2010 PSLE English

[Augmum]

mrswongtuition:

PSLEmom:

Ref : The Straits Times Oct 16 2010 (Pg A 8 )

PSLE PAPER DRAWS GROUSES

:? Whaddaya think Guys?

The original source is a newspaper article which is read by public. It's not a secret document which only SEAB had access to.
If the teachers had the 'luck' or 'foresight' to use the same article to develop their teaching materials, then it is really coincidence.

As long as none of the teachers/tutors in those schools/centres are part of the team that writes up the PSLE paper, I think there isn't any 'unfairness' to grumble about.

Teachers have always encouraged students to read newspapers, naturally, we will also take articles from newspapers. Especially if the difficulty level is just right for their level.

Every year, there are bound to be parents who complain about such 'coincidences'. How?
As I mentioned last year, if you don't want your child to lose out, then make them read and read and read. And develop your own materials in hope that you will be that lucky one with the 'coincidence'.

when i read from the papers that this year PSLE cloze passage (abt bees) was taken from articles of newsapapers,
i remembered that i had cut out this aticle for my gal when she was in P5
for her to practise her cloze, (and also the teacher would require them to do newspapers cutting)
so i went to dig thru her old stuff, true enuff that was THE ARTICLE
wow.....so co-incidence....
gal said, \"why didn't it appear for PSLE 2009?\".....haha

ya lorr...why can't SEAB come out with a fresh passage
they shd have all the time, resources and talents........why took the short cut ( taken fr newsapapers)

[Trapwithin]

jtoh:

Same thing happened with the Chinese paper last year. One of the compre passages appeared in a school's prelim exam and also at a tution centre's worksheet.

How did they managed the issue last year?
They will probably use the same method to resolve it.

Seriously, MOE has always talked about having ORIGINAL questions for PSLE. Guess what happen this and last year ... speaks for itself.

[cascada]

One school I know did the same comprehension passage as this year’s PSLE for their practice. Coincidence? Why so many any coincidences?


Comprehension section is 20 marks. Although the questions in their practice may be different from PSLE, is it possible that those who have done the same passage before would have a better understanding of this passage as compared to those who see it for the first time. Besides, how many variation of questions can one develop from such short passage?

If the ‘bees’ cloze passage is from newspaper and is thus considered public source and so is deemed fair, then is this comprehension passage also from extracted from newspaper?

[concernmother]

gladtobemom:

My ds just told me that some students had also practised on the same comprehension passage as that in the PSLE English paper's in their tuition class :!:

Sounds fishy, no?

I agree. Too much coincidence when the \"bee\" article was in newspaper 3 years ago. My dd said that the \"bee\" was the most difficult section

[Jennifer]

Trapwithin:

jtoh:

Same thing happened with the Chinese paper last year. One of the compre passages appeared in a school's prelim exam and also at a tution centre's worksheet.

How did they managed the issue last year?
They will probably use the same method to resolve it.

Seriously, MOE has always talked about having ORIGINAL questions for PSLE. Guess what happen this and last year ... speaks for itself.

Nothing much done in the eyes of public, same politically correct answer \"no unfair advantage\".

I was one of those affected parents. Some parents whose children were not in PSLE last year were inclined to think like MOE spokeman. How much similarity cld there be? How many pupils actually still remembered the model ans, where got unfair advantage, etc?

[mummyjoyce]

For those kids that did the paper before, it is like spotting the right questions in exam… like strike 4D.

However, I dont understand is that how come some schools can spot this cloze passage??? Any leak ???

[Jennifer]

mummyjoyce:

Any leak ???

ya, too much coincidence for such incident to happen again. When I told my elder boy abt this, his 1st thought was also sb leaked the paper.

I was thinking such incidences might hv happened in the past, just that pupils were not so involved in blogging then and publicly shared they hv seen a similar passage. Now that most pupils are IT-savvy, such incidents are becoming more apparent in the public.

[leesf]

Coinincidence not only from 1 school but 3 schools and a tuition centre. Maybe someone could interview the teachers why did they choose that partiucular ‘bee’ article for their students to practise?

[gladtobemom]

cascada:

One school I know did the same comprehension passage as this year's PSLE for their practice. Coincidence? Why so many any coincidences?

Exactly. According to my ds, the comprehension passage was also done in a tuition centre that his classmate attends. Too much of a coincidence here, comprehension and cloze passage involved.

[cascada]

mummyjoyce:

For those kids that did the paper before, it is like spotting the right questions in exam... like strike 4D.

Wa, like Toto grand prize being shared with so many lucky punters?

Usually, cloze passages & comprehension passages are extracted from newspaper, storybooks or Readers' Digest. What is the possibility of extracting the exact same paragraphs from a 200 pages storybook or from so many issues/articles from Readers' Digest? :?

My guess is MOE invited many teachers to submit some questions for MOE's consideration and selection. However, these teachers don't know if their submitted questions will be eventually selected as PSLE questions. So the teachers then use what they submitted as practice or prelim or they shared with other schools/friends (don't waste mah!). If this is the case, then maybe MOE should consider adding a clause that all submission cannot be shared or used as practice materials for the same year.