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AS FAR as parents and pupils are concerned, PSLE Maths papers often just don't add up.
Howls of outrage greeted this year's test, with mums and dads fuming and some pupils in tears outside the exam room.
Parents also cried foul in 2005, after a flawed question slipped into the paper.
In 2000, about 25 angry parents called The Straits Times to complain about the paper being too difficult.
And in 1992, the Ministry of Education was criticised when parents raged about tough questions.
It all looks like a standard formula: tricky questions plus nervy pupils and expectant parents multiplied by exam pressure equal tears and ill temper.
Why do parents and pupils have problems with the PSLE Maths paper?
Mr Tan Yap Kwang, chief executive of the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB), offers this explanation: 'For Maths, if you don't understand the question or the concept tested, you cannot even start solving the sum. For English or Mother Tongue, you can always guess an answer.'
A maths teacher, who declined to be named, said: 'Maths is the one subject pupils can possibly score 100 marks for, unlike English. So it devastates them when they cannot do well.'
Mr Tan, who feels parents are over-reacting, said this year's paper was no tougher than in other years. 'Sometimes pupils have very high expectations for themselves. Not being able to answer one question is like the end of the world.'
Ten parents and former teachers complained to The Straits Times Forum page that some sums were not in the syllabus.
Mr Tan said the PSLE must differentiate between pupils of different abilities: 'It'd be a problem if 30 per cent of the cohort scores full marks. Then how do you differentiate between the average student and the brightest of the lot?'
Ten teachers told The Sunday Times they had never seen so many pupils crying after a PSLE paper.
One admitted that she needed a calculator to solve one of the sums. Pupils are not allowed to use them.
A teacher was called into the exam hall after a top pupil broke down and wanted to quit. But Mr Norman Tien, a PSLE Maths trainer, said: 'Most students are drilled to do past exam papers. If they come across a question they've never seen before, they'll think it's difficult.'
At least 95 per cent of a cohort should be able to tackle the basic questions, Mr Tan said, while the last few 'challenging' sums are aimed at the brighter ones.
Pupils should not fret if they cannot answer some questions. Mr Tan said: 'You don't need to answer every one correctly to get an A*.'
ndianah@sph.com.sg
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