The journey to PSLE

This year marks the 12th year as a mum to my eldest child. Not a year I am looking forward to, especially this four letter word "PSLE" (no pun intended). It is the year where majority parents start to get super concerned about the changes to the PSLE examination format, the scoring system, examination dates and so on. Yes! Welcome to the reality of PSLE in Singapore. 

PSLE was never been one of the big life changing phases in my entire education life. I never knew what stress was until I took my O-level examination. In fact, my mum was the cool one, never interfere or gave me any pressure about my studies or ask me which Secondary School I was aiming for. She just let me be myself and I would follow the tuition/self-revision schedule set by the student hostel I was staying at that time. All she did was asked me how many marks I had gotten for my PSLE score. Yup! Short and sweet question indeed.

Now, PSLE has taken over parents in Singapore as if the storm is brewing. Sometimes I think being parents of the current generation is living a more stressful life than the past. It could be due to the reason that we no longer think our children can handle their revisions or examinations on their own. Looking at the vast education changes, the topics they are learning now are much in depth than we used to learn in Primary School (no wonder nowadays there is a need for parents to go for "tuition" in order to teach/guide their children). There are times whereby I could not even help to explain some questions which my son is doing now.

As a mum, I try to give him whatever support he lacks in terms of studies. Sourcing for suitable PSLE books that will be beneficial for him as well as trying to outsource external help so that he can have the best people to guide him. Despite all that help he needs, we try to let him enjoy himself by doing stuff he likes to de-stress. At least the minimal effort to strike a balance is better than none.

School exams have started and mountains of worksheets and test papers are waiting to be done on top of school work. I hope for nothing but the best my son can do to achieve his goal. Giving him the moral and mental support is more important for reassurance and let him aware that family is always behind him no matter what happened. 

Having said that, we were taking a walk leisurely the other night and our son commented about his thought on PSLE. In return, hb gave him some advice "It does not matter which Secondary School you go to or what marks you are getting, what matters is you are applying what you have learnt during these six years of your Primary School education and apply it during your PSLE examination."