PSLE science chief marker... what a load of ....

[Sosaria]

  On 3/28/2024 at 12:59 PM, Theoldjaffa said:

I think you need to calm down, take a deep breath, and watch the video again.

The CM said: “Marking schemes don’t focus on keywords. Marking schemes focus a lot more on conceptual understanding”.

That means, even if the student doesn’t provide the keyword, it is ok. As long as the student demonstrates the understanding, marks are still given.

This is actually beneficial to the students as they are not penalized for not knowing, or stating the keywords.

He did not mention that keywords are NOT accepted in the marking scheme.

He is a school principal who had undergone rigorous criteria, training and experience to get to his position today.

I don’t think it’s proper etiquette for you to write off “this guy” as a load of <whatever you mean> just because you misconstrued the meaning of his words in your anger.

 

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That's correct. It's just to give more leeway to different way of answering. So for one who is strictly trained to give keywords, all the better! In case slip-up and never provide the required keywords, there's still a chance to score some marks.

As we know, education system is loosening up more and more to accommodate different learning styles and paces. Whether this is a kind of "dumbing down" or part of a greater liberal left agenda, is all up for debate!   But i was just talking to a teacher friend recently and he remarked that nowadays it is a necessity for education system to loosen up because of more and more kids reporting with all sorts of autism, adhd and whatnot in our schools. Under a very strict system, we'd lose too many of these kids and we can't afford it as they are going to form part of the future workforce. Need to keep them in the system and keep them advancing to the required qualifications.

Edited March 28, 2024 by Sosaria

[Throttle2]

  On 3/28/2024 at 2:20 PM, Wind30 said:

Btw, I know this very well because three years ago my daughter pri6 prelim science mark was 70/100… psle was 2 months away and I had to learn primary school science and tuition her. Her problem was she phrase everything her own way, no keywords. I reviewed her school marking schemes in depth. Primary science is highly structured with fixed words u need to use. 

 

She got A* in the end for science so I know keywords work. 

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I know this very well also becos several years ago, my girl came home and i checked her science papers.  She answered the question perfectly in simple but good English without using the “keywords” showing a clearcut understanding of the theory and yet was marked with a cross.  
i was going to march to school the next day to create havoc in the Principal’s office, but my wife stopped me.  

Ridiculous way of education.  No wonder we remain a nation of employees bound to be “ruled” still by foreigners.  

 

[Wind30]

  On 3/28/2024 at 2:53 PM, Throttle2 said:

I know this very well also becos several years ago, my girl came home and i checked her science papers.  She answered the question perfectly in simple but good English without using the “keywords” showing a clearcut understanding of the theory and yet was marked with a cross.  
i was going to march to school the next day to create havoc in the Principal’s office, but my wife stopped me.  

Ridiculous way of education.  No wonder we remain a nation of employees bound to be “ruled” still by foreigners.  

 

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Exactly. I am glad someone else had the same experience else people would think it is just my daughter school. I did not think of going down as I thought the school had my girls interest in that psle marking scheme also follow keywords. I just “fixed” the problem and followed the system although I disagreed with it. 
 

That is why I feel the chief marker is just “wayanging” , saying nice words on tv that is totally different from what is happening in schools. 
 

When she got into RI, her math paper got even more ridiculous. I think 80% of the marks she lost were for questions she got totally right but “wrong” presentation… my time method marks were given because your answer were wrong, and teachers don’t want to give zero. You were almost always guaranteed full marks of the answer was right…

[Wind30]

  On 3/28/2024 at 2:32 PM, Theoldjaffa said:

I am personally close to a teacher in a primary school and I have many friends who have been teaching for more than 30 years.
 

Even in parents group chats..my juniors show them to me sometimes.. from the way I see their msgs.. yeah “know-it-all” parents are aplenty.

These parents think they are always right. The school is fked up. The teachers are lousy. Never inward looking, always blaming others and the system.

I got to know another today here, and it only serves as a lesson for my grandson to not become someone like that when he becomes a parent.

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Honestly u are not reading what I am writing…. I did not blamed the school for emphasizing keywords. I drilled my daughter in science keywords for 2 months, because I see the value of keywords in a standardised exam where u have hundreds of markers who will probably be following some sort of marking scheme… I think that chief marker is full of **** , just doing pr on tv without consideration for what is happening in schools. 

nevermind, it’s getting nowhere …

Edited March 28, 2024 by Wind30

[Theoldjaffa]

  On 3/28/2024 at 9:37 PM, Wind30 said:

Honestly u are not reading what I am writing…. I did not blamed the school for emphasizing keywords. I drilled my daughter in science keywords for 2 months, because I see the value of keywords in a standardised exam where u have hundreds of markers who will probably be following some sort of marking scheme… I think that chief marker is full of **** , just doing pr on tv without consideration for what is happening in schools. 

nevermind, it’s getting nowhere …

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I know exactly what you’re getting at… and I feel it’s you who do not understand what I’m getting at.

yes it’s going nowhere 🤓

[Lala81]

  On 3/28/2024 at 10:59 AM, Wind30 said:

exactly. This is what teachers in my daughters' are emphasizing. In school exams, no keywords no points. i am surprised this guy say completely opposite. Most schools are the same right?

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Yup. You must have the keywords to have the correct answer. 

Like energy/food in plants - > photosynthesis. Make food in sunlight. 

Take in co2, give out o2. 

 

I'm my kids science tutor. Sometimes I see the answers, I also shake head. But I can see where they are coming from. It demands a level of precision that is maybe more suited for older kids. 

Sometimes u write too much, the teacher also will write comment that you seem to be not sure of the key concept. 

Edited March 29, 2024 by Lala81

[Lala81]

  On 3/28/2024 at 2:53 PM, Throttle2 said:

I know this very well also becos several years ago, my girl came home and i checked her science papers.  She answered the question perfectly in simple but good English without using the “keywords” showing a clearcut understanding of the theory and yet was marked with a cross.  
i was going to march to school the next day to create havoc in the Principal’s office, but my wife stopped me.  

Ridiculous way of education.  No wonder we remain a nation of employees bound to be “ruled” still by foreigners.  

 

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Schools in general are meant to produce employees. Lol

 

 

[Lala81]

I enjoy teaching psle science though. All everyday phenomenon that everyone can relate to. 

I do mind maps with my kids and emphasise keywords inside it. 

You can only answer the questions if u have a broad understanding of the concepts. 

In p5 I worked more on the above. Then I bought a few books on how to answer the questions. As I don't find marking schemes that useful other than a guide. Ultimately have to teach the kid how to answer themselves. 

Edited March 29, 2024 by Lala81

[Lala81]

I watched the video while queuing for Prata. 

He's right in terms of they want to test conceptual understanding. Unfortunately in 2 or max 3 sentences, u have to use keywords to demonstrate understanding. 

[mersaylee]

Aiyoh...macam essay or thesis must include all references...just add a footnote with all the keywords there and mention that those words were replaced in the writing with simple text and language lor 😁

[Jman888]

marker could be bias so be prepared all exams will be marked by AI that only spot keywords for correct answer

 

[Lala81]

  On 3/29/2024 at 3:08 AM, Jman888 said:

marker could be bias so be prepared all exams will be marked by AI that only spot keywords for correct answer

 

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Kinda inevitable that eventually AI will be used for some sort of screening. 

[Sosaria]

  On 3/28/2024 at 9:37 PM, Wind30 said:

Honestly u are not reading what I am writing…. I did not blamed the school for emphasizing keywords. I drilled my daughter in science keywords for 2 months, because I see the value of keywords in a standardised exam where u have hundreds of markers who will probably be following some sort of marking scheme… I think that chief marker is full of **** , just doing pr on tv without consideration for what is happening in schools. 

nevermind, it’s getting nowhere …

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If you've worked in education, well, usually the top management are quite clueless or pretend not to know what is happening at the operational/ground level  The teacher friends tell me, many changes have taken place since covid and the time when the management were still actively teaching was many years ago, so there's the disconnect.

Edited March 29, 2024 by Sosaria

[noobcarbuyer]

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/cna-insider/regardless-of-grades-psle-scoring-system-parents-pupils-tuition-4227551

This is why parents go to great lengths to conquer PSLE. But what do their children say?

Have Singapore’s views on academic results shifted, even a bit, since a change of the PSLE scoring system in 2021? The programme Regardless of Grades looks at how parents are approaching the exam and what it is doing to children.

 

[Tianmo]

  On 3/29/2024 at 1:25 AM, Lala81 said:

Schools in general are meant to produce employees. Lol

 

 

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Cold hard fact, and it's just how the system works.

 

 

[Tianmo]

Every year, my children's primary school would conduct a psle briefing for parents. What I was told was, markers will always first look out for key words and award points to key words first, then they will go into the content and look for acceptable answers. Keywords alone won't give you the full marks, neither will having no keywords. So they were looking for keywords and a short few sentences write up kind of answers to award the most points, but keywords certainly gets more.

Things might have changed over the years, and the focus on our education system might have also shifted. However, we cannot disregard the fact that changes take time to be accepted, and with many teachers in the system doing the same thing every year over the last xx years, you won't be able to do a complete system change over night. 

What he is saying is what the top  wants to do, what we are facing is what is happening on the ground, it happens to every big organization, same same everywhere.

There are like thousands, if not tens of thousands of ppl involve in the whole system, and not everyone can follow a new system well, 有人的地方就会有是非 mah. 

 

Edited March 29, 2024 by Tianmo

[Ender]

For us, mostly not gifted in the English language, learning to use keywords is the hack to score in the subject.

 

Anyway, I skipped to part where he explained about keywords, even the example he used that shows the student showing understanding of concept, also got to used keywords. He used "heat gain", "water vapor", these are keywords in itself.

[Benarsenal]

  On 3/28/2024 at 2:11 PM, Wind30 said:

Err.. I understand perfectly well that he is saying. U need to understand what I am saying…. Since when did I say keywords are not accepted???? I said no keywords no points, ie keywords are essential for marks to be given and are heavily emphasized in school. 

I am saying the school marking schemes focus on keywords. No one focus on conceptual understanding, maybe his neighbourhood school does what he says but I wonder how well his students fair in science psle if they don’t focus on key words…

I don’t think who he is matters at all as to whether what he is saying is *** . 

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He is chief marker leh. He oversees all the markers.

I think he has more credibility than you.