PSLE Round 6: Thoughts on the 2019 Maths Paper

Sharing is caring, please pass this along!

By now, everyone should have heard/read of this year’s 2019 PSLE Maths paper hullabaloo and may have even put in their two cents worth on the issue. Well, as this is PSLE Round 6 for us, this is sadly, nothing new.

As one friend whose three children are in public school responded when I told her that there are reports of children crying after the Maths paper, “Every year also what.” [ie. There are always crying kids every year after a PSLE paper]

Expected Tears and Anger After Each PSLE Maths Paper

In other words, upset children and anxious or angry parents are totally par for the course after a PSLE paper, especially a Maths PSLE paper.

Mr Zhou Shicai, a maths tutor, in an interview with Straits Times said that it is almost always Maths that get the most reaction from parents because, “In languages or science, there can be multiple acceptable answers…But most maths questions have only two answers, the right answer or the wrong answer…” [Straits Times, 4 October 2019]

Yes, the homeschoolers, including our child, also found the Maths paper challenging but no one burst into tears after the paper. Does that make homeschoolers more resilient or more bo chup* about academic results? Hmm? Your guess is as good as mine.

(*) Bo chup: Singlish for cannot be bothered.

There have been many people passing judgement and comments about THAT open letter, both for and against the mother and child so I shall not add to it.

(Links to some of the articles are listed at the end of this post if you want to read them.)

Except to say that there will always be difficult questions. After all the powers that be need to sift out the truly academically brilliant versus those who have been coached to brilliance ie tuition.

Wisdom From My Son

And in my humble opinion, a lot of times it is expectations that makes one react the way one does. I remember back in 2013, after the Chinese paper, I asked my son how he found it. He replied, as my children always do, “Ok.” Whatever “ok” means. Then I started hearing from the other mothers that their children found the paper “very difficult”. I started to panic.

I have always held on to the belief that if everyone found the paper difficult, one is safe because they will be graded on the bell curve. But if one found the paper difficult but everyone else found it easy (or vice versa), it will be an “uh oh” type of scenario.

When I told my son that the other homeschoolers were saying that the paper was difficult, he made a very wise comment which I have remembered to this day.  He said, “They found it difficult because they were aiming for an A*. I just want to pass.”

Expectations

Ahhh! Someone who was aiming for an A* needed to have as little mistakes as possible. For my son, his aim was to clear the paper (and he did.) And so, just being able to answer more questions than he usually does in his practice papers meant that the paper was “ok”.

So, I guess for those who were aiming for an A* in Maths, not being able to answer two 5-mark questions could mean that their dreams of an A* just flew out of the window.

Our expectations of our children and our children’s expectations of themselves play a big part in how they respond to a difficult exam. So we need to question ourselves: do we have realistic expectations?

Guilty As Charged

I am definitely guilty of setting unrealistic expectations from time to time. After all, as a parent, I want the best for my child.

And since the system is such that PSLE is not just any run of the mill exam but a placement exam that affects which secondary school a child gets into, the pressure can be immense. To get to a better school or the school of choice means that the child has to attain a certain aggregate score. Thus, every mark in the exam counts.

Thankfully, we are exempt from this pressure since our children have so far chosen to continue to homeschool. We just want to clear the benchmark.

Clear the Benchmark

As I have mentioned several times in my PSLE posts, all we want is for our children to clear the benchmark that MOE has set for homeschoolers and be done with it on their first try, if possible.

And If they can score well, kudos to them. It is a personal achievement for them. But, as I have just told my daughter, their PSLE scores and whether they clear the benchmark on their first try or not, does not define them. We do want to get it over and done with so that we can move on but these things do not define them. Their position as children of God, wholly beloved, is what they need to remember.

How each has diligently worked towards the exam and how each handled himself/herself during the process are also important. And Deborah has worked diligently and has grown in maturity in the process, as did her siblings before her did. And for that I am very grateful.

Celebrate the Work Done

And so we celebrate the work done regardless of the outcome. On Tuesday, 1st October 2019, after the Science paper, a group of homeschoolers who were not taking Higher Mother Tongue went bowling at SAFRA Mount Faber (another group went to Coffeemin) and then I brought her and her youngest sister to eat IKEA’s chicken wings and meatballs, before going home to rest.

We are still not doing anything except enjoy waking up as late as we want and generally doing whatever we want when we want.

Her Testimony

But what was our child’s take on the PSLE drama? As mentioned, she did find it challenging but she actually has a testimony to share.

Her Maths ability – understanding the question as well as knowing which method to apply has improved by leaps and bounds just this mid-year. Her older brother who has been helping me help her was the one who assured me that she would be fine.

It is as though a button was turned on. This usually happens as a child’s brain matures and understands the concepts taught. This is why some children who cannot meet the MOE-set benchmark for homeschoolers clear the second time they take PSLE without implementing any change in their PSLE preparations.

And this is one of the many benefits of homeschooling. We are able to let the child progress at his own pace. This removes much of the pressure off them to be like everyone else. And as parents, we do not have to field phone calls or Whatsapp messages from the teachers to bring our child up to speed with the rest of the class.

Stumped at First

When she first read the questions, she was stumped. She had no idea how to do it. And so, she prayed. In her own words, she said, “I suddenly knew how to do it!”

And so, she proceeded to work through the questions. She said she found Questions 15, 16, 17 tough. But when she came out and started comparing her answers with the others, she was rather shaken as their answers were very different from hers.

When she told me that, I told her (like I did the other children), to just let it go. Whatever is done, is done. You cannot change your answer anymore. Just move on. And she did. She came home and played lego with her younger sister the whole afternoon.

And then came the Whatsapp messages from the PSLE chatgroup on my phone. The solutions and answers to the tough Maths paper were being circulated.

As an aside, I am always amazed at the ability of these children to memorize the questions and send them to their tuition centre/teacher.

A God Thing

I showed the solution and answers to her, she was ELATED. Her answers were correct. Wow! Truly, a God thing. And we gave thanks.

The next paper was Chinese, our nemesis. On Sunday, she was practising and revising her work with her younger sister. She came across a phrase (不舍得) that she did not know. So off she went to check Google translate and found out that it meant “reluctant”. The next day, the word actually appeared in the 理解问答portion of the paper (Open-Ended Comprehension). She was so thrilled that she understood what it meant and could answer the question.

She experienced first hand the power of answered prayer and her faith grew. I am glad that when she encountered difficulties, she did not fall apart, but remembered to pray. These are things that Christian parents always hope and pray for but cannot engineer. And I am grateful that it happened for her.

And so, we give thanks and all glory to God for everything. We also want to give credit to her Maths tutors at Perceptum Education who had helped her gain confidence in the subject.

Articles on the 2019 PSLE Maths Paper

Student’s mother writes in to question the Education minister on why the PSLE has to be so difficult
‘Tough’ PSLE maths paper draws flak from some parents
‘Tough’ 2019 PSLE maths paper: 5 challenging questions over the years
3 ‘exceptionally difficult’ 2019 PSLE math questions circulate online after students left in tears

Related Posts On The Blog

All Things PSLE
What’s Next After PSLE?
Tuition
Post PSLE Homeschooling FAQs

Sharing is caring, please pass this along!