Homework and Instructions
Situational Writing
The most common way for students to do this is to look at the bullet points, then address them one by one. Even if you make no mistakes here, your marks will still be minimal.
To do better in situational writing, you need to consider that you’re writing in a real-life situation. What would you actually write if this were an actual event?
Don’t forget to make full use of the visual and incorporate single detail that is appropriate into your writing, never mind if it is asked for in the bullet points. This makes your writing more realistic, more interesting, and, of course, score higher.
At the same time, manage your time carefully. SW takes up 15m out of 55m in total, that is, almost 30% of 1hr 10min, which works out to be about 20min. Some students rush through this section while some others take too much time. Plan your outline and time well.
Creative Writing
The common mistake here is to forget or ignore the typical narrative structure. The standard structure is Orientation, Problem (or Conflict), Climax (or Escalation), Solution (or Resolution), and Coda (or moral of the lesson). Whatever the actual terms used, they mean about the same thing.
Go straight to the problem as quickly as possible. This is not the time to take your own sweet time to build up your plot and characters. Contrary to what many think, CW is not a story-writing contest. It is a simple matter of what happened, and then show (not tell!) the reader what happened. A mistake I see again and again is that the students tells what happened, then what happened, then what happened… *yawn*
CW is the time to show off your language skills by using the ‘7 Language Devices’ to show, not tell, your story.
Another mistake is to fail to plan. You must plan your outline. Planning allows you to see right away if your writing will work out, and allows you to make changes before you start writing. Too many students just start writing off the top of their heads and then realise, too late, that they are not answering the question, if they even realise it at all.
Note that the given word limit is a mere 150 words. Another common thinking is to write as much as possible, believing, very wrongly, that the more you write, the better your chances of doing well. More the other way, actually.
You don’t have to write a lot. You don’t have enough time to, anyway. After factoring in time for checking, planning, and SW, you have just above 30min to write your composition. How much can you write in 30min? This is why it is not about the amount you write, but what you write and how well you write it.
The most common way for students to do this is to look at the bullet points, then address them one by one. Even if you make no mistakes here, your marks will still be minimal.
To do better in situational writing, you need to consider that you’re writing in a real-life situation. What would you actually write if this were an actual event?
Don’t forget to make full use of the visual and incorporate single detail that is appropriate into your writing, never mind if it is asked for in the bullet points. This makes your writing more realistic, more interesting, and, of course, score higher.
At the same time, manage your time carefully. SW takes up 15m out of 55m in total, that is, almost 30% of 1hr 10min, which works out to be about 20min. Some students rush through this section while some others take too much time. Plan your outline and time well.
Creative Writing
The common mistake here is to forget or ignore the typical narrative structure. The standard structure is Orientation, Problem (or Conflict), Climax (or Escalation), Solution (or Resolution), and Coda (or moral of the lesson). Whatever the actual terms used, they mean about the same thing.
Go straight to the problem as quickly as possible. This is not the time to take your own sweet time to build up your plot and characters. Contrary to what many think, CW is not a story-writing contest. It is a simple matter of what happened, and then show (not tell!) the reader what happened. A mistake I see again and again is that the students tells what happened, then what happened, then what happened… *yawn*
CW is the time to show off your language skills by using the ‘7 Language Devices’ to show, not tell, your story.
Another mistake is to fail to plan. You must plan your outline. Planning allows you to see right away if your writing will work out, and allows you to make changes before you start writing. Too many students just start writing off the top of their heads and then realise, too late, that they are not answering the question, if they even realise it at all.
Note that the given word limit is a mere 150 words. Another common thinking is to write as much as possible, believing, very wrongly, that the more you write, the better your chances of doing well. More the other way, actually.
You don’t have to write a lot. You don’t have enough time to, anyway. After factoring in time for checking, planning, and SW, you have just above 30min to write your composition. How much can you write in 30min? This is why it is not about the amount you write, but what you write and how well you write it.
Paper 2
Different students encounter different difficulties in Paper 2. Some have more problems with vocabulary while others struggle with comprehension cloze. No matter what the difficulty, it all boils down to insufficient reading. It is pointless to buy tons of assessment books and papers to do (a very common habit, hence the extremely lucrative market in assessment books and pirated school papers) if the student does not read outside school textbooks.
When you read widely, you encounter so many different words and phrases and expressions. When you have encountered such language uses often enough, you start to pick them up subconsciously. Take, for example, comprehension cloze. Compre cloze is all about common phrases. It is very straightforward to guess the correct word to use when you are very familiar with common phrases. I have encountered too many students who do this section badly, and invariably, they don’t read.
The need to check the dictionary cannot be understated. In this age of the Internet and the ubiquitous smartphone or laptop / tablet, how difficult is it to check for a definition or synonym, compared to my time when I had to carry book dictionaries that weighed 2kg and I had to flip pages? Yet, so few students actually take the effort to check. They merely assumed, and, often, assumed wrongly.
Just by reading more and reading widely, and checking every single word that you don’t know every single time you come across one, you are already practising for your PSLE English.
‘Comprehension’ means ‘understanding’. How do you understand your paper if you don’t know what simple words and phrases mean?
Different students encounter different difficulties in Paper 2. Some have more problems with vocabulary while others struggle with comprehension cloze. No matter what the difficulty, it all boils down to insufficient reading. It is pointless to buy tons of assessment books and papers to do (a very common habit, hence the extremely lucrative market in assessment books and pirated school papers) if the student does not read outside school textbooks.
When you read widely, you encounter so many different words and phrases and expressions. When you have encountered such language uses often enough, you start to pick them up subconsciously. Take, for example, comprehension cloze. Compre cloze is all about common phrases. It is very straightforward to guess the correct word to use when you are very familiar with common phrases. I have encountered too many students who do this section badly, and invariably, they don’t read.
The need to check the dictionary cannot be understated. In this age of the Internet and the ubiquitous smartphone or laptop / tablet, how difficult is it to check for a definition or synonym, compared to my time when I had to carry book dictionaries that weighed 2kg and I had to flip pages? Yet, so few students actually take the effort to check. They merely assumed, and, often, assumed wrongly.
Just by reading more and reading widely, and checking every single word that you don’t know every single time you come across one, you are already practising for your PSLE English.
‘Comprehension’ means ‘understanding’. How do you understand your paper if you don’t know what simple words and phrases mean?
Oral Paper
The Oral Paper is one that is very easy to score in, if sufficient preparation is made. Unfortunately, many schools pay little attention to this, starting practices only when exams are just around the corner.
This means that you have to do your own practices yourself. Start by reading properly. English is our country’s working language and there are passages in English everywhere. Read aloud and ensure that your pronounce your ending ‘TKD’s, beginning T’s and P’s, and so on. Many make the mistake of thinking that oral is about pronouncing the words correctly. Wrong, it is about Articulation, Expression, Fluency, then Pronunciation, in this order.
Many Singaporeans have the bad habit of swallowing your sounds, such that it is difficult to make out what you are saying. Make it a habit to speak and articulate clearly all the time, not just in your reading. Don’t forget that Spoken Interaction is 20m vs Reading’s 10m. Speak to your family and friends properly all the time. Once it is a habit, you will not lapse into speaking badly and jeopardising your marks.
Next, stimulus-based conversation is, well, a conversation. It is difficult to respond well if you don’t know the topic, and you start to become more nervous when you don’t know the topic well enough to respond adequately. Again, it pays to read widely.
The Oral Paper is one that is very easy to score in, if sufficient preparation is made. Unfortunately, many schools pay little attention to this, starting practices only when exams are just around the corner.
This means that you have to do your own practices yourself. Start by reading properly. English is our country’s working language and there are passages in English everywhere. Read aloud and ensure that your pronounce your ending ‘TKD’s, beginning T’s and P’s, and so on. Many make the mistake of thinking that oral is about pronouncing the words correctly. Wrong, it is about Articulation, Expression, Fluency, then Pronunciation, in this order.
Many Singaporeans have the bad habit of swallowing your sounds, such that it is difficult to make out what you are saying. Make it a habit to speak and articulate clearly all the time, not just in your reading. Don’t forget that Spoken Interaction is 20m vs Reading’s 10m. Speak to your family and friends properly all the time. Once it is a habit, you will not lapse into speaking badly and jeopardising your marks.
Next, stimulus-based conversation is, well, a conversation. It is difficult to respond well if you don’t know the topic, and you start to become more nervous when you don’t know the topic well enough to respond adequately. Again, it pays to read widely.
Final Words
PSLE English is very straightforward. What is required is a change in thinking and approach to the paper. Most importantly, you need to read widely for it is only through reading that you pick up the skills you need to ace this paper. Then, it is much easier when I explain the few simple grammar rules you need to know for that few extra marks.
Many tuition centres and tutors try to sell the idea that they have special techniques that can help students score the much-desired distinction. I don’t sell gimmicks. Because I teach O-Level English and A-Level General Paper, I know what these papers require in terms of English language proficiency. This is why I take the long-term view that PSLE is just the start, not the be-all and end-all that too many parents lose sleep over.
Are there tricks to ace the paper? Of course, there are, but you won’t understand them if you don’t read enough to know common vocabulary and phrases. There are no lists of this or that to memorise. Instead, start preparing for the PSLE English, and the O-Level (and A-Level, if you’re aiming for that) English papers by reading a lot. Once you are exposed sufficiently to the language, it becomes so much easier to learn the ‘tricks’ to answer the questions correctly.
PSLE English is very straightforward. What is required is a change in thinking and approach to the paper. Most importantly, you need to read widely for it is only through reading that you pick up the skills you need to ace this paper. Then, it is much easier when I explain the few simple grammar rules you need to know for that few extra marks.
Many tuition centres and tutors try to sell the idea that they have special techniques that can help students score the much-desired distinction. I don’t sell gimmicks. Because I teach O-Level English and A-Level General Paper, I know what these papers require in terms of English language proficiency. This is why I take the long-term view that PSLE is just the start, not the be-all and end-all that too many parents lose sleep over.
Are there tricks to ace the paper? Of course, there are, but you won’t understand them if you don’t read enough to know common vocabulary and phrases. There are no lists of this or that to memorise. Instead, start preparing for the PSLE English, and the O-Level (and A-Level, if you’re aiming for that) English papers by reading a lot. Once you are exposed sufficiently to the language, it becomes so much easier to learn the ‘tricks’ to answer the questions correctly.