Parents up in arms again over PSLE Mathematics paper
SINGAPORE: The first thing her son did when he came out from the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) maths paper on Thursday this week was to gesture as if he was "slitting his throat".
"One look at his face and I thought ’oh no’. I could see that he felt he was condemned," said Mrs Karen Sng. "When he was telling me about how he couldn’t answer some of the questions, he got very emotional and started crying. He said his hopes of getting (an) A* are dashed."
Not for the first time, parents are up in arms over the PSLE Mathematics paper, which some have described as "unbelievably tough" this year. As recently as two years ago, the PSLE Mathematics paper had also caused a similar uproar.
The reason for Thursday’s tough paper, opined the seven parents whom MediaCorp spoke to, was because Primary 6 students were allowed to use calculators while solving Paper 2 for the first time. Paper 2 makes up 60 per cent of the entire paper and consists of 18 questions.
Said Mrs Vivian Weng: "I think the setters feel it’ll be faster for them to compute with a calculator. So the problems they set are much more complex; there are more values, more steps. But it’s unfair because this is the first time they can do so and they do not know what to expect!"
These parents’ children are studying in both neighbourhood and "top" schools.
In response to MediaCorp’s queries, the Education Ministry said this year’s paper was "comparable" to those of previous years. "There is no change in syllabus, question types or number of questions," a spokesperson said.
"The introduction of the use of calculators does not have any bearing on the difficulty of paper. The use of calculators has been introduced into the primary maths curriculum so as to enhance the teaching and learning of maths by expanding the repertoire of learning activities, to achieve a better balance between the time and effort spent developing problem solving skills and computation skills. Calculators can also help to reduce computational errors."
But the parents MediaCorp spoke to said students were apparently so stumped that many — even top students who have regularly aced past school examinations — broke down in tears in right after the paper.
Private maths tutor Josephine Tan whose son studies at Anglo—Chinese School (Junior), said he told her that "many A* students in the top class... couldn’t finish all the questions".
According to posts on an online forum for parents, one example of the problem sums given was: "Jim bought some chocolates and gave half of it to Ken. Ken bought some sweets and gave half of it to Jim. Jim ate 12 sweets and Ken ate 18 chocolates. The ratio of Jim’s sweets to chocolates became 1:7 and the ratio of Ken’s sweets to chocolates became 1:4. How many sweets did Ken buy?"
Mrs Tan said: "They have spent months revising and preparing, but it’s so much tougher than they expected. It really put a big dent on students’ morale."
Another common gripe: There was not enough time for them to complete the paper.
A private tutor, who declined to be named, told MediaCorp she concurred with parents’ opinions. "This year’s paper demanded more from students. It required them to read and understand more complex questions, and go through more steps, so time constraints would have been a concern," the 28—year—old said.
However, the parents’ fear of poor grades for their children may be unfounded since they will be compared against the entire cohort’s performance.
And the answer to the question? 68.
TODAY/so
DARN!!!! I got it wrong. REALLY DISAPPOINTED with myself.
wow.. all i know is that at this rate of eating sweets and chocolate, they are bound to be diabetic in the future...
i can't stand parents putting pressure into them...
for god sake, they are KIDS........
kaoz... if the math is hard to solve, the average aggregrate will also be down what, why these parents so kiasu????????????
why????????????????????????
lets face it la, probably they are stupid.
thou myself nt v. clever.
they're still getting A's what, why make a fucking drama over an A star
no face ma. u know, MOTHERS .
i think they can still pass though
Thats just how parents are. You get an A they ask you why cannot get an A+ or sth.
anyway whats with so difficult sums for pri 6 students..whats the education system doing..
I find it very frustrating that parents do not understand the concept of the bell curve. It's simple: even if the paper was so hard that the 90th percentile is pegged at say, in the 75-80/100 region, your child will still have a chance to get that A or A* so long as he beats the competition.
You should only be worrying if your child ALONE is crying over the toughness of the paper. The key is to beat the competition by doing well in the paper RELATIVE to the rest of the cohort, not to set the unrealistic aim of scoring perfectly for each question and leaving your child an emotional wreck at the tender age of 12 because he could not achieve that. If you are confident that your child has been putting in more effort than his peers, then you should be confident about his results.
I think the only possible exception to this rule of thumb is when parents are dead set on entering their kids into the truly premier independant schools etc. Raffles Institution where they may have the autonomy to decide to limit the size of a year's cohort due to that year's overall weak academic standards. I am not sure on this point.
Am I wrong?
I just hope that there won't be another P6 kid committing suicide over failing to get an A* for every subject.In the past,there were such news and judging from the current situation,that is still a very likely scenario.
This might not be a pleasant thought but have you guys ever wondered why the parents put so much pressure on their children?
Face/pride aside,did you ever consider the possibility that the parents only view their children as a tool to ensure their future survival when they become old?Many will claim to only want the best for their child,for their future....etc.But some of them are just worried as to whether their children would be able to provide them with the same comfortable standard of living or even better than that when they grow up.If the child fails to perform from young,he will not be able to support them in a way that their every desire would be met.
When my friend failed to enter either the law or medical faculty at NUS,his parents condemned him as a failure/ingrate.From his sec school days till now,his parents have been constantly reminding him that they want to upgrade to a condominium from their current 4 room hdb before they would give him their blessings to marry his GF.
Thus,such hooha over the PSLE difficulty don't come as a shock to me.
I'm happy though that such parents are in the minority.
will moderate lah, worry what
cannot get A
then get B n C lor....
It's definitely more reassuring to feel you have done well in the paper than await moderation.
If the paper is unduly tough, then it causes a lot of stress among students and parents. I believe Pri 6 these days could alrdy be doing secondary sch stuff.
results so good got use meh. when you go for a job interview it is the interview skills and luck that will get you the job that you want and not your school results.
kids don't understand this theory I can understand but even those stupid parents also don't understand
Originally posted by Rock^Star:It's definitely more reassuring to feel you have done well in the paper than await moderation.
If the paper is unduly tough, then it causes a lot of stress among students and parents. I believe Pri 6 these days could alrdy be doing secondary sch stuff.
haha nope... around 5 yrs back the pri 6 students already doing secondary sch stuff...
they wana train rocket scientists right.
the parents don't even know they're putting too much pressure on their kids ...
nex time primary one already know simi si osmosis liao.
12 years old already can do the slit throat sign.
i bet that kid will feel right at home at the floor of the stock exchange.
OMG! i cant get the answer to it too! why why why. is 68 really the answer?
how to do that qn arh?
btw i got A* for my PSLE maths and i dun know how to do that qn
tsk tsk...
ok de lah
cos will moderate one