All About Primary School Leaving Examinations (PSLE)

PSLE Tamil Language Syllabus & Exam Format

PSLE Tamil Overview

Singapore is a melting pot of cultures and languages. Tamil is one of the many beautiful languages that the Singaporean Indian population holds close to their heart. The PSLE Tamil Language syllabus and examinations encourage our students to be better Tamil readers and speakers.

Being a Mother Tongue Language, the Tamil Language can be less intensive and content-heavy than other PSLE subjects as the focus is to encourage our P6 students to speak, write and read proper Tamil and hopefully fall in love with the language.

However, Singaporean students often find the Tamil language more difficult as English is the official spoken and written language in schools and in Singapore. More Tamil families are also speaking English at home instead of Tamil.

Therefore, many parents are unable to help their children improve their Tamil language alone and relies on Tamil tuition classes and Tamil reading materials. There’s no need to fear the PSLE Tamil Language exams if you can secure a strong foundation in the Tamil language!

Learning Objectives of Tamil

Singapore’s education system has a bilingual focus, so students must take both English and a Mother Tongue Language (MTL). As such, being able to read, write and examine the Tamil Language well is equally importantly as English for Tamil P6 students. This can be seen in the goals of PSLE Tamil to be able to:

Develop students to be proficient in Tamil language and can communicate effectively
Encourage more Tamil language usage and learning
Enhance cognitive development of the students through the learning of the Tamil language
Nurture motivate and self-directed Tamil learners

PSLE Tamil Language (0007)

PSLE Tamil is a comprehensive assessment for your Tamil language proficiency. Like PSLE English, it tests you on your writing, comprehension, argumentation, critical listening and verbal communication.

This will be in the forms of contextual writing, multiple-choice questions (MCQ) and open-ended questions. Every student will sit a combined examination duration of 3 hours 10 minutes.

In total, the PSLE Tamil language examinations has a total of 200 marks. Every student’s total score will be translated into a percentage out of 100% for their Achievement Levels (AL) Score calculation.

The PSLE Tamil Language examination focuses on four main components to assess your Tamil language proficiency:

Listening – Listening Comprehension
Speaking – Oral Communication
Reading – Comprehension Paper
Writing – Composition Writing

Printed Tamil dictionaries that are pre-approved by SEAB will be allowed for Paper 1 of the PSLE Tamil Language examination.

As of 2020, these are the dictionaries approved by SEAB:

Dictionary Publisher	Dictionary	Approved Period
Uma Publications, Kuala Lumpur	Uma Natramil Peragaraathi (Revised Edition)	Until 2023
Lakshmi Publications, Singapore	Lakshmi’s Learners’ Tamil Language Dictionary (Revised Edition)	Until 2020
Cre-A Publishers, Chennai	Kriyavin Tarkalat Tamil Akarati (Tamil – Tamil Version only)
The South India Saiva Siddhanta Works Publishing Society, Tinnevelly Limited, Chennai	Kazhakat Tamil Akaraathi (Tamil – Tamil Dictionary)
The South India Saiva Siddhanta Works Publishing Society, Tinnevelly Limited, Chennai	Kazhakat Tamil Kaiyakaraathi (Tamil – Tamil Dictionary)

More information on the approved list of printed Tamil dictionaries is available on the SEAB website and Approved Dictionaries List (2020).

PSLE Tamil Language (0007) tests students in four components across three papers.

Paper	Component	Marks	Weightage	Duration
1	Composition Writing	40	20%	50 minutes
2	Language Use and Comprehension	90	45%	1 hour 40 minutes
3	Listening Comprehension	20	10%	30 minutes
4	Oral Communication	50	25%	10 minutes
Total		200	100%	3 hours 10 minutes

PSLE Tamil Paper 1 has a single component of Composition Writing. Your composition writing must be based on either the question or picture provided in the examination paper.

You may choose to attempt either option and your final submission must be more than 150 words in length.

Paper 1 is 50 minutes long and is fully open-ended. The use of an approved Tamil dictionary is allowed for this paper.

PSLE Tamil Language Paper 2 uses a mix of MCQs and open-ended questions to test your inferential and understanding of various Tamil passages. There are two parts to Paper 2, which is 1 hour and 40 minutes long.

You are not allowed to use any Tamil dictionary for this paper.

Component	Marks	Description
Language Usage	40	MCQ in Booklet A
Comprehension	10	MCQ in Booklet A
Complete the Dialogue	8	Fill in 4 blanks in Booklet B
Comprehension	32	Answer MCQ and open-ended questions on the provided passage and use of language in Booklet B
Total	90

PSLE Tamil Language Paper 3 comprises of the Listening Comprehension paper and Oral Communication. Although these two assessments are within the same paper, they are taken separately.

Listening Comprehension (20 marks)

The Listening Comprehension component is a fully MCQ assessment. It is one of the least demanding papers in the Tamil language examination, taking up only 30 minutes in duration.

A variety of verbal text such as news, announcements, advertisements, instructions, conversations, speeches and stories will be read out. You will then need to answer questions that requires you to infer and examine the texts.

Oral Communication

The PSLE Tamil Language Oral Examination, is an open-ended, verbal assessment. Students will be required to read and converse with the examiners for the Oral Communication. It is also one of the more intense exams in the PSLE, given the short 5 minutes of examination.

Starting 2017, the conversation component is replaced by a video-stimulus conversation. Students will watch a short video clip and will then have to answer prompts based on the content on the video. You need to extend your responses by giving opinions, explanations, experiences, examples or suggestions.

Important PSLE Dates for PSLE Tamil

Make sure you know the dates of the upcoming PSLE Tamil examinations so that you can plan and prepare yourself adequately for this important examination paper. Remember, you can perform well in any PSLE subject paper when you are well-prepared with the knowledge, well-equipped with the right stationery and mentality and well-rested the night before.

Date	Upcoming PSLE Dates for Tamil	Time
Oct 05	Tamil Bengali Paper 1	08:15 am
Oct 05	Tamil Bengali Paper 2	10:15 am
Oct 05	Foundation Malay	08:15 am
Oct 07	Higher Tamil Paper 1	08:15 am
Oct 07	Higher Tamil Paper 2	10:15 am

See all Important PSLE Dates

Score in the PSLE Tamil Language with PSLE Tamil Tuition

Mastering Tamil can be difficult if it’s not your first language. Without much options, you may want to consider getting private tuition, an affordable and convenient way to get Tamil tuition.

Our PSLE Tamil tutors will give you private coaching at the comfort of your home and at your convenient timings. Each tuition class is tailor-made for your Tamil learning needs and preferences. You will also be taught with the latest PSLE Tamil syllabus, with ample learning, revision, and practice notes given to ensure 100% confidence heading into the PSLE exams.

You don’t need to fight alone. Let SmileTutor help you ace your PSLE Tamil language examinations! Check out our tuition rates here.