Saturday, November 10, 2007
Friday, November 9, 2007
My Final Post on 2007 PSLE Math Exam Paper
The questions reported in Straits Times are simplified!
Yes, if you have noticed, I have stopped posting for a while because I felt that justice was not done to our Primary 6 students.
Many claimed that they can solve the questions in 3 minutes, or did not find the question tough at all.
However, many readers were misled because the questions shown in the Straits Times are not asked in the exact manner as in the PSLE paper!!!
(of course, we cannot blame the Straits Times for not printing the real questions for they do not have the real one too!)
This is the newspaper report:
To help you see better, let's look at question 2 that was printed in the Straits Times:
6/14 of the chairs in a hall are in rows of 13. Half of the chairs are in rows of 7. There are 112 more chairs in rows of 7. The rest of the chairs are stacked up. Find the total number of chairs.
Now, take a look at the REAL question that was asked in 2007 PSLE Math paper:
There are some workers. They arranged chairs into short rows and long rows. There are 18 short rows and 7 long rows. Each long row has 16 more chairs than the short row. Half of the chairs are arranged into long rows while 3/7 of chairs are arranged in short rows. The rest of the remaining chairs are stacked in a corner.
a) What fraction of the chairs are stacked in the corner?
b) How many chairs are arranged in rows?
Do you see the difference?
Under exam environment, do you agree that the real question appears to be more difficult than the one shown in the newspapers?
Let's put all these pasts away and focus on what is ahead of us! (This will be my last post about 2007 PSLE paper)
Afterall, this is a changing world and we need to constantly change ourselves to meet the new demand. Continue to gear yourself up and strive for your best!
Yes, if you have noticed, I have stopped posting for a while because I felt that justice was not done to our Primary 6 students.
Many claimed that they can solve the questions in 3 minutes, or did not find the question tough at all.
However, many readers were misled because the questions shown in the Straits Times are not asked in the exact manner as in the PSLE paper!!!
(of course, we cannot blame the Straits Times for not printing the real questions for they do not have the real one too!)
This is the newspaper report:
To help you see better, let's look at question 2 that was printed in the Straits Times:
6/14 of the chairs in a hall are in rows of 13. Half of the chairs are in rows of 7. There are 112 more chairs in rows of 7. The rest of the chairs are stacked up. Find the total number of chairs.
Now, take a look at the REAL question that was asked in 2007 PSLE Math paper:
There are some workers. They arranged chairs into short rows and long rows. There are 18 short rows and 7 long rows. Each long row has 16 more chairs than the short row. Half of the chairs are arranged into long rows while 3/7 of chairs are arranged in short rows. The rest of the remaining chairs are stacked in a corner.
a) What fraction of the chairs are stacked in the corner?
b) How many chairs are arranged in rows?
Do you see the difference?
Under exam environment, do you agree that the real question appears to be more difficult than the one shown in the newspapers?
Let's put all these pasts away and focus on what is ahead of us! (This will be my last post about 2007 PSLE paper)
Afterall, this is a changing world and we need to constantly change ourselves to meet the new demand. Continue to gear yourself up and strive for your best!
Saturday, October 20, 2007
2007 PSLE Math - Letter From Today Newspaper Forum
Someone sent me this letter. This letter is from the mother of a TOP student.
Today newspaper forum - Letter from GUO WEIFU
My son, a top student, returned home shattered after difficult PSLE maths paper.
THIS year’s PSLE mathematics paper has caused many students undeserved anguish.
Their reactions, including that of the good and gifted ones, were one of despair and discouragement upon encountering problem sums that were set beyond their capabilities. Some even broke down right after the examination. My son is in a top class. Mentally strong and confident in mathematics, he returned shattered boy after the exam. I immediately checked with friends and teachers from other classes and schools, and the same story was heard. Although schools have been equipping pupils with the skills of applying mathematical concepts, many could not complete half or more of the problem sums.
Is there a huge gap between expectations and ability?
In the mind of a child, he has either failed or done badly. With his confidence ripped by the mathematics paper, how can a child recover in less than 24 hours to face the next paper?Tearing children apart mentally at a developmental stage snuffs out the joy of learning. The Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) had previously said “the exams were a means to differentiate students of diverse abilities by setting questions of varying difficulty levels”. It stated that an examination paper should be comparable in difficulty from one year to the next and “teachers know how to prepare their students for the examinations”.
SEAB also stated that different teams of experienced setters, moderators and examiners conduct several rounds of checking of each question and for the paper as a whole.
The fact different teams are involved is no consolation as it may be a systemic failure from pegging the paper at too high a standard. For some parents and students, education is seen as a source of mental torture.
All I ask is this: Please give the children of Singapore the confidence to face their future with a lion’s heart. Whaddaya think???
Today newspaper forum - Letter from GUO WEIFU
My son, a top student, returned home shattered after difficult PSLE maths paper.
THIS year’s PSLE mathematics paper has caused many students undeserved anguish.
Their reactions, including that of the good and gifted ones, were one of despair and discouragement upon encountering problem sums that were set beyond their capabilities. Some even broke down right after the examination. My son is in a top class. Mentally strong and confident in mathematics, he returned shattered boy after the exam. I immediately checked with friends and teachers from other classes and schools, and the same story was heard. Although schools have been equipping pupils with the skills of applying mathematical concepts, many could not complete half or more of the problem sums.
Is there a huge gap between expectations and ability?
In the mind of a child, he has either failed or done badly. With his confidence ripped by the mathematics paper, how can a child recover in less than 24 hours to face the next paper?Tearing children apart mentally at a developmental stage snuffs out the joy of learning. The Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) had previously said “the exams were a means to differentiate students of diverse abilities by setting questions of varying difficulty levels”. It stated that an examination paper should be comparable in difficulty from one year to the next and “teachers know how to prepare their students for the examinations”.
SEAB also stated that different teams of experienced setters, moderators and examiners conduct several rounds of checking of each question and for the paper as a whole.
The fact different teams are involved is no consolation as it may be a systemic failure from pegging the paper at too high a standard. For some parents and students, education is seen as a source of mental torture.
All I ask is this: Please give the children of Singapore the confidence to face their future with a lion’s heart. Whaddaya think???
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
PSLE Math - Reply By Singapore Examinations And Assessment Board
The Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board has made their reply on 2007 PSLE math paper.
What is your view? Do you agree with their reply?
Please send in your comments!
Regards,
Norman Tien
Sunday, October 14, 2007
PSLE maths questions stump pupils - Feedback Posted in The Straits Times Forum
Yes, this feedback by Mrs Piyali Roy was inline with the many feedback I received from my primary 6 students after their PSLE math paper.
Well, like I have mentioned prior to the PSLE examination, the trend observed from the many schools' math prelim paper showed that questions asked will no longer be testing their arithmetic skills only.
Let's look at one of the question asked (this is not the exact PSLE math question as I do not have the exact dimension and diagram)
2007 PSLE Math Question:
Tank A is filled with water to its brim.
Water is then poured from Tank A to Tank B till both shared the same height (see fig. 2).
What is this height?
What is this height?
This is an obvious "volume" question but many primary 6 students were 'frightened' by the way the question was being asked.
It looked so simple but yet, most students do not have the slightest clue where to begin!
Before we look at the solution, why not you all take out your pen and paper and start working on this.
(now, to be fair to those primary 6 students who sat for their PSLE, I want you to solve this question based on what a primary 6 child would know about the topic "Volume". In short, do not use what you have learned from your Secondary or Tertiary education to solve this question!)
Can you solve it? Was it easy to solve?
How long did you take to solve it?
What is your answer?
Actually, if one knows the concept well, we can solve this question EASILY by just applying the formula:
Height = Volume divide by Base Area
How long did you take to solve it?
What is your answer?
Actually, if one knows the concept well, we can solve this question EASILY by just applying the formula:
Height = Volume divide by Base Area
whereby Volume is the volume of water in Tank A, Base Area is the total base area of the 2 tanks!
Let's calculate:
Volume of water in Tank A = 50 x 40 x 60 = 120,000 cubic centimeters
Base Area of Tank A = 50 x 40 = 2000 square centimeters
Base Area of Tank B = 70 x 40 = 2800 square centimeters
Volume of water in Tank A = 50 x 40 x 60 = 120,000 cubic centimeters
Base Area of Tank A = 50 x 40 = 2000 square centimeters
Base Area of Tank B = 70 x 40 = 2800 square centimeters
Total Base Area of 2 tanks = 4800 square centimeters
Therefore, to find the height of water in both tanks,
height = 120,000 divide by 4,800 = 25cm
Answer: height = 25cm
height = 120,000 divide by 4,800 = 25cm
Answer: height = 25cm
So, did you get the same answer too?
I am proud of you if you did so, especially if you are a primary 6 child!
If you do have more of 2007 'tough' PSLE questions, I would appreciate if you could send them to norman@pslemath.com.
I will share with all my readers once I received your contribution.
Attention:
For parents whose child is in Primary 5, you would also like to visit www.pslemath.com to view the coming P5 Exam Preparation Prog I will be conducting this coming school holidays (PSLE marking days)
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Friday, September 28, 2007
Nanyang Primary School 2007 PSLE Math Prelim
Question:
At a school carnival, there were 520 more girls than boys. 1/8 of the girls and 20% of the boys left the carnival. In the end, there were 488 more girls than boys.
(a) Did more girls or boys leave the carnival? How many more?
(b) How many children were there at the carnival in the end?
Once again, we have another challenging question and in order to solve it, we are required to do a bit of logical thinking.
To solve part a, we need to perform 3 case studies first:
Case 1 – Same number of girls & boys left the carnival
Question:
At a school carnival, there were 520 more girls than boys. 1/8 of the girls and 20% of the boys left the carnival. In the end, there were 488 more girls than boys.
(a) Did more girls or boys leave the carnival? How many more?
(b) How many children were there at the carnival in the end?
Once again, we have another challenging question and in order to solve it, we are required to do a bit of logical thinking.
To solve part a, we need to perform 3 case studies first:
Case 1 – Same number of girls & boys left the carnival
If there are an equal number of girls and boys leaving the carnival, the difference will still be the same, 520.
Case 2 – More boys left the carnival
Case 3 – More girls left the carnival
If there are more girls than boys leaving the carnival, the difference will be smaller than 520.
(a) The question mentioned that after 1/8 of the girls and 20% of the boys left the carnival, there were 488 more girls than boys.
The difference given in this question is 488, which is smaller than the original difference of 520.
As such, can you identify which case study is closest to our question?
Yes, we should use case 3 (more girls left) because the new difference (488) is less than the original difference (520). Therefore, for above question, more girls left the carnival.
To calculate how many more girls than boys left the carnival, we need to analyze the 3 case studies again.
If the same number of boys and girls left the carnival, the difference would remain as 520.
Since there is a decrease in the final difference as compared to the original difference, therefore, using 520 - 488 = 32, we can justify that 32 more girls left the carnival.
This is illustrated in the diagram below:
(b) To solve part b and for illustration purposes, we assume 100% = 100u.
The strategy to solve part b is that you must be able to apply the technique of cutting the models separately.
To find 1/8 of the Girls model, you need to cut the 100u and 520 separately.
1/8 of 100u = 12.5u. If 12.5u left the carnival, 87.5u will remain.
1/8 of 520 = 65. If 65 girls left the carnival, 455 girls will remain.
Combining the 87.5u and 455 girls, the model of the Girls after 1/8 of them left will be as shown in the 'After' portion of the Girls model below.
To illustrate 20% of the Boys left the carnival, the 'After' portion of the Boys model shows 80u because 20u had left the carnival.
488 – 455 = 33
7.5u --> 33
Total units: 87.5u + 80u = 167.5u
167.5u --> 33/7.5 x 167.5/1 = 737
737 + 455 = 1192
Total units: 87.5u + 80u = 167.5u
167.5u --> 33/7.5 x 167.5/1 = 737
737 + 455 = 1192
From the model, we found that 7.5u = 488 - 455 = 33.
Therefore, 1u = 4.4
Since the total number of Boys and Girls = 87.5u + 80u +455 = 167.5u + 455, the total number of boys and girls at the carnival in the end is (167.5 x 4.4) + 455 = 737 + 455 = 1192.
Phew! That was tough, wasn't it?
Ok, I'll shall see you tomorrow, same time same channel :)
Norman Tien
http://www.pslemath.com
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