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What is the PSLE T-Score? Why is it important and how can it help my child?
1 The significance of the PSLE T-score.
It is effectively a streaming exam because the T-score is the measure of entry into the different Normal, Express, or Special Streams and admission into the Integrated Programmes. Put simply, your right to admission is as strong as your T-score. If Adrian’s T-score is 230 and Ben’s T-score is 229, the system will consider all of Adrian’s given choices of secondary school before it considers Ben’s choices. The "cut-off" as we all intuitively understand is actually the score of the last pupil to be admitted into the school enrolment based on merit. I don't remember even realising how significant the exam was. My mother worried a little bit more in my P6 year but hardly anyone had private tuition in any form. We just walked in and completed the papers and waited for the posting results.
2 The complexities of making the appropriate choices.
A "Single-sex schools or co-ed schools?"
I chose my Secondary school then on the basis of a cousin's good word about Tanjong Katong Girls' School and every other choice beyond the first was just a question of balancing the different pros and cons of varying distance from home and the reputation of the school. Life was simpler then, so everyone saw single-sex schools as necessarily better then co-ed schools. No opposite sex meant less opportunities to get trapped in boy-girl relationships, as we referred to them then.
Now however, things are more complicated. Parents will have to weigh the pros and cons of gender-based schooling – rabid fan clubs and lifestyle experimentation can be just as rife in single-sex schools. It is impossible to shut out all negative adolescent influences. Wherever the teen finds him/herself, he has to choose his/her friends carefully and the influence of the family is critical.
I was fortunate to have been in Rosyth School then at a time when principals still reigned supreme and caning was a forgone conclusion if you did something wrong. Most times, if anyone was caned in school, he would keep absolutely mum about it for fear of having his parents top up the punishment with another round at home! Parents were way more serious about bad behaviour then. When a parent asks me, I would say, start off with a co-ed primary school and go with a single-sex secondary school, that way the teen won’t enter the co-ed JC or polytechnics only after 10 years of single-sex education.
B "It isn’t a cookie-cutter system anymore."
It used to be that my primary school mate in Serangoon Secondary had the same range of subject choices as my other friend in Raffles Girls’ School. Well, to get an idea of how different it is now - picture a cafeteria where a range of cuisines are available – you have to make a choice early and once you are in the queue for Western food, you won’t find any fried kway teow at the end of the queue.
The need to move a school up the rankings has meant that some schools have looked squarely at the route to more As for every subject, despite staff turnover. It is a well-known fact that the Singaporean student can achieve with more ease and consistency the As for Maths and Science than the As for Literature or History. With the first two subjects, sheer volume of work can secure the distinctions but for Literature, and History at least, the teacher has to teach what’s toughest – insights. So every time I encounter a principal that still has the gumption to foster the learning of difficult to score subjects, I applaud.
So here’s the thing: if you can tell that you child is inclined to reading and possibly the humanities and the social sciences, you had better find out if Geography, History and Literature (whichever your interest) is available as a full subject in Secondary 4 in the school you are intending to choose for your teen.
Does the school offer the subject at “O” Level?
How many Sec 4 classes does the school have offering the subject?
How have previous batches in the school performed in the subject?
This line of questioning allows you to ascertain if the school has any traditional strengths they have managed to maintain. You will be surprised to find out that some autonomous and government schools have wider range of subject choices (Visual Arts, Literature at “O’ level) than some apparently higher ranking schools.
The Integrated or Through-train Programme and how to get onto it
3 "CCA is not ECA, what with the DSA now."
They used to call what they do as Scouts extra-curricular activity. It is termed co-curricular activity now. The difference is quite significant. CCA is going to take up a huge amount of your teen’s time but there is no escaping the commitment because it’s as if they are given a bank book and they have to accumulate enough CCA credits to get to the next level. At primary school, your child’s CCA achievement could constitute another route to the preferred secondary school. To do so, if you are the average Singaporean hyper-planner of a parent, you would be looking at what activities your child can excel in with the secondary schools in mind. For some activities, the choice is made at a young age, like gymnastics and other sports. In the P6 year, you have to start checking out the schools early because the Direct School Allocation (DSA)is conducted in June. If you child is a track athlete, all he or she has to do is to take note of all your track achievements so far. If however, your child is intending to enter a secondary school with a niche in Art, and you wish to use the DSA to secure a place before the PSLE, you would need to prepare a portfolio of his/her art work ready for the school interviews during the DSAperiod. A portfolio as such will not be something that can be drummed up in a day so if the work is not ready, sorry, but there would be nothing to show.
A few things to note about the DSA: schools are active about getting the best talents/ students for themselves. Some secondary schools have used the category of Mathematics and Science Olympiads (talent surely) to draw in pupils through the DSA though such pupils are likely by all intents to do very well in the PSLE. If however, your child plays a game particularly well, the secondary schools will be looking out for him. The catch is, he/she will not feel he is a free agent in the school as his place was offered on account of his/her expected future commitment to the sport in the secondary school. Yes, it constitutes an obligation to the school.
The PSLE T-score defined
When my daughter was in her PSLE year, we were told that English Language and Mother Tongue carried a double weightage in the PSLE compared to Mathematics and Science. That is not correct.
The PSLE T-score as we commonly refer to it, is actually an aggregate of 4 T-scores, or transformed scores. Each subject's T-score is in fact a recalculated score, taking into account the performance of each candidate relative to the the highest and lowest scores and the deviation from the average score. If everyone did very well for the subject, a high score will be transformed into a score lower than the candidate's original raw score. If the candidates was one of a very small select group that shone in the subject, the transformed score might be higher than the original raw score. To find out more, attend the P6 parent-teacher meetings and surf the net for the many useful powerpoint presentations, such as those from Coral Primary, Nanyang Primary, and River Valley.
Put simply then, the final PSLE aggregate score is a sum of 4 scores each transformed to take into account the the performance of the rest of the PSLE cohort that year in that subject.
What the PSLE T-score means in secondary school
Interestingly then, if you are strong in Mother Tongue, Math and Science but average in English, you could get a very high PSLE T-score and secure your first choice school. However, you might be in for a rude surprise in the first half of secondary one, as you will find your command of English severely challenged in subjects like Geography, History, Literature, Biology, Art theory and History where you have to retrieve and analyse content delivered in English, and express your views in formal English, no less. The earlier efforts in Mother Tongue will now only be useful in possibly two subjects, Mother Tongue and Higher Mother Tongue. So you can make your conclusions about which PSLE A* means most for secondary school. The A* or High A in English means you are top of the heap in your cohort in terms of your ability in English. Conventional crowd wisdom tells us too that you are unlikely to do well in the three humanities subjects of Geography, History and Literature unless your command of written English grows from strength to strength in your secondary school years.
A very thoughtful PSLE teacher told me this once
Marks for all 4 PSLE subjects Likely PSLE T-score
85 245+
80 235-245
80 (except for 60 for 1 subj) 230+
So 4 As can come out with a lower PSLE T-score than 2 A*s, an A and a B, the A being a very wide band.
If your child is struggling in Chinese, and he or she is in P5, you have no time to waste as it takes time to develop better writing skills, be it English or the mother tongue . Look for a tutor who specialises only in preparing pupils for the Subject for the PSLE. 3-in-one PSLE tutors who come to your home (Eng, Maths and Science all offered in one sitting) sound like a convenient solution but the good ones who can manage all the challenges of the different papers are a rarity. You are more likely to get a higher standard of lesson delivery, insights and tips from a subject specialist. Ask any secondary or JC teacher what kind of enrichment lessons/tutors they sign up for their children and invariably, you will find that they look for the subject specialists. Subject specialists are not ex-students who did well in the subject before; they are teachers who have grappled with exam specifications before and written out entire syllabuses for different levels.
What’s the trick then?
Take off the glasses that confuse the picture.
Consider if you converted the P5, P6 or PSLE grades in your mind in the following manner, everything will suddenly make sense -
Actual Grade View it now as
A* A
A B
B C
C D
Get the picture? Now you will be able to monitor your grades a lot more meaningfully. If truth be told, the A in English Language in the PSLE converts typically into a B3-4 in English and Literature in Lower Secondary. So parents and students walking into secondary school with a happy scoresheet of some number of As might be in for a disappointment.
Latest! Tabulation of my 2008 PSLE graduands' T-scores
I had 25 PSLE 2008 students. Most of them came from the mainstream (ie, non-GEP) and they were mid-Bs and high Cs at the end of their P5 year. A good third had been consistently comfortable As. How did they fare in the end?
What were the traits and behaviours that led to high T-scores?
Out of the number who followed my on-going programme, the clearest trait that led to A star in English was diligent reflection and reading. I have a reputation for not offering homework but being huge on recommended readings and working on thinking and writing skills, so some of my quietest students (contrary to expectation) have done very well because they have obviously ruminated on what's been taught and travelled as far as I have suggested in terms of their reading journeys!
PSLE students who did well got past their personal likes and dislikes for subjects to hunker down to work on their weaknesses. They chose teachers and tutors based on more mature assessments of what constituted effective teaching. But boys did have a setback. More boys than girls at the upper primary levels had built a habit of gaming (computer) and for some, a computer game ALWAYS took precedence over a good read. Reading offers less immediate gratification, involves engaging different and sometimes less direct thought pathways. Computer gaming can be very addictive because it is hugely competitive and interactive while reading and academic study can be a very solitary experience.
Many girls, however childish and immature they may seem to be at the onset of the P6 year, are able to think about what they should do to secure a place in their future school. This is not to say that most boys are not able to do the same but they are less able to keep to their professed goals because the next computer game is so rivetting. The boys who got the A stars wanted it badly, worked on their writing and editing skills, and had penmanship that would have made any girl proud.
What contributed to a low T-score?
7 students got A*, 16 got As and the 2 of my students who were D-ish at P5 year-end got Bs. No one went any lower.
Those who had very worrying T-scores were those who might have allowed other subjects to trend to Bs and Cs. The Maths "B" is an especiallyy costly one, because (and I say this intuitively based on anecdotal evidence) because so many candidates practise their way through it, most students score well for Maths.
Can a candidate go from C to A* in EL a year?
Very unlikely, because a school year is fraught with activities and real improvement is only possible with reading with adequate time for reflection, so holiday reading is essential.
Which candidates get Bs in EL?
Those who start serious reading too late, say in April of their P6 year and those who cannot prise themselves away from computer games.
There may be writing strategies and comprehension skills that one can learn but in the end, there are no shortcuts. For EL, having adequate and varied reading experiences is key; for Maths, nothing can take the place of practice.