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Showing results for 'Keywords' in topics.
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For us, mostly not gifted in the English language, learning to use keywords is the hack to score in the subject. Anyway, I skipped to part where he explained about keywords, even the example he used that shows the student showing understanding of concept, also got to used keywords. He used "heat gain", "water vapor", these are keywords in itself.
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Every year, my children's primary school would conduct a psle briefing for parents. What I was told was, markers will always first look out for key words and award points to key words first, then they will go into the content and look for acceptable answers. Keywords alone won't give you the full marks, neither will having no keywords. So they were looking for keywords and a short few sentences write up kind of answers to award the most points, but keywords certainly gets more. Things might have changed over the years, and the focus on our education system might have also shifted. However, we cannot disregard the fact that changes take time to be accepted, and with many teachers in the system doing the same thing every year over the last xx years, you won't be able to do a complete system change over night. What he is saying is what the top wants to do, what we are facing is what is happening on the ground, it happens to every big organization, same same everywhere. There are like thousands, if not tens of thousands of ppl involve in the whole system, and not everyone can follow a new system well, 有人的地方就会有是非 mah.
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Err.. I understand perfectly well that he is saying. U need to understand what I am saying…. Since when did I say keywords are not accepted???? I said no keywords no points, ie keywords are essential for marks to be given and are heavily emphasized in school. I am saying the school marking schemes focus on keywords. No one focus on conceptual understanding, maybe his neighbourhood school does what he says but I wonder how well his students fair in science psle if they don’t focus on key words… I don’t think who he is matters at all as to whether what he is saying is *** .
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what planet is this guy living in??? The teachers my daughter's primary school EMPHASIZE keywords so much.... PSLE science today is just keywords. The marking scheme itself is keywords based... alternative answers... err are you going to risk it ??? PSLE can "show our moral character" ???? This guy really come across as full of ****
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Did you watch the video? I have no beef about the push for less emphasis on keywords but honestly, I don’t think it’s possible in a standardised exam. My main beef is that he makes it sound like everything is fine, u write in your own words you will get marks, the cause is because of misunderstanding from tuition, external classes teachers. i don’t think so… the primary schools themselves are focusing on keywords, at least it was 3 years ago when I “took” psle science. My girl primary school themselves are drilling those keywords which is a direct contradiction of what this guy is saying on tv.
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There's also negative keywords like I mentioned above. Some words supposedly demonstrate wrong concept. I don't complain about the marking. But I do get Wind30 point that he say keywords are crucial. The principal is just saying the PC answer that keywords are only the proxy to demonstrate conceptual understanding. None of us here refute that.
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Honestly u are not reading what I am writing…. I did not blamed the school for emphasizing keywords. I drilled my daughter in science keywords for 2 months, because I see the value of keywords in a standardised exam where u have hundreds of markers who will probably be following some sort of marking scheme… I think that chief marker is full of **** , just doing pr on tv without consideration for what is happening in schools. nevermind, it’s getting nowhere …
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I think you need to calm down, take a deep breath, and watch the video again. The CM said: “Marking schemes don’t focus on keywords. Marking schemes focus a lot more on conceptual understanding”. That means, even if the student doesn’t provide the keyword, it is ok. As long as the student demonstrates the understanding, marks are still given. This is actually beneficial to the students as they are not penalized for not knowing, or stating the keywords. He did not mention that keywords are NOT accepted in the marking scheme. He is a school principal who had undergone rigorous criteria, training and experience to get to his position today. I don’t think it’s proper etiquette for you to write off “this guy” as a load of <whatever you mean> just because you misconstrued the meaning of his words in your anger.
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Keywords or in other words, technical terminology, is still important in a proper answer. Otherwise it can be hard for the markers to determine whether the student really grasped the concept or has a full understanding. Sure, they can use discretion or give benefit of doubt but this may affect marking consistency and uniformity among markers. Teachers still emphasize keywords to inculcate good exam-answering practices right from the start. And also as insurance during high stakes exam like psle. In case there's a ngeow marker at least student can still be assured of getting good score with the proper keywords. More so if next time they use computer or AI-driven marking.
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I have watched the video and also read the cna article on it. My point remains the same. I do find it hard to understand you. First, u have mentioned that u take offence that your girls RGS math paper requires her to rigidly present her work and implied that it's 'ridiculous' they didn't exercise more flexibility.. so u want flexibility.. Now when the CM acknowledged that they exercise more flexibility in awarding marks.. u come up with.. "I have no beef about the push for less emphasis on keywords but honestly, I don’t think it’s possible in a standardised exam." That they should stick to keywords.. Huh?!?! If u support flexibility, shouldn't you be praising the CM for doing so instead of name-calling him? This is like what theoldjaffa said, some parents really think they know everything and want everything.. okay I get it, you only want things when it benefits you.
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Though not many of us would really appreciate your attempt to humble brag here, but an involved parent would usually know that their girls go to rgs and boys to ri. I'm unsure why you may have gotten so heated up and personal with the chief marker. It is to the benefit of our students that aside from keywords, the markers also look at answers more holistically. Of course, teachers will emphasise keywords as it's the most direct way of getting the marks and avoids ambiguity. The chief setter is saying that even in the presence of ambiguity, the student may be able to get the marks if the responses still show a clear understanding of the concept. There are baby steps taken to change the education system now, such as the removal of the normal, normal tech and express stream. Removal of o levels for IP students which happened some time back. Removal of mid year exams for many levels.. and so on.. The system is making changes gradually to prevent shocks to students and parents and tho it's far from perfect, the changes will still benefit students more in the new one that the older ones we were all accustomed to. It's always easy to criticise but to be able to implement and execute seamlessly is a different skill altogether imho.
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That's correct. It's just to give more leeway to different way of answering. So for one who is strictly trained to give keywords, all the better! In case slip-up and never provide the required keywords, there's still a chance to score some marks. As we know, education system is loosening up more and more to accommodate different learning styles and paces. Whether this is a kind of "dumbing down" or part of a greater liberal left agenda, is all up for debate! But i was just talking to a teacher friend recently and he remarked that nowadays it is a necessity for education system to loosen up because of more and more kids reporting with all sorts of autism, adhd and whatnot in our schools. Under a very strict system, we'd lose too many of these kids and we can't afford it as they are going to form part of the future workforce. Need to keep them in the system and keep them advancing to the required qualifications.
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Btw, I know this very well because three years ago my daughter pri6 prelim science mark was 70/100… psle was 2 months away and I had to learn primary school science and tuition her. Her problem was she phrase everything her own way, no keywords. I reviewed her school marking schemes in depth. Primary science is highly structured with fixed words u need to use. She got A* in the end for science so I know keywords work.
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benefits me??? in what way this benefits me??? That is the part I never understand in online forums. When I argue for more benefits for having babies, people think I am planning to start a soccer team... when our production line is shut many years ago. Some people never stick to the things being discussed and always assume things about the other parties. When I bring up points on both sides, people get confused but in every argument/issue there is ALWAYS both sides and you will do well to consider both. I see the reason behind keywords in a nationwide standardised exams, but I don't see a good enough reason for penalising students in the "top" secondary school for taking shortcuts in presentations the regular school maths tests. If the answer is wrong without working in a math exam, give the student zero. If he/she can give the answer with 2 lines of working, why penalise the kid? ... unless you think I am sore about those marks my girl lost in presentation in Sec 1??? I did not even scold her. I told her well done after I saw her paper and saw she got almost all the answers correct but she got like 75%. I don't really care about the 75%. Last year, I scolded her for sec 3 math paper because I saw she couldn't do the first question and then it affected the rest of the paper. quite a few of the answers were wrong...
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I think he is saying CM doesn't know that keyword is still the thing that his markers look out for. And myself, I find CM doesn't realise when he used 'Heat gain' and 'water vapor' in his example of a student showing understanding of concept, he is literally using the important keywords that I have drilled it into my son and daughter.
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Same here, Math and Science home tutored by me. Science is till her P6 after some session MU with her science teacher, that I think I myself memorise all the important keywords. English and Chinese leave to the enrichment classes. I thought my home tutor days are over,, my girls received and 1st term sec3 results. Chem and not doing well. I think I need to start googling on chemistry.. But it's a topic I myself am not good. Why no PE exams, I can teach them how to apply 80/20 exercises, how different intensity utilize different energy system.
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I only started my current p6 kid on 1 enrichment class in last term of p5. And I teach all the other parts. Like currently I'm working on my girl's weak point. Chinese writing. So this science answering is particularly tricky for kids... Without the benefit of access to science teachers or tuition, I personally have spent tens of hours trying to decipher answering methodologies and find out what they want and don't want. Keywords certainly is the linchpin of the answers. My advice to friends and family is that unless you really know the psle science syllabus and answering methods well, I won't advise most parents to teach them yourselves. So hire a tutor or send to TLL etc. Given that I've taught my girl everything, I would rank the 3 most difficult aspects to self tutor (laopeh Lao bu act as tutor), 1. Creative writing English 2. Creative writing Chinese 3. Science Despite the annual hoohah about psle math, it's probably the only subject that most tertiary educated parents can help their kids with provided they bother to find out more. Especially since there are Facebook groups and easy to get prelim papers. Even got YouTube tutorials on famous questions.
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I have no skin in the PSLE game and has zero idea of what the schools are teaching these days. But wah low eh...since when did science test became like a SEO (Search engine optimization) test? The last time I deal with keywords was when studying for a web development and SEO course....😁
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Yup that is unfortunately the case. If u use the phrase heat transfer = zero marks. Heat gain or heat loss is the only acceptable keywords. Like even evaporation is not the key word. "The water droplets evaporated" is sufficient only for a 1m answer. "The water droplets gained heat and evaporated into water vapour." I mean this would be the gold standard answer. In case of ambiguous acceptance, that would be what I tell my kid to write.
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marker could be bias so be prepared all exams will be marked by AI that only spot keywords for correct answer
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Aiyoh...macam essay or thesis must include all references...just add a footnote with all the keywords there and mention that those words were replaced in the writing with simple text and language lor 😁
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I watched the video while queuing for Prata. He's right in terms of they want to test conceptual understanding. Unfortunately in 2 or max 3 sentences, u have to use keywords to demonstrate understanding.
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I enjoy teaching psle science though. All everyday phenomenon that everyone can relate to. I do mind maps with my kids and emphasise keywords inside it. You can only answer the questions if u have a broad understanding of the concepts. In p5 I worked more on the above. Then I bought a few books on how to answer the questions. As I don't find marking schemes that useful other than a guide. Ultimately have to teach the kid how to answer themselves.
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Yup. You must have the keywords to have the correct answer. Like energy/food in plants - > photosynthesis. Make food in sunlight. Take in co2, give out o2. I'm my kids science tutor. Sometimes I see the answers, I also shake head. But I can see where they are coming from. It demands a level of precision that is maybe more suited for older kids. Sometimes u write too much, the teacher also will write comment that you seem to be not sure of the key concept.
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Exactly. I am glad someone else had the same experience else people would think it is just my daughter school. I did not think of going down as I thought the school had my girls interest in that psle marking scheme also follow keywords. I just “fixed” the problem and followed the system although I disagreed with it. That is why I feel the chief marker is just “wayanging” , saying nice words on tv that is totally different from what is happening in schools. When she got into RI, her math paper got even more ridiculous. I think 80% of the marks she lost were for questions she got totally right but “wrong” presentation… my time method marks were given because your answer were wrong, and teachers don’t want to give zero. You were almost always guaranteed full marks of the answer was right…
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