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Understanding PSLE English Weightage: A Comprehensive Guide

psle english weightage

The PSLE English paper weightage plays a pivotal role in determining a student's overall performance in the examination. With various components contributing to the final score, it's essential to comprehend the breakdown and significance of each element. Let's delve into a comprehensive guide to understanding the PSLE English weightage and how it affects students' achievement levels.


The Breakdown of PSLE English Paper Weightage

The Breakdown of PSLE English Paper Weightage

Paper 1: Situational and Continuous Writing


In Paper 1, students encounter situational writing and continuous writing tasks, collectively contributing 55 marks. This segment constitutes 27.5% of the total marks, with a duration of 1 hour and 10 minutes. Situational writing tasks typically involve responding to specific scenarios, while continuous writing tasks allow students to showcase their narrative or descriptive writing skills.


Paper 1: Situational and Continuous Writing

Paper 2: Language Use and Comprehension


Paper 2 encompasses Language Use and Comprehension, carrying the heaviest weightage of 95 marks. This component holds 47.5% of the total marks and spans approximately 1 hour and 50 minutes. Students engage in various exercises, including comprehension passages, language use questions, and stimulus-based conversations. Open-ended questions challenge students to demonstrate their comprehension skills and critical thinking abilities.


Paper 3: Listening Comprehension


Paper 3 focuses on Listening Comprehension, accounting for 20 marks. Despite its relatively smaller weightage, this component is crucial, contributing 10% to the overall score. Students listen to audio stimuli and respond to questions, assessing their listening skills and ability to comprehend spoken English. The duration for this section is approximately 35 minutes.


Paper 4: Oral Communication


In Paper 4, students engage in Oral Communication, which carries 30 marks. This segment emphasizes effective communication skills, including reading aloud, stimulus-based conversations, and oral presentations. With a weightage of 15%, this component plays a significant role in assessing students' spoken English proficiency. The duration for this section includes 5 minutes of preparation time and about 5 minutes of examination time.


Paper 2: Language Use and Comprehension

Achievement Levels Bands and Score Interpretation


By adding up the scores from all four components and dividing the total by 2, students obtain their final score, which corresponds to one of the eight AL bands below. These bands serve as indicators of students' proficiency levels in English language skills, guiding educators and parents in assessing students’ performance.

Achievement Levels Bands and Score Interpretation

For more information about the rationale behind the change, please visit the Ministry of Education’s website.


Paper 4: Oral Communication

Understanding the weightage of English oral and reading listening in PSLE is crucial for students, parents, and educators. By comprehending the distribution of marks across different components, students can prioritise their preparation strategies and focus on areas of improvement. Moreover, understanding the Achievement Levels Bands allows meaningful interpretation of students' performance and facilitates targeted interventions for their academic development. 


Students preparing for the PSLE should consider enrolling their children in AGrader Learning Centre's Primary Creative Writing Programme and Primary English Programme. AGrader's Creative Writing Curriculum stands out for its unique step-by-step approach, ensuring students grasp essential writing skills effectively while the Primary English Programme introduces the 'Cyclical Approach', a comprehensive English study method encompassing essential exam areas such as oral skills, cloze exercises, grammar, comprehension, and word order. Both programmes have proven effective in assisting numerous students in developing a passion for English and attaining high scores in exams, even benefiting those with prior difficulties in the language. The programme is accompanied by high-quality educational materials curated in-house, aligned with the MOE syllabus. 


Paper 4: Oral Communication

As a bonus, AGrader offers complimentary after-class resources through its EverLoop Improvement System. This system provides students with access to learning videos alongside revision papers prepared for them to improve beyond the once-a-week lesson. Students can attempt these papers for revision anytime after class, saving on extra revision books. They can then watch detailed explanation videos for questions they answered wrongly. 


Enrol your child in AGrader Learning Centre's Primary English & Creative Writing programme today and provide them with the comprehensive support and resources they need to excel in writing and ace the PSLE!


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