PSLE Workshop Archives - Kids 'R' Simple

PSLE Science Workshop for Parents – How to Achieve A* (Seriously!)

Having sat through 2 Saturdays of 6.5 hours each on learning PSLE Science Strategies, I am excited to share with all of you what I have learnt and started using on my elder 2 kids. It is never too early to apply some of these techniques if you are wondering whether these tips apply to P1 to P5. In fact, there was one parent who came to this PSLE workshop and her child is only in K2. No, we do not think she is Kiasu. In fact, we all think she has good foresight!

Some of the tips that we have learnt are similar to what the student workshop covered, hence, I shall avoid repeating them as much in this post. If you wish to refer to what other good answering techniques and strategies for Science, you may refer to my earlier post here.

There are 6 Tips to Ace-Star the Science Paper. Yes, it is possible to achieve A* for Science!!!

1) Examination Strategies

Before Prelims and PSLE, do the following practices:
– Aim for 20 right questions in 20 min (MCQ)
– Aim for 20 marks in 20 min (OEQ)

For Prelims and PSLE, your child should try to aim for the following marks:
Section A MCQ – Aim for full marks or at most allow up to 2 wrong questions. With this, the child would have already pass the paper just by doing Section A (out of 56 marks)
Section B OEQ – Aim to achieve 80% of the marks in Section B (35 out of 44 marks)

If your child is able to achieve the above, he/she will be able to get 91/100 which is equivalent to A*, if not 91, then would be a high A.

2) Copy down right answers from Assessment Books

The answers in Assessment books are vetted through by a team of educators before being published by the publisher. Hence they tend to be more reliable and are usually short and precise answers. In contrast, Top School Papers answers can be given by undergraduates who are paid by the Printing Company and are usually not vetted through. No wonder, we sometimes spot incorrect answers.

Having acknowledge the inaccuracies, we will still continue to do Top School Papers but I will mark with good reasoning if I doubt the integrity of the answers. So, for our Science practices, we prefer to do Assessment Books and memorise the way of answering questions from the answers given.

3) Review School Worksheets and Past SA / CA Papers mistakes

This is the top most important revision that all students should do. It is important to review and revise School Worksheets and learn from past SA/CA Papers mistakes. Mr Chee reiterated this again and again. He strongly believes that if all the mistakes in the past are now done correctly, there will be no doubt in getting an A* for Science paper.

4) Forgetting Curve

Mr Chee told us about the “Forgetting Curve” meaning that human memory goes down with time. We should revise and relook at what we have learnt within 2 days of gaining a knowledge. This will ensure that knowledge learnt is reinforced in our memory. Thus, revise on the Science topic as soon as it is taught in school. As parents, we can note down the days that Science lessons are conducted and have a quick 15 minute walk through of the topic at the end of the day with the child.

5) Subscribe to Science Magazines (Young Scientist, Discovery Box, etc)

Subscribing Science Magazines is a very good way to start kids into loving Science and gaining Science facts and information. The knowledge is presented in comic form or colourful and engaging layout to attract interest and attention.

Thanks to Mr Chee’s reminder on Science Magazine Subscription. I went home to bring out a few of the Young Scientist magazines that we had previously subscribed and laid them on the table. Master 10 immediately took them and re-read these magazines upon seeing them. And what surprised me even more is that my Master 5 followed his brother and turned the pages from one magazine to the next. That lasted at least 2 weeks of reading them!

So, if you have not ever subscribed to any of such Science Magazines, I strongly urge you to do so. Kids love comic books and the content in these magazines are really informative, interesting and easy to understand. You can go to Popular bookstore to buy the previous year’s subscription in one go or subscribe them online to have the magazine delivered to your house every month. (Note: I realised that Discovery Box is not found in Popular. You may wish to subscribe online via this website.)

6) Watch Documentaries / Go to Nature Parks

Encourage TV time on Documentaries like Nat Geo Wild, Discovery Channel, etc. Sit down with your child to watch together and explain if necessary or learn together with them!

Science is really all around us, no matter where you are. Singapore has lovely nature parks that can let you observe and learn relevant Science topics that are covered in school syllabus, like the kind of tropical trees, seed dispersion, life cycle of animals and insects, Adaptations, etc. Bring the kids out frequently to be keen observers on Mother Nature, this will surely spark their interest in Science.

If you would have noticed, the above tips in excelling in Science requires time and effort and daily interactions. It would be good to start stimulating curiosity in your child right now and get them to be sensitive to the surroundings, observe more, ask questions, and discuss about daily Science.

Even though I only get to learn about this in a PSLE workshop, I do not think we are too late to start sparkling interest in the kids. Learning is a lifelong journey. At 12 yo, we are certainly in time!

REMEMBER to check out my earlier post on more Answering Techniques and Learning Strategies covered in the Student’s Workshop. Together with the tips in this post, I am sure your child will gain confidence in the Science Paper too!

If you are interested in MCE PSLE workshops and other Primary School workshops, click here to check out what they have!

Resource Books that We Are Using

We are using the PSLE Ultimate Science Guide and the corresponding MCQ and OEQ Workbooks. We use them for target practices.

Mr Chee recommended his book Science of Success which we find is very unlike the normal Science Assessment books around. It tests the basic Science facts and understanding and is in a layout that is easy for revision and reference. We have been using it and some of the facts tested are really what we found in Top School Papers and not found in normal textbooks. It covers out of the textbook knowledge too!

20170701_095315 — You can cover the answers that have been previously written during revision to test your child’s understanding again.

Great Resources!

Follow me on my PSLE Series post here on our home-learning without Tuition!

Follow me and fellow Blogger mums on our takeaways on Marshall Cavendish Education Workshops which all of us are full of praises for!

PSLE English Workshop for Parents by Kids R Simple
PSLE English Workshop for Students by Kids R Simple
PSLE Science Workshop for Student by Kids R Simple
English – How to Write Confidently & Creatively by Mummy Ed
English – How to Excel and Speak Well in English Oral by Mummy Ed
Math – Heuristics Explained for Intermediate and Advanced Learners by DinoMama
Math – P3 and P4 Math Coaching Workshop by Xavvylicious
Math – Problems Solving with Essential Know-hows and Tools by ilovedefamily
Math – Stretching Your Child’s Mathematical Abilities by Mummy Ed
Chinese – Effective Strategies for Chinese Composition by Mummy Ed

Disclaimer: Thanks to Marshall Cavendish Education for inviting me and my Missy to attend these insightful workshops on PSLE Science. We benefited tremendously from Mr Chee’s teaching and I must say we are more confident now in answering Science questions than before! Not only did we learn about how to improve our grades for PSLE, we took away precious learning skills that will help Missy throughout her education and help me to impart the skills to all my kids!

MCE Science Workshop for Students – Answering Techniques and Learning Strategies

Science is a subject that is intriguing to children and yet when it comes to it being placed on a set of papers with 40+ questions, it inevitably erode the initial interest of the student. So, how can we help our children to see the importance of answering techniques for Science paper such that their interest will not be killed eventually? I am happy to learn the ropes in a PSLE Science workshop organised by Marshall Cavendish Education (MCE) from a very qualified trainer, Mr Chee Chin Young. So does my Missy who attended the student workshop by the same trainer.

This is the second workshop that I have attended in the MCE PSLE Series of Workshop for parents. The first one is on PSLE English and if you would remember, I am impressed with the trainer. Now that I have attended the Science workshop, I am further convinced that MCE has a strict qualification of its trainers and only the best trainers are employed. Not only do the trainers engage well with students and parents, catering to different needs, they are totally selfless in imparting their knowledge, tips and tricks. I am full of admiration for such selfless sharing. I am sure those who attended are very encouraged by the optimism exuded by the trainers.

If you are thinking that the Science workshop is about learning further on the Science syllabus, then you are very wrong. The workshop is about tactics, tips, tricks on how to tackle the paper and prepare for PSLE Science. What we learnt are on ANSWERING TECHNIQUES, LEARNING STRATEGIES and EXAMINATION TECHNIQUES! Everything all parents and students want to know about tackling the Science Paper!

learning strategies — Missy’s Concept Map for Learning Strategies and Exam tactics taught by Mr Chee Chin Young

Now, let me summarise what my girl has learnt from Mr Chee on a 2-day workshop for students on the topic of Science which school teachers may or may not have (the time to) shared.

1. Science Journaling (Note-taking)

In Science, Note-taking should not be taken lightly. In fact, there is a way for effective note-taking!

a) Point-form Notes – a quick capture of information during class explanation, when reviewing worksheets and while doing corrections.

b) Concept Map – a capture of point-form notes reorganised on a visual form of flow charts, classification tables, radial diagrams or simply key words in clouds linked by arrows.

c) Science Journaling – where all important information are recorded and comes with a content page for easy referencing.

Keeping a Science Journal helps the students to brainstorm, list and infer between Science facts and terminology. Mr Chee emphasises greatly on the usefulness of having a Science Journal and spent a great deal of time teaching how to start one. Once you get the idea of a Science Journal, it shall help you all the way till beyond Secondary school in mastering the art of writing notes and keeping a handy self-written guide with you. A Science Journal needs to be no more than a size of an exercise book for ease of flipping and handy for bringing around. It serves as a quick reference to check up a concept or topic and good for quick revision before the examination.

Here is a page taken out from Missy’s Science Journal after Mr Chee’s workshop. She is so motivated by the idea of keeping a Science Journal that she went home the very day to find a nice notebook for this purpose!

2. Charting to PSLE Science Success

This is the strategising part to tackle the PSLE Science paper.

Now till Prelims

From the time of the workshop in June holidays till the Prelims, was about 6 weeks. This would be the time to revise concepts, understand the strategy of answering questions, practising against the clock to get the most number of marks. One shared tip is on practising the MCQ portion by aiming to get 20 right questions within 20 minutes; And on the written portion, to aim 20 marks attained in 20 minutes. Well, it certainly sounds achievable for bite sized practices to train for perfection in Section A which consists of 28 Questions equating to 56 marks.

Prelims till PSLE

From Prelims till PSLE, we would have about 2 months time. This will be fine-tuning of the Science concepts and ensuring whatever mistakes made in the past NOT BE REPEATED AGAIN. That means, studying and re-doing error questions till they are perfected with no mistakes. The Science Journal now comes handy in revision again. Bring out the P3 to P6 Science worksheets and revise on the corrections again.

ONE GRADE IMPROVEMENT

Mr Chee recommends to aim for ONE GRADE IMPROVEMENT from SA1 to Prelims and ONE GRADE IMPROVEMENT from Prelims to PSLE.

3. Marks Vs Points

What is the difference between Marks and Points?

Understanding the relationship between marks and points is essential to give the correct length of answer without writing too much.

Points – a point of information that expresses an idea, i.e. a fact or concept; a sub-point is part of a main point. It is good practice to write one sentence for one point.

Marks – the allocation of the one mark or half mark against a point or sub-point for right concept or use of appropriate keywords in answering correctly.

Mr Chee taught the K.I.S.S answering technique:

K.I.S.S. – Keep It Short and Simple!

4. Generating Keywords with Science-working

What is a Science-working? Does Science require working like Math?

Well, I find this is kind of similar to what we were taught in English workshop, if there is such thing as an English-working too. Remember I shared about doing inferences while reading Comprehension passages or Comprehension Cloze? In Science, we should also write and jot down keywords or ideas that come to mind when we read through a Question. Such scribbling helps the mind to work faster in making sense of the question, so that the logical answer can be formed by processing the keywords.

5. Type of Questions

Comparison Questions – marks are allocated for describing the two things in comparison. If you are asked for the difference, remember to mention specifically why the other thing is different. This will ensure you get the full marks for that question.

Explanation Questions – testing on the ability to explain scientific phenomenon extensively. The simplest way is to state two things:

– Scientific Theory

– Question Application

Scientific Theory is the statement on a fact or concept that can be universally applied in any similar situations, they can be lifted directly from the textbooks, and usually carry one mark.

Question Application is the statement that apply the scientific theory into the question scenario. By this application, it will show the understanding of the concept well enough to be used in the application.

Theory-Application Approach

Mr Chee shared with the students that when a scientist tries to understand a situation, he/she will first think of the relevant scientific theory before trying to apply the principle to the observation. If you are able to train yourself into thinking this way to form answer statements, most, if not all, required points in the examiner’s answer sheet will be covered.

6. Understanding Graphs Questions

In Graphs questions, it is important to note the following information on the graph:

a) Horizontal Axis – usually an independent / controlled variable

b) Vertical Axis – usually a dependent variable, i.e. effect or outcome

c) Starting point on the Vertical Axis

d) Slope of the Graph – whether it is going up or coming down or unchanged.

e) Peaks and Valleys – note the highest and lowest point of the graph.

7. Highlighting Keywords in Questions and Correct Answers

This is a study tactic where the student HIGHLIGHT KEYWORDS found in Questions and Correct Answers. This trains the student to have an eye for keywords and understand how to answer to such questions.

8. Legibility Training

Mr Chee even covered Legibility Training in this workshop! It may seem trivial but in fact, is extremely important to not lose marks due to illegibility! He suggests to print out letters from A to Z, 0-9 in Comic Sans light grey font size 20+ for students to trace over. This helps those who have problem writing legibly to train their handwriting.

I could not cover all those that have been taught to my girl as I could only refer to her notes and what I have learnt in the Parents’ workshop. However, these are pretty good tips to share with you. I shall be sharing more in my next post on the MCE PSLE Science Workshop for Parents as I have sat through 2 full day teachings by Mr Chee. More on Learning Strategies and Examination Techniques!

Great Resources!

Follow me on my PSLE Series post here on our home-learning without Tuition!

Follow me and fellow Blogger mums on our takeaways on Marshall Cavendish Education Workshops which all of us are full of praises for! –

PSLE English Workshop for Parents by Kids R Simple
PSLE English Workshop for Students by Kids R Simple
English – How to Write Confidently & Creatively by Mummy Ed
English – How to Excel and Speak Well in English Oral by Mummy Ed
Math – Heuristics Explained for Intermediate and Advanced Learners by DinoMama
Math – P3 and P4 Math Coaching Workshop by Xavvylicious
Math – Problems Solving with Essential Know-hows and Tools by ilovedefamily
Math – Stretching Your Child’s Mathematical Abilities by Mummy Ed
Chinese – Effective Strategies for Chinese Composition by Mummy Ed

Disclaimer: Thanks to Marshall Cavendish Education for inviting me and my Missy to attend these insightful workshops on PSLE Science. We benefited tremendously from Mr Chee’s teaching and I must say we are more confident now in answering Science questions than before! The above notes are shared by Mr Chee’s handouts in the class and I hope I have presented here as best as I could to share with readers.

PSLE Series – How We Learn Comprehension (The No Tuition Way)

We have been doing our #30minrevision every weeknight and only concentrating on nothing but English. We leave the Science and Math revision to the weekends when we have more time. The reason why we concentrate hard on English shows how I value the importance of the English subject. And it is also easier for us to concentrate on language rather than the heavy kind of revision in calculation or theories on the limited attention span on weeknights.

I wanted to catch more eyeballs with a header that says “Ace your way in Comprehension” but I thought since our self-learnt method is not tried and tested, I had better be humble to share this post on how we learn Comprehension, the no tuition way.

As most of you may have known that I learnt a lot of good tips from the PSLE Parent Workshop for English by Marshall Cavendish Education. I shared my learning with Missy 12 over 4 blocks of #30minrevision in 4 weeknights.

1st weeknight of #30minrevision – Reading Comprehension and explaining to her how to draw arrows on the Comprehension passage and infer.

2nd weeknight – Read Comprehension Questions and explain to her how to do highlighting on the questions. Then read the Comprehension passage a 2nd time to understand more in depth and relate to Questions. Start doing the Questions until 30 min is up.

3rd weeknight – Continuing doing the Comprehension Questions. Then check answers and explain mistakes. Try a 2nd Comprehension passage all over again starting from reading the comprehension passage once.

4th weeknight – Do the same steps as above to complete 2nd Comprehension passage and complete questions. This time round, Missy 12 could do it faster because she has grasped the Comprehension skills and concept.

6 Steps in Learning the Comprehension Skills

Step 1: Reading the Passage

This is the most important step to score in Comprehension! If one does not read properly and understand what the passage in depth, he/she will waste much time in answering the questions because he/she will have to refer back and forth and scan through to re-read several times. I told Missy 12 to spend more time to read the passage carefully and understand the passage as much as she can, once she is able to understand the passage, she will save lots of time when doing the Comprehension questions. It will be faster than skimping through the passage and dive right into the questions, only to have most of them answered wrongly.

Step 2: Annotate as you Read

I learnt this step from the PSLE Parent Workshop. There are many words in a passage that refer to one another. Sometimes, the reference of the words are not obvious and one has to infer (deduce or conclude) from the story to understand what the words are referring to. For example in the picture below, the word “a ten-year-old boy” is referring to “Wesley Binks“. And Missy 12 will draw an arrow to join these 2 inferences together. The word “It” highlighted in yellow is referring to the “firework”, hence, Missy 12 will similarly draw an arrow to connect both together for her understanding. While it may seem obvious, it helps readers to not get lost in the passage.

You may ask if this is a time-waster in examinations. Well, I told Missy 12 that as long as she annotates during her regular Comprehension practices, she will annotate faster as she gets the hang of it and she can even annotate less during the examinations. What is important here is to first UNDERSTAND the passage.

Look at the picture below, I teach my girl to write down meaning of phrases. For example, “feathers were still a little ruffled” means “angry“. So, what if she does not know the meaning of the word or phrase? I realised that it is good to make a guess and look one sentence above and one sentence below or within the same sentence for clues. I have gone through with her a few times and I find this trick works most of the time.

Step 3: Read the Questions and Highlight

Make a habit to highlight tenses and keywords in the questions. This will remind the child to answer in the right tense. Actually, most of the answers are usually in past tense for most Comprehension passages, unless the passage is a non-fiction passage. Then, you will spot most present tense usage in the passage anyway.

Step 4: Read the Passage a SECOND Time

Reading the passage a second time is very important. Usually, we will understand the passage better or catch the details that we had left out in the first read. This time round, when reading, do ask questions to yourself and answer them. In the Workshop, we learnt that this is a good habit to get used to. When one ask questions in the head and answer these questions, he/she will tend to get closer to the answers to the questions that examiners set, because examiners set the questions with the same kind of thought process in mind! In fact, when we get used to answering our own questions, we are training our mind to be analytical too!

Step 5: Answer the Questions

This is the time to answer the questions and I remind my girl: DON’T BE LAZY TO FLIP BACK AND REFER TO THE PASSAGE AGAIN AND AGAIN! I find that sometimes she tends to answer questions with her memory instead of flipping back the paper to refer to the passage. If the answer is in the passage, do not let go of a chance to get the answer right! Do not depend on just memory alone!!!

Step 6: Check G.P.S.

What is G.P.S.? Not the navigation of course! Get your child in the habit of checking Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling! There is bound to be mistakes! Never give up on checking carefully. I told my girl to point to each word when she reads her answer just to be sure she is using the right tense and right spelling.

The above 6 steps are how I want my girl to go through each Comprehension passage from now on. In fact, I told her if she gets the habit of doing these steps, it will help her go a long way into Secondary School when Comprehension passages are much tougher.

If you like this post and find it useful, do share with your friends who are struggling in Comprehension or preparing for PSLE like us. I want to selflessly teach everyone what I know and how I teach my children in academics. I do have a small ambition: To inspire more parents to go the NO-TUITION route like us! Let’s save money and save time for our children to play and unwind more! I think there is more to life than academic and tuition.

You may follow us in the NO TUITION PSLE SERIES by clicking on the link or follow us on instagram to see how we learn in our daily #30minrevision. And if you have a P5 kid, do hop over to DinoMama, a fellow mummy blogger who has started to document some good study tips from her daily revision with her son too.

Hope this post is useful to everyone out there who has a kid in school! Stay tune for the next post!

PSLE English Workshop for Parents – How to Tackle The English Paper

This is not an Adult English Course, in case you are wondering. It is more of a crash course in understanding how to tackle the English Language Paper in PSLE. All of us were there to learn tips and how to teach our children. Some parents were more interested in knowing how to obtain A* for the paper, some wanted cheat sheets that the private tuition centres have and school teachers do not, and for me, I want to learn as much as I can and incorporate into our daily 30 min revision of English with my Missy 12. I am there to absorb knowledge and learn how to teach, not so much as to obtain A*.

Spanning over 2 Saturdays of 6 hours each, the parents, including me, who attended the Marshall Cavendish Education PSLE English Workshop for Parents certainly wasted no time in learning.. PSLE English!

This is not an Adult English Course, in case you are wondering. It is more of a crash course in understanding how to tackle the English Language Paper in PSLE. All of us were there to learn tips and pass our takeaways to our children. Some parents were more interested in knowing how to obtain A* for the paper, some wanted cheat sheets that the private tuition centres have and school teachers do not, and for me, I want to learn as much as I can and incorporate into our daily 30 min revision of English with my Missy 12. I am there to absorb knowledge and learn how to teach, not so much as to obtain A*.

I think for many of us, we came out from the workshop feeling that we had squeezed the trainer all his possible knowledge in the PSLE English paper. The best part is, the trainer was super accommodating and selfless in sharing his tips and such. All in all, for me, I have learnt lots in the 12 hours of workshop!

The trainer is Joel Lim, who had conducted an enjoyable workshop for my Missy 12 a couple of weeks back in the PSLE English Workshop for Student. You may read about what she learnt in this post.

We learnt about the format of the English paper and weightage of marks, Comprehension, Letter-writing, Situational writing, Essays, Synthesis and Transformation, Comprehension Cloze, Oral, Listening Comprehension and many other details to look out for when attempting the English paper. Joel gave a very good advice before we started the workshop proper:

Listen to your child more, and Speak Less.

How true and what a timely reminder! Often, we fail to LISTEN attentively to our child when they talk, and more often than not, I find my voice filling the air from the moment I come home from work till they sleep. It certainly does not seem healthy!

Now, let’s see what we have learnt in each segment in the English language paper.

On Composition

Joel taught us Composition tactics. He shared to us from the examiner’s point of view when reading and marking a composition. Not only that, he printed examples of composition from a weak writer, an average writer and a strong writer. In the class, he analysed the writing skills and trademarks of different kinds of writers. This certainly helps me greatly in teaching my girl what to look out for and how not to fall into these pit holes. I shall be sharing more on what I have learnt from the workshop in my PSLE Series on Composition writing soon.

On Comprehension

He used a past PSLE Comprehension Passage and taught us the steps in tackling it:
1) Read the passage (and read again for a second time)
2) Annotation
3) Ask Questions and Answer them in your head
4) Complete Questions

He drew arrows on the passage and explained to us how he infers and asks questions in his head when reading the passage carefully. It may seem tedious but I find it very useful to teach my Missy 12 with the details of going through word by word, phrase by phrase and sentence by sentence. I believe with sufficient practices, she will get into the habit of ‘Inferencing’ and able to answer questions more confidently.

On Synthesis and Transformation

We were recommended some good assessment books and it is really up to individual to review if these books suit the styles of your child. Joel went through the following book on Synthesis and Transformation which I immediately went to buy from Popular bookstore. I find the layout of the book helpful in presenting transformed words in table form, and addressing some difficult ones like “who and whom” usage in synthesis. Do check this out and see if it suits your child.

One thing we learnt is that for Synthesis and Transformation questions, there are no half marks and hence, either your child get full 2 marks or he/she will get zero mark even for a missing word. Thus, practicing more questions is probably the key to tackling this segment.

On Comprehension Cloze

We briefly touched on this and Joel had shared the following pointers from again another “My Friend Has Diarrhea” kind of abbreviations for easy remembrance: Round Aunty Farts Chocolate Rainbows!
Round – Read once first to get background information
Aunty – Annotate: summarise, drawing arrows to relate, asking questions and answering them
Farts – Fill in the blanks with as many words as you can think of in pencil
Chocolate – Choose the best answer for each question
Rainbows – Read again, use instinct to judge appropriateness of answers

Well, there are quite many ways that I have learnt on tackling Comprehension Cloze from various sources. Hence, I shall similarly share on my PSLE Series blog posts with one on tackling the Comprehension Cloze. Stay tune!

On Oral and Listening Comprehension

Joel recommended another good book for this segment. I really emphathize with our children these days. Even something so simple and easy to score like ‘Listening Comprehension’ and ‘Oral’ need strategies and a dedicated assessment book for them. I remembered we had never needed to prepare for them during our PSLE times! But, now, the PSLE standard has up many notches and Oral is really similar to an interview session in my opinion. Perhaps, if I were to take the PSLE Oral, I may not get good marks too since I tend to stutter or tongue-tied at impromptu questions, especially if the topic is not so much of my interest!

Do spend some time to go to Popular Bookstore to hunt for this book and read the tips given. I find that some are quite common sense and some are really good tips. But given the limited time, I would not be able to prepare my girl much for Oral and Listening Comprehension. Maybe, I should start prepping her during our conversations on bus rides to get her used to speaking and quick thinking.

Apart from sharing tips and tricks on all the English Paper sections, Joel is very kind to share his own resources on “Commonly Mis-spelt words” and Synthesis and Transformation Rules table among other things. We could feel that he understood why we would drop all schedule to spend 2 Saturdays learning from him. And he genuinely wanted to help us parents to help our own children.

After his workshop, I tested out the tips on my girl and for the first time, seriously, she answered 8 questions in a top school Comprehension passage correctly! While I am not expecting miracles, I can tell that my girl is gaining confidence in doing her English paper. By and by, I am sure we will get there!

Marshall Cavendish has 1 more Parent Workshop in this series:
PSLE Math Workshop For Parents
Date: 1 & 8 April (2 Saturdays in total)
Venue: Times Centre
Time: 9am – 430pm
Fees: $180

Do check out the website for more information and upcoming workshops.
I have a timetable here on the upcoming ones for your reference:

Disclaimer: I was invited to attend the Marshall Cavendish Education PSLE English Workshop for Parents. Thank you MCE and PR company for the chance to learn and teach my children. I strongly recommend concerned parents to attend MCE Workshops which I really benefited a lot!

PSLE Student English Workshop by Marshall Cavendish Education

I think by now most of you know that I am exploring ways to teach my own P6 girl since she does not have tuition. In fact, I am looking at whether there are tuition centres for parents like me. Mummy Ed knows me well for sure, and introduce me to the series of Parent Workshops by Marshall Cavendish Education (hey, I am sure you have heard of MCONLINE!). It has all levels from P1 to P6 Coaching Workshops meant for parents to attend. I am definitely most interested in PSLE Parent Workshops!

But before I attend the PSLE Parent Workshops, I realized that they have PSLE Student Workshops too! Hence, I decided to coax my girl into skipping her art classes to attend the English Workshop since the dates worked out well for us. Each of the Student and Parent Workshops consists of a 2-part series, meaning that you have to attend 2 Saturdays for each subject upon sign up, usually from 9am to 3pm or 430pm depending on which subject it is.

In the English Student Workshop over 2 Saturdays which my girl and her friend had attended, they learnt the following:

The 5 Deadly Character Flaws – crafting a story from the inside-out!
- At the heart of every good story lies a flawed character who wants to/learns how to change.
- The 5 Flaws: Greed, Laziness, Anger, Envy, Pride
Unexpected (yet logical) plot twists!
- Identity shifts, unexpected consequences, defying the reader’s expectations
The 1-2 Punch Method of Combining Sentences
- Strategy for Synthesis & Transformation
The importance of asking the right questions (at the right time) – what is “right” anyway?
- Tenacity in asking questions – even if it means stinging your ego
- Situation Awareness – Jump out of your inner world sometimes!
- Classical Cases of People Asking the Right Questions who changed the world!

When I picked up the girls after the first session, I was anxious to know if skipping her usual art class for this workshop was a right decision. To my delight, both the girls gave their thumbs up! They enjoyed the workshop tremendously mainly because of one reason: the teacher (Teacher Joel) was a very humorous guy who cracks them up for the entire 6 hours. To enjoy the workshop is really the key to absorbing what has been taught. For this, the workshop is already a success with the right teacher!

The first part of this workshop is teaching them on writing a composition using the 5 character flaws, interesting plot twists, and ending with a funny Coda strategy: MFHD. Guess what it is?! It means:

M:My – Memories
F:Friend – Feelings
H:Has – Hopes
D:Diarrhoea – Decisions

The first two are for REFLECTING ON THE PAST, and the next two are for REFLECTING ON THE FUTURE. This is used for the last concluding paragraph.

IMG-20170204-WA0001 — Photo with courtesy from MCE

IMG-20170204-WA0003 — Photo with courtesy from MCE

During the class, Teacher Joel asked them to act out the character flaws. It really helped them to remember clearly on each point covered in class. And when the students handed up their composition homework the next Saturday, Teacher Joel made a funny remark about my girl’s starting words of “One day,…” which made her laugh hard, and you bet she will probably never use that start line again!

On the second Saturday, the girls returned to the second part of the workshop learning how to work on Synthesis and Transformation questions using the 1-2 Punch Method. Basically, it is about the order of action just like in boxing punch of rapid succession of 2 blows. Well, what a way to describe the method to imprint on the students’ minds. Even I had a deep impression reading about this 1-2 Punch Method. Seriously I was wondering if the handouts were prepared by Teacher Joel too, since the contents are kind of humorous! And there is a TOP SECRET handout that says “For your eyes only” which has a formula table for all kinds of conjunctions.

When I picked up the girls after the end of the second class, they couldn’t stop talking about the class titbits. It is certainly worth skipping two art classes to attend such an interesting workshop and learning these extra tips on English.

Today, my girl had her English Paper 1 CA test. She came back and told me she had used a plot twist and MFHD in her composition. Wow! I thought how timely this workshop is! And the bubbly girl went on to recall what the workshop teacher had taught them and shared the jokes again and again. It made me and Master 10 laugh out loud too! You must know that my girl is a natural when it comes to acting out a scene. I can practically see Teacher Joel’s funny acts through her!

And guess what? She asked to attend another workshop!!

This PSLE Student English Workshop was held over the previous 2 Saturdays and the next upcoming student workshop will be PSLE Student Chinese Workshop on coming 2 Saturdays and Math and Science in March. Here is a summary of the dates, one on Student Workshops and the other on Parent Workshops.

For more information, do check this out and sign up from the 2 links below to enjoy 20% discounted rate. This is bundle of 3 workshops in special rates!

PSLE Student Workshop sign up link: click here.

PSLE Parent Workshop sign up link: click here.

I have attended the PSLE Parent Workshop for English. Click here for my review!

Disclaimer: I was invited to the PSLE workshops for the purpose of this review. As I am writing a PSLE series this year, these PSLE workshops will be a good resource to share with all parents preparing for the big national exam! Stay tune for more!