PSLE exams.... what is it for???

[Playtime]

 

sometimes i wonder.... what is the purpose really?

why when US EU etc dont do things this way, yet they are the FT talents here, they make the Nobel Prizes and make the inventions.

hell.... even Uptron is considered better in the end.

So.... why are we doing this to our children? Bragging rights?

 

 

[Thaiyotakamli]

Should lower the score to 50 la

 

then Will get AL5 score

 

parent happy kid happy teacher happy everybody happy

[boonhat_91]

So that many decades later almost retirement age liao you can diss people and call them illiterate, go lousy sch etc

[Inlinefour]

Please

Stop

Learning

Everybody

 

🤪🤪🤪🤪

[Sosaria]

When everyone score very well, everyone happy happy, then next round of unhappiness is when deciding who gets to go to the top schools

How to differentiate?

Personally I saw the "tough" questions being discussed and I thought previous editions' tough questions were actually much tougher. Wonder if anyone agrees?

And that's what worries me, the mentality of demanding more for less, the entitled way of thinking (my kid already work so hard so should deserve something), the lack of resilience among the younger generation these days, all these are the more important underlying issues.

Edited October 1, 2021 by Sosaria

[noobcarbuyer]

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/parenting-education/psle-parents-in-uproar-over-tough-maths-paper-say-it-was-unexpected-in?

PSLE: Some parents upset over tough maths paper, which left their children in tears

SINGAPORE - The difficulty of the PSLE maths paper has once again become a matter of contention, with some parents saying it was so tough that their kids were left in tears.

There were two maths papers on Friday (Oct 1).

One parent said she received a tearful call from her daughter after the first paper, saying it was more difficult than she had expected. 

Mrs Daphne Tan, 44, said: "I cried too. Especially since I knew that she had prepared so much for the exam."

The regional head of marketing said a school counsellor calmed her 12-year-old daughter down.

Exam preparations this year have been stressful, said Mrs Tan, especially since the whole family had been quarantined in August.

"Leading up to PSLE, I was watching the news every day praying that my child doesn't get Covid-19," she said. Mrs Tan has another daughter in Primary 4.

This year's PSLE for Primary 6 pupils started on Thursday and will end on Tuesday, with a number taking the exams under quarantine orders in the midst of Singapore's largest surge in Covid-19 cases.

Mrs Tan was among many parents who noted that the new PSLE Achievement Levels (AL) scoring system had mounted pressure on pupils sitting difficult exams.

Former director in the engineering underwriting industry Hong Lian Ai, who is in her 40s, said that unlike in the past, this group of pupils would not have their grades benchmarked against the rest of their cohort.

"Whatever achievement level they get is what they get, there is no longer a bell curve, and the exam felt harder than the 2020 paper."

This year's pupils are the first to use the new scoring system, which no longer grades them on their performance relative to their cohort in the form of a T score.

Instead, they are given grade bands between AL1 and AL8 based on their absolute scores, with 1 being the best.

The ALs for their subjects are then added up to give them their PSLE score.

In April, MOE director-general of education Wong Siew Hoong said the aim of the new grading system is to help pupils not feel like they have to chase the last mark.

Under the new scoring system, pupils will not need to achieve a perfect score to enter top schools.

Echoing other parents, Madam Gina Teo, 40, who works in sales, told ST that the pandemic has been a struggle of constant adjustment and adapting to two years of home-based learning.

On Friday, her daughter returned home saying she had given up on entering the school of her dreams as the paper was the toughest she had ever encountered.

Said Madam Teo: "All my friends were left speechless after hearing how hard the paper was from their children and that many were unable to complete their papers. We knew that the PSLE mathematics paper would be hard but they should have set the difficulty at the same level as last year's paper."

In response to queries from ST, the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) said the disruptions and exceptional circumstances due to Covid-19 will be taken into consideration during grading to ensure that pupils are fairly assessed.

They added that the PSLE mathematics papers are aligned to the syllabus taught in schools, and there is an appropriate balance of basic, average and more challenging questions to cater to students of different abilities.

Their joint statement said: “The panel responsible for developing the papers comprises curriculum specialists from MOE and assessment specialists from the SEAB. In setting the papers, the panel adheres to a test blueprint that ensures the examination is aligned with the syllabus objectives and learning outcomes and the overall standards are maintained from year to year.”

Counsellor Priyahnisha N. told The Straits Times that this year's PSLE might be extra challenging for children, given the frequent changes such as heightened Covid-19 measures, school closures and fluctuations between in-person lessons and home-based learning.

She said: "As expected, not many children are keen or responsive to online learning and this might pose a challenge to retention and revision.

"As such, it may be more difficult and pressurising for children to perform well."

The counsellor from online counselling platform Talk Your Heart Out told ST that it is important for parents to acknowledge the stress and anxiety that children are experiencing and that having open conversations around performance and meeting expectations is important.

She said: "Being reassuring and affirmative of the child's efforts provides the validation and comfort that he or she needs."

Ms Bernadette Clara Yeo and Ms Lim Pin Xiu, co-founders of Bramble, a start-up which focuses aiding parent-child communication,  suggested that parents and their children make time for relaxation over the weekend instead of rushing to prepare for the next exam.

Ms Lim said: "Your actions, more than your words, will remind them that there's more to life than exams,"

"Take a mini-break together over the weekend! Go out for a walk, or treat them to their favourite ice cream."

ST has contacted the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board for comment.

[noobcarbuyer]

This is an example of what the primary six students faced today. In case anyone's interested. 

[noobcarbuyer]

And... here's the solution, which I didn't really understand, but my kid got it almost immediately. I must be getting slow. 

https://www.facebook.com/nicklebee.tutors/posts/4949062438454414

[Ender]

Every year always got parents complain math or science paper are diffcult. This particular question is in line with P6 syllabus.  Some good student will solve it, some won't.  

[Roh96]

Tiagong Singapore PSLE Math standard is well known internationally. Tiagong you can even find our math assessment in Korea. 

[Beanoyip]

It's crazy... 

[Stary]

Wah low...difficult exam can now complain to MOE one huh? Then I must have been born way too early....

Last time I complain exam damn tough....I kena 2 beating from parents. One for not studying hard enough, and 2nd beating for complaining about the exams.  Their rationale is if tough exam also complain, then how to face the real world next time which is even tougher?

So after that, always go home diam diam if exam tough.

Kids are lucky thesedays man.......got parents side with them....

[Wind30]

  On 10/1/2021 at 3:43 PM, noobcarbuyer said:

This is an example of what the primary six students faced today. In case anyone's interested. 

Expand  

This question is not hard. I bet my sec1 girl can get it. I wonder if my p1 boy can do it too….

I have seen much tougher psle maths questions where the method is not as obvious as this….

paper got let’s say 50 question. One question must be tough lah… else everyone get all correct meh???

since psle is calibrated over the cohort, easy maths paper is not necessary better as that test just solely carefulness which I feel is more risky. 

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/education/tough-2019-psle-maths-paper-5-challenging-questions-over-the-years

 

Edited October 1, 2021 by Wind30

[Playtime]

  On 10/1/2021 at 3:21 PM, Sosaria said:

When everyone score very well, everyone happy happy, then next round of unhappiness is when deciding who gets to go to the top schools

How to differentiate?

Personally I saw the "tough" questions being discussed and I thought previous editions' tough questions were actually much tougher. Wonder if anyone agrees?

And that's what worries me, the mentality of demanding more for less, the entitled way of thinking (my kid already work so hard so should deserve something), the lack of resilience among the younger generation these days, all these are the more important underlying issues.

Expand  

To what ends? Maybe some  arent  due to academic issues... but that MOE is in the picture suggest otherwise. 

What do we have to show over other nations that says it's a price worth paying?

Maybe the ideology has gone just a little too far. Instead of asking could we make our children survive this,  ask should we be doing this. 

I could be wrong... I not scholar. 

https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/covid-19-suicide-rate-among-10-19-age-group-jumps-375-2020-year-year

 

[Yewheng]

  On 10/1/2021 at 10:24 PM, Wind30 said:

This question is not hard. I bet my sec1 girl can get it. I wonder if my p1 boy can do it too….

I have seen much tougher psle maths questions where the method is not as obvious as this….

paper got let’s say 50 question. One question must be tough lah… else everyone get all correct meh???

since psle is calibrated over the cohort, easy maths paper is not necessary better as that test just solely carefulness which I feel is more risky. 

https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/education/tough-2019-psle-maths-paper-5-challenging-questions-over-the-years

 

Expand  

Actually that question, I feel that if student do not panic and calm down, they could think properly and should be able to solve the question in no time .

 

It's only when a person start panicking, it does not help and add more to the stress and end up mind cannot even think properly. Like that this question will be impossible to solve already. So need a very calm mind is important.

 

So beside training kids on past year series, and etc. There also need to train kids to act calm even when it is in a very stressful situation. The need to train them to be calm and when it become a habit, when they grow older, they will be able to do things and react better in stressful environment.

Edited October 2, 2021 by Yewheng

[Wind30]

  On 10/1/2021 at 11:08 PM, Playtime said:

To what ends? Maybe some  arent  due to academic issues... but that MOE is in the picture suggest otherwise. 

What do we have to show over other nations that says it's a price worth paying?

Maybe the ideology has gone just a little too far. Instead of asking could we make our children survive this,  ask should we be doing this. 

I could be wrong... I not scholar. 

https://www.todayonline.com/singapore/covid-19-suicide-rate-among-10-19-age-group-jumps-375-2020-year-year

 

Expand  

? The problem obviously lies with the parent not psle. 100001 other kids went by psle with no psychological scars. 
esp when this years psle don’t look difficult at all, I think moe already dumb down this year maths and last years maths because of COVID. 2019 earlier was harder.

[Wind30]

  On 10/2/2021 at 12:25 AM, Yewheng said:

Actually that question, I feel that if student do not panic and calm down, they could think properly and should be able to solve the question in no time .

 

It's only when a person start panicking, it does not help and add more to the stress and end up mind cannot even think properly. Like that this question will be impossible to solve already. So need a very calm mind is important.

 

So beside training kids on past year series, and etc. There also need to train kids to act calm even when it is in a very stressful situation. The need to train them to be calm and when it become a habit, when they grow older, they will be able to do things and react better in stressful environment.

Expand  

Exactly… a lot of maths is confidence and ability to concentrate. If you can break down and cry in exams, it’s not the papers fault but your parents fault. 
 

[Soya]

  On 10/1/2021 at 1:48 PM, Playtime said:

sometimes i wonder.... what is the purpose really?

why when US EU etc dont do things this way, yet they are the FT talents here, they make the Nobel Prizes and make the inventions.

hell.... even Uptron is considered better in the end.

So.... why are we doing this to our children? Bragging rights?

 

Expand  

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