It is no secret that time management is vital, especially for students. Time management skills are now more important than ever, given the recent announcement that all Primary and Secondary schools will be free of mid-year exams. While it is true that they were a potential cause for stress, there is also no denying that these mid-year exams were a good opportunity for students to have a gauge of their performance and time management skills whilst sitting for the paper.
Learning to allocate the right amount of time for each type of question can help aid in alleviating exam-anxiety significantly. Moreover, it also ensures that your child has enough time to answer all questions in their exam paper.
Help your child gear up for PSLE and brush up on their time management skills with these 3 helpful tips.
1. Work smart
Your child knows their own strengths and weaknesses best. After all, they are the ones tackling the questions!
No matter how academically-incline your child may be, everyone has things they are good at, and things that they may struggle with. For instance, your child may breeze through questions on Geometry but struggle with Ratio and Percentages.
Learning to work smart is crucial. Prioritising the sections or questions that you are most confident in is a popular time management strategy many students adopt. This might involve skipping over some questions first and completing the paper in an “irregular” sequence. The reason for this is to ensure that your child secures as many points as possible. The last thing you’d want is for your child to spend too much time on a question that they are obviously stuck on, and miss out on those they could have answered with ease.
2. Planning your time
It can be easy to lose track of time and spend too much time on the earlier half of the paper, which results in having to scramble to complete the remaining questions. Similarly, it can also be easy to get carried away trying to solve challenging questions, which can lead to a panic spiral for the rest of the paper.
Thus, it is important to learn to plan one’s time. Allocating a time limit to each section of the exam paper is one way to do so. For instance, 2 minutes could be allocated to questions worth 2 marks, while 8 to 10 minutes could be allocated to those worth 5 marks. Having this useful guide helps your child figure out if they are spending too much time on a particular question and if they should move on.
3. Practice
There is no better way to build one’s PSLE time management skills than practice! Simulate the actual examination by getting your child to complete practice or past-year papers under the stipulated duration. This helps your child gauge if they can finish a full paper and still have time to spare to check through their answers.
Furthermore, if your child often gets overwhelmed in a high-stress environment like the exam hall, then working on some timed practices can do wonders for helping them ground themselves to push through the exam.
Conclusion
PSLE preparation can be stressful, but it doesn’t have to be! If you’re looking for additional support for your child during the months leading up to the PSLE, consider enrolling them in private home tuition in Singapore.
Here at Premium Tutors, we provide exceptional home tuition service in Singapore, for all levels and subjects. Whether you are looking for Math home tuition or English home tuition in Singapore, our dedicated tutors are committed to helping your child achieve academic excellence. Besides imparting their knowledge on the syllabus and helping your child gain a deeper understanding of the content, our tutors will also share their tips and tricks on exam strategies, including time management! In other words, we work together with you to fully support your child in their PSLE journey.
Contact us today to learn more.