Thursday 19 April 2018

Helping your Child ACE the PSLE Video-based Chinese Oral Examinations


Helping your Child ACE the PSLE Video-based Chinese oral

Since 2017, Video-based Conversation has been rolled out to replace the Picture Description in the PSLE Oral Examinations. Students will be given a 1-minute video stimulus, after which they will engage in a conversation with the examiners based on the theme.

This initiative has been rolled out to extend the use of Mother Tongue languages as a living language with practical values.  The video stimulus portrays real-life scenarios and provides authentic contexts for conversation and expression of thoughts and feelings.



What are the components in 2018 PSLE Chinese Oral?

Oral Examinations
口试与听力
2018 PSLE (Latest)
Reading Aloud  朗读短文
10% (20 marks)
Video-based Conversation
看录像会话
15% (30 marks)
Total Percentage
25% (50 Marks)


The Oral Examinations component accounts for 25% of the total paper, or ¼ of the total grades. This is the first paper that your child will sit for, either on 15th August 2018 or 16th August 2018.

The Oral examinations is the ‘shortest paper’, within 10 minutes, 25% of the total paper is graded. Hence, it is important to score well in this section in order to do well in the subject.

Students will be given 10 minutes to prepare, both the reading aloud passage and video-stimulus. As a general guide, spend 3-4 minutes to prepare the reading passage and 6-7 minutes to prepare the video-based conversation.





 How to give your child the competitive edge?

Many a times, students usually wait until the examiners posted a question, and then they will start to think on the spot, which results in incoherent answer or ‘one-word answer’.

At FUNtastic Chinese, our students are given the competitive edge by formulating their own questions during the 10-minutes preparation, organising their thoughts and preparing what to say before they proceed to the examination room.

Here are some tips.

Listen carefully to the narration in each video, as the narration is the theme of the video.

e.g. We should put ourselves into other people’s shoes, spare a thought for others in order to build a gracious society.

Students will be asked 3 questions, which can be broadly classified under ‘CORE’.

Content, Opinion, Related Topic and Experience.

C- Content: The first question is usually about the CONTENT of the Video, what did you observe? What happened? Who are they?

e.g. Tell us an inconsiderate behaviour that you have seen in the video.

Answer: In this video, I’ve seen……

O- Opinion: This question requires students to express their thoughts and views based on the theme.

e.g. What do you think we should do to build a gracious society?

R- Related Topic: This question requires students to relate similar/ relevant information to the theme of the video, usually can add-in Personal Experience when answering.

e.g. What are some other inconsiderate behaviour that you have seen in the public?

E- Experience: This question requires students to share a personal experience or encounter related to the topic.

e.g. Share with us an unpleasant incident that you have encountered due to others’ inconsiderate behaviour?





How A Distinction Student Speaks?

·         Smile and greet the examiners

·         Organise your thoughts and speak coherently

·         Avoiding ‘one-word’ answer or 1 question 1 answer.

·         While giving an account of the content of the video, use 5W1H, incorporate the theme, pay particular attention to minor details.

·         While expressing your opinions, try to support your view points with 3 to 4 supporting stands and elaborate.

·         While sharing your experience, use 5W1H to account for the incident, add in your thoughts and feelings and take-away.

·         Add in good phrases, Chinese Idioms while speaking or as a closing statement.

·         Maintaining eye-contact with your examiners, speak naturally

·         Smile and be sincere.

·         First impression counts, but last impression is when your examiners grade you, thank the examiners by saying “Thank you for listening to me”


Sign up for FUNtastic Chinese Mastership, and we will guide your child to be a confident speaker! Tel: 9889 8261


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