What You’ll Learn
PSLE Math Assessment Books Guide [2021]
[ updated: July 2021 ]
Step into any major bookstore in Singapore and you will be spoilt for choice. Shelves upon shelves of assessments book for every age, every subject, and every level of difficulty. The big question is, which one is right for your child.
Buying the wrong one is a waste of time and effort not just for your child, but for you, the parent, as well. So we’re here to help you.
Before making a purchase, you have to first understand what types of assessment books exist in the market.
Category A: Pure Practice Books
These assessment books are filled with practice questions, the answer key (the bare minimal explanation sometimes), and nothing more. Most books are categorised by topics, and some are split into difficulty levels within the topic.
Category B: Pure Guidebooks
Essentially, revision notes. These books include information included in the textbooks, and then some that are not. Having said that, our exam consultants have come across exam papers which included questions on information that were not taught in the textbooks, but were found only inside revision guidebooks.
Category C: Hybrid Practice Guidebooks
We’ve found that this is the most popular type that parents will buy, since it contains a mixture of revision note as well as corresponding practice questions.
Now that you understand the three main categories of assessment books found in Singapore bookstores, how then do you choose? The answer is simple. Look at what the school provides for your child.
There are schools that provide a ton of revision notes for their students. By looking through your child’s subject file, you will get a good sense of how much revision notes your child receives.
If this is the case for your child, you will do well to avoid buying a pure guidebook as he/she may become overwhelmed by the sheer amount of combined information. In addition, there are cases where schools reject the phrasing from the revision guidebook, insisting that students use what the school teaches. This is a classic example where having less, is more.
Although, specifically for mathematics, most schools do not provide much revision notes, choosing to focus mainly on practice questions.
At this stage, it would be useful to look at what your child’s tutor needs. Communicate with your child’s tutor and ask them if they know what is best suited for your child. Most experienced tutors will have a good idea on what will work for your child. However, if your tutor seems unsure, then it’s best to seek a second opinion.
Here at Nanolectures, our exam consultants plan the full syllabus together with the necessary books, purchased on the parents’ behalf. This takes the guesswork and headache out of exam preparation.
Be it our cram course or prodigy course, we are the only math tutorial company in Singapore that employs Multi-Variated Topical Analysis (MVTA) and Academic Accelerators (AA) in our courses to help your child achieve their academic goals.
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