What Does PSLE Mean To Your Child?

Before PSLE, your child would already have sat through many examinations. In those exams, he is competing against his school mates.

However for PSLE, it is a different case. Your child will be competing at the national level, with all the Primary six students who are from the various schools in Singapore, to get into the best secondary schools of their choice. This can be demanding for your child at the age of 12.

In order for your child to excel in his PSLE, there are three critical things that he needs to pay attention to:

1. Knowing the Subjects
To excel in PSLE, your child needs to know and understand his subjects very well such as:
- what topics to study and among them, which topics are most important
- the important concepts and key points in every chapter
- how each chapter is related
- what types of questions will be set for the various topics
- how questions can be set for the various chapters and concepts
- how to answer the questions that will give him the highest possible marks

2. Having the Greatest Competitive Advantage
Does your child have a competitive advantage in terms of the way he studies, learns in school and revises for his exams?
When it comes to learning in school, over 95% of the students adopt the rote learning approach.
Rote learning is boring. It takes a lot of time and energy, and yet does not help him to retain key and important information in their long term memory. It is simply ineffective and inefficient.
To have the competitive edge in his PSLE, your child needs to be equipped with a range of advanced learning techniques that will help him do well. Examples are:
- Effective reading skill, i.e. the ability to speed read and at the same time, actively understand what he has read
- Strong analytical and critical thinking skills
- Skill of summarizing
- Creative writing skill
- Active information recalling techniques
- Strong ability to build a large wealth of vocabulary that will help him comprehend what he reads and also answer the exams questions
- Effective revision method, such as ability to identify relevant information for the PSLE exams

3. Making the Fewest Mistakes
One common complaint from parents about their children not doing well in their exams is making careless mistakes.
People tend to commit more mistakes when they are under stress.
In exams like PSLE, your child will be experiencing tremendous amount of pressure and stress. To minimise the number of mistakes in exams, it is important to equip your child with the knowledge and skills on how to handle stress and to feel calm and relax.
On top of that, it is important to help your child to develop his inner inspiration of wanting to excel in his studies and exams; and hence he will be more careful with his work and therefore minimise the chance of making mistakes.