The white stacks are past-year exam papers from top schools in Singapore. There is a very lucrative business here selling these sorts of things. These 3 stacks for Primary 1 Mathematics, English, and Chinese Mandarin cost $35.
Mathematical word problems.
Dictation. In Chinese. (Help!! YL & I are hopeless bananas*...)
Spelling tests.
Our family is packing up (again) to our next nomadic destination, Paris, in a few months' time. Sophie is supposed to join a school there which uses the International Baccalaureate programme. She should be learning through self-directed exploration, pointless creativity, experimenting with things in her environment, etc - all the stuff of new-age, stress-free, experiental learning.
But since she will return to the pressure-cooker, rote-learning school environment of Singapore in a couple of years, we could not simply sit back and enjoy this scenic route during our time in Paris. So, off we went to the Popular bookstore this weekend to stock up on all the Mathematics and Chinese books we could fit in one large book bag, to ensure that she will be able to follow the super-advanced Singapore syllabus and re-integrate upon her return.
It is a stereotype of the "Western-style" of teaching that it does not place as much emphasis on Science and Mathematics as they do on language and the arts. We have yet to establish whether this is a well-founded stereotype but let's not take any chances, shall we? Not if she is going to return to an environment where their Primary 1 Mathematics questions are equivalent to what I studied in Secondary 1. YL? He's not much better...
Me: "OMG...! Look at these Mathematics word questions. Did you know how to answer these at Standard 1??"
YL: "No. Because I couldn't read at Standard 1."
So after a few days of grieving and bemoaning our fate, we dried our tears and cleared the cobwebs off our rusty brains, and reluctantly hopped onto the kiasu parents bandwagon. Anyone has the Primary 1 2009 past year exam papers to give away?
* bananas - A euphemism referring to people of Chinese descent who are English-educated and cannot read or speak Chinese. Yellow on the outside, white in the inside.
6 comments:
:)
I laughed reading your post.... I am really scared what will happen if we do go home to Asia where school is so exam driven.
Someone here called me a Twinkie - Also yellow on the outside, but very white on the inside (whiter compared to a banana). LOL!
Hmmmm maybe I can help Sophie out with her Mandarin? Oh wait, I think mine's "half bucket water" already.
Po po to the rescue!!
past-year's exam questions for primary 1!!! OMG!!!
I feel for you. I know what you're going through (ok, maybe the level of pressure in Singapore is several notches higher than here) but can't really stop the kiasu-ism...
Su-En's right... why don't you just go the IB route instead of Sophie having to study 2 curriculae when you're in Paris?
I thought maybe could ask my MIL to help Nat with her homework too but she said she learnt classic Mandarin which is not what is taught in school these days.
If it's any consolation to YL, my man couldn't read till he was in Standard 3. Hahaha!!!
Mel, we are going the IB route in Paris, but we can't afford the fees in schools that offer IB in Singapore. So no choice but to switch her back to SG syllabus once we're back.
Sophie is a smart girl. Not to worry.
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