PSLE Math Ultimate Step-By-Step Guide [2021]

[ updated: July 2021 ]

Any parent whose kid is taking the PSLE knows that preparing a child for PSLE can potentially be a very vexing and confusing period of time.

You have to know whether your child has completed the syllabus, you have to speak to the teachers, you have to discuss strategies with the tutor, you have to ensure that your child is sleeping well and taking his vitamins on time.

On top of that, you have to manage his exam preparation and worse of all, you may not even know the best way to do it!

On top of that, you have to manage his exam preparation and worse of all, you may not even know the best way to do it!

Strategy Step 1:

Ensure that your kid has fully completed his PSLE math syllabus

Before we can begin any full-scale PSLE math revision, we have to ensure that the kid has been taught all the math chapters.

I am sure most of the parents have encountered situations whereby the kid can’t do the past year papers as practice because there are so many chapters that the kid has yet to learn in school. The only way to overcome this problem is to get the kid to do only the questions for the topics he has learnt in school.

However that might also be an issue because more often than not, the questions could be a hybrid type which includes 2 or more topics in one single question. This will cause your kid to be confused as to which questions he should be doing as practice.

Therefore, in order to avoid such situations, parents are advised to ensure that their children have fully completed learning all the topics before starting any full revision.

In the event that your kids have yet to finish all the topics, let them learn in the topics in advance by watching our topical video tutorials for the topics that they have yet to learn, this will allow them to start their full-scale revision ahead of their peers.

Strategy Step 2:

Help your child to figure out which topic he is less confident in

For PSLE math, the best way to win this battle is to ensure topical competency. We will start with the topic that he is least confident in. How do we do that?

• Method 1 : Take the last 3 exams and/or test and/or quizzes and check which are the topics that your child is scoring the least in or making the most careless mistakes in
• Method 2 : Pick an assessment book with at least 20 (non-MCQ) questions for each of the topics that he has learnt in school and let him do the questions. The topics for which he has scored the lowest in and the topics for which he scored less than 60% in are the topics you will want to focus on.
• Method 3 : Sometimes the easiest way is just to ask the teacher. Drop the teacher a message or give them a call. You’ll be quite surprised to find out that despite teaching so many students in a year, the teachers are more than capable of telling you roughly which topics your child should focus on.
• Method 4 : Ask the tutor. Unless your child is being taught in a group tuition, a one-on-one private tutor should be able to tell you exactly which topic is causing headaches to your kid. Even if your child is in a group tuition, some of the tutors should also be able to tell you which areas your child is weak at. It actually depends on the style of group lesson and the syllabus that the group tutoring is conducting for your kid.

Strategy Step 3:

Ensure topical competency first

• Avoid making your kid do the full paper (with all the topics) as practice before he has learned all the topics.
• For the topics that your child is weaker in, let him try questions at the level that he is comfortable with first.
• For example, if he is getting most of the questions wrong for that one topic, he will need to try the questions in his textbook or the basic questions in assessment practice books for that topic.

If he is getting some of them correct but almost half are wrong, he will need to try out the non-MCQ questions in the assessment book. After that stage, he can attempt the exam practice papers for those particular topics.