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 Based on the latest Primary Science Syllabus implemented since 2008 (available on the MOE website at www.moe.edu.sg), students need to go beyond the facts and the final answers. Students are encouraged to ask questions and appreciate the process of getting to the outcome – known as the Inquiry approach.
For students sitting for the PSLE Science exam this year, this would be their 2nd year of learning science based on this method. While recalling facts, concepts and keywords are still important, they MUST be able to apply logic and reasoning to answer thinking skill-based questions. Only then will they be able to score an A or A* for this paper.
Format of the PSLE Science paper:
| One Paper |
Duration: 1 hour 45 mins |
| Booklet |
Part |
Item Type |
Number of
questions |
Number of marks
per question |
Weighting |
|
A
|
I
|
Multiple-choice
|
30
|
2
|
60%
|
|
A
|
|
Open-ended
|
16
|
2,3,4
|
40%
|
Based on the format shown above, as an example, a student cannot afford to make more than 4 mistakes in MCQ and score at least 23 marks in Section B in order to get an A grade and above (75 marks). Based on input from parents and experienced teachers, we have put together the following tips to help your child excel in the Science exam paper.
1. Get your facts right
This is a given – students must know their facts and understand concepts well. This will help them answer recall-type questions as well as have the foundation to understand and analyse complex scenarios. No fact is less important than another; encourage your child to remember all facts big AND small.
2. Go beyond the school textbook
In addition to the textbook and resource materials from your child’s school, check out textbooks used by other schools and look up other information sources such as Science guidebooks and recommended websites. This will help your child to identify new information about the same topic. When doing revision, read the same topic across several books – this repetition will help to strengthen your child’s recall of core facts and learning points for that topic. This is also more interesting that simply reading the same topic in the book again and again.
3. Study all P3 to P6 topics
Unlike other subjects, the Science topics for Primary 6 are not extensions of the topics already covered during Primary 3,4 and 5. Thus, allocate enough time to revise those topics taught in earlier years as the teacher may not be covering them in detail.
4. Look for links and connections
In real life, we will encounter situations where there isn’t a straightforward answer to explain a given scenario; we may need to apply several principles to arrive at a logical answer. Similarly, encourage your child to see linkages between different concepts. For example, while a lightbulb’s main purpose is to give off light, different types of lighbulbs will give off different levels of brightness and heat. Hence, changing to a different type of lightbulb may not only affect the brightness level of a room but its temperature as well.
5. Recall and restate
To test for understanding, encourage your child to describe in his or her own words the concepts covered in each topic, and ask for examples of how these concepts have been applied. If necessary, do some research together to come up with varied examples. This will help to internalize your child’s understanding of these concepts.
6. Know what the question is looking for
Study each exam question carefully to figure out which topic and scientific concepts are being tested. For example, if a question requires a student to select which materials should be used for making different parts of an object e.g. a car, the student will need to recall the properties of different materials so as to arrive at suitable answers.
7. Write for understanding
Very often, the answers needed for open-ended questions will be lengthy and detailed. Students easily lapse into long, complicated sentences that are confusing to the marker. Give your child ample practice in answering open-ended questions and encourage him or her to write in short-clear sentences, using important keywords in each sentence where necessary. Consider these 2 answers to a question on matter:
Q: John poured 40cm3 of marbles and then 40cm3 of sand into a 60cm3 container. He expected the container to overflow. However, it did not. Explain why.
Answer A: When the marbles are poured inside the container it is almost right on top but there is space beside the marbles and so when the sand is also poured inside the container it goes in until the bottom so all the sand is inside and it does not go outside the container as there is enough space inside for the sand.
Answer B: When the marbles are poured into the container, they are not closely or tightly packed together. There are still some spaces between the marbles. When sand is poured in, it will seep in between the empty spaces and fills up the spaces.
Answer A shows an understanding of the concept of some ‘space’ beside the marbles but does not explain why this is so; the sentence is also long and convoluted. Answer B is better as it takes the form of short sentences with good use relevant words.
8. Analyse scenarios carefully
To score well in Section B, students must be able to analyse scenarios carefully and accurately. Students may give inaccurate or imcomplete answers because they have misunderstood a given scenario or jumped on the first assumption that comes to mind. For example, consider this example:
Raju places a black tape over the blade of a leaf. He thinks that this leaf will die after a few days, as it cannot make food.
Is Raju correct? In this scenario, the important keywords in the question are “die” and “make food”. We can recall that a living thing (in this case a plant) will only die if it doesn’t have air, water and food. However, in this situation, the underside of the leaf is uncovered, water can still reach the leaf from the roots of the plant, and the other leaves in the potted plant can still transport food to the leaf covered with tape through the stem.
Therefore, Raju incorrect – the leaf will not die as it will still be able to take in air from its underside, receive water from the roots and get food from other leaves.
 9. Apply science to real life
Remember that in a Science exam, the answers sought for are those which are able to apply scientific concepts and principles, even if other seemingly ‘logical’ answers come to mind.
Consider this example:
Johan's answer: The rubber handles were easier to grip and they were less slippery.
While this may be true to some extent, a scientific answer should explain that rubber is a poor conductor of heat. Very little heat from the pot would be transferred to the handle. Hence, Johan’s mum would not burn her hands if she were to lift a hot pot of food from the stove.
10. Nurture your child’s natural curiosity
A last word - bearing in mind that Science is everywhere around us, do nurture the natural curiosity in your child. Encourage your child to observe his or her surroundings and look for explanations behind interesting situations. Do not be afraid to NOT know the answer – take this chance to figure it out and discover something new together.
 Do you have other Science Exam tips to share? Do provide your comments below.
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