With just a few months left for Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE) examinations, it is time to make the most of your child’s school holidays. This the ideal window to create a PSLE revision guide to avoid any last-minute panic and undue stress ahead of the exam.
You can begin by zeroing in on subjects and books and take revisions one day at a time for a short period of time. Yes, that’s correct! As a recent study concluded that reading for as little as six minutes could reduce stress by up to 68 percent.
This means your child doesn’t necessarily have to spend their entire holidays studying. They can focus on a single subject or topic upto an hour or so and get back to fun holiday activities. But this is just one step.
Here’s a complete PSLE revision guide to help your child get started and make the most of these holidays.
PSLE Revision Guide: 3 Ways To Strategise The Holidays
1. Develop a plan
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It is normal that you may ask your child to start their PSLE revision with the past examination papers. But instead of randomly starting, ask your child to first identify the areas that would require their maximum attention.
Setting up goals and developing a good strategy are essential part of your child’s learning process. This will help your child focus better and will eventually provide a roadmap to success.
Once a goal is set, your child will have the motivation, direction, and clarity in their mind. It will further boost their confidence and give them a sense of accomplishment when their goals are met.
2. Sustain the revision momentum
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It is very important to draw out an effective revision plan, but it is equally challenging to sustain the revision momentum. The objective should be to utilise all the days effectively. More time and energy can be expended to strengthen capability in weak and vulnerable areas
For instance, it shouldn’t end up with, where one day, your child has utilised his time well, but the other day, he was totally clueless on how to approach and what to do. So, he ended up wasting not only his time but all his effort.
One of the best ways to get a grasp of how the question format can be is to go through previous schools’ examination questions. Ask them to time themselves as they attempt the question paper, just like a mock test to help them get a feel of the real exam.
Read: Home-based Learning: Hour-by-hour Schedule To Help Your Kids Manage Their Time
3. Take adequate rest
Taking frequent breaks and resting is an important part of any exam preparation strategy. As the exam approaches, it is normal that your kids will be tensed. They will stay up late in the night, revising the last moment portions. But make sure that your child gets adequate sleep. You need to create a balance by encouraging rest.
For instance, if it is late in the night and they are still up. Try saying, “You go to sleep now, I will wake you up in the morning. You can revise the portions with a fresh mind.”
Research suggests that sleep plays an important role in memory, both before and after learning a new task. In fact, lack of adequate sleep affects mood, motivation, judgment, and our perception of events.
Remember, this year’s examination would be slightly different from the ones before. As you know, key difference between the new and the old PSLE scoring systems is that a pupil’s grades will no longer be calculated against those of his peers. The change means more emphasis on each child’s individual academic achievement.
This means your child’s preparation will also need to be revised.
As lecturer in policy, curriculum and leadership at the National Institute of Education, Dr Sandra Wu told The Straits Times that “parents should talk to their children and find out what they want to achieve for each subject, depending on how deeply they want to pursue the subject in secondary school.”
“I would encourage parents to take collaborative and consultative efforts for revision because students need to take ownership of their learning,” she said.
Now, while the aforementioned steps are important to set a PSLE revision guide pattern, it is also important to encourage your children to take a break and relax right before the exams.
Read: PSLE FAQs, Past Papers and Free Exam Resources for Download
PSLE Revision Guide: 7 Ways To Help Your Child Relax Before Exams
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It is very important to teach your child to calm their mind ahead of the exams. Nervousness or anxiety can make it difficult to concentrate.
As educator and Snapask’s Head of Singapore, Kelly Chen, also reiterates, “My advice to students would be to recognise that PSLE is merely a small part of their lives. It’s more important to cherish the learning journey where students can garner life skills that will stay with them for a lifetime. These include stress management, problem-solving skills and some character-building fundamentals.”
“It is crucial to avoid studying at the final hour as it could result in anxiety and depression. Instead, students should plan their schedule that allows consistent revisions in the weeks leading up to the final exam,” she adds.
Here’s how you can help your child do it.
- Refrain from demotivating them by making statements such as: “You must study now, or else you will fail.”
- Urge them to share any bottled-up stress with you. It could be pertaining to academics or even their friends.
- Reward them with walks or play time after they are done studying. This will be a great family bonding time and will also help them relax.
- Ask your kids to make a plan. Then help them to break it down into small tasks and work on one task at a time.
- De-clutter their study room and help them to concentrate better. If they don’t have a room to themselves, you can find a quiet place, where they can study without any distraction.
- Tell your kids that they should never hesitate in asking for help. They can always clear their doubts by asking their teacher, friend, sibling or even you.
- Encourage them to take care of their physical and mental health. Ask them to go out and play with their friends or even practice yoga at home. You can take care of their physical health through a nutritional diet. Ensure that you give them home-cooked food and discourage them from unhealthy midnight snacking. If they are hungry at night, you can always keep a glass of milk or some nuts for them to munch on.
Remember, every child is different and so is their capability. Therefore, don’t overburden them with your expectation and with a rigorous timetable.
Keep the schedule simple and easy to follow so its motivating to both work and take a break.
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