Month: September 2021

For many parents, tuition is probably the default go-to option at the first sight of failing grades. Many are the recommendations from friends, family and peers on the best tutors and tuition groups that are a sure-win for any student. Acclaimed tutors have their schedules fully packed with students whose eager parents see them off to tuition every week. After every test and exam, students bring their papers home, where their parents and tutors pore over their improving grades…or so they say.

However, this raises the question: is tuition really the answer to scoring well in Primary Maths? Is attending tuition the magic catalyst that will guarantee good grades, or is it just a placebo? Well, let’s look at how tuition can help and the situations in which it may be less useful.

How Does Tuition Help?

Some parents swear by tuition to help a failing child. There have been countless reports of students who did extremely poorly in their prelims, only to bounce back from the brink with the aid of a good tutor – and move on to scoring a clean slate of As in PSLE. Although such a miracle is probably every parent’s dream, it requires plenty of hard work behind the scenes. After all, it is ultimately the student who is sitting for the examinations, not their tutors or teachers. Even if they undergo intensive practice under the guidance of a tutor, the most important ingredient to excelling in PSLE Maths is to study hard and be willing to learn.

The key to making the most out of tuition classes is not to overload them on your child, but to use them to supplement your child’s learning. Sometimes, less is more – a few quality sessions might help your child retain more information than a fully packed schedule of classes. Finding the right tutor and class style is also paramount to helping your child get the most out of their class. It is important to establish a good tutor-student relationship, where the student feels comfortable enough around their tutor to ask questions and seek clarification, and the tutor is able to explain so that the student can understand. Some tuition classes are held in groups, which different students may or may not prefer. It all comes down to your child’s learning style – if you are able to find a great tuition setting for your child to thrive in, tuition can really give them a leg up on their exams.

That being said, we believe that tuition alone is not the magic solution to solving everything. A child can be attending the best tuition classes with the most accredited tutors, but if they do not have the motivation to learn and improve, the tuition fees and time spent would have gone to waste. Additionally, the lack of access to tuition should not be a barrier to scoring good grades. With the right attitude and sufficient practice, any child can unlock their potential and achieve top scores in the PSLE.

Tackling PSLE Maths Without Tuition

Tuition may not always be an option for everyone, nor should it be a requirement to excel at Primary Maths. If you do not have the luxury of sending your child to tuition, what are some ways in which you can support your child throughout their journey in Primary Maths?

Revise with Your Child

It can mean the world to your child if you sit by their side and take part in their revision. Even if you are not familiar with the subject or topics they are studying, making the small effort to acquaint yourself with their syllabus can be a great confidence booster. What’s more, you can sit through e-lessons together and quiz your child on the concepts they have just learned to reinforce their knowledge!

Play Educational Games with Your Child

Educational games do a great job in reinforcing new concepts without being a chore. When children are able to engage themselves in something fun and exciting to supplement their learning, they are then better able to internalise new concepts. In addition, educational games can help your child to understand difficult topics better. For instance, if your child has problems understanding money, playing some board games such as Monopoly can help your child to learn how money works in a practical situation.

Point Out Real-World Applications of Primary Maths

The textbook syllabus may seem as if it has no place in the real world when a child is first learning it. This may cause them to wonder if it is really all that important to pay attention to their Maths lessons. Often, students who are struggling with Maths become disheartened and lose motivation if they do not see how it can be useful to them when they grow up. As we know, however, there are countless ways in which Maths can be applied to the real world, from percentages in discounts to real-life word problems. The best way to show your child the usefulness of Maths is to point out real-life applications of the topics they have learned!

Vocabulary makes up an important part of the Primary English syllabus. From cloze passages to comprehension passages and essays, students are expected to have built up a sizeable vocabulary by the time they are in Primary Six. An extensive vocabulary not only increases students’ coherence when expressing themselves, but also adds colour and flair to one’s writing. It is never too late for your child to pick up some new words to add to their vocabulary collection – they only have to start now!

Read Widely

Is your child an avid reader, or has it been forever since they picked a book up? One of the most sure-fire ways to improve one’s vocabulary is to read widely. Don’t just stick to one or two genres, either – be sure to choose a variety of works, including fiction and non-fiction, factual articles and narratives, newspapers and books, and even prose and poetry. It is also a good idea to read from a variety of contexts and authors. Different writers have a different arsenal of vocabulary, and different words are used in varying contexts. For example, some words and phrases are more archaic and usually only used in older contexts, while others are more colloquial and spoken more often by modern youngsters. Knowing this can equip your child with the vocabulary needed to write in different styles. By exposing your child to a good selection of works, they can learn numerous sets of vocabulary to be used in any situation.

Keep a Vocabulary Journal

Coming across new vocabulary is one thing, but these words can easily be forgotten especially if the mind simply glosses over them because they are unfamiliar. If one does not keep a record of the words they have not yet learned, these words may be lost as time goes by.

For maximum learning, have your child keep a notebook and a dictionary close by while they read. Whenever they come across a word or phrase that they do not understand, have them look it up in the dictionary, and then write the word and its definition in the notebook. In this way, your child gets to practice writing the word immediately, and also have a handy compilation of all the new words they have learned. As such, it is easy to refer back to their word list and look through their stash of new vocabulary as and when it is needed.

Practice Using New Words

As the old adage goes, practice makes perfect. One can memorise an entire dictionary, but it will do no good if they do not know how to use the vocabulary they have learned. Additionally, PSLE English consists of closed-book papers, so students are not allowed to look up the usage of any words. To be able to effectively use new vocabulary, one has to practice using it in their everyday life and get comfortable with it. If they are not already doing it, encourage your child to cultivate the habit of writing daily. They do not have to be writing tons of essays – even keeping a simple diary or journal about their daily life can help to reinforce their writing ability and vocabulary usage. You can also get your child to use new words in their everyday speech. Not only does this help them to learn the contexts in which to use the vocabulary they have learned, but it also boosts their oral skills and fluency.

Learn a New Word Every Day

Cramming a whole dictionary’s worth of vocabulary overnight is not going to leave your child remembering much. It is much easier to remember words by taking them one step at a time, or in our context, one word a day. Many online dictionaries have a “word of the day” where they introduce a less-known word, its definition, and its usage. This can be a great place to start if you are not sure where to begin. Alternatively, you could pick out a few more challenging words for your child, and teach them one new word each day. Be sure to incorporate the word into your everyday life so that your child will know how to use it by heart.

Learn Frequently Used Words First

On top of learning vocabulary from various contexts, many educators maintain that language is best learned the more frequently it is used. This means that instead of going for some obscure, archaic vocabulary used only in a different neck of the woods, it is easier and more beneficial to learn words that are frequently used in one’s everyday life. For example, a foreigner can pick up Singlish phrases much easier when they hear them in the marketplace and hawker centres every day, as compared to studying a list of dialect words that are almost never used locally. The same goes for new vocabulary. Just by learning the most common words used in our daily context, students will gain an extensive enough vocabulary to express themselves with ease!