Introduction

The Primary School Leaving Examinations, or PSLE for short, is an academic assessment that takes place at the end of the six foundation years of education. This national examination is compulsory for all locally enrolled students at the end of Primary Six.

The Primary School Leaving Examinations aims to assess a student’s ability and suitability for secondary education and would stream these students into various streams in secondary schools. These streams include the Special Stream, Express Stream, Normal (Academic) Stream and Normal (Technical) Stream.

Grading System

For the core examinable subjects, the following grading system is adopted.

Mark Range Grade
91 and above A*
75 to 90 A
60 to 74 B
50 to 59 C
35 to 49 D
20 to 34 E
Below 20 F
For the optional subjects, the following grading system is adopted. These grades are not taken into account in computing the overall aggregate score for the pupils. However, the grades would be reflected on the PSLE results slip.

Mark Range Grade
80 and above Distinction
65 to 79 Merit
50 to 64 Pass
Below 50 Ungraded
For the EM3 Stream, another grading system is adopted as the papers that are taken are different. The follow grading system is used in grading these papers.

Mark Range Grade
85 and above G1
70 to 84 G2
50 to 69 G3
30 to 49 G4
Below 30 U
Examinable Subjects of PSLE

The Primary School Leaving Examinations consists of the examination of four main subjects and two optional subjects. The four main subjects include English Language, Mother Tongue Language, Mathematics and Science. Optional examinable subjects include Higher Mother Tongue Language and Social Studies.

English Language

In the English Language examination, pupils are tested for their proficiency and mastery of the language and their literacy level. There are four core aspects of the proficiency of the language that would be tested. These four aspects are Listening, Speaking, Writing and Comprehending.

Hence, the examination is split into four papers in order to test for each of these four core aspects. The oral and listening comprehension papers are taken on different days from the written papers. The oral examination paper is usually conducted a couple of months earlier than the other papers while the listening comprehension paper is usually conducted about a month before the written papers.

In the first paper, the pupil’s writing skills would be tested. Students would be required to complete a situational writing exercise and a narrative composition within the time limit of 1 hour 10 minutes. The objective of this assessment is to evaluate the pupil’s ability to write effectively in Standard English Language and their ability to communicate ideas through writing. The pupils are also expected to write legibly and coherently and to demonstrate clear understanding and knowledge of the foundation of English grammar, vocabulary, spelling and punctuation.

The second paper, which constitutes the majority of the overall English Language grade, is the Language Use and Comprehension paper. In this paper, the pupils would be tested for their ability to use the English Language correctly and to understand and comprehend given graphic and textual information. Pupils are expected to hypothesize, infer and draw conclusions from given information and contextual clues. In addition, students are also to suggest reasons in order to support their argument and opinions.

In the third paper, the listening ability of the students would be tested in a Listening Comprehension test. The paper comprises multiple-choice questions where students are expected to choose the most appropriate answer to the question after listening to and understanding the spoken texts. These texts would be given in various forms, ranging from advertisements to announcements, from telephone conversations to stories. Students are expected to identify the key ideas in the texts and recall details from the texts. They are also to demonstrate understanding of what is being said and to infer and draw conclusions from it.

In the final paper, the ability to communicate orally would be required from the pupils. The paper consists of two main components, the passage reading component and the picture discussion component. In the first component, students are tested for their pronunciation and articulation of words. The ability to use variation of tone and rhythm to convey the information in the test is also tested. In picture discussion component, students are expected to interact with the examiner and interpret the situation given in the picture. Through the pupil’s response, the examiner would give a grade for his ability to use correct grammar, appropriate vocabulary and to express himself clearly.

The overall grade for English Language is computed with different percentages accorded to different papers. The writing component contributes 27.5%, the language use and comprehension component makes up 47.5% of the grade while the listening comprehension and the oral test contributes 10% and 15% of the overall grade respectively. The percentages are scaled according to the importance of the aspect tested.

Examinable Subjects of PSLE

Mathematics

The purpose of the Mathematics paper is to evaluate and assess a pupil’s abilities in mathematical computations at the end of the six primary education years. Pupils would be tested on their knowledge, comprehension and application skills.

The Mathematics paper is structured into three main item types, separated into two papers. Paper A comprises 15 multiple-choice questions, accounting for 20% of the total score. Paper B is made up of two sections, the short-answer section and the structured question section. The short-answer section comprises 20 questions, forming 30% of the overall score while the structured question section consists of 13 questions, contributing to 50% of the overall grade.

In the multiple-choice question, each question would be accompanied by four options, of which only one would be correct. There would be no method or working marks awarded. The pupil is expected to choose the correct answer, which would earn him 1-2marks.

In the short-answer section, pupils are expected to write the correct answer to the question in the space provided. Working marks may be given depending on the question. The pupil is required to give the answer in the correct unit, if there is any.

For the structured questions, commonly called problem sums, pupils are expected to write in detail, how they arrive at their final answer. The method and each step of the working must be written clearly in the space provided. Working marks would be given. The final answer is also required to be filled in at the blanks provided.

The Mathematics paper is 2 hour and 15 minutes long in all.

Science

The Science Paper serves to assess a pupil’s understanding of scientific concepts and their ability to apply these concepts in complex questions. Knowledge and understanding of concepts would be a key area that would be tested while process skills and application skills would also be a significant area to be tested.

The Science paper is broken down into two separate papers, Paper A and Paper B. Paper A comprises 30 multiple-choice questions, worth 2 marks each, which accounts for 60% of the overall Science grade. Paper B, on the other hand, consists of 16 open-ended questions, worth 2 to 4 marks each, which accounts of a total of 40% of the Science grade.

In the multiple-choice section, each question would be accompanied with four options, of which only one would be correct. Pupils are to read and analyse the question before coming to a conclusion on the answer of the question. The multiple-choice questions are important as together, they form a majority of the overall Science grade.

In the open-ended section, students are required to analyse the question and come up with the correct answer. Explanations are usually required for the open-ended questions in order to assess the pupil’s understanding of the concepts. Working may be required too should the question be a Physics-based one. Working marks would then be awarded.

The Science paper is 1 hour and 45 minutes long in all.

Mother Tongue

There are three main mother tongue languages in Singapore, Chinese, Malay and Tamil. These three mother tongue languages’ papers have the same structures while the other languages follow a different grading structure. Other languages include the non-Tamil Indian languages, namely Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu.

Similar to the English Language paper, the Mother Tongue languages paper test the pupils in their proficiency in four key areas, Listening, Writing, Speaking and Comprehending. Hence, the examination is split into four papers in order to test for each of these four core aspects. The oral and listening comprehension papers are taken on different days from the written papers. The oral examination paper is usually conducted a couple of months earlier than the other papers while the listening comprehension paper is usually conducted about a month before the written papers.

In the first section, pupils are required to show their proficiency in the language through writing a continuous composition. There would be two topics to choose from in the paper, the first being a narrative essay based on a given title, and the second being one that is based on pictorial illustrations. Students are to choose from one of the two topics and complete their essays within the timeframe of 50 minutes. The pupils are also expected to write legibly and coherently and to demonstrate clear understanding and knowledge of the foundation of the Mother Tongue language’s grammar, vocabulary, spelling and punctuation.

The second section, which is also the section that contributes the most to the overall grade, is the paper that tests a pupil’s ability in Comprehension and Grammar use. In this section, comprehension passages would be given to test the pupil’s ability to understand the passage, and to deduce a conclusion from the passage. Grammar and vocabulary would also be tested depending on the subject. Chinese Language would require students to recall how to write certain words while Malay Language may need students to recall certain proverbs. This section is to be completed within 1 hour 15 minutes.

The third section is the oral component of the paper. In this paper, pupils are required to demonstrate their ability to converse fluently in their mother tongue. The paper is split into two sections, the reading aloud component and the picture discussion component. In the reading aloud component, a passage would be given to the candidates and they would read it aloud to the examiner. The examiner would then grade them based on their fluency and ability to use emphasis and tone to convey the message of the passage. In the picture discussion component, pupils would be given a picture and would converse with the examiner about the picture. In this component, the pupil’s appropriate grammar and vocabulary use would be graded.

Lastly, in the fourth section of the Mother Tongue paper, the pupil’s listening skills would be tested. The paper comprises multiple-choice questions and the pupils are expected to choose the most appropriate answer after listening to the passage that would be read out. The pupil’s listening and comprehending skills are thus tested.

Each paper carries a different percentage of the overall Mother Tongue language grade, which is dependent on the importance of the aspect that is tested in the paper. The writing component comprises 20% of the overall grade while the comprehension and grammar use section constitutes 45% of the overall grade. The oral component contributes to 25% of the overall grade while the listening comprehension accounts for 10% of the grade.