In Singapore, homeschooled children need to not only sit for PSLE the year they turn 12 but also clear the benchmark set by the Ministry of Education (MOE).
This benchmark is pegged at the 33rd percentile PSLE aggregate score of all students taking four standard-level subjects in the PSLE that year. What this means is that one needs to score high enough to be accepted into the express stream of a public school, not Normal (Academic) or Normal (Technical).
So, before the implementation of the new AL scoring system, the benchmark ranged from 198 to 201. Under the new AL scoring system which started in 2021, the benchmark was 21. Please see New PSLE Scoring System.
What Happens If One Doesn’t Clear the Benchmark?
Homeschool parents are informed before they send in their application for exemption from the public school system that if their children do not clear* the benchmark, they have to re-sit PSLE until they clear it or the year they turn 15, whichever comes first. This is even if the child did not fail PSLE.
When that happens, parents have a choice:
- continue homeschooling their children and sending them to sit for PSLE until they clear the benchmark or when they turn 15, thereafter which MOE no longer has control over their schooling choices.
- send their children into the school system because there is no benchmark to clear if one is a public-schooled student.
*Not meeting the benchmark does not equal to failing PSLE. The child who fails PSLE will have to be put into the school system, but not the child who did not clear the benchmark.
By the grace of God, lots of behind-the-scenes planning, and the consistent work of the children, all 7 children have cleared the benchmark. This of course often leads to the question of how we did it, and for me to share my secret.
How to Score for English/Maths/Chinese/Science?
If you are looking for tips on how to score top marks or what books to buy or which tutors to employ, this is NOT the post for you. You will have to look elsewhere. You won’t find in this post the how-tos of dealing with tricky Maths questions, writing beautiful compositions or answering open-ended Science questions. These you can find easily in many parenting forums and Facebook groups.
I will however point you to Popular Bookstore. There, especially at the main branch at Bras Basah Complex, you will find a huge range of assessment books that are very helpful for negotiating the PSLE journey.
If you need extra help, look for assessment books that teach and provide notes before each topic. I cannot provide specific titles because syllabus change often and assessment books that we have used and liked have gone out of print. Or they have been reprinted with new covers. Also, what my child needs help with may not be what your child needs help with, rendering all these recommendations useless. Instead, I want to leave you with the basic principles that will stand the test of time. So here we go.
The Secret of Clearing 7 PSLE Benchmarks
The truth of the matter is that there is no secret.
There is God.
There is my behind-the-scenes planning.
There is the children’s diligence.
God
God is the biggest factor in our homeschool. God called us to homeschool our children waaay back in 2004.
I call myself the reluctant homeschool mom. I know the benefits and have enjoyed the benefits of homeschooling my children but I would not have chosen it on my own accord.
Homeschooling is hard work. If you think that homeschooling is easier than sending a child to public school, I will tell you straight in the face that you are wrong. Homeschooling requires much dying to self and discipline, of the children and especially of the parent who is doing the bulk of the homeschooling.
Besides, not being mainstream is tiring. And being fully in charge of your children’s academic route is downright scary. I have been jolted awake many times in the middle of the night in the past 17 years with worries and fears about how I am damaging my children by homeschooling them.
I have wanted to give up so many times that I have lost count. And yet each time when I go back to God and ask (beg) Him if I could just send the children to school, I am met with deafening silence. Which you know, is an answer in itself.
So I remind myself that since God is not releasing me from this assignment, I am to press on. I also hold on tight to 1 Thessalonians 5:24, NKJV which reads,
He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it.
Every time I have questions, worries and/or fears, I go back to Him and remind Him that it is He who has called us to walk this way and so, I need His help to navigate the challenges we are facing. And I am here to testify that He has always provided an answer. It may not be what I think it should be or what I want it to be. But He provides. Praise God!
God’s Provision – Tuition
Take for instance, when I was at my wit’s end wondering how to handle Primary 6 Maths (I am not a Maths person), God provided a tuition centre right next to our block of flats. It also offered Science tuition.
(Psst…it is perfectly fine to send your child to tuition if you have to. #noguilt)
Perceptum Education and Perceptum Science (they are 2 different entities) have blessed our family so much with their knowledge, love and generosity.
Thanks to God’s provision, the children learnt all the tricks of tackling Maths problems as well as the keywords in answering the open-ended questions in the Science test papers through the teachers at these centres. They have been such a blessing to us.
Having this resource has helped to reduce my workload tremendously. And having the centre just at the next block meant that the children could just pop over when it was time for class. I did not have to send or pick them up. This was a super lifesaver in the early days when I had 7 children aged 12 and under.
Behind-the-Scenes Planning
And as God provided, He also led me in the planning of schoolwork. Due to our family size and dynamics, He led me to first set up a 4 weeks on, 1 week off school schedule all year round. This was later switched to a 6 weeks on, 1 week off schedule when my oldest started his high school years. This Homeschool Schedule has held on even until today for the younger 2, although they are free to set up their own schedule once they are in the high school years.
Planning our school year this way meant that we could do slow and steady work all year round instead of following the public school schedule of 10 weeks worth of school followed by a break.
Benefits of Schooling All Year Round
This has 4 benefits for us.
- the children do not have long school breaks which make re-starting school a pain.
- because there are no long school breaks (except after PSLE where the PSLE child takes 2 months off), the children will not forget the things they had learnt.
- just a week’s break means they do not have too much free time that often leads to mischief.
- not sharing school breaks with public schooled children means we often get to enjoy attractions and places with very little crowds during our school breaks.
With this schedule, I am able to plan out their work at a more leisurely pace over the whole year instead of rushing like crazy to finish up the work needed in order to be ready for PSLE.
In the year they take PSLE, all syllabus would have been covered by June. Bearing in mind that PSLE is always scheduled for the last Thursday of the month of September, this would give us 3 months to practice past years’ test papers, be it the official past years’ PSLE test papers or schools’ prelim test papers.
After all, part of clearing PSLE or any exams is being exam smart and that comes with practising past years’ test papers. Taking test papers also allows the child and me to familiarize ourselves with the type of questions asked and we learn how best to answer to those questions within the time limit.
I also plan with the requirement of submitting MOE’s yearly progress report in mind. MOE requires only a mid-term progress report for those who sit for PSLE. This is usually required by July. So I make sure that I have scheduled in tests for the child for submission. This helps reduce my stress level as I would not be late in submitting my report.
The Children’s Diligence.
Much credit must also go to the children’s cooperation and diligence. For this, I thank God that He led me to set up a structure and routine for the children very early on.
Because they have grown up with routine and structure, they are used to their days being structured. So when they transitioned from playschool to real school (ie formal school), it was a non-event. In fact, with the younger ones, they looked forward to doing big kids’ school.
They loved the structure set up for them and loved ticking off the checkboxes in their homeschool planners even more. I know this strikes horror in those of you who prefer to fly by the seat of your pants but this is what has worked very well for our family.
Children Self-Direct
I will elaborate more on the planners later but suffice to say that armed with their homeschool planners, they know exactly what is required of them each day and they can, at a glance, see the progress they have made. This gives them control over their work and they do feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of each school day. This then builds up their self-esteem and encourages them to stick to it.
Because of this structure set up for them, they do not have to wonder if school is on or off and what would be the work required of them. They know that as long as it is a school week, they are required to do school each day and they know exactly the work that is required (pages or chapters) each day. They do not have to wait for me to tell them or remind them to start school.
And they know that if they are diligent, they get to finish school early and can spend the rest of their day doing what they liked. This helps me since I do not have to keep nagging at them to focus on their work.
Individual Homeschool Planners
To encourage them to be diligent and to stay on task, I have found that giving each of them their own homeschool planner is key. Their planners have also led them to be more independent, lessening their dependence on me to get school going.
(You can get a template of their planners in our Resource Library when you sign up for my email newsletter. Once you confirm your subscription, you will be emailed a password in order to enter the Resource Library.)
Everyone has their own planner, and in it, they are able to see at a glance the work they need to do and so, can plan out their own day.
The planner has no time slots. It only lists the work to be done and a checkbox for them to tick or cross out when the work is completed. This means they have full control over how they want to do their work. They decide what subjects they want to start with and what time they want to start school. They even decide how long they want to spend on each subject, except on days when tests are assigned.
Over time they learn that actions have consequences. If they have a late start or get distracted along the way, they end up with very little free time. Also, if they do not do their corrections at the end of each day, they may very well end up with pages and pages of corrections to do on top of their daily work. Built-in, natural consequences are best in my opinion.
Encourage Independence
In a one or 2-child household with live-in help, I guess mom can afford the time and brain energy to sit with the children each day until work is done. In our 7-children home, this is impossible. On top of homeschooling, I have to cook, maintain the home and run errands. Even with the children chipping in, there is still a lot to be done. And so I try not to have a child depend on me to get his/her work done. I need all of them to be very independent where work is concerned.
And so, school was set up in such a way that encouraged their independence. We want them to learn how to manage their own time and to be responsible for their own work. Of course, some are naturally better at it than others, who need to be reminded to stay on task.
The planner helps because the work required for the full 6-weeks of school has already been planned and laid out for them. The children know what to do and don’t have to wait for me to assign them work or wait for me to be available to start school. And I don’t have to remember what I asked them to do. Win-win!
Giving them their own workspace also helps. We now have the luxury of space. So each child has his/her table and shelves.
Previously we all worked at the dining table and each had a file folder or box to corral their work in. This way, they can “set up” their own workspace easily. It is akin to having a portable office. All their daily work things were kept in one place and not strewn everywhere. This reduces the occurrence of lost stationery or books. It still happens because they don’t pack their things but on a lesser scale.
And yet, even though they now have their own tables, some prefer to work at the coffee table in the living room or at the dining table. Go figure. But it does not bother me as long as they are able to do their work.
Don’t Be the Bottleneck
One last bit of advice for those preparing their children for PSLE:
Don’t be the bottleneck.
Unless you are able to send off your other children to other people to care for them and have someone handle your home for you (or are able to tolerate bigger than usual mess) in the months leading up to PSLE, we often end up being the bottleneck in our children’s learning journey, because there is always something or someone who needs our attention.
And then they end up always waiting on us to start work. Unwittingly, we may also create a situation where we need to be around for them to do work.
If they always need us to be around before they start work or depend on us to troubleshoot for them, they may very well end up wasting the entire day just waiting for us to be ready. Meanwhile, we are rushing around like mad trying to do everything, being everything to everyone. This scenario also means that if mom is ill, school comes to a standstill.
This is not a sustainable setup. Neither is it practical. You may also end up with a health crisis or mental breakdown. May I suggest that we learn to let go and encourage independence in our children?
Ideally, we want to start encouraging independence as possible. Don’t wait until it is PSLE year to start doing it. Of course, it can be done then but it will be more stressful than if you had started building these habits at Primary One, or even Primary 4, in time for the MOE Primary 4 exams.
Find Your Community
One more thing that has been super helpful in my own homeschooling PSLE journey is getting to know and journeying with other homeschooling mothers who have children sitting for PSLE. I have been very blessed to have been part of a group like this with almost every child, except the older 2. Knowing that there are other homeschool moms out there and that I am not alone trying to figure things out is very very reassuring.
Sometimes, however, the group can make one more anxious. Like when moms start sharing about the various classes they have signed their children up for or when they share the number of test papers their child has completed. Yikes! It can make one panic. So you will have to learn how to take what is helpful and toss what isn’t.
But on the whole, I have been a very blessed beneficiary of such groups. We text each other tricky questions we don’t know how to solve, ask if the model of e-dictionary we have is acceptable or even remind each other what to bring/wear for the exams. We also commiserate with each other about our children’s poor attitudes and share things we do to de-stress.
Prelim Exams
If you can, try to set up and participate in a prelim exams exercise with fellow homeschoolers. The purpose is to simulate the exam setting rather than to test how the child fares. It is helpful for the children to experience taking a test paper in a quiet room. Many do not have this opportunity at home.
We can then also educate them on exam etiquette which most are clueless about unless they have taken exams in a group setting before. They need to know that they should not be clicking their pens or tapping the table incessantly, looking around to see what others are doing or humming (yes this happened). This is where I found the Primary 4 exams helpful too.
During the prelim exercise, the children also find out how their bodies behave, having to wake up way earlier than usual and start tackling an exam paper at 8:15 am. This is something most of us would not have simulated when we ask our children to take a test paper at home since no one wants to wake up so early! But within a group setting, we will do it and cheer each other on.
Regardless of whether you can or cannot participate in a homeschool prelim exercise, I would suggest that in the last 2 weeks leading up to PSLE, you move your child’s waking time forward to get them used to waking up earlier than they are used to. Depending on where you stay and how you are travelling to the SEAB testing centre (by car or public transport), you and your child will have to wake up earlier than normal and be ready to work.
Sharing Our Experience
This is our story. Our experience. God called us to this journey and He equipped the children and me along the way. These are just very practical tips that I am sharing with those who are interested.
I believe that if He has called you and your family to homeschool, continue to seek Him first. He will equip you and your family too. And very possibly, in a different way from us.
If there is one thing I can leave you with, it is to consciously and constantly seek God. He is faithful. If He has called you, He will help you in the big things and the small things.
May you be blessed as you obey Him.
Notes
*PSLE Benchmark: The benchmark is pegged at the 33rd percentile PSLE aggregate score of all students taking four standard-level subjects in the PSLE that year.
For exemption from Compulsory Education, please see MOE website
Related Posts
Why We Homeschool
Our Homeschool Schedule
Tuition
Homeschool Planning?
Homeschool FAQs
Post PSLE Homeschool FAQs