The New Secondary Posting Exercise: What You Should Know

The Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) is a rite of passage for children studying in Singapore. Although the PSLE has undergone several changes in the past, the nerves and worry that afflict parents, teachers and students alike have remained largely the same.

Yet, should this be the case? This is one of the key questions — among other concerns revolving around an overemphasis on grades at the expense of holistic education — that have prompted the Ministry of Education (MOE) to redesign the PSLE scoring system and, accordingly, the secondary school posting exercise.

Here’s what you should know from 2021:

How does the new system differ from the previous one?

Although the new system featuring ALs is similar to the old system in principle, the crucial difference lies in the execution. At first glance, the introduction of ALs does not seem to represent a groundbreaking shift in Singapore’s education system.

However, it joins subject-based banding* as a signal of MOE’s move towards creating more diverse and passion-focussed schools. The key effect of ALs is that students are more broadly differentiated. Instead of the 200+ scores that a student can potentially have, today’s primary school graduates can only have one of 32 ALs.

What does this mean for your child?

How To Maximise Learning Online

To borrow the words of Ernest Hemingway: the normalisation of digital learning happened gradually, and then suddenly. Like it or not, e-learning has become part of our new normal. 

There are perks to learning online, but some of us cannot help but take note of the negatives. For one, studying via the computer screen glues us to the digital device and increases our screen time to horrific amounts, leading to short-term effects such as neck and eye pain—not to mention longer-term implications on our posture and health. 

Next, there is a certain ease to face-to-face learning, as opposed to communicating through the screen. Experts have analysed this and found that the crux lies in body language; specifically, when we are unable to observe non-verbal cues of the people we are communicating with, our brains need to work harder to fill in the gaps. 

Whatever your bone to pick with online learning, let it be known that there are ways for you to harness the power of digital learning whilst side-stepping its more undesired side-effects. 

Here are four easy tips for you to implement:

Limit Screen Time

Although this first tip might sound counter-intuitive, it is crucial to ensuring that you don’t suffer too much from what some have called “Zoom fatigue”, or general malaise from staring too much at your devices. Both of these things negatively affect your mood and productivity, making learning seem more like a chore than it should be! 

Be strict with your screen time. When it is time to log off and rest your eyes, do so — take a solo walk around a neighbouring park (or around your house), help out with household chores, or engage in the non-digital hobby of your choice!

Cater To Your Learning Style

The internet is replete with multiple forms of media, which includes text, audio, images, videos, and any combination thereof. Furthermore, the nature of most e-learning is such that you are not confined to just one space. 

These two factors are excellent news for kinaesthetic, visual, and auditory learners who may find that online learning supplements them with what in-class learning could not. 

For kinaesthetic learners, explore how you can understand new concepts from the comfort of your own homes. For visual and auditory learners, make use of the millions of educational podcasts and videos to bolster your learning. 

For all learners: if you find that you are unable to understand certain concepts, remember that a world of knowledge is available at the click of the mouse. You can easily search for any content that you want to know more about.

Practice Writing Skills

Here at Creative Campus, we have noticed that some of our older students benefit from the ability to type out their essays instead of using the good old pen-and-paper. 

Indeed, if you are a fast enough typer, you will find that essays get done a lot more quickly when they are typed. This is largely a result of the lower physical effort needed in typing, as well as the ability to edit as you go; there’s no need to painstakingly squeeze in or cross out whole sentences when you can simply insert or delete them in a few quick taps. 

So, why not make good use of this affordance? Practise the key skills of  planning and crafting essays on your digital device. When you return to physical writing, you will find that your essay-writing skills have improved. 

Communicate More With Your Teachers

Last but not least, it is important that you communicate regularly with your teachers. If you find online classes lacking or excelling in certain things, make sure to voice them to your Teachers whenever possible. After all, they are trying their utmost to adapt to the new learning format as well.

Tips to Boost Language Scores in GP

In Paper 1 (the essay), the content component differentiates students based on how well they present an argument to the examiner (see * below)

Paper 2 is a little more complicated, as it contains comprehension questions that
test your literal comprehension, vocabulary, and inference skills; a summary question; and an application question (AQ). 

For the comprehension and summary questions, your content score depends on how well you answer the questions according to a pre-set answer key; for the AQ, your content score would be based on how well you identify the author’s key arguments and respond to them.

If you win one, you win them all

As such, this blog post will provide a few tips and tricks to tackling the approach you should take with essay and AQ questions.

Bookend your Body Paragraphs
A cogent essay (and that includes AQ responses!) is all about structure. Specifically, a bookended structure, like so:

Image source
[https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2013/07/13/09/36/bookends-155762_960_720.png]

Thus, the first and last parts of your essay’s macro-structure – the introduction and conclusion – should echo each other. In the same way, the first and last sentences of each body paragraph should also echo each other.

When Planning, Think in Umbrellas

In other words: umbrellas all the way down.

Improve Your Vocabulary in Creative Writing and Composition 

There are many ways to improve your vocabulary. Here are some ways you can hone your word-building prowess:

Part 1: Use Idiomatic Body Parts 

Parts of the body have long featured in how humans express ourselves. Not only do body parts feature heavily in metaphors and idioms alike, there are entire songs dedicated to them! For example, a well-known nursery rhyme goes, "head and shoulders, knees and toes". After all, our bodies and accompanying bodily sensations are the most direct things that we physically experience. Here are some idioms related to body parts:

Head
The head contains the brain, arguably the most important organ in the body. Is it any wonder then that there are a slew of idioms dedicated to the head? Examples you may hear and use in your everyday life include:

• head start (an advantage)
• off the top of my head (without careful thought, often due to lack of time)
• bury one's head in the sand (to ignore an unpleasant reality)

Shoulders
Surprisingly, there are many idioms dedicated to shoulders, which are associated with providing support for one's body. You could...

• be a shoulder to cry on (someone who listens well to someone's problems)
• have responsibilities fall on your shoulder
• give someone the cold shoulder (ignore someone)

Knees... and Toes!
If you bring someone/something to their knees, you have defeated them. What if you're the bee's knees (excellent quality)? There are several more toe-related idioms than knee-related idioms, and these include:

• toe the line (obey the rules)
• keep someone on their toes (keep someone alert and prepared)
• tread on someone's toes (offend someone)

Test Yourself
Can you complete each of the following body part idioms?

Q1. turn a b______ e___
Q2. play by e___
Q3. right u______ one's n____
Q4. up to one's n____
Q5. work one's f_____ to the b____
Q6. b_____f___ in one's s________
Q7. pat on the b____
Q8. b____ of contention
Q9. by the s____ of your t_____
Q10. A______s heel

Answers

A1. turn a blind eye (to sth)
A2. play by ear
A3. right under one's nose
A4. up to one's neck (in sth)
A5. work one's fingers to the bone
A6. butterflies in one's stomach
A7. pat on the back
A8. bone of contention
A9. by the skin of your teeth
A10. Achilles heel

STAY TUNED FOR PART 2... subscribe to our monthly newsletter where we share more tips!

Top 10 Tips to Ace GP: The Lowdown on Language

For junior college students, General Paper (GP) is possibly the last English paper in your lives – the ‘final boss’, so to speak.

Even though the requirements for GP seem straightforward, scoring well is not as simple as it seems. Hopefully, these tips can help you do just that.

Before we begin, a note for the uninitiated: students will have to sit for two papers as part of the GP examination. Paper 1 requires you to write an essay, while Paper 2 is a comprehension piece that additionally includes a summary and application question.

Doing well in all of these components thus requires you to master different skillsets. This blog post will focus on language. Why?

Choose your synonyms wisely

This is especially pertinent when writing summaries and answering ‘in your own words’ questions: do not think that word X can freely substitute the word Y just because the dictionary/thesaurus states that they are synonyms!

Often, dictionaries need to condense immense amounts of word-related information into tiny pockets of data. Resultantly, the  ‘synonyms’ they provide are acontextual – meaning, blind to the way that word X is actually used in the passage. For example, the word ‘candid’ means frank or forthright; however, a  ‘candid photo’ cannot be rephrased as ‘forthright snapshot’.

When you use ‘synonyms’ inappropriately, you show the marker that you are merely rephrasing for the sake of it, which does not bode well for your “Use of Language” score.

Hence, you must consider if the synonym you want to use suits the context at hand. If you are having trouble with force-fitting literal one-to-one rephrases (for example, if you can’t think of a good synonym), try paraphrasing more broadly. For example,

This is for all the people who struggle with essays and AQs. I am a huge fan of signposting, which is the practice of using key words and phrases to guide your reader through your piece.

Signposts express the relationships between concepts in your essay, allowing the reader to understand your flow of logic better.

There are two main types of signposts that you can use. Firstly, there are what people call major signposts, which are the signposting phrases that go at the start of each paragraph.

Then, there are what I like to call minor signposts, which are signposting phrases that go inside paragraphs. Minor signposts relationally link the various ideas that you introduce within each body paragraph. These A.R.E.:

To reiterate, using signposts makes your arguments/discussion more easily understandable to the marker. Their usefulness cannot be overstated!

Sometimes, an essay topic may be particularly complex. Sometimes, a paragraph may seem impossible to paraphrase. At these times, you may have issues with content, let alone language!

If you ever come across this situation, focus on content (after all, it’s two-thirds of your total grade). Ensure that your sentences are grammatically sound and that your points make sense.

For tips on how to improve your content, refer to our next post 🙂

For the Love of Poems and Puns

Valentine’s Day is smack in the middle of February. As such, some people also call it the Month of Love – including us. To commemorate this lovely fact, this post is dedicated to celebrating the L ♡ V E of what we do best – English!

Have you ever pondered on Valentine’s Day card greetings? While the classic type is oft-adorned with simple, swirling penmanship, fancier cards may feature cut-outs, pop-ups, graphics and the like – providing a pleasant visual surprise for the recipient.

Other cards may be fancy, but the cards that we fancy are those plastered with adorable wordplay – who knew! Be it poetry or puns, linguistic surprises always catch our heart. But how do they work?

Poetry

The romantic nature of poems is a tale old as time – or at least, as old as Shakespeare. Some say that it was Shakespeare’s 154 love sonnets that pioneered the modern conception of poetry as romantic.

Indeed, several of the Bard’s pieces are truly iconic in their description of love. I dare say that many of us are familiar with the first line of Sonnet 18: “Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?”
(Bonus points if you can fill in the next sentence! Answers below)

Because poetry uses both the aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language, it can be effectively used to convey depth of love for someone or something. Of course, poetry can be flipped onto its head and thought of as
humorous. Case in point? “Roses are red, violets are blue…” (What are the next two lines?)

Puns

While we’re on the topic of humour, let’s not forget puns! Puns, also known by the technical term ‘paronomasia’, are rhetorical devices that intentionally exploit the similarities between words for comedic effect. Many puns rely on linguistic phenomena such as homophones.

(Sidenote: If you were not privy to the January edition of OnCampus, our monthly e-publication, homophones are words with the same pronunciation, but different meanings. You may sign up for future issues of OnCampus on the bottom of this page.]

As you may expect, homophones and near-homophones are a prolific source of Valentine’s puns.
A pun that uses total homophones would be something like “would you be(e) mine?” In this case, ‘be’ and ‘bee’ sound the exact same. This pun is usually accompanied by bee/honey imagery, as in this vintage Valentine’s Day card.

“Would you be(e) mine” graphic:

Image Credit to https://live.staticflickr.com/5557/15189206665_ddc68211bf_b.jpg

Meanwhile, a pun that incorporates near-homophones might be something like “lettuce (let us) romaine (remain) together forever”.

“Lettuce romaine together forever” graphic:

image credit to https://live.staticflickr.com/1569/24575440269_1e6a68d86c_b.jpg

Here, “lettuce” and “romaine” (which are strewn on the ground in this picture) do not have the exact same pronunciation as the intended words, but they are close enough that the reader immediately thinks of the desired meaning behind the statement – “let us remain together forever”.

Near-homophones are more common (and perhaps, more delightful!) in Valentine’s greetings. Here are some of our favourites, for you to share with your loved ones this Valentine’s:

And here’s one for the Science kids. Can you figure this out?

Answers

1. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18 begins with “Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day? / Thou art more lovely and more temperate”

2. The original short poem goes “Roses are red / violets are blue / sugar’s sweet / and so are you”. However, we’ve heard more than one student come up with their own creative stanzas 

3. “I sulfur (suffer) when you argon (are gone)”. Sulfur and argon are
both chemical elements.

Small Fish in a Big Pond: how to deal with the year ahead

3 bulletproof tips students can arm themselves with

In a blink of an eye, we are on the cusp of a new school year. For all students, every new year is a frightening prospect: not only will there be a brand new curriculum, but also a fresh set of challenges. The questions of “how to handle the more difficult/increased workload?” and “how to juggle my academic and extracurricular commitments?” frequently recur.

Feelings of stress run especially high in the milestone years, where students have to take their national exams (P6, secondary 4) or enter a completely new school (primary 1, secondary 1, junior college/polytechnic/other institutions).

During these important years, we may feel like ‘small fish in a big pond’, unsure of where and how to start the year right. Here are some tips on getting the headstart you need:

The importance of social ties cannot be understated. A close friend, or
group of friends, is not only a good emotional support system; they are
also your go-tos for academic or administrative concerns!

Have a question about transferring CCAs? Ask a friend for advice! Have a question about your math or mother tongue homework? Ask a classmate! Feeling blue? Talk to a friend!

Here’s a pro tip: Include your teacher in this circle of friends. Due to their position in school and teaching knowledge, teachers can often give you advice or help that your peers cannot.

Effective Steps To Surviving The IP

Being in the Integrated Programme has its perks – and make no mistake, it is a privilege that students in the IP track have more autonomy to explore academic subjects as they want. That said, this is not a privilege that one should take lightly.

Before you commence on your IP journey, be prepared to make certain tweaks to your mindset. To borrow the words of Dorothy from Wizards of Oz: Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas primary school anymore.

Your Worst Competitor Is...

One might think that in the absence of an entire national exam (the O Levels, typically slated for a student’s fourth year of secondary school), competition between peers would be less stiff. I honestly think that – just like it is outside of the IP scheme – the degree of competition mostly depends on one’s school environment.

My own IP classes were fortunately far from dog-eat-dog, but I did feel a constant pressure to keep up with my peers in the programme. Others may argue that competition in IP is bound to be more tense, given its reputation for being ‘elite’. 

But this post is not about debate. What I can confidently say is that your internal sense of competition is bound to increase, given the entrance requirements and expectations of the IP, no matter the external environment. That is:

You see where I’m going with this? Do prepare for the fact that your worst competitor (AND critic, all rolled into one) might be yourself. 

If you’re struggling in a competitive environment, many will tell you, “don’t compare yourself to others”. I think it’s important to add: if you feel negatively overwhelmed, don’t compare yourself to who you think you should be, or the stage you think you should be at! This brings me to my next point … 

Give Yourself Time and Space

The IP scheme was introduced in 2002 for the express purpose of allowing students “broader learning experiences that would develop their creativity, critical thinking, intellectual curiosity and leadership skills” (MOE, 2002). These are soft skills in which progress is often not linear, nor immediately visible. 

Create your Own Structure

It is no coincidence that many students who leave the IP midway to pursue an alternative path cite the same reason: because the programme gives so much flexibility, structure has to be self-imposed. 

Taking personal responsibility and staying disciplined thus become crucial to surviving the IP. From CCA and leadership positions to the choice of subjects taken, it is you who will be in charge of carving your own path in the programme. 

I remember doing a lot of introspection in the programme, as I had to decide what choices to make on my own. I cannot say that I made the best ones as a carefree teenager, but I genuinely appreciate the freedom of choice which I was given.

When push comes to shove in the sixth (and last) year of the programme, discipline becomes all the more important. One obstacle that I, and many of my friends, experienced was the transition from blithe independence to the ‘now or never’ mindset that teachers started to drive home.

From my experience, friends who had experienced the O-Level crunch – and were therefore used to the levels of discipline necessary for staying on track – were more mentally equipped for the A-Levels. Still, you need not fret so long as you cultivate discipline within freedom.

3 Powerful And Effective Skills To Write, Speak And Communicate With Impact

Now that we have hopefully put things into perspective, let’s put them into practice. I have compiled a fresh list of ideas that ideally will inject new life into your English learning.

Keep your ears perked

While I believe that books in their written form are timeless artefacts, they are not the be-all-end-all of language improvement. This is especially so if you are not a learner that thrives on written linguistic stimuli. 

Build your reading stamina 

If your purpose is to excel in school comprehensions and essay writing, I still do suggest that you ensure you have the stamina to understand or write an entire short text. If need be, you can slowly build up your ability to concentrate on texts:

Related post: Valuable Tips To Improving English

Make conscious effort

Will Smith famously once said, “if you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready”, and it’s a good motto to prepare for exams by. Once you make conscious effort at the beginning of your learning process, it becomes much easier to keep it a habit. 

dis-: has the sense of negation, like in ‘disbelief’ (not-belief) or ‘dissimilar’ (not similar)

junction: a common enough word, like in ‘road junction’. We know that it’s “a point where two or more things are joined” (Oxford English Dictionary).

Hence, if we see the word ‘disjunction’, we can safely assume that it means something ‘not-joined’, which is similar to its dictionary definition: “a lack of correspondence or consistency”.

That’s all we have for today. Enjoy the process!

Additional links:

List of audiobooks, available online

List of podcasts suitable for teenagers

More about words

A FRESH LOOK AT ENGLISH FUNDAMENTALS

Greek mythology tells of a king named Sisyphus, punished by Zeus for an act of deceit. In the story, Sisyphus is eternally tasked to roll an enormous boulder up a steep hill, only to watch helplessly as the boulder inevitably rolls down when it reaches the top. 

Today, the Oxford English Dictionary defines “Sisyphean” as “denoting a task that can never be completed”. A Sisyphean task – this is what I think of when friends and family ask me for quick and easy ways to improve their English.

To me, learning is a life-long process, and few can ensure learning that is both immediate and authentic. I can, of course, do my best to help. 

STICK TO THE BASICS AND GO WIDE

How many of us here have heard that to get better at a language, we have to listen, read, write, and speak? Although these so-called four ‘language skills’ seem simple in theory, many people either under- or overthink them, leading to much spinning of their wheels.

The fact is that neither discounting the practice of fundamental usage skills, nor obsessing over the kind of material to consume, is beneficial towards the learner. All listening, reading, writing, and speaking will be helpful; in fact, the more diverse the content you consume, the better.  

DEVELOP DIVERSITY BY READING ANYTHING KNOWLEDGEABLE 

There is no ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ type of thing to read! When I was younger, literature reigned king, and so I was told to only read books. Today, primary school students take Media Studies, which is “designed to train students to be media literate individuals” (SEAB, 2017).

Indeed, improving our English means being able to understand any text, so that we can critically think about its content or communicate effectively with its author. 

To borrow the words of linguist Wilhem von Humboldt: language is the ‘infinite use of finite means’. English, like any other language, does not draw from a fixed pool of knowledge.

Outside the classroom – which is to say, in the grander scheme of things – English is used in multifarious ways. Reading (and listening, speaking, and writing) diversely is a surefire way to improve without even feeling like you’re trying. It’s like ‘learning by osmosis’!

EXERCISE YOUR BRAIN FOR BETTER RECALL AND MEMORY

I may be biased as a Linguistics major, but delving into the history of language and words is one of my favourite ways to improve. Have you ever looked at a list of irregular verbs and wondered why English grammar was so hard to master?

Have you ever looked at an idiom and questioned how exactly their meaning could differ so drastically from its literal one? Well, your answers lie in history – how English has changed over time. 

This video, for example, explains why irregular verbs even exist:

By looking up how a particularly difficult-to-remember grammar or vocabulary point has evolved over time to be the way it currently is, you equip yourself with a mnemonic device that will concretise your memory further.