On Thursday (8 Dec), the Singapore Examination and Assessment Board (SEAB) said they would give full credit to any solution used in the PSLE maths paper so long as it is applied correctly.
Source: Thefinance.sg
This comes after parents of a group of Nan Hua Primary School primary 6 (P6) students wrote a forum letter to Lianhe Zaobao.
The 11 parents claimed that despite usually doing well, their children scored much lower in this year’s PSLE maths paper.
In response to Channel NewsAsia’s (CNA) queries about the forum letter, SEAB said full credit would be given to any solution used in the PSLE maths paper.
That is under the condition that it demonstrates the “correct understand and application of mathematical concepts and skills”.
The board specified that this would include using algebra to solve problems.
Source: iStock photo
It was previously believed that SEAB only awarded marks to solutions taught within the syllabus, such as the model method.
SEAB’s statement comes after 11 Nan Hua Primary School P6 students’ parents wrote to Lianhe Zaobao.
They shared that they were shocked upon receiving their children’s PSLE maths results.
The parents claimed that students who typically do well in school maths exams, getting the equivalent of Achievement Level (AL) 1, scored AL3, AL4, or AL5 for their PSLE.
They would not have anything to say if this was due to a single child’s carelessness during the exam, the parents wrote.
But they said, “when almost a third of the class has a similar score gap, it’s hard not to be puzzled”.
The parents submitted an appeal to the Ministry of Education (MOE) and SEAB through the school. They asked for a review of the exam papers.
However, they were informed that the success rate of past appeals was close to zero.
They then questioned the appeal process, which only allowed them to see that the sum of the scores of each part of the subject test paper was correct and not the student’s answer sheet.
This way, they felt there was no way to verify what caused the score discrepancy.
The parents hoped for greater transparency of SEAB’s processes.
They said people will not be convinced if the board ignores parents’ calls to check answer sheets and gives excuses about the system always being accurate.
SEAB states that it has rigorous processes to ensure PSLE papers are set at “appropriate standards” according to the syllabus.
Their panel of exam reviewers includes experienced teachers and specialists from MOE and SEAB.
They ensure the papers have a consistent balance of easy, average, and difficult questions across the years.
Besides that, SEAB shared that the 2022 PSLE maths exam performance was comparable to that of 2021 across the ALs.
However, if candidates find that their grades do not reflect their expected achievements in the subject, they can submit an appeal through their school.
According to CNA, SEAB said appeal processes are established.
During the review of results, an independent senior marker conducts a thorough review of the marking and checks the accuracy of mark entries.
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Featured image adapted from iStock photo and Thefinance.sg.
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