The Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) is around the corner and students will be going through intensive revision to prepare for the exams next week.

Here are a few tips to help students cut down on their mistakes for each subject.

English 

For the English cloze passage, many children attempt to fill in the answers as they go along.

However, by doing so, they run the risk of missing contextual clues or making careless mistakes as they may not have read the sentences in totality before filling in the answers.

Here is how a cloze passage should be completed to ensure maximum success.

1st reading

Read through the passage once without filling in any blanks. This helps to get a flow of the passage better and is important for blanks that require words which might be related to the topic.

2nd reading

Start filling in the passage. Here are some tips:

1. For blanks that require a verb (for example clapped), you need to find out whether it should be in the present tense or the past tense. Look for a time phrase (for example two years ago, every week, etc). This is to find out whether the verb should be present or past. To find out if the word should be singular or plural, look for the "doer" word - is it one person or many people? 

2. Look for contextual clues. Words that give you a hint of what the word might be based on the content or language present. For example, Once a year, the school publishes a magazine. The ____________ (annual) showcases pieces written by pupils.

3. Read the entire sentence for each blank. Even if a long sentence has more than one blank, read the whole sentence to get the meaning in its entirety.

4. Look for the answer in the package. There are times when the answer is actually given in the package.

3rd reading

1. Read through the passage once more for fluency and to check tenses and singular/plural forms. Remember never to leave any blanks. Even if you're unsure, fill in the blanks with reasonable guesses.

Source: Lil But Mighty English

Science

Students learning science in Primary schools PHOTO: NP
 

Be specific. Use concepts in your answers. Students should not be long-winded but answer straight to the point. Each relevant concept applied in the question will be accounted for in the total marks given.

Question: Explain how plants can prevent global warming.

Wrong/incomplete answer: Plants use carbon dioxide so less heat will presented on Earth.

Model answer: Plants can remove carbon dioxide from the air during photosynthesis. With less carbon dioxide in the air, less heat will be trapped on the Earth.

Source: Home Group Tuition

Math

Speed is a P6 mathematics topic that often confuses students. Here is a tip to tackle a common speed question.

Opposite direction- closing the gap. These questions test the students on scenarios where two objects will start from different points and meet each other.

For example, Town X and Town Y are 600km apart. A car travels at an average speed of 90kmh from Town X to Town Y. At the same time, a bus travels at an average speed of 60kmh from Town Y to Town X. How far would each vehicle have travelled when they meet on their way?

Tip 1: When the car and bus meets, the distance covered by car and bus is equal to the distance between Town X and Town Y,

Tip 2: You may make a list of the distance each vehicle travels in an hour and work your way towards the meeting point.

Every hour, the car covers 90km while the bus covers 60km. They will cover 150 km each hour. 600km divided by 150 = 4 hours. They will be travelling for 4 hours before meeting each other, so the car will travel 360km while the bus will travel 240km.

Follow these tips for each subject and they will definitely help you to minimise mistakes and score well.

Source: Kiasu Parents