At the Primary School Leaving Examination (better known as just PSLE), oral takes up 15% of the English grade and 25% of the Chinese grade. It is not simply a component to be ignored! Beyond the exams, verbal skills like articulating clearly and making meaningful conversation are also key to effective communication and relationship-building, be it in one’s social life or future working life.
As the PSLE Oral exams are coming up in August, it is a good time to understand the PSLE oral syllabus and take a stock check of how your child is doing in this aspect.
English PSLE oral exam format
The PSLE English exam format consists of 4 papers, with the oral exam being named Paper 4 (although it takes place the earliest). The PSLE English oral exam consists of the Reading Aloud section and the Stimulus-Based Conversation section.
Students are typically given 5 minutes to look through the reading passage and visual stimulus before the actual exam commences.
In Reading Aloud, students will be asked to read a passage aloud. This section is scored out of 10 marks. In the Stimulus-Based Conversation section, the examiner will ask a few questions and students will need to answer. This section is for a total of 20 marks.
Both components of the oral exam totals 30 marks, which makes up 15% of the PSLE English subject grade.
English Oral key skills
If you are wondering what students will be graded on in the PSLE oral exam, the syllabus provided by SEAB and MOE gives quite a clear outline of the skills students should demonstrate.
For reading:
- Students should be able to read with good pronunciation, clear articulation and appropriate intonation in order to convey the information, ideas and feelings in a passage
- Students should be able to produce a well-paced, fluent reading of a passage.
For conversation:
- Students should be able to express their personal opinions, ideas and experiences clearly and effectively in conversing with the examiner
- Students should be able to speak fluently and with grammatical accuracy, using a range of appropriate vocabulary and structures
Chinese PSLE Oral exam
Each of the Mother Tongue Language subjects have similar formats for the oral exam but with slight differences. All of them involve a reading section and a conversation section. One main difference in the Chinese PSLE oral exam as compared to the English oral is that the former requires students to respond to a short video as the stimulus, rather than using an image. To factor in time to watch the video, the preparation time for each student is longer, at about 10 minutes.
The weightage of the oral component also differs across the languages. In Chinese, oral is 25% of the entire subject’s grade.
Tips for scoring well in PSLE Oral
Regardless of the language, oral skills at PSLE level can be improved with a few good habits. You can practise these with your child at home or, additionally, engage a PSLE English tutor or PSLE Chinese tutor to provide more targeted coaching.
Listen and learn
To pick up good pronunciation and intonation, we recommend listening to how others speak and emulating good examples. Make it a habit to listen to good examples of speaking, like news broadcasts and podcasts or audiobooks.
Think before you speak
There is no backspace button in speech! We advise students to take a moment (but not too long!) to think before they respond. Formulate your sentence before you speak it – this also helps to reduce unwanted fillers (e.g. ‘erm’ and ‘uh’) – and use a framework (e.g. “PEEL”) to help you structure your answer.
Thinking, writing, and speaking are quite different activities. Even if you are quite good at writing, you may need more practice with speaking! Speaking to an audience requires managing the nerves and enunciating clearly. Encourage your child to speak aloud when they practice, and make yourself available (or engage to tutor) to be your child’s audience.
Be well-informed about a wide range of topics
Language skills are not enough to score well in oral. You need the content knowledge to share meaningful insights about various topics. We recommend browsing through past year’s topics and making a list of related topics. Encourage your child to read news articles, talk about the posters and advertisements they see, and be comfortable sharing their personal opinions and experiences.
Although the PSLE Oral exams do not take up as high a weightage as the written papers, it is still worth investing time into developing your child’s verbal skills, as it has practical uses beyond the exams. If you are planning to engage a tutor for your child’s PSLE preparation, do enquire about how they prepare students for components like oral and listening comprehension.
In Future Academy’s PSLE Tuition, we strive to provide students with a holistic approach to learning, through multi-modal teaching, systematic methods, and interactive activities. Let’s get your child prepared for the PSLE, whether it is their written papers, listening, or oral exams!