Changes in PSLE Syllabus
The main changes from 2017 in the Psle Syllabus and format mainly affects the PSLE Mathematics and Science papers.
PSLE Mathematics
- The changes made to the PSLE Mathematics syllabus will only take effect from 2018 and affect students who are Primary 5 in 2017 and those batches after.
The PSLE Mathematics paper will still have two papers consisting of three booklets:
- Paper 1
For Paper 1, the total duration to complete the paper will be increased from 50 min to 1 hour as the total attainable score will be increased from 40 to 45.
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Booklet A: Multiple- Choice Questions (MCQ)
There will be no changes for this booklet. There will still be 15 MCQ questions – 10 questions carrying 1 mark each and 5 questions carrying 2 marks per question. -
Booklet B: Short-Answer Questions (SAQ)
Booklet B is where the changes are made. Instead of having 10 SAQ carrying 1 mark each and 5 questions carrying 2 marks each, there will be 5 SAQ carrying 1 mark per question and 10 other SAQ carrying 2 marks per question.
- Paper 2
As for paper 2, the total attainable score will be reduced from 60 to 55 and the duration to complete the paper has been reduced from 1h 40min to 1h 30min. There will be 5 short-answer questions carrying 2 marks each like the previous format, but now 12 structured questions carrying 45 marks in total which can vary from 3 to 5 marks per question.
Thus, on the whole, the weightage of Paper 1 has been increased, and now both papers hold almost equivalent weightage to the final grade.
PSLE Science
The changes made to the PSLE Science paper will take effect from students taking the paper in 2017.
The updated syllabus is as follows:
Changes in PSLE Grading System
From 2021 onwards, the PSLE aggregate score will be replaced by a system that grades based on Achievement Levels (ALs). This change is in MOE’s efforts to reduce the fine differentiation between students who attain scores with marginal differences.
There will be 8 Achievement levels (ALs), with AL1 being the best and AL8 being the lowest score.
Students who score within the same raw mark range will be given the same Achievement Level. The final PSLE score will be the sum of the ALs for all four subjects.
There will be no changes to the streams in the Secondary Schools. The required score to enter the various streams is as shown below:
The new grading system will also affect the Secondary One (S1) Posting. Academic grades will still be the main consideration when it comes to admission, but the child’s citizenship and choice order of schools will be taken into consideration as well. Computerized balloting will be done if the previous considerations have been exhausted.
Students who took Higher Mother Tongue (HMT) will continue to have priority over admission into SAP schools. Although it does not add to the PSLE score directly, they will be granted admission before non-HMT students if both students attain the same PSLE score.
