Sitting for major examinations such as the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) doesn’t just test a student’s content knowledge and mastery. Soft skills such as prioritising which questions to answer first, effective communication, and time management are all key to ensuring that your child walks out of the exam room feeling confident in their performance.
Learning time management skills and how to properly portion out the right amount of time for each question type can aid in managing exam-related anxiety and help your child keep a cool head even under pressure.
Teaching them such skills will also give them reliable strategies to turn to in the future for their GCE ‘O’ Levels, post-secondary education, or even when they enter the workforce.
Here are some PSLE time management tips for children you can begin practicing at home:
1. Play to their strengths depending on the subject
Your child will know their strengths and weaknesses better than anyone else. For example they can breeze through answering English Grammar Cloze questions, or prefer Maths MCQs to open-ended problems.
A popular time management strategy for timed assessments is to prioritise the sections you feel most confident in. This could even mean skipping to the end of the exam booklet and doing questions in an ‘irregular’ order. Clearing their strong areas first instills confidence in your child by reassuring them that they have prepared properly and are ready for the exam.
2. Practice with time limits for different question types
It is easy to lose track of time when working on challenging questions and can lead into a panicky spiral lasting for the rest of the paper. This is why it’s important to work on sample timed exam papers so your child can gain experience with portioning out sufficient time to answer as many questions as possible.
Set timers for different question types or sections as well. This provides a useful guide for whether your child is spending too much time on a particular question and can help you see their current gaps in knowledge.
Conversely if they are spending a short amount of time on a question and still getting it wrong it can be a sign that they do not fully understand the underlying concept properly.
Over time time management skills such as these will help your child better understand how they can plan their own answering strategy during the actual PSLE.
3. Understand the value of breaks
Ideally your child should have some time left over to look through their answers and double-check their work. The amount of time they need for this will vary from paper to paper and subject to subject so it’s best to get them used to double-checking their work during the preparation and revision stage.
When working on mock papers, you can set a shorter time limit than what it would be during the exam. This will help your child gauge if they can finish a full paper and still have leftover time to spare.
If your child gets overwhelmed while working on practice papers you can also let them know it’s okay to take a quick break for several minutes and mentally regroup before continuing.
During a high-stakes and high-stress environment like taking an exam it’s very common for people – at any age – to freeze up and draw a blank for a question they actually know the answer to. Exam anxiety can happen to anyone and it’s better that your child finds ways to ground themselves and recentre on the exam rather than push on and feel even more distressed.
Get your Child Ready for the PSLE with MindChamps
In the last few months leading up to the PSLE, stress levels can be high for children and parents alike. Teaching skills such as time management not only prepares them for their exam but can enhance their emotional openness and confidence too.
Here at MindChamps we focus on both improving content knowledge and reinforcing soft skills including time management and active recall through PSLE – The Champion Mindset Way. Specially designed for Primary 5 and 6 students, this enrichment programme has a comprehensive curriculum which includes thorough exam strategies, exam simulations, and post-exam analyses to best support your child throughout their PSLE journey.
Get in touch to enrol or visit any MindChamps centre near you for more information.