Challenging questions in PSLE capped at 15% yearly to maintain consistent standard of difficulty: MOE

SINGAPORE: The Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) is kept at a “consistent standard of difficulty” over the years, with 15 per cent of questions classified as “challenging” each year, said the Ministry of Education’s (MOE) director-general of education on Friday (Jul 15). 

In a post on LinkedIn and MOE’s Schoolbag website, Ms Liew Wei Li noted that in recent years, specific mathematics problems in the PSLE papers have been “the centre of public discussion and debate”. 

However, such questions are “actually few and far between” in the examinations, she wrote. 

“It is important to remember that the overall standard of any examination paper is determined by the mix of questions as a whole, and not by just the ‘Helen and Ivan’ question for that year,” the post read. 

The "Helen and Ivan" question refers to a question in the 2021 Mathematics PSLE paper that was reportedly so difficult that it sent students home in tears.

“In Singapore, the PSLE is kept at a consistent standard of difficulty across the years. This standard is maintained by capping the proportion of questions that are classified as 'challenging' at 15 per cent each year,” wrote Ms Liew in her post. 

“What this means is that there will only be a few challenging questions set each year, making up about 15 marks of the paper.” 

The PSLE is designed to cater to students of different abilities, and the “majority” of questions are accessible to most students, Ms Liew wrote. 

A “small number” of questions allow stronger students to “demonstrate their mastery” of the subject, she continued. 

“At the heart of the matter, no parent ever wishes for their child to become disappointed while in the pursuit of their goals. As parents, we wish to multiply our children’s joys, whilst protecting them from adversities and hurt,” Ms Liew said in her post. 

“Yet we cannot shield them from all the difficulties and setbacks that they may face in life. Tests and examinations, just like sports or arts competitions, are some early opportunities for us to teach our children about courage, and having the resilience and determination, to work towards our goals.” 

NEW PSLE SCORING SYSTEM

The PSLE provides parents and teachers with a “snapshot of learning”, to find out where the child is in terms of learning, and what their strengths and weaknesses are, she wrote. 

With the new PSLE Achievement Level system, which was rolled out from 2021, each student’s score for each subject is “truly a reflection” of their own mastery of the subject, said Ms Liew in her post. 

Under this system, students taking the PSLE receive Achievement Levels of 1 to 8 for each of their four subjects, with their final score made up of the sum of these achievement levels. 

“There is no bell curve, and no quotas imposed on the number of students for each AL (achievement level) band,” wrote Ms Liew. 

The “majority” of students find the PSLE standards “manageable”, and their scores are usually distributed towards the higher end, with almost 50 per cent of students achieving 75 marks or more, or AL4 or better, across all subjects. 

“Cohort performance aside, at the end of the day, every parent wants our child to have options,” wrote Ms Liew. 

“The PSLE results provide crucial information on the kind of educational choices that are suitable for our children, based on their current abilities. They help us guide our children to make appropriate secondary school and subject-level choices.”