My PSLE Experience - Priscilla Fong

by Priscilla Fong

I would say that PSLE is a journey. However, most parents and children think it to be a chore. Well, for me, I had a pretty good start and thought that I will just whiz through PSLE, not knowing of all the ‘trials’ and ‘irritations’ I would have to face (:

All went well until May – July. I started to get really stressed then. Having tuitions after tuitions almost every day, I was feeling frustrated and annoyed. 

The last 2 – 3 months, which my parents claimed were going to be the most ‘not stressed’ months as I was only going to revise, turned out to be my most horrible and gruelling months I ever went through. I started getting headaches and almost slept every afternoon (wasting around 2 – 3 hours of my time) and it happened that I usually got the headaches when I was doing Mathematics and Chinese (: 

My mood then was like a roller coaster. I gave up easily and usually could not persevere. I felt tired, pathetic and really annoyed (: I remember my father telling me that he supported the government in letting homeschoolers take the PSLE. “After all, it gives all homeschoolers a chance to endure and persevere during their 12 year old year.” I always heard him say. Then, I would always say to myself, “What? You actually support the government while your daughter suffers! Why don’t you try studying for this exam and see how horrible it is?” 

My older sister who has gone through the PSLE also told me, “If I had a chance now to sit for PSLE, I would sit again!” And again I was feeling so annoyed. I mean, they wanted to take PSLE! Why don’t just take my place and let me enjoy? Now, I totally see the truth of their words (well at least I think so) =D  

After months of continuous perseverance, the first day of PSLE paper finally arrived. And it just so happened that I had a headache that day. And it also happened that my sister could not find her pencil the previous night and took mine (together with my eraser). Guess what! I totally forgot to put my pencil and eraser back. Thankfully, someone had an eraser and since that person was sitting in front of me and I knew him, he broke his in half and gave one half to me. As I said, I also forgot to bring my pencil. But, thankfully another guy which I also knew had extra-s which he could lend me. 

After a week, PSLE was over. It was a glorious day. Now, all 12 year olds all waited nervously to the next obstacle – collecting the PSLE result.

24-11-11 dawned bright and sunny (though the weather did change).  I did not dare to show any sign of nervousness when we arrived at the place to collect my results. We took the lift to the 15th floor and entered a room. Fear engulfed me. My older sister was videoing everything and becoming hyper and to put it in another way, embarrassing. She was much more excited than I was to find out my PSLE result. I sat there with a calm, yet blank look on my face. My 3 younger siblings were jumping about. My father was wearing a confident smile on his face. My mother was folding her hands and praying. My older sister, yes, she was acting totally embarrassing. However, she still could be very comforting even though she went wild with joy and even wanted to play the hallelujah chorus on the violin (which she had forgotten to bring, haha =D)  My mother impatiently asked, “What is the bench mark this year?” The lady replied, “194 marks.” Then, the lady announced to my parents, “Your child has cleared the bench mark.” I was happy and smiled. My embarrassing sister was by now screaming “YAHOO!!!” My mother was about to cry and my father was still smiling. I am glad that I managed to pass, it is indeed His faithfulness. I had, I think, a hundred pats on my back and my back nearly got sore. However, passing the bench mark is not the most important thing, as long as someone tries his best, thumbs-up! All glory will be given to God for it is not by me and my own intelligence that I am able to score well and pass the bench mark. This all was definitely His doings. 

Although I had other homework to catch up with, I was totally grateful that God had been faithful even though I had not and still do not deserve what He has given me. Everytime I feel like giving up, there is someone in my family who would come and encourage me. I also feel very fortunate to have parents who can lead me through that whole journey. Since my family a gift from God that money can’t buy, this is definitely His grace on me. I also can proclaim that His faithfulness never fails. 

My PSLE Experience - Noel Fong

by Noel Fong

My PSLE experience wasn't so bad after all. To me, all my hard work has paid off. I thank God that during the examination I was able to concentrate and not be distracted when I was doing the papers. Since I was able to concentrate, my papers were finished about halfway through each exam. This time was dear as I could use the other half of the time allotted to check through the script and take a breather. 

I now realize that examinations do you good. From the PSLE I have learnt discipline and perseverance, and the examination has educated me quite well, and is there for a purpose: to spur the students on to work hard and learn.

I thank my parents; my mother for teaching me, and encouraging me to excel in the PSLE, and my father for accompanying me to play sports and watch movies when I needed a break. I also thank God for the homeschooler friends in my year, who made it fun to take mock exams together. God was with me throughout the examination, and I thank Him for that.

PSLE Survery

A summary of survey responses.


A. How much importance does your family place on doing well in PSLE? Very important, important or not Important (Just to clear benchmark)? 


All families surveyed indicated “Important”.


B. In which year, did the student start getting used to the PSLE format ? 


Most surveyed started intensive preparation in P4 or latest P5. It is never a mistake to keep close to the local syllabus for Math and Chinese from P1, and start full preparations sometime in P4, slowly gearing up and going intensive in P5. With the time advantage a homeschooler has, the syllabus could be covered by first quarter of P6, and exam paper drills commenced by 2Q of P6. 


From P1, it is good to homeschool, knowing the PSLE requirements at the back of our minds. Skills needed in oral examinations, listening comprehension and compositions are easily incorporated in homeschool curriculums.


Many families make the mistake of starting on Chinese and Math too late, and only in the upper primary years. It is less stressful for both parent and child, to be familiar with and competent at tackling questions in PSLE exam format as early as possible. The child needs years to build up language skills, to solve complex math problems by thinking in terms of models and heuristics methods, and to develop good process skills and answering techniques for Science.


C. How did having to do the PSLE affect the way you homeschool in the primary years?


- Did not affect us till the beginning of P5 when we started preparing for the exams.
- We were more house-bound. Worksheets after worksheets = lots of marking!!
- Life became more boring. Rote learning and assessment books became staple.
- Need to be creative in incorporating requirements into homeschool methodology


D. The most useful resources that helped in preparation are: 


- Past exam papers from different schools. 
- Onsponge Maths & forum
- EPH assessments books on languages & writing
- Watching youtube on how to do oral tests & to solve difficult math questions
- Sign up for weekly class on weaker subjects
- HomeTutor series for Math & Science (although child may find it a little boring) 


E. The biggest challenges in process of preparation are:


- Preparing to know how to answer the questions ie to know what is expected  
- Preparing the child to be able to sit through a 2-hour paper.
- Motivating the child when learning becomes too dry
- Managing other children not doing PSLE
- Breaking down learning into different subjects instead of doing unit study
- Having to do less field trips in order to conserve energy
- Assisting child to cultivate good study habits required for adequate exam preparation,   such as ability to focus, consistent good presentation of answers.


F. The things the student did which helped him the most are: 


- Past year exam papers
- Weekly study group
- Science & Chinese tuition
- Practice TOP school papers


G. The things our family did which helped the student the most are: 


- To be thankful for whatever  effort  the child  puts  in
- Expectation of a break after the exams
- One-on-One teaching by parent, sibling or tutor
- Feedback from private tutors, or someone in the school system, to ensure that answers are meeting expectations of examiners
- Comprehensive preparation for oral exams and listening comprehension
- Balanced work day of study, play, music and sports
- Scaling down other activities, holidays and field trips, to focus on exams, thus having more time to relax, read and veg out
- Mid-year break
- Planning for Oct break


H. The biggest mistakes we made in preparation process are: 


- Starting math preparation a little too late
- Starting on exam papers too late
- Started to find like-minded friends to do group study a bit too late, in March only (son was most reluctant then but now misses it!)
- Grumbling instead of being thankful and hence wasted time & energy
- Not knowing that there are current homeschooling families who are more than willing to share their journey & learn how it’s feasible to continue beyond PSLE
- Thinking that homeschoolers do not need tutors, that we can do it all
- Taking the PSLE lightly, not realising that we can benefit from 2 systems – enriching homeschool curriculum and strengths in Singapore Math & Science
- Not learning to write compositions the “local” way – context, phrases, story plot


I. The things we would focus more time on, to prepare the next child are:


-Start  preparations  a little  earlier, so as to do so more leisurely
- Memorize a story from each Chinese textbook as part of storytelling
- Use the Chinese textbooks to do both English & Chinese oral practice as the pictures are localized & colourful
- Practise writing more frequently and regularly! Use guide books to know how to do introductions & ending. Simple plot but use “show” words/idioms.
- Ensure strong foundation in Chinese & Math from lower primary years


J. Which was more useful - group or individual one-on-one tuition? Why?


-Having a PSLE preparation group that met weekly was a tremendous help
-Hard to determine. It depends on both the child and the teacher. If the child is easily distracted, or the group is too large, group tuition is a no-no.
-Depends on child; group tuition is cheaper, curriculum is strong and relevant in case of good enrichment centres, suitable if child thrives on competition and group learning and is an independent learner. Private tutors are good if child is especially weak in subject, needs help only in certain topics or areas such as problem sums. Can customise to needs.  However, it is not easy to find good tutors, especially ones who can come to the home.

PSLE Stories

PSLE Preparations

by Serene Lim


* Big disclaimer here : I am only sharing what we did. It is by no means the reason why ds did well for his PSLE. We can only give glory to God for his results. We are no experts having only graduated 1 out of 7 children from PSLE  But since a few people have asked, I just thought it would be nice to just share. Those who have better ideas and methods, do comment so that everyone can gain from each other’s generosity.


My motto for our homeschooling journey is, “Slow and steady wins the race”.  Work done consistently and regularly is better than huge chunks of work done sporadically.

Curriculum Used

As mentioned previously, we follow MOE’s syllabus and textbooks very closely from they moment they start Primary One. Especially for Maths, Science and Chinese. Why? Doing it this way ensures that the children and I are familiar with the local syllabus and requirements.


I know many other homeschooling moms use American curriculum but in the final year have to make sure that their child is familiar with the local stuff as well as fill in the gaps that the curriculum did not cover. With 7 children to teach, I simply do not have the time to do this. I’d rather take the “boring” route  


So besides Bible and English, which we use Student of the Word (SOW), I used all of MOE‘s recommended textbooks for Maths, Science and Chinese. Once we finish going through the textbooks, I hit  Popular Bookstore  to suss out assessment books that I think are helpful.


Here are the titles we have used and like :


Science : Janet Sim’s books (Challenging Science and 3-in-1 series).


Maths : Problem Solving Processes by Fabian Ng, Maths Companion by Andrew Er, Challenging 3-in-1 Maths by  Dawn Tai and Fan-Maths by Li Fang Lan.


English : Challenging 4-in-1 English and Excel in Comprehension.


Then there are the assessment books we used and didn’t like  But I used them all the same just to get them used to doing daily work. Remember – slow and steady wins the race  


Then there’s reading. I would pick a book that I think is appropriate and make him read me a chapter or I read him a chapter 1 to 2 times per week. He then narrates it back to me (a la Charlotte Mason but not quite  ). I had previously assumed that he would have understood the passage read since he was able to narrate it back to me. But it was not so in our experience. Or maybe I am doing it wrong? Anyhow, I still did it the “old fashioned way” and would ask him questions pertaining to the passage just to make sure that he understands.

Tuition*

Yes, we do use tuition as one of our tools in our homeschool and definitely for our PSLE preparations. We do not see why homeschoolers need to shy away from tuition. We do not have to do everything ourselves just because we are homeschoolers. More power to you if you can teach all subjects without external help. But in our case, we needed and wanted the extra help. Tuition is just a tool in our homeschool. Just like how TV can be a very useful tool when you have lots of little ones at home  


All the children start Chinese tuition at age 5 and I have largely the Chinese tutor to thank for doing a good job with them. But we did it on our own for the other 3 subjects until the end of last year.


I had come to realise that I was not able to teach ds how to answer his Science Paper 2 questions. Often times it is not that he did not know the answer but that he wasn’t answering it the way he should. Well, I did not know the way he should be answering the questions either since I am not MOE trained nor do I have any Science teacher friends. The solution was tuition. He would go and be taught the way!  It would be so silly to lose marks just because we are not answering questions the way the powers that be would like them to be answered, isn’t it?


As for Maths, although I actually took double maths in secondary school and got As in them, I am largely a terrible Maths student. Don’t ask me how I got my As! So there was no way I could help him in Maths by the time he hit Primary 5. Dh is the Maths expert but sadly his schedule does not permit him to teach ds. He doesn’t even have time to mark his work  So again the solution is tuition.


And God provided.


A friend recommended the Science tuition teacher she was using for her sons. Thank you, Sam! And guess what? The tutor taught from the bomb shelter unit at the next block to ours! And the Science tutor worked with a Maths tutor! How cool is the providence of God? Ds could just go to and come back from Maths and Science tuition by himself! It wouldn’t interrupt my schedule with the younger ones at all!

Daily Schedule

And here’s our daily schedule for all school aged children : After breakfast, we do our Bible (SOW for the older ones). Then we proceed to complete the work assigned each day, covering all 4 subjects except Science which is only done Mondays to Thursdays. They all work independently, coming to me only if they do not understand what is required. Usually all work is completed before lunch and I will grade their work in the afternoon. I will then go through their mistakes and correct/teach what they do not understand. Then we would be done for the day. 


This schedule is adhered to rain or shine except for their birthdays and public holidays. We school 4 weeks and take 1 week off. All year round, except for Christmas (we take 2 weeks off) and Chinese New Year (we take 1 week off).


This way, we do not forget too much of what we have learnt and we do not have to rev up our engines too hard to get re-started after each break  

Test Papers

By the time June rolled around, we had finished up all our text and assessment books. So it was time to pull out the Top Schools’ Exam Papers to practice. We did a test paper and review daily. (Edited : This is only for ds, not the rest of the children and only for the PSLE year.)

Oral and Listening Comprehension

We only practiced this formally with a book** I found in Popular (sorry, I can’t remember the title since I forgot to file it in my files  ) after June since we have been doing read alouds regularly. Again, there is a format for doing this. One can’t just randomly start talking about the picture given  And the book did teach it. I hope I would be able to find it when it is time for the next child to take PSLE!


That’s it. I don’t think I have anything more to share. If there is something you want to know which I did not touch on, do comment or email me and if I know the answer I will let you know.


* Edited : I realised I wasn’t clear about this – we only did Maths and Science tuition with ds this year as part of his PSLE preparations. Before that we were plodding on on our own, using the assessment books I listed. 


** The book is called Just Oral Practice and Just Listening Comprehension. It is a 2-in-1 book. The book is divided into 2 with half concentrating on Oral and the other half on Listening Comprehension

- Extracted with permission from:
http://buildingupmoms.wordpress.com/2010/11/29/psle-preparations/

A Parent's Story ...

“What? With these results, you are not sending him back to school?” my brother-in-law asked, flabbergasted. He was intrigued that we will continue to homeschool, as our child's PSLE results  enabled admission to some of the top local schools. 

It was an interesting time to be a homeschooler in Singapore. Run the other way, and hide the A*s, just in case we meet home educators who surmised we spent too much time on academics, and neglected character building, and focusing on moral and spiritual values. Yet some others, may feel a sense of pity for us, as we would have had to trade-off many fun and enriching learning experiences in our desire to do well in the exams.

Our family took the PSLE seriously. In fact, though the task seemed daunting at first, and an intrusion into our homeschool fun, we soon embraced it as a character building project and an opportunity to teach our children what it means to pursue excellence. They learnt these concepts fast enough – doing one's best, long-term rewards versus immediate gratification, self-discipline and motivation, and my personal all-time biblical favourite, “He who does not work, does not eat”. 

Drills and rote learning led to the mastery of knowledge, completing multiple science and math exam papers honed analytical process skills, and the all important exam-taking skills of how to present answers well, of how to work within a time limit to deliver a peak performance under stressful conditions. A rigorous exam preparation program stretched my child to the limits of his ability, in the process, building a firm foundation of a strong work ethic, study skills and knowledge base, more than adequate to launch him into the demands of the high school years. 

What is the PSLE to us? No longer a responsibility or an obligation in exchange for the privilege to homeschool in Singapore but a blessing in disguise, a gift, often unwanted and grudgingly accepted. Beyond the secondary benefits of giving our homeschool a goal to work towards as we complete the elementary years, or helping us to know our child's strengths and weaknesses, the rewards are in the process itself, of finally allowing him to taste the fruit of his hard work, to experience first-hand, life's truth that most of the time, "you reap what you sow”.

An interview with ...

Tay Pui Yee


A. How much importance does your family place on doing well in PSLE?  


Important


B. In which year, did the student start getting used to PSLE format ? 


P5 & P6


C. How did having to do the PSLE affect the way you homeschool in the primary years? 
From end of P4 - started to look at the topics being covered by the mainstream for Science, just to make sure we had covered the topics well.  


Mid P5 - started to look at the exam formats; thought through the important things we needed to look out for.  


Beginning of P6 - started to do the exam papers, one paper per subject and went through the answers with the child.  Engaged a study group to help the children cheer their friends on, and to have some time playing together to balance study and recreational activity. 


Although we carried on with our homeschool curriculum, preparation for the PSLE took up some time from doing the homeschool curriculum in full force. Usually, PSLE preparation took up some afternoons after we had covered what we needed to go through in our normal HS curriculum in the morning.  


D. The most useful resources that helped in preparation are:


1. For chinese, in order to let him have more practice in composition, I sent him to a group tuition because the fee was more affordable.  He did not mind being in a group.  That helped him to have regular writing practice in Chinese compositions. The class was in Hokkien Association in Toa Payoh.


2. Science guide - I studied that and digested all the information to know the key concepts/words.  This gave me some understanding on how to explain some of the answers.


3. Exam papers - helped us understand what it's expected in the exam format. 


E. The biggest challenges in process of preparation are:


1.  My eldest son made some remarks to urge his brother to do well by comparing the younger boy's possible scores with his own. I wanted to have a non-competitive spirit among my own children.  The eldest borother had a good intention but his words did not come out right.  The challenge was to encourage my youngest to do his best without comparing him with his siblings.


2. When I could not accept the answers given in some science tests, I accepted the answers he gave.  That might cause him some marks in the actual exam.  But I thought I must believe in him and his explanations and not put all trust in the answers given.  I think it's okay for him to lose some marks although I do not know whether I had done right.  


3. We thought we didn't need to prepare for the English paper.  As he started to do some exam papers, we realized that he needed to have some skills to do well, even in the spelling section.  Answers in cloze passages were also frustrating  because we felt the choices of words were kind of 'restricted'. It was tough to prepare for that. 


F. The things the student did which helped him the most are: 


1. Consistency - started early at the end of P4. I became more aware of what topics to look out for and then consistently covered the topics with him since P5.  Used Homeschool curriculum to complement the local curriculum which was too dry.


2. School papers - helped us to be more aware of how poor his exam skills are and to overcome them.


3. Group study - to know how others did in their exams and let the children challenge each other in their studies.


G. The things our family did which helped the student the most are: 


1. Balancing work and play.  We don't believe in making our children 'live' for PSLE alone but to continue to enjoy study and play.  In fact, I increased more play time or sport activities for him.


2. To arrange a group study to pace ourselves towards PSLE - parents received encouragement from each other and children had their time together.


3. To set a target with the child and to work towards it.  The goal was realistic and also gave him a range of scores to fall back on.  Encouraged him that it's great to achieve beyond the goal and yet accept the results given the best efforts he had put in.  


H. The biggest mistakes we made in preparation process are: 


We thought English paper is easy enough that children didn't need to prepare.


I. The things we would focus more on, to prepare the next child are:


1. Writing different genres of composition 


J. Which was more useful - group or one-on-one tuition? Why?


Depends on your child.  My boy likes working in a group as he likes challenges. For one-on-one tuition, the chemistry between the child and the teacher is important.