As the SA1s approach, consolidating content knowledge and reviewing exam techniques will prove essential to maximising your child’s performance.
How do you help your child better prepare for the upcoming SA1 exams?
"With the examinations coming so soon, I always emphasise to students the importance of practising skills, topics or concepts they will be tested on. If the exam involves solving word problems, you need to practise problem-solving; if the exam involves writing an essay, you need to work on composition writing."
— Ms Phua Kai Ying, Academic Director of The Learning Lab, Choa Chu Kang and Jem
Encourage your child to read through his or her past work — that includes completed work, as well as corrections.
Going through the reasons why he or she may have gotten tricky questions incorrect is a good way to learn from past mistakes and become more mindful about avoiding careless errors.
Some of the common pitfalls upper primary students may encounter at the SA1s include:
1. English Composition Writing: Failure to understand the passage.
Top Tip: Use headers and annotations to break down a long and difficult passage. Identify characters and sequence of events.
2. Math Short-answer Questions: Transfer error — filling in wrong values from the question.
Top Tip: Write the value of each variable in the question. Show number sentence and check that you have transferred the correct number before computing.
3. Science Free Response Questions: Giving an incomplete answer.
Top Tip: Revise past work to familiarise yourself with the phrasing or points needed for a complete answer.
You’ve always emphasised the importance of sound exam preparation to your child. And you’re right — having a systematic approach to revising for the exams will help your child not to feel overwhelmed by the large amount of content knowledge to be revised.
Having a revision schedule allows your child to prioritise his or her revision. It also helps your child to allot his revision time accordingly to his needs. He or she may also prioritise revision of the subjects that are tested earlier.
Additionally, having some control over the revision schedule can give your upper primary child a sense of ownership and motivation to stick to the plan.
Don't forget to plant break periods within a study plan to help your child better manage his or her exam revision. Preparing healthful meals and getting adequate rest at night will also aid your child in getting ready to perform at his or her best during the SA1 papers.
TLL curriculum specialists have crafted a series of SA1 revision guides that will help you and your child tackle some of the common challenges students face in their examinations. Remember to keep these top tips in mind!
Enrol your child in one of our core programmes and let your child take the first step to excelling at his or her school work today.
Learn more about nurturing the love of learning in your child by visiting www.thelearninglab.com.sg or calling us at 6733 8711.