And so, the time of the year for me to tear my hair out has come again:)
Yes, it is exam period. After 3 major exams in Singapore, I guess I am starting to get better at this... NOT! hhahhahahha...
So some time before Ace's exam, I tried to sit down and have a goal setting with him. Somehow, he is not motivated by any particular reward or toy... and so, I just appeal to his idea of doing his best and giving his best...
And Kan Cheong spider me also remembered the exam timings wrongly and so I started intensive revision one week early, thinking that I started revising too late... only to realize.. woohoo. I was early! So we had ample time to prepare! But I do my part as parent and commit to spending a certain amount of time with him to revise everyday and also make effort to give him my full attention... and asked Max to also try to talk to him more and stay at home more. Was a blessing in disguise when Max's long work trip was cut short and he returned just before all his major papers.
After a few exams though I have learnt to also trust Ace to do his best... just need to help him find the motivation to excel and he will work on it...
I must say for preparation, though I still nag at him, he is for most part happy to do whatever I ask him to do without any complains....
Everyday after his exam, he will come home and tell me that he thinks he will not do too badly... and I think he feels a little encouraged by his oral and listening compre results cos he scored full marks for those.
He was quite weak in composition for both languages and we put in effort to overcome that... and he saw some results... so he was rather pleased after his compo exams...
Then came the 4 main subjects.... For English, we prepared for it pretty much the same way we usually do.. CHANT;) hahahaha.. cos for language, it is not something you can prepare for it the day before. So it was just chanting and reminders to be careful and what to look out for....
For Math, on the day before his exam, I let him watch this video that teaches you about time management durings exams so he has an idea of how much time to spend on each sum (usually a minute for each mark allocated..) And we did a few mock papers. I was a little worried as he could not finish all the mock papers on time and I realized that he is quite weak in the more complicated story sums... and also I was a little worried cos he could never finish his mock tests... I reminded him also that for the sums he did not know, he should hazard a guess and show some working.. any working.. cos who knows he might get one point or two for that...
To be honest, it was only when we started preparing for exam that I realized the topics he was weaker in and made him practice those topics...
Heaved a sign of relieve when he told me that he managed to do all that he knew how to do... And then xian jit puah when he told me he did not know how to do two major story sums that are allocated 4 and 5 marks each. Hahaha...
For his Chinese Paper, I was ready for him to score slower than last year but I still encouraged to aim to score 70 and above because he scored about 64.5 for the last final year exam he had.. I know how encouraging it is for him when he moves forward and improves and how it can become and auto motivation for him in the future. But when I asked him to chant more... he said, "But I already chanted 10 minutes!" God, his 10 minutes dai sai lor:) Last time even more normal days I chanted 30 min everyday when I was a good student:) hahahaha...
The best part is his science... day before his science paper, I confiscated his phone again because he kept looking at his phone and I told him he broke his promise not to use the phone for the last four days of exam.... And actually this time round, I did not do much revision with him. He kept telling me he has already done revision by himself and I trusted him on that, I merely made sure that he did a few mock papers and that I would tell him where he went wrong and I noticed he lost points in the way he expressed his answers though he was correct....
By 7pm, we had finished going through the mock paper he did and I told him since he has another 2 hours, he could do another paper and his reply was... "But I already revised and practiced mah.." And I reminded myself to trust him and so I said OK he can do what he liked.
And what did our good friend do? He went to his room, lie down on bed, shake leg and READ STORY BOOK!
I told him I would probably do that if I feel well prepared that I will score full marks... But his point was, with his prep, he thinks he will score 80 and above and that is good enough for him! Why do we need to work extra extra hard and go through so much extra trouble just to score a little bit more? Faintz!
I thought to myself... some lessons need to ownself long piak then will learn one right.. so I let him be lor...
RESULTS TIME...
So he got his English Paper and delcared that his scored 82 for English and was second highest in class for English. He was also second highest for science cos he scored 81.5.... And who scored first? It was the class monitress... so his teacher said the monitors lead the way:) hahaha..
Remember I said wanna let him long piak.. I also cannot let him long piak because though pple shake leg and read story book still was second best in class... so he already very happy... He even came and hao lian to me and told me that his friends all went for tuition and did LOTS of mock papers... and they still scored worse than him.. in fact, he was so proud when he shared that his teacher said, "See, Ace just passed the science paper with just Paper 1..." cos he scored 50 for paper 1...
He did not do as well for Math and scored 73 (not surprising given he already lost 9 marks as there were two sums he could not do) but according to him, that is not too bad already cos many of his friends did not do well for this paper...
But I was most "worried" about his Chinese paper... and so on the day he got his results for the Chinese paper, First thing Ace said to me when he came home... "Mama... wait wait.. before you do anything or say anything... good news!"
"What"" I asked expectantly...
"Good news! My Chinese... I passed!!!!! I scored 52!"
"Erm... last year you scored 65 leh.. so 52 is good news?"
"Yes! Because my teacher said she had a student who scored 95 in P4 score 50+ in P5.... because there is a huge jump in the syllabus... so hor, that means I really made a BIG IMPROVEMENT!"
Hahahahaahaha... I think my son is very Ah Q!:) I hate to splash cold water on him but I think have to put things into perspective. I asked Ace if he knew what will become of the girl who scores 50+ when when she formerly scored 90+ in P4? Chances are, by the end of the year, she would be back to scoring 90+... so Ace has to aspire to hit that by end of the year if he wants to truly make a large improvement:)
Ace is actually quite happy with himself. Given that he has had a year filled with ups and downs and did not do very well for his mastery tests... his friends were also surprised at his good results and asked him, "Ace, why you score so well one?"
When he told his friends his phone got confiscated by me.. his friend said, "Huh? Why? But you scored so well... why dun you tell your mother that now since you score so well, she should give you the phone back..." Ace just smiled and changed topic. He told me what his friend said but never asked for his phone back because he knew, good or bad results is not the same as being addicted to the phone or not:) hahaha
REVIEW TIME...
I asked Ace what he thought about his results...
He said that he is generally happy as he did even better than he expected and I think because he did better than most of his friends...
"But I think I could have done better for my Math.. I want to become a straight A student mummy... But I dun want to be a low A... I want to be a high A.. so for my next exam, I aim to score 85 and above for all subjects except Chinese..."
I am happy he is not complacent.. BUT.. I told him 85 is only few marks away from a 90 mah.. so why not aim for Astar instead? Hehehehehehe....
Hope he remembers this extra boost of confidence and takes this as a good motivation to keep improving for the next semester...
Anyway, I told Ace tat most people tell me P5 supposed to see a drop in results because there is a huge jump in terms of syllabus and requirements.... and sometimes by as much as 10 marks... but he has maintained... which means he has already met up with the challenge and pushed forward.... I am really proud of him for that... BUT I think this shows also that he is someone who is capable of much more if he is willing to push himself a little... so he may wanna consider taking a less relaxed attitude towards his studies and push himself forward a teeny weeny bit more:) hahaha..
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