Do exams give you and your children anxiety? Well, PSLE Mother Tongue Oral Exam is one such exam that creates a steep difficulty curve and can be hard to navigate for many students. Although Singapore is a multi-linguistic country with citizens speaking many languages, the use of English, Chinese, Tamil and Malay in our curriculum can make it challenging to learn. Many educational factors affect the way students score in oral exams. Outlined below are a few ways to help your children improve their performance during the oral exam, which also leads to an increased probability of scoring well on paper.
Understand the format and structure of the exam
Start off by guiding your children to understand the format and structure of the exam and the possible questions that can be asked. The PSLE Mother Tongue Orals consists of a passage reading section and a conversation section. The passage reading will assess the student’s fluency, accuracy, and pronunciation skills, while the conversation section will assess their grammar and ability to express their thoughts.
Before the exam starts, the students are allotted 10 minutes to read and familiarise themselves with the passage that is to be read and also watch a 1-minute video clip based on which the conversation session will be conducted. During this time, the students can pause, view, rewind or restart the video as many times as they want. After entering the exam hall, the students will have to proceed with reading the passage out aloud and then the invigilators will start with the conversation session. Most probable questions might be along the lines of :
- About what’s happening or what’s in the video. Here they evaluate their observation skills.
- Students will be asked to share their opinions or thoughts on the video.
- They may ask your children if they had any experiences similar to the one shown in the video?
- What lessons or experience can one gain from the video clip shown?
Increased exposure
Encourage your children to speak their mother tongue as much as possible. Never force your children to be more proficient in English than their own mother tongue. Even though learning English is needed, it should not offset the importance of the mother tongue in your children’s lives. By speaking in your mother tongue at home, you can help improve your child’s proficiency in it and help them in keeping up with the conversations. Try watching some movies in your mother tongue with your children. It can be a fun learning experience for them.
Practice Regularly
Not even talent can win over hard work. The more they practice, the better they get. Get your children to read out passages in their mother tongue at home and help them get proficient on a gradual note. Correct them when necessary and show them how to keep proper pace and tone. Buy them more books and encourage them to read. Make them develop the habit of learning new words every day. It will honestly improve their vocabulary.
Be confident
Teach your kids to attend the exam in a composed manner and that stressing about it will result in poor performance. So, prepare your children to grow such a mindset. Boost their confidence by asking them to read out passages in front of people other than your immediate family. You can try out mindfulness exercises and visualisation techniques to help them cope up with stage fear.
Mock tests
You can conduct mock oral tests for your children and analyse their preparation by asking questions from the previous years’ PSLEs.
Video session practice
You can also evaluate their preparation by giving short video assessments. Ask them to note down things they observe and their opinions and thoughts about the video. Practicing this way will improve their observation and comprehension skills. There are various online resources that can help with this exercise.
In the end, it is only natural that exams may feel nerve-wracking for children. So, give ample support and love to your children. If they seem troubled, talk to them and sort it out. Assure them you’ll be proud no matter the outcome. The exams might be important, but not more so than your child’s wellbeing.
We wish your children all the best for their upcoming PSLE exams! 🙂
Exam Smart Tips
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Exam Smart Tip #3 – Establishing Routines!
Exam Smart Tip #4 – Let’s Read Carefully!
Exam Smart Tip #5 – Beating the Exam Fever!
Exam Smart Tip #6 – How to Eat Right for the Exams?
Exam Smart Tip #7 – How to Avoid a Meltdown?
Exam Smart Tip #8 – Taking Stress out of Tests
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