One Month before the PSLE – What Should Your Child Do?

The year has passed in a flash and your child is now only a month away from the PSLE. Long and gru­elling months of home­work, tuition class­es and extra prac­tices have come and gone. How­ev­er, with each pass­ing day, the pres­sure builds, and you are prob­a­bly left won­der­ing what you and your child should do with the time you have left.

It is vital now, more than ever, not only to study smart, but also to ensure your child’s emo­tion­al well-being,so that they will be in the best con­di­tion to con­quer the PSLE.

Here are five tips to help your child through­out the final month.

1. Get Organised

“The secret of all vic­to­ry lies in the organ­i­sa­tion of the non-obvi­ous.” – Mar­cus Aure­lius, Roman Emper­or.

Just like how a gen­er­al can­not go into bat­tle with­out first exam­in­ing his or her troops, your child can­not dive into final revi­sion with­out first organ­is­ing all their resources. Doing so will make revi­sion more effi­cient and there­fore, effec­tive.

First, gath­er all your child’s work­sheets, notes, home­work, assign­ments, tests and prac­tice papers, organ­is­ing every­thing by sub­ject. Then, write out a list of top­ics or ques­tion types test­ed so that the syl­labus can be viewed at a glance. Your child can even high­light weak­er top­ics that require more atten­tion. Now, they have resources at the ready and a map to show what they should study.

2.   Revise, Redo, Relearn

This is where thor­ough revi­sion begins prop­er. Effec­tive revi­sion is not mere­ly about sweep­ing through the syl­labus a few times and com­mit­ting the words to mem­o­ry. Rather, it is the act of mas­ter­ing the appli­ca­tion of what has been learnt.

One of the ways this can be achieved is by learn­ing from mis­takes. Encour­age your child to first revise the con­tent, then redo ques­tions attempt­ed before, espe­cial­ly ones that were answered incor­rect­ly, and relearn the rel­e­vant answer­ing tech­niques by cor­rect­ing their mis­takes. These three steps will rein­force your child’s abil­i­ty to apply learned knowl­edge to ques­tions accu­rate­ly.

Here at Think Teach, we have pro­duced teach­ing videos of our teach­ers going through a select­ed past year paper for each sub­ject to sup­port our Think Teach com­mu­ni­ty:
- 2020 Tao Nan P6 Eng­lish Paper 2 Review
- 2020 Nan­hua P6 Chi­nese Paper 2 Review
- 2020 Raf­fles Girls’ P6 Math­mat­ics Paper 2 Review
- 2021 Rosyth P6 Sci­ence Paper 2 review

The process will take some time, so it is use­ful to devel­op a bal­anced study plan, pay­ing close atten­tion to essen­tial or chal­leng­ing com­po­nents before embark­ing on one’s revi­sion. You can encour­age your child with fun breaks and small rewards inter­spersed between study blocks to keep them going.

3.   Be a Teacher

There is no bet­ter way to ful­ly under­stand a sub­ject than to teach it to oth­ers. It will force you to look at the sub­ject in greater detail and learn more than you would have just study­ing on your own.

Stud­ies show that active study leads to bet­ter learn­ing and under­stand­ing of mate­r­i­al. Teach­ing oth­ers forces your child to ful­ly process what they have revised and sifts out gaps in their knowl­edge as they explain the mate­r­i­al.

Your child can form a study group with oth­ers where they take turns teach­ing dif­fer­ent top­ics and explain­ing solu­tions to chal­leng­ing ques­tions. Even bet­ter, you can encour­age them to teach you what they have learnt in school. Being a teacher serves to fine-tune their under­stand­ing and boost their con­fi­dence.

4.   Simulate Exam Conditions

It is esti­mat­ed that at least 40% of stu­dents suf­fer from test anx­i­ety. Every­thing about exam­i­na­tions can be intim­i­dat­ing – from the tense atmos­phere to the “curve­ball ques­tions”.

That is why it is cru­cial that stu­dents sit for mock exams that sim­u­late exam­i­na­tion con­di­tions. Papers must be done under timed con­di­tions, in a qui­et room with­out any elec­tron­ic devices or oth­er dis­trac­tions. This way, your child can devel­op famil­iar­i­ty with the exam envi­ron­ment, lessen test anx­i­ety, and grow in con­fi­dence for the real day. Mock exams are also vital for build­ing sta­mi­na and learn­ing to pace one­self.

5.   It’s Not the End of the World – Relieve the Pressure

“What is the PSLE for?” This ques­tion has prob­a­bly crossed the minds of many frus­trat­ed stu­dents. We know that an unhealthy mind­set towards exams can be detri­men­tal not only to a student’s aca­d­e­m­ic per­for­mance, but also to their emo­tion­al well-being. It is our job as par­ents and edu­ca­tors to set the tone and relieve the pres­sure, fram­ing the PSLE not as a “make it or break it” check­point, but sim­ply as a time to con­sol­i­date knowl­edge and assess one’s abil­i­ties.

Ensur­ing suf­fi­cient rest is impor­tant as well. Sleep is essen­tial for mem­o­ry recall and con­cen­tra­tion. Stud­ies show that dis­trib­uted prac­tice enhances deep learn­ing. Instead of cram­ming every day paper after paper, it is best to leave spaces between study and re-study. Dur­ing breaks, encour­age your child to go out­doors for some phys­i­cal activ­i­ty and fresh air to allow them to gain per­spec­tive out­side of their aca­d­e­m­ic bub­ble.

All the best!

This final stretch is not an easy time and can be over­whelm­ing for many stu­dents and their par­ents. With these five tips, we hope that your child can fin­ish this race with con­fi­dence and vital­i­ty.

We at TTA will con­tin­ue to part­ner close­ly with you and your child in this last lap as they strive to achieve the best results they can. We are hon­oured to be a part of your jour­ney!

Con­tact us to reg­is­ter for class­es or if you have any enquiries.

This arti­cle was proud­ly writ­ten for you by the Think Teach Team. Every year, we impact over a thou­sand stu­dents and empow­er them with our smart tech­niques to achieve exam excel­lence in their school exams as well as the PSLE. We want your child to be our next suc­cess sto­ry!