Worried about PSLE 2024? Tips to prepare for PSLE exams throughout the year.
- Written By Xuan Yun
- Updated on January 16, 2024
Is your child preparing for PSLE exams? Here are some valuable tips to prepare them throughout the year.
Navigating the preparation for the PSLE exams can be an overwhelming experience for both parents and students. As the first major milestone in a Singaporean student’s academic journey, the PSLE holds significant importance, often serving as a source of stress and anxiety. For those with children gearing up for the PSLE 2024, the journey likely began with strategic planning during the Primary 5 year-end school holidays. Many parents opt to enrol their children in specialised PSLE preparation courses, aiming to equip them with the necessary skills and knowledge. Additionally, looking through and practising past years’ PSLE questions becomes a routine to create familiarity with the exam format.
The daunting task of PSLE preparation is not without its challenges, but a proactive and well-structured approach can alleviate stress. Parents can provide steady guidance throughout the year by establishing a study routine, breaking down the syllabus into manageable sections, and encouraging consistent revision. Furthermore, creating a conducive learning environment at home and fostering open communication with teachers can contribute significantly to a child’s confidence and readiness for the examination. While the prospect may appear daunting, given the extensive material to be covered, here are some tips to provide guidance over the course of the year.
1- Understand your child’s strengths and weaknesses.
With the Primary 5 End-of-Year examinations as an indicator, take some time to understand what subjects your child is good at and what he or she might still be struggling with. Look beyond broad subjects like English, Math, Science, and Mother Tongue. There may be specific topics within each subject that might be pulling your child’s marks down. Identifying that nuanced problem is essential to target the exact areas where you can help your child. Talk to your child’s school and enrichment teachers to understand what particular areas your child needs support in – for example, a specific mathematical concept or a grammatical misunderstanding.
Having identified the areas for improvement, you can provide them with specific tools to target those areas for their PSLE preparation, be it selected practice and exercises to practise the misunderstood concept or a tutor to help reframe and explain the concept from a different angle. You’ll know which subject to allocate more time to and what progress to keep a closer eye on. Remember to expose your child to past year PSLE questions for practise, especially in their weaker subjects and topics.
If you are thinking of getting your child outside help, please read – Tuition Centre vs Private Tuition: Which Is Right For Your Child?
2- Establish distinct goals for your child’s PSLE exams.
Everyone wants to score AL1 for every subject in PSLE exams, but it’s better to provide your child with a series of realistic goals that might get them there or even goals that reflect their progress instead of focusing on their grades. This gives them small milestone wins that encourage them to push on, remembering that the effort they’re putting in is paying off. When playing the year-long game of PSLE preparation, it’s definitely important to keep your child motivated with visible results instead of focusing on the end, sometimes seemingly unreachable goal, of getting AL1.
For example, if your child is not doing well in mathematics, focus on understanding and mastering specific topics. With topical assessment books, your child can drill their understanding of a concept and see how it’s reflected differently but approached similarly in every question. Give your child a checklist on a timeline that allows them to stay aware of the time they have left before PSLE exams while also viewing visible progress with the subject, ticking off topics that they have understood, and each tick leading closer to the end goal of AL1.
To keep revision from being monotonous, you could offer a simultaneous reward system or even throw in a few applicational learning surprises on their checklist that challenge them or allow them to apply the learnt concept beyond the assessment book. Consider allowing them to study in different places (e.g. the library, the community centre, etc) to switch up their learning environment. Perhaps encourage them to have a study buddy, a friend to keep them focused and someone they could discuss problems with. Preventing studying from being a chore will greatly encourage children to persevere throughout the year.
3- Create a study plan for PSLE Exams.
Find out the examination dates for your child’s school preliminary exams and PSLE 2024 to create a timeline for your child with realistic goals. In addition to the overall plan, there is a more structural, day-to-day approach you can take – by creating a study plan for them.
Start with an understanding of your child’s existing timetable. What days does your child stay late at school? On which days does your child have external commitments that require them to factor in time for transport and delays? Knowing this allows you to cater the study plan to their ability to focus and concentrate on specific days.
Knowing how much time your child has for studying each day till the PSLE exams, you can break them down into study blocks. Put the weakest subject on the days your child has the most energy, allowing them the most time to focus on it. Besides just studying, give them the space and time to consolidate what they have already learned, too – revision helps them retain information and knowledge better.
Remember to give your child breaks and rest time! Being able to recharge mentally helps them focus and learn better when studying. Always provide them with wriggle room – buffer time between study blocks that allow them to get into the right mindset for learning or to spend a little more time figuring out a particularly tricky question.
Involve your child in creating the study plan – allow them to have a say in how they will spend each study block and what they want or need to focus on. Celebrate their achievements and progress daily, and adjust the study plan as needed.
4- Know the PSLE exams format, and allocate time for answers.
Beyond studying the content and breaking it down into topics, it is essential for you and your child to know the examination format and to have sufficient full exam paper practises that mimic the examination format so that your child isn’t blindsided by the PSLE questions. Make sure the exam format has not changed for PSLE 2024. When reviewing the examination format, please discuss with your child how much time they should allocate to each section. Remember to allow time for checking the work after completing the paper. Practise this time allocation in the practice papers and adjust time allocation accordingly. These discussions and practises give your child the confidence to tackle the real PSLE exams paper smoothly, knowing that the paper format will not be a surprise, and having practised time management skills that they can keep to during the actual paper itself.
If you want to know more on Situational writing format for PSLE, please read Situational writing Format – Tips by our expert teacher on how to score well for PSLE Exams.
5- Don’t give too much importance to Prelim results.
Although Prelims results are a good indicator of your child’s PSLE preparation progress, as a parent, avoid placing too much importance on it. Suppose your child suddenly shines during the preliminary exams and does very well. In that case, excessive praise can backfire, causing them to grow complacent in their knowledge and overconfident that they are entirely prepared for their PSLE papers. On the other hand, If the result is not up to the expectations, too much criticism may invalidate the effort they’ve put into studying for the entire year. It may result in a feeling that as much as they have put in their blood, sweat and tears into preparing for the PSLE exams, their efforts have not been enough to do well, and there’s no way they could do well. They might become demotivated and give up at the very last lap when they should push on the hardest.
6- Don’t compare Prelim Results.
Another common mistake is to compare a child’s prelims results with their classmates and peers. This can be a sore spot for children, feeling as though they don’t measure up to their peers. The last thing a student needs at this crucial moment is self-doubt and the thought that they’re not good enough and that they’ll do poorly for the PSLE exams regardless of their efforts because of how smart their peers seem – as you’ve pointed out.
Remember that your child’s biggest competitor is not their peers, but him or herself. Remind your child of all the effort they have put into preparing for the final examinations. Point out areas where they’ve distinctly improved – acknowledge their progress and improvements. Note the new areas for improvement. Even if the marks aren’t ideal, the child needs to know that they’re progressing, and they can do even better for the PSLE papers by pushing on and continuing with their studies for this final lap.
Discuss with your child what their next steps should be. Focus on the study plan and their goals – how should they be adjusted to reflect the child’s progress as reflected by their preliminary results? It’s only an indicator for the actual examinations, so keep your child’s focus on preparing for the final exams instead.
7- Listen without judgement.
PSLE is your child’s first national exam, and the pressure placed upon them by their schools, tuition centres, and peers can weigh heavily on their shoulders. They understand the importance of doing well and have opinions on their academic development that they may or may not have vocalised before. Your child needs to know you’re there to lend a listening ear to them, guide them, and not mindlessly add to the stress they already carry.
Allow your child a safe space to express their fears honestly with you by providing non-judgemental responses that acknowledge their emotions and make them feel seen, understood and supported. Don’t dismiss your child’s worries with assurance that studying harder can solve everything. No matter how much time they spend pouring over their books daily, their mental state can greatly impact how much they learn from solving all the PSLE questions.
Instead, be empathetic. Validate their emotions by recognising and agreeing that the upcoming examinations are putting a lot of stress on them; they might be losing sleep worrying about the little time they have left to prepare. Gently probe for more specifics, allowing you to understand the root cause of their fear and struggles. What is giving them stress? How could that stress be alleviated? How can you, as a parent, offer them help – what do they need from you? What other kinds of support might they need?
8- Final Thoughts
As your child prepares for PSLE 2024, remember that your child is not a machine and that resting is just as important as studying. Separating their study area from their leisure activities can help them focus better when it’s time to hit the books. Be empathetic and focus on their individual growth throughout the year. Keep the final goal in mind but have realistic milestones for them to achieve. Be a part of this PSLE exams journey with your child – they don’t have to tackle the milestone alone.
9- Explore Klassbook for more PSLE Classes in Singapore
To explore more classes, go through our list of PSLE classes here. Why not start with a trial class to gauge your child’s interest?
Xuan Yun is an educator who hopes to inspire a passion for the arts in the next generation. True to form, she enjoys reading books in her free time. Her favourite word is 'consensuses' because it looks silly but is a real word.
