science

Primary School Leaving Examination

Primary School Leaving Examination is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Primary School Leaving Examination rather than just read about it. In short: The Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE; Malay: Peperiksaan Tamat Sekolah Rendah; Chinese: 小六会考; pinyin: Xiǎo Lìu Huìkǎo; Tamil: தொடக்கப்பள்ளி இறுதியாண்டுத் தேர்வு, romanized: Toṭakkappaḷḷi Iṟutiyāṇṭut Tērvu) is a national examination in Singapore that is administered by the Ministry of Education and taken by all students near the end of their sixth year in primary school before they move on to secondary school…

Key takeaways

Primary School Leaving Examination belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Primary School Leaving Examination to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Primary School Leaving Examination from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE; Malay: Peperiksaan Tamat Sekolah Rendah; Chinese: 小六会考; pinyin: Xiǎo Lìu Huìkǎo; Tamil: தொடக்கப்பள்ளி இறுதியாண்டுத் தேர்வு, romanized: Toṭakkappaḷḷi Iṟutiyāṇṭut Tērvu) is a national examination in Singapore that is administered by the Ministry of Education and taken by all students near the end of their sixth year in primary school before they move on to secondary school. The examination test students' proficiency in the English language, their respective mother tongue languages (typically Chinese, Malay or Tamil)—including a higher mother tongue (HMTL) paper, should the student be taking it—as well as mathematics and science. The paper is split into 2 parts, paper 1 and 2. Paper 1 typically lasts under a half hour, and is an essay for languages, or, in the case of math and science, is slightly easier than paper 2. Paper 1, for math and science, will include a standardized optical answer sheet (OAS) that uses optical mark recognition to detect answers. The languages will provide an answer booklet for the essay. Paper 2 will consist of comprehension and the understanding of the subject. The paper typically lasts under 2 hours. Students will not answer on the question booklet itself for certain sections of the paper. The question booklet is for workings and annotations. Answers will be written in the answer booklet, or the OAS. The format of the PSLE and the presence of it in the Singapore education system gives it a part in national culture. PSLE material has also been exported to other countries. Some schools abroad (such as National High Jakarta School in Jakarta, Indonesia), particularly in Southeast Asia, India and China, have their pupils sit the international version of the exam, the iPSLE, to provide a benchmark of their performance, compared to Singapore's standards. In March 2018, calls for the removal of the PSLE was rejected in parliament by then Education Minister (Schools) Ng Chee Meng, who cited it as a "useful checkpoint" in a child's education journey. On 28 September 2018, Education Minister Ong Ye Kung reiterated his stance on keeping the PSLE while announcing that the ministry will remove several mid-year and year-end exams across the board from primary one up to secondary four with the aim of reducing assessments based on exam results and to encourage students to be "all-rounders".

History and past performance The Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) was modeled after the British eleven plus exam (11+) and was first conducted in 1960. Its predecessor was the Secondary School Entrance Examination (SSEE), which was conceived in 1952 when it was known as the Standard Six Entrance Examination up to 1954 and then as Secondary School Entrance Examination when the primary school classes were no longer named as Primary 1 and 2 and the standard 1 to 5 and started from Primary 1 to 6 instead. Promotion was to Form 2 in the secondary school instead of the previous Standard Six starting from January 1955, during the early days of self-government. Though complaints were made about the 2007 PSLE Papers being out of syllabus and too challenging, this continued in the 2008 PSLE Paper.

Performance In 2005, 51,077 pupils sat for the examination, a 0.4% increase from the previous year. The majority (or roughly 97.8%) of the pupils qualified for secondary school. 62.2% of those who passed were eligible for the Special (Integrated Programme or The International Baccalaureate) or the Express stream (Either one for 4 years only) and the remaining 35.6% were eligible for either the Normal (Academic) or Normal (Technical) courses (Either one for 4 years). 1163 pupils (2.3%) of the cohort assessed were not ready for secondary school in 2006 or were more suited for vocational training. 39,286 students sat for the PSLE in 2015. The Ministry of Education (MOE) said that a total of 38,610 students (98.3%) were eligible for secondary school. 66.2% of the pupils qualified for the Express stream, 21.7% for Normal (Academic), and 10.4% qualified for Normal (Technical). The remaining 1.7% did not qualify for the three streams and were offered choices to retake the examination or to move on to specialised vocational schools.

Controversy on flaws in papers The 2005 mathematics paper for EM1 and EM2 (equivalent to today’s standard stream) students was flawed due to a question having no definite method of working the answer out. The "Question 13" was spotted by many and became infamous. The question was mathematically inconsistent in that one will get one set of answers when worked out one way and another set of answers when worked out by a different method. The Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) acknowledged the mistake a few days after the examination, annulling the question and awarding 2 marks to every student for the question.

Controversy on withholding of result slips In 2019, public debate arose concerning the practice of withholding PSLE result slips from students for failing to pay school fees. This ensued after news claiming that a student received only a copy of her PSLE result slip, while the original was withheld from her due to unpaid school fees, circulated widely on social media. Subsequently, then–Education Minister Ong Ye Kung asked for the Ministry of Education to re-evaluate the practice of withholding PSLE result slips from students due to unpaid school fees.

Other methods of admission to secondary schools

Direct School Admission

Independent schools and autonomous schools can admit up to 20% and 10% of their students via the Direct School Admission scheme (DSA) respectively. Students apply through exercises conducted by the schools around July and August, receiving notice of the results shortly after. Schools offering the Integrated Programme (IP) can take in as many students as they want via DSA. Other schools have also been granted permission by the Ministry of Education to take in students specialising in the schools' niche areas up to a maximum of 5% of their total student intake.

NUS High School

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Primary School Leaving Examination

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Primary School Leaving Examination claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Primary School Leaving Examination before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Primary School Leaving Examination ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Primary School Leaving Examination

In research: Primary School Leaving Examination appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Primary School Leaving Examination in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Primary School Leaving Examination is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1960 establishments in Singapore, Education in Singapore, Standardized tests, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Primary School Leaving Examination outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Primary School Leaving Examination in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Primary School Leaving Examination means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Primary School Leaving Examination out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Primary School Leaving Examination in simple terms?

Why does Primary School Leaving Examination matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Primary School Leaving Examination?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Primary School Leaving Examination.