MOE's joke to PSLE's student and their Parent...

And we are not amused!!!..................

From yahoo news...

SINGAPORE: The first thing her son did when he came out from the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) maths paper on Thursday this week was to gesture as if he was "slitting his throat".

"One look at his face and I thought ’oh no’. I could see that he felt he was condemned," said Mrs Karen Sng. "When he was telling me about how he couldn’t answer some of the questions, he got very emotional and started crying. He said his hopes of getting (an) A* are dashed."

Not for the first time, parents are up in arms over the PSLE Mathematics paper, which some have described as "unbelievably tough" this year. As recently as two years ago, the PSLE Mathematics paper had also caused a similar uproar.

The reason for Thursday’s tough paper, opined the seven parents whom MediaCorp spoke to, was because Primary 6 students were allowed to use calculators while solving Paper 2 for the first time. Paper 2 makes up 60 per cent of the entire paper and consists of 18 questions.

Said Mrs Vivian Weng: "I think the setters feel it’ll be faster for them to compute with a calculator. So the problems they set are much more complex; there are more values, more steps. But it’s unfair because this is the first time they can do so and they do not know what to expect!"

These parents’ children are studying in both neighbourhood and "top" schools.

In response to MediaCorp’s queries, the Education Ministry said this year’s paper was "comparable" to those of previous years. "There is no change in syllabus, question types or number of questions," a spokesperson said.

"The introduction of the use of calculators does not have any bearing on the difficulty of paper. The use of calculators has been introduced into the primary maths curriculum so as to enhance the teaching and learning of maths by expanding the repertoire of learning activities, to achieve a better balance between the time and effort spent developing problem solving skills and computation skills. Calculators can also help to reduce computational errors."

But the parents MediaCorp spoke to said students were apparently so stumped that many — even top students who have regularly aced past school examinations — broke down in tears in right after the paper.

Private maths tutor Josephine Tan whose son studies at Anglo—Chinese School (Junior), said he told her that "many A* students in the top class... couldn’t finish all the questions".

According to posts on an online forum for parents, one example of the problem sums given was: "Jim bought some chocolates and gave half of it to Ken. Ken bought some sweets and gave half of it to Jim. Jim ate 12 sweets and Ken ate 18 chocolates. The ratio of Jim’s sweets to chocolates became 1:7 and the ratio of Ken’s sweets to chocolates became 1:4. How many sweets did Ken buy?"

Mrs Tan said: "They have spent months revising and preparing, but it’s so much tougher than they expected. It really put a big dent on students’ morale."

Another common gripe: There was not enough time for them to complete the paper.

A private tutor, who declined to be named, told MediaCorp she concurred with parents’ opinions. "This year’s paper demanded more from students. It required them to read and understand more complex questions, and go through more steps, so time constraints would have been a concern," the 28—year—old said.

However, the parents’ fear of poor grades for their children may be unfounded since they will be compared against the entire cohort’s performance.

And the answer to the question? 68.

So after sharing each of them have same number of sweets and chocolate.

So the ration they have is S:C for both.

Now Jim ate 12 sweets, so S-12:C = 1:7

Ken ate 18 chocolates, so S:C-18 = 1:4

Thus, 7(S - 12) = C

7S - 84 = C

and 4S = C -18 or C = 4S +18

Subst into first eqn, 7S - 84 = 4S +18

3S = 18 +84
=102

S=34

Therefore, Jim and Ken has 34 sweets each.

Thus total number of sweets = 34 + 34 = 68.

Now, who else can solve this?

ok now.. who wanna hire Sunny as Maths Tutor, please contact MissMoon..

i hold a LSE honors degree, took a module in mathematical methods as well as another module in ADVANCED mathematical methods..

guess what!

it still took me like 10 whole minutes to figure that nonsense out.

singapore should have it's own "who's smarter than a 5th grader " only this time, it should be.. "who's smarter than the PSLE"

sunny wrote:

So after sharing each of them have same number of sweets and chocolate.

So the ration they have is S:C for both.

Now Jim ate 12 sweets, so S-12:C = 1:7

Ken ate 18 chocolates, so S:C-18 = 1:4

Thus, 7(S - 12) = C

7S - 84 = C

and 4S = C -18 or C = 4S +18

Subst into first eqn, 7S - 84 = 4S +18

3S = 18 +84
=102

S=34

Therefore, Jim and Ken has 34 sweets each.

Thus total number of sweets = 34 + 34 = 68.

Now, who else can solve this?

u can solve it with algebra, but take note that these people are pri 6 kids and don't know algebra yet. so they have to solve the problem with simple diagrams and logic mostly.

i used to encounter this problem alot in pri sch, my parents and elder relatives used to solve the questions with algebra, and i would get into trouble when i handed the correct answer in. haha

i wanna see the Pri 6 answer for this.. i m really curious how can this be solved using other methods..

eermmm,
missmoon's maths cannot make it, i stared at it for 10 mins.. and i gave up..

You dun need algebra. You just replace what i said with diagrams. Shade boxes. I don't want todo that and post picture.

hmm... when i took my PSLE, i do use algebra to solve my PSLE math... easier that way... then again... i had about 4 yrs of primary school educations in Malaysia and that the math standard in Msia are actually better than those in Spore on the same level...

not sure now tho...

but my gut feeling and experience tells me that many Sporean are weaker in chinese and math...

now i am Sporean... sign..

Imagine a P6 handling that question, they would go like huh.... how to answer ar? MOE's tester going nuts liao. Give you a calculator but expect you to answer more complicated answer.

MOE, come on and have some common sense... Singapore already have one of the world's top, in below age suicides... Dont rub salt to it..

sunny wrote:

You dun need algebra. You just replace what i said with diagrams. Shade boxes. I don't want todo that and post picture.

ok.. but so difficult to do that under exam conditions... i was still laughing at my little cousin when she said that the PSLE math was difficult..

the way I look at it, what the MOE did is fine lah....of coz there must be some tough ones to really filter the best ones mah....if all so relatively easy, how to identify the cream to prep them for cabinet ...
This is also reality mah...if majority score 95+++....then chiak lak liao...Uni here in future will have a tough time explaining how someone cannot enter....

This is also macam golf mah, if every bloody hole is straight, no bunker no rough, on green and no break..walau...how...everybody good chance to play good score liao....and then we say, 'chey, this course too easy, no challenge, don want to play.....'''''....even in the same course, also got blue and white tee...but then again, many play blue...hmmm

actually when i was a kid, i like tough exam questions... i like it if i am the only or few who can solve the questions. if simple and whole class get it, then i dun even feel like doing

You cant use algebra solving this. Thats wat my colleague with kids told me. No such thing as let the 'missing quantity' be X and then work your way around. They now use some prob solving method to solve it.

Yes you can unless it is stated in the qn. If algebra is not allowed, you need to use models and parts which are actually diagramatic representation instead of abstract. Accordingly to educational psychologists, most 12 yr olds are still within the concrete operational stage using piaget' cognitive models and thus algebra is discouraged as an teaching tool as those in concrete operational stage will have limited ability to understand abstract algebric models

sunny wrote:

So after sharing each of them have same number of sweets and chocolate.

So the ration they have is S:C for both.

Now Jim ate 12 sweets, so S-12:C = 1:7

Ken ate 18 chocolates, so S:C-18 = 1:4

Thus, 7(S - 12) = C

7S - 84 = C

and 4S = C -18 or C = 4S +18

Subst into first eqn, 7S - 84 = 4S +18

3S = 18 +84
=102

S=34

Therefore, Jim and Ken has 34 sweets each.

Thus total number of sweets = 34 + 34 = 68.

Now, who else can solve this?

How do we know for certain that Jim ate 12 sweets and Ken ate 18 sweets? What were the sizes of the sweets? Some sweets are bigger and may therefore, count for more than one sweet in reality.

some are chocolate with sweet embedded....some are sweets with chocolate fillings....

Every yr after PSLE, kids n parents will complaint TOUGH paper... The irony is, more and more kiddo getting A* for their math and scoring 260++ for PSLE...

Conclusion: Mai Lai la... Difficult my a**...

sunny wrote:

some are chocolate with sweet embedded....some are sweets with chocolate fillings....

Given life as we know it today... the real question should be what's the amount of calories or transfat in the sweets?

while we are at it, let's see who can solve this:

In a street there are five houses, painted five different colors.

In each house lives a person of different nationality.

These five homeowners each drink a different kind of beverage, smoke different brand of cigar and keep a different pet.

The riddle: Who keeps a fish?

Clues:

1. The British man lives in a red house.
2. The Swedish man keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Danish man drinks tea.
4. The Green house is next to, and on the left of the White house.
5. The owner of the Green house drinks coffee.
6. The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
7. The owner of the Yellow house smokes Dunhill.
8. The man living in the center house drinks milk.
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
10. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
12. The man who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Prince.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The Blends smoker lives next to the one who drinks water.

Good luck!

Jim bought some chocolates and gave half of it to Ken. Ken bought some sweets and gave half of it to Jim. Jim ate 12 sweets and Ken ate 18 chocolates. The ratio of Jim’s sweets to chocolates became 1:7 and the ratio of Ken’s sweets to chocolates became 1:4. How many sweets did Ken buy?

To filter the smart student from the bookworms, the questions should not be "How many sweets did Ken buy?" rather it should be, "Do you think they have eaten too much sweet on a single day?"

I confirm all those bookworms will be stunned and the smart one will just laugh and say "no! eat more!!" lol

sunny wrote:

while we are at it, let's see who can solve this:

In a street there are five houses, painted five different colors.

In each house lives a person of different nationality.

These five homeowners each drink a different kind of beverage, smoke different brand of cigar and keep a different pet.

The riddle: Who keeps a fish?

Clues:

1. The British man lives in a red house.
2. The Swedish man keeps dogs as pets.
3. The Danish man drinks tea.
4. The Green house is next to, and on the left of the White house.
5. The owner of the Green house drinks coffee.
6. The person who smokes Pall Mall rears birds.
7. The owner of the Yellow house smokes Dunhill.
8. The man living in the center house drinks milk.
9. The Norwegian lives in the first house.
10. The man who smokes Blends lives next to the one who keeps cats.
11. The man who keeps horses lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill.
12. The man who smokes Blue Master drinks beer.
13. The German smokes Prince.
14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
15. The Blends smoker lives next to the one who drinks water.

Good luck!

Long John Silver!

this is a proper riddle...

let's see who can get it

Hmm...


the German keeps a fish called "Wanda"...

Cheers

before the internet, solving this riddle takes a lot of skills

nowadays it is very easy...

so x-man solved it by checking answer or with skills? hahaha

I solved the problem with diagrams and logic...