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Mastering Maths: Your ultimate guide to excelling in PSLE
Maths can be a challenging subject for many students, but with the right approach, anyone can master it.
So, we’ve created this guide to provide you and your child with the tips and tools needed to ace the PSLE Maths exam. After all, at Geniebook, we hope to equip each child with the tools they need to learn smarter, not harder.
In this article, we’ll cover the best ways to study for the Maths exam, including how to improve your understanding of the concepts, how to develop problem-solving skills, and how to achieve success.
How to study Maths: Understanding Maths concepts
1. Focus on understanding concepts, not just memorising formulas
The Ministry of Education, Singapore (MOE) designs the Maths curriculum and exams in a way that students develop a core understanding of the concepts. They shouldn’t be applying formulas for the sake of applying them, but actually understand the problem and use creative thinking to solve them. That's why we've come across challenging problems such as the triangle and semi-circle questions in previous PSLE exams.
While these questions are challenging, if your child masters the art of solving them, they’ll not just get a good PSLE grade, but also develop an essential life skill - problem-solving.
So, to truly understand Maths, guide your child to focus on the underlying concepts, not just memorise formulas.
Instead of simply trying to remember how to solve a problem, take the time to understand why this particular solution helped solve the question. Ask your child if they can think of any other way that they can reach the same solution.
When teaching a new topic, such as the concept of speed, it can be helpful to provide students with questions from previous papers to solve together. By examining a variety of questions and working through them collaboratively, students can gain a deeper understanding of the topic at hand.
We have a range of free exam papers here that you can download to help you in this process.
2. Break complex concepts into smaller parts
If your child is struggling to understand a complex Maths concept, help them by showing them that they can break it into smaller parts.
This will make the concept easier to understand while helping you identify weak areas where your child needs to focus their attention more.
You can do this by identifying the key concepts in the topic and then working your way through each part until you have a complete understanding of the topic.
Let's take a moment to understand how you can do this at home.
Imagine that your child has a problem understanding percentages. Here's a step-by-step guide on how you can break down the complex topic of percentages into bite-sized chunks to help your child master the concept in two months.
- Week 1: Introduce the concept of fractions: Start by teaching your child about fractions, as percentages are essentially a way of expressing a fraction as a number out of 100. Begin by showing them how to write fractions and explain how they represent a part of a whole.
- Week 2: Explain the concept of "per cent": Next, introduce the idea of "per cent," which means "per hundred." Show them how to write the symbol for percent (%), and explain that it represents a fraction with a denominator of 100.
- Week 3: Teach how to convert fractions to percentages: Once your child understands fractions and per cent, you can show them how to convert a fraction to a percentage. Start with simple fractions such as 1/2 or 1/4 and show them how to multiply the fraction by 100 to get the percentage.
- Week 4: Practice converting percentages to fractions: After your child has mastered converting fractions to percentages, practice the opposite skill of converting percentages back to fractions.
- Week 5: Discuss percentage as a way of representing parts of a whole: Use examples of everyday situations such as dividing a pizza or sharing candy bars to explain how percentages can be used to represent parts of a whole.
- Week 6: Show how to calculate percentages of a quantity: Teach your child how to calculate percentages of a quantity, such as finding 20% of 100. Start with easy examples and work your way up to more complex calculations.
- Week 7: Discuss the concept of percentage increase or decrease: Explain how percentages can be used to represent changes in a value, such as a percentage increase or decrease. Use examples such as a store offering a 20% discount or a salary increase of 5% to demonstrate this concept.
- Week 8: Provide plenty of practice problems: Finally, provide your child with plenty of practice problems to reinforce their understanding of percentages. You can use worksheets, quizzes, or even everyday situations to test their knowledge.
By breaking down the concept of percentages into these smaller parts and providing plenty of practice problems, your child should be able to understand and solve almost any percentage problem when they sit for their PSLE Maths exam.
3. Practice, Practice, Practice
To truly master Maths concepts, your child needs to practice.
This means working through problems on their own. Look for practice problems in your textbook or online resources, and don't be afraid to ask their teacher or tutor for extra practice material. The more they practice, the more comfortable they will become with math concepts.
👉 Pro tip: After your child solves a worksheet, look at the questions that they have not answered correctly and explain where they went wrong. The next day, ask them to solve the question again. If they do it correctly, pat them on the back. In the next few days, you can change the numbers, or make minor changes to the question and ask them to solve it again...do it until they master the solution and you're confident that they can solve such questions correctly before moving on.
If your child is making many careless mistakes, we have tips on how to help them make fewer mistakes here.
If you like solving challenging Maths questions, you should check out Geniebook Arena.
The arena is open for all Primary 1 to 6 students. They can team up with their friends and solve daily Maths and Science quizzes to win exciting prizes. The best part is that the students can choose the prize they like - we have everything from Roblox gift cards to Coloured Orbeez soft crystal water paintball bullets!
So, what are you waiting for?
Make a team and start playing!
