At this moment, year end examination is in the process in many schools. Keatkeat’s first paper was on 13th September and his last paper would be on 1st November, which is one day before his birthday. *clap clap clap* Lots of breaks in between. Total 7 ‘examinable’ days.

Conversations between parents outside the school gate often includes,
“What do you do to your child during exam time?”
“How do you help him to prepare for exam?”
“No TV;”
“No Play;”
“Let him/her do past years examination papers;”
“Specially get past years examination papers from those Top Primary School for my child;”
“Let him/her keep practicing his/her weaker subjects, no time to waste;”

Then the conversation would change to,
“Kids nowadays are so pitiful. So much to learn and to do.”
“No choice. Have to do it. Or will fail exam then become a useless fellow in future.”

I am sorry.
For me, totally disagree.
Your child has lots of work to do because you gave your child more work to do on top of school work.
Your child does not need grades from school to become a useful human being in future.
There are so many millionaires and successful people out there who were school dropouts. So grades are NOT the ONLY determinant factor.

I know of a child who did badly in school and all that the parents know is ‘throw‘ the child in a tuition centre or engage private tutor, when in the beginning the parents did not play a good role in teaching.

Remember my previous post “Your Child is Not Stupid“, I said “Your Child Is Not Stupid, Its You Who Does Not Know How To Teach Effectively.”

Revision is not for examination only, but a daily routine.
I do not believe in cramming for exams at the eleventh hour. Because it creates unnecessary stress on the child and it causes the child to fear exam.

Every day, I would give my boys, Primary 2 and Kindergarten 2, worksheets for all 3 subjects; English, Mathematics and Chinese. Unless they have homework from school, then the revision for that particular subject will be missed. For example, if there are Chinese and English homework from School, then I will only give him revision for Mathematics.

After revising each subject, a 30mins break is given before the next revision for the next subject begins. When all three subjects had been revised, its play time all the way till lullaby hour. I am a strong believer in striking a balance between fun and work. Study time is just as important as play time. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

Ever since I became a Mummy, I speak to my children in English because from Mathematics, to Science, to Geography, to History, to Literature, to Art n Crafts, to Home Economics, to Technical Studies, to Chemistry, to Biology, to Physics and every other possible subjects (except Mother Tongue: Chinese); ALL teachers teach ALL subjects using English language (except for Mother Tongue).

Therefore I strongly believe that English is more important than Chinese and any other subject. English must be the foundation. When your child’s English foundation is poor, it will affect every other subject that will come along the way throughout Primary and Secondary education.

Therefore to me, English should be emphasized the day my children were born, in order to build that foundation.

With that said and WITHOUT any conflicting emotions in me at all, when my children goes to Primary School, all 3 basic subjects: English, Mathematics and Chinese, should be given the same effort IN TERMS OF REVISION. Once the English foundation is built, time used on revision for all subjects should be equal.

Revision is not for the sake of getting good grades for exams. Revision is a lifelong process. What you see less, read less, speak less, you will forget. True?
Therefore, revision should be done on a daily basis and NOT for tests or examination period only.

When revision is done daily, your child will not feel unnecessary stress during exams or tests. Unnecessary stress causes more careless mistakes because the child tends to over-think when answering the questions.

Exams are NOT Stressful. The Stress on the child comes from the Parents. Its how the parents paint the ‘exam picture‘ to the child, that makes the child fear exam.

“I want you to get 90/100 for all subjects.”
“I don’t want to see any careless mistakes on your exam paper. I will punish you for every careless mistakes made.”
“Don’t fail this paper or I will NOT give you ________, which you want, as a punishment.”

Is the child studying for knowledge, or studying to please the parents, or simply to prevent being punished?

These unnecessary stress may lead to poor health, poorer concentration or may even lead to peeking/copying during exams.

Studying is not scary.
School is not boring.
Studying is not to find a good job but to increase knowledge.
School is a place to learn to handle different levels of human relationships and improve on discipline.
Studying in school is supposed to be Fun for children and not something that the child feels reluctant to go to.

I have said it before and I will say it again:
I LOVE EXAMINATIONS!
There are so much things to look forward to!

  • During exams period, there is no proper lesson because all the curriculum had been completed.
  • During exams period, there are hardly any homework.
  • During exams period, there are so much more free time.
  • And the best part is AFTER exams its SCHOOL HOLIDAYS!

*clap clap clap*

And I am instilling this ‘look-forward-to-exam’ attitude into my boy and that little fellow has no problem absorbing that! *laugh* ‘cos once the exams are over, he celebrates his birthday!

So to my son, exams or not, there is no difference and I would like to keep it that way. Without unnecessary exam stress, he is at his best. *Grin*