The PSLE Tamil Language paper is made up of 3 sections, Paper 1, Paper 2 and an Oral exam. The first 2 segments focus on understanding and writing the language. While the third segment focuses on spoken and listening skills.
As a parent, how can you help your child prepare for his Tamil exams?
With proper guidance in using the language at home and regularly reading storybooks to children. You can help them pick up new words in an enjoyable way. It also makes them use the new words correctly and in the relevant situation.
How can your child avoid careless mistakes in his Tamil exam?
Paper One — Composition
Examiners are especially on the lookout for setting, rich depiction of characters, or actions. Look for grammatical errors, that can cost you precious marks. Also bring your print or electronic dictionaries too!
• No proper plot
With no proper plot for your story, the storyline and conclusion would have holes. How can students develop a good plot? By writing out a plot to the story allows your child make out and plug spaces in the flow. Hence their story will have a good plot and flow. This will help him score points by following the outline to write their composition.
• Attempting the situational essay
A student is expected to make a story depending on a given situation. With a flawless imagination and an equally good vocabulary to match the scene. Things will work out. When one of these parts fails, it will become a flop. It’s for this reason that most students are informed to try picture-based essays instead.
How does this work? Prompts will be offered using pictures and you only need to create a proper story from this pictures and end it smoothly.”
• Poor time management
As your child attempts practice papers, prompt him to follow the exam conditions, like keeping time. This way he’ll avoid last-minute rush through the portion of the script. This issue is often noticeable in students trying Paper 2.
How can your child avoid this? But with some practice, your child will be able to keep up and complete their exam within the exam set time.
• Too long-winded
The use of words and phrases and words will help breath life into a story. But then again, use of lots of words can slow down storytelling pace. Also, remind your child not to use unnecessary phrases in explaining the scene.
What should be avoided? Irrelevant word use and unpredictable words. This is since irrelevant vocabulary use will mess the story.
Paper Two — Comprehension and Language Application
The challenging area in all three mother-tongue subjects. This section is open-ended comprehension. In this segment, most students tend to use the wrong techniques in answering. Hence they lose valuable marks.
• Not double-checking your answers
Being able to identify and rectify any errors, read the whole sentence with the response you will have chosen. In the grammar (Vetrumai) section, read through the sentence together with your selected option.
When it’s correct, your sentence will actually make sense. When not, choose a different answer and apply the same technique. This very rule will apply to the comprehension passage.
• Not using the appropriate answering technique
A suitable way to tackle comprehension questions is by highlighting first the answers as they are in the passage before you write them as your answers. For the open-ended comprehension, students should remove the unwanted words from the portions highlighted in the story.
What tips can help students when doing this segment? Remind your child to never begin sentences with pronouns and not give single-word answers. This is in particular when doing the inference-based questions.
Tips and plans for high scores in Advanced Tamil Exam
Higher Tamil paper is rather advanced for students who struggle in their basic conversation and vocabulary. Honing and strengthening your can yield more points in editing.
So, how should students go about this exam paper?
Students who have developed keen reading habits, can, without doubt, handle the transformation and synthesis part well. This is since it mostly deals with the sentence structures. When they are zealous readers, he won’t make the mistakes of making the sentences simple logic behind.
• The Comprehension section
In the open-ended comprehension, make it a habit of highlighting prior to starting to write. Remove unwanted words from the highlighted part. Don’t begin the answer with a pronoun.
The assessment key for your answer is, that the reader has no questions to ask after reading your answer. That is your answer needs to be complete. Also always make an effort to write complete sentences instead of one-word answers, particularly for the last section of the inference based questions.
• The following comprehension involves mixed questions
There is a true/false question. With these questions, students should make out if a provided statement is at all true or whether it has false details given. The true statement is typically paraphrased from its original sentence from the passage.
Once they confirm that, students will need to give evidence as to why that statement is truthful ( select the first sentence). When a part of it is false, what statement is true based on the passage. Locate the correct sentence and present it in a manner that differentiates it from the false statement.
What should your children do the previous night ahead of their papers?
Always ensure that your child gets the suggested amount of sleep and in conducive surroundings. Improved academic performance has been linked to increased sleep efficiency. Don’t pressure your child to squeeze in last-minute studying as it may backfire and cause unnecessary stress.
Take away
By regularly reading books and with proper guidance in use of the language at home. You can help your child prepare for their Tamil exam. Such practices will help your child learn new words and pick up new words for writing essays.
Encouraging your child to read vastly will help them have a grasp of sentence structure which will help them form proper sentences in their essays and grammar sections.
If your child is struggling with his composition, here are some tips to help you:
Finding The Perfect Ending For Your PSLE English Composition
How To Write The Perfect PSLE English Composition
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