P4 SA2 2022 English Results – Ways to help your child with the English components

Around this time of the year, the SA2 results are distributed to students. For many P4 students, this may be the first English examination of the year with all the components – Oral, Listening Comprehension, Paper 1 & Paper 2– tested. Whether the SA2 results were expected or unexpected, examinations are essential in alerting us to areas that need extra attention. This is especially important for P4 students who will begin their P5 year.

P4 English: What is expected at the end of the year?

At the end of the P4 year students should be able to do the following :

• Plan and write out a composition using certain writing techniques independently
• Read a passage with the correct intonation and expression, with clear pronunciation. They should also be able to know the techniques to hold a conversation based on a theme or picture.
• Mastered the lower primary grammatical structures such as subject-verb-agreement, tenses, modal verbs etc
• Have a wider knowledge of vocabulary words accumulated over the P3 and P4 year and are able to structure sentences using more challenging vocabulary words
• Read, understand and answer questions using comprehension techniques
• Mastered the synthesis & transformation rules commonly found in P4 English such as ‘both’, ‘neither..nor’, ‘reported speech’

At TF, our teachers work all year round to help our P4 students to master the list above. We do so, knowing that the P5 year will be the start of learning a number of new and more difficult rules and structures. They will also have far more techniques to remember and master in preparation for the PSLE year. The P4 year is truly the time to build a strong foundation for the years ahead.

If a student has produced a result below expectation, there is still time to build on the foundation. While studying may be the last thing on everyone’s mind at the end of the year, spending a little time each day to improve on a subject, can be a good thing.

Here are 3 ways that students may use the December holidays to review their English component

Three easy ways to review the English component

1. Revise your grammar and synthesis & transformation rules

Is there a grammar structure that always stumps you? Subject-verb-agreement? Question tags? Take the time this holiday to find the rules to grammar structures that stump you. Start your own grammar rule book or study cards so that you can always look back on these grammar structures as you head into your P5 year. There will be a whole set of new grammar rules to learn in P5, as our P4 2022 students are learning now.

2. Build a word bank

Do you feel that you do not know the meaning of many words? Then it is time to build your vocabulary bank. Unlike learning grammar structures, having a varied and strong vocabulary requires time. It isn’t enough just to memorise words, students will need to know how to use the words in a sentence to prepare them for the P5 year. This is why at TF, we work on weekly Vocabulary lists from the P2 year up to the P6 year. With the increase in difficulty in the PSLE Vocabulary and Vocabulary Cloze sections, we planned out more ways to help students in this section from as young as possible in our weekly classes.

At home, you too can create your own Vocabulary lists with words that you have come across in the newspapers or in storybooks.

3. Writing as often as you can

If you are struggling with the Paper 1 component, it is time now to work on it. The jump in marks from 20 to 40 in P5 can really be a cause of concern for students who do not have sufficient practice or are averse to this section. P4 students should be able to plan and execute compositions independently and confidently by the end of the P4 year. In this way, they will be able to manage and focus on excelling in the new writing component introduced in the P5 year, on top of the composition writing.

At home, write as often as you can, even if it is for fun. Just like Vocabulary building, improvement in paper 1 requires time and a great deal of practice. That is why at TF our students write weekly. With a total of 55 marks in the PSLE, Paper 1 is as important as Paper 2.

We hope that the above ways are helpful to you. In my next post, I will list what P4 students can expect in their P5 year.