As the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) draws closer, many P6 students may feel the nervousness of sitting for such a major examination sink in. Many parents of P6 children might also feel uncertainty on behalf of their child and begin looking up ways to help them feel more confident in the leadup to the exams.
Proper preparation is the best way to alleviate exam anxiety and boost your child’s confidence in their own knowledge and capabilities. Active learning strategies are one of the most effective ways children can memorise, understand, relate, and apply their content knowledge as well as finetune their revision process.
Here are some active recall study methods you can work on with your P6 child:
1. Create topical and subject-based flashcards
Flashcards are one of the most common active recall study methods out there – and for good reason! Simple and straightforward, flashcards can be customised to suit your child’s learning needs and style. Whether you’re working on Second Language idioms, hard-to-spell English words, or Maths formulas, flashcards are a useful study tool for any subject.
Make full use of your flashcards by writing a question on one side of the card, and its corresponding answer or explanation on the back. You can easily quiz your child on various concepts while also being able to sort the flashcards depending on how well they understand them. These are useful for helping your child go beyond rote memorisation as they need to be able to understand and explain the concept in question.
2. Practice closed book note-taking
We usually think of note-taking as something done with an open book. However one way to transform this process into a more active learning strategy is through closed book note-taking. Without referring to a textbook, write down as many notes on the concept, topic, or relationship you’re studying. To improve your child’s application, they can angle this as how they would explain the concept to someone else.
Once the notes are complete, refer to the textbook or study guides to see what information was left out. This may sound simplistic but it’s effective at identifying weak spots or gaps in knowledge that still need to be filled. Your child can then know what areas to refocus their attention on so they can make full use of their revision time.
3. Draw mind maps and other visual aids
Who says note-taking only involves words? Visual aids such as mind maps, flow charts, and scientific diagrams can all help transform boring words onto a page into more immediate and understandable examples. This active recall study method can even be used for language-heavy subjects like English or Second Languages, such as using timelines to illustrate different tenses in English.
Don’t be afraid to incorporate external media such as films, comics, or outdoor activities into your learning and revision process either. If properly selected and carried out, these can help children better understand the different applications of what they’re learning and even give them a fun break from hours of revision.
Prepare for your P6 Child’s PSLE with MindChamps
Active learning strategies such as active recall studying are key to the MindChamps method. The PSLE – The Champion Mindset Way tuition programme revolves around our proprietary Optimal Flow Method™ to improve your child’s understanding, higher-order thinking, and application of concepts within their P6 syllabi.
The Optimal Flow Method™ can be applied to any of the 4 key PSLE subjects in its own unique way. This ranges from mastering heuristic techniques for more efficient answering of Maths questions to improving critical thinking skills for a Chinese Oral examination.
On top of covering content knowledge, the programme also teaches answering strategies and helps build resilience to prepare your child for the PSLE. Get in touch to find out more about our programmes in Singapore.