor their tuition progress after 1 month and gather some feedback from your child. Have a look at their tuition paper practise and check with your child how is their tuition teacher. Depending on your child, at times, a one to one tuition is a requirement.
- It is important that you purchase the past year examination paper of the different schools so that your child can get a feel of the actual examination format.
- Practicing the past years paper allow your child to gauge the difficulty level and let them estimate the time they should allocate to each section.
- When your child attempt the past years paper, it can help them to identify the components which they are weak and improve on those areas.
By adopting the above pointers, your child will be adequately prepared for their PSLE examination. As parents, if your child had try their best, we need to accept whatever PSLE results they get. Eventually, exam marks are not everything and there are always alternative skills to learn which can earn us a living.
Mathematics