The PSLE (Primary School Leaving Examination) is an annual national examination taken by students at the end of the final year of primary school education. The PSLE exam date for the Mathematics is on the 30th of September, in 2022. This article discusses preparing, revising, and scoring high in the PSLE Mathematics examination.
A Brief Summary of PSLE Revision Strategy
The ideal time to start revising for PSLE Maths is at the beginning or the middle of Primary 5. If your child is strong in Mathematics and copes up with the portions taught in class, preparing for PSLE Mathematics will be very easy with consistent practice. But if your child needs extra guidance and support to learn or more time to get the hang of the subject, do not worry, as you have a half year of time. The child will be able to settle in this duration and improve their confidence levels before starting their revision.
PSLE Math Revision Tips for Students
As the revision process is not easy, here are a few tips to follow to score well.
Set a Timetable
Plan the time and help your child stick to it. Timetables are the best ways to bring about self-discipline in kids. You can create a structured day with time to revise and breaks to relax. As kids learn by following an everyday timetable, they will be able to cover all the study materials well ahead of their examination. In order to increase the efficiency of the revision, you can sort their notes and plan the order in which they must cover the subject topic. By doing so, the revision will occur in an organised manner, and your child will cover everything they need to finish systematically. This will surely help you and your child get rid of stress and overcome the anxiety before examination.
Practice-based Techniques
Mathematics is not like other subjects where you have to memorise things from the textbook. Practice is the key to scoring high in Maths and so encourage your child to solve a lot of sums. Research reveals that thirty minutes of doing Mathematics is better than reading a textbook for two hours. This is because while solving the math problems, you are learning simultaneously. The more you practice PSLE Math questions and answers, the more you will learn, enjoy revising and perform well in the examination.
Research & Practice
Have you noticed that math textbook exercises are not as difficult as the ones they ask in the exam? You may find your child complaining that the real exam questions are more advanced than the ones practiced. You have to understand that the textbooks only help cover the basics of the topic. Therefore, any student must expand their knowledge and learn how to apply the concepts with complex sums. When you teach your child to research and look for various exam questions from several sources, you increase their learning skills to get high grades. The Internet plays an important role in providing study materials on whatever topic you want. It has an ocean of content to offer with animations and fancy illustrations, making the learning process interesting.
Perform Mock Tests
Once your child has covered all the topics, they must get used to applying the same in an exam environment. You can set up an exam-like atmosphere at home and make them practice. They will learn to manage time and understand the questions that consume more time through repeated practice. When students build this strategy, they will self-analyse and know how much they have understood a topic and how fast they are. However, you have to make sure they do not take shortcuts and work out the problems in the same manner as in a real exam. Teach them to save extra time to recheck their answers towards the end.
Also Read : Ways to Ace PSLE Science Questions on Energy & Force
Seek Help
There are a lot of topics in Mathematics that are complex and such concepts are tough to imbibe. They will stress out a student in most situations. Though it is easy to sit for long duration trying to crack the problem, children must understand that they should save time and solve the problems fast. When the math concepts are not clear, it will add pressure on the child. Therefore, talk to your child and find out what topic is bothering them. Make them understand that the revising period is to learn and become thorough with the concepts. You can encourage your child to seek help from teachers or fellow students in the class to re-learn the doubtful topics. If you are capable of teaching, you can help them too.
Tips for Parents to Follow During PSLE Math Intensive Revision
When you start with your kids’ PSLE preparation early, they will have ample time to cover all the topics, revise everything twice and brush up on concepts they are unsure of. Here we have stated a few tips for parents to follow when helping with their child’s revision.
Initial Assessment
An initial assessment is very important as it helps parents to understand the child’s current level in Mathematics. This step will give insight into how to proceed with the revision process. A simple hack to determine the child’s level is by offering previous year’s question papers and making them take up a mock exam. Through exams, you can find out the areas where they are strong and find where they will need more attention. You must analyse their learning gaps and plan accordingly to meet the desired goals. Draw a rough picture of how much effort and time they need to put in and track your child’s progress throughout their revision period.
Concentrate on Weakness
With the help of the initial assessment, narrow down where your child is struggling the most. Start PSLE revision with the topics in which they are weak so that your child will have more time to focus on them. Children will have to then challenge those areas in which they are strong. Finally, ensure that your child is spending a balanced amount of time on all the remaining topics.
Spot Common Mistakes
While practicing the math problems, children have to review their mistakes and reflect on them. When you help your child to become aware of their own mistakes, they will learn to become conscious and prevent committing the same mistake in the future. You can guide them through this by creating a notebook separately to jot down their usual mistakes. Make your child review them frequently.
End-note
By going through all the points mentioned above, you would have realised that consistent practice is the key to improving accuracy and speed while solving PSLE Maths problems. The three vital steps for revision include good preparation, time management, and self-discipline. Give them sufficient breaks in between every new topic so that they do not get stressed out. As you make them follow every hack mentioned above, they will easily tackle even the hard PSLE math questions. Study Smart Singapore is an AI-powered learning platform that will offer materials to practice Maths problems and gain high grades. Try our 7-day free trial version to understand how we make candidates think logically to analyse and solve PSLE Math problems effectively.