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Parents up in arms over tough exams
Author: Tan Dawn Wei and Samantha Eng
Source: The Sunday Times
Date: 1 Jun 2008
Overly-difficult mid-year exams see too many students failing and drain their self-esteem, they say
Secondary 4 student Lim Zhong Yi is spending the June school holidays mugging instead of playing his favourite computer game, World Of Warcraft, even though his O-level exams are a distant five months away.
He failed five of the eight subjects in his mid-year exams last month, despite having studied for them.
'I feel very demoralised when I look at my grades now. But I've promised myself that I will study hard,' said the 16-year-old from an all-boys' school in the east.
He can take some comfort in the fact that others did not fare well too - 40 per cent of his school cohort failed Social Studies and 30 per cent English.
Such significant failure rates have become common in schools here when mid-year or preliminary exams roll around, especially for those with a big national exam - PSLE, O or A levels - at the year-end.
While students generally go on to do much better at the national exams, the phenomenon has become dire enough for at least two concerned parents to write to The Straits Times Forum recently about what they said are schools' deliberate attempts at making internal exams tougher than national ones.
This is so that schools can stay on top of a competitive ranking game, the theory goes.
One parent said her Primary 6 daughter was 'distracted and subdued' after her recent exams - half her class failed maths.
'Please spare me the usual 'it was challenging but we expect the girls to manage it well' or 'this is to make the girls buck up for PSLE'. These garden-variety remarks reflect a school's way of shifting blame onto pupils and to pressure parents to get tutorial help,' Ms Jessica Chong argued in her letter.
She is right on at least one count. Tuition centres said they typically see a spike in enrolment after the mid-year and prelim exams.
SmartLab's chief executive Tony Tan, 38, sees about a 10 per cent jump in enrolment after mid-terms every year. His largest groups of students come from Primary 6, Secondary 4 and JC 2.
The Learning Lab said the increase is 'discernible' although it doesn't have figures. 'Parents and students knock on the door, pale-faced and shell-shocked,' said its manager, Ms Charlene Ong, who is in her 20s.
Educators said schools set tough exams so students can be kept on their toes for the all-important national exams. Some also do it because they want to keep up their reputation for high academic standards.
'There are bragging rights for which school sets the most difficult exam,' said Ms Ong.
Teachers said that with increasing competition among schools, the pressure is on to improve the performance of a graduating cohort every year.
'Papers must be a bit challenging so that they can shake one out of complacency and make one study harder,' said Mr Lak Pati Singh, 56, principal of St Patrick's School.
A vice-principal at another boys' school, which has been accused by its students of setting tough exams, agrees.
'Students don't take internal exams seriously. They're very complacent and laidback,' she said.
Such tactics used to be employed by elite schools to spur their students on but teachers in neighbourhood schools said they have started getting in on the act too.
And in a bid to prepare students at other levels, tough exams are also being set for those below Primary 6, Secondary 4 and JC 2.
What's more, it is no longer enough for a student to study just what is in the textbook. A primary school teacher said that national exams have moved towards questions that hinge on critical thinking.
'The exam format has changed but the syllabus and pedagogy haven't kept up; that's why students keep failing,' she said.
The Education Ministry said the purpose of assessments is to help teachers monitor progress so exams should be pitched at the right level, taking into account what has been taught.
And while schools are given free rein to set papers, designing a fair paper means having a mix of easy, medium and difficult problems, which the ministry said schools generally adopt.
It added that it would continue to work with schools 'to help them pitch their assessments correctly'.
But worried parents said tough exams do nothing for self-esteem.
Mrs Lisa Ng-Tay, 50, a full-time mother of four children, had to counsel her son and look out for signs of depression when he fared poorly at his JC2 prelim exams at Raffles Junior College last year.
'Exam standards should not be set so high that the bright but not exceptional ones feel dumb,' she said.
Tuition centres, too, said they had to rebuild crushed egos. Said SmartLab's Mr Tan: 'It's good to shake their confidence a bit but not to the extent where it collapses. The objective of assessment should be that they can come out of it stronger.'
Students and parents, it seems, aren't the only ones affected.
Said a veteran primary school teacher: 'We try so hard to teach the students but only a handful pass their exams. We're all suffering from low morale now.'
A paper's level of difficulty is determined by department heads and principals, she added.
But not all schools believe in making their exams tougher. CHIJ St Theresa's Convent principal Pauline Wong, in her late 40s, said an exam is fruitful only if students can attempt it, and benefit from the experience.
Ultimately, educators point out that a good exam paper should balance stretching the students and offering manageable questions.
Psychiatrist Adrian Wang believes putting students through difficult exams is not the only way to motivate them.
Other methods include positive feedback from teachers, engaging parents early in their child's learning and constant monitoring of grades.
'A demoralising exam paper can affect a child's self-esteem and cause the typical kiasu Singaporean parent to overreact. In this case, the consequences are more negative than positive,' he said.
PRELIMS STILL A GOOD GAUGE OF O-LEVEL PERFORMANCE
When 19-year-old Nuraisha Quek was in Secondary 4, she and her schoolmates fared so badly in their preliminary exams, her school had to moderate their scores.
This was to ease their chances of gaining entry into top-ranking junior colleges between January and March before the O-level results were released in February.
Her teachers shaved off four points from her initial 12. She also jumped from C6 to B3 for one science subject.
'The prelims are not a very good gauge as the standard is not pegged to the O-level one. But I'm very happy for my juniors now that they don't have to depend on the prelims,' said the former student of a reputable girls' school who eventually scored six points for her O levels.
From next year, the Education Ministry will scrap the provisional admissions exercise under which students used their preliminary exam results to enter a JC.
There will be one admission in January.
As part of the move towards a single JC intake, exams were brought forward by a week in October, starting last year.
One consequence of this is extra classes during the June holidays at some schools to prepare for the earlier exams.
Will students now take their preliminary exam lightly as they don't depend on the results to enter JC?
As much as 91 per cent of students in a Straits Times poll earlier this year said they still intended to study hard for their prelims. Most said the latter would serve as a good dry run and gauge of how they would perform at the national exam.
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