6,856 primary school students – and a few independent candidates – signed up to sit the Primary School Examination today. They took two English papers and one science. Testing began at 8 and was finished by 2 in the afternoon. It was the biggest test of a primary school students’ career – since for most it will be determining factor of whether they’ll move on to high school. 7News was there to capture the moment and Keith Swift has the story.
Keith Swift Reporting,
This is what it looked like inside one of the examination centers where the candidates took the English and science papers - and if they look tense – that is because some of them knew the stakes were high.
Chelsea Noralez, PSE Candidate
“I was kind of nervous, wondering what I will do. I didn’t know what to expect.”
Alex Jones, PSE Candidate
“I know if I didn’t pass it, I will have to do it over.”
But when it was over - the students say it was easier then expected.
Alex Jones,
“I studied enough last night. Before I went I studied some more this
morning so it was easy for me.”
Keith Swift,
What do you call studying enough?
Alex Jones,
“Well at school before PSE my teacher gave us the PSE that they took from like 2007/2006 so that we studied there and some of the questions in that were in the PSE today so I remembered it and I got the answers correct.”
Keith Swift,
Were you guys nervous in there?
Alex Jones,
“No, sir.”
Keith Swift,
What was the hardest part for you?
Alex Jones,
“There was no hard part.”
Chelsea Noralez,
“It was quite easy, you just had to look over your books and everything in there my teacher taught us so it wasn’t so hard for me. First I was nervous, I was sweating, but then when you get in there it feels like the mock PSE we took at school.”
Oscar Puga, PSE Candidate
“I feel very very good that the science and English are finished and I knew everything so it wasn’t a problem. Well we had evening classes and morning classes on Saturdays and at home I just took some time and study.”
Jean Marie Young, PSE Candidate
“It was a little bit easier than I thought because I thought it was going to be more challenging and more trickery questions but it easier than I thought.”
Devon Gladden, PSE Candidate
“Very easy, I think we were over prepared. We did a little bit of studying. We just went over a few stories, my teacher read us a few stories, and some business letters, how to write the inside address and so on.”
The head of the Examinations Unit at the Ministry of Education is Yvonne Davis.
Yvonne Davis, Head – Examination Unit
“The English paper consisted of two exams, two tests, a paper one and a paper two. The paper one is the multiple choice paper with 50 comprehension
items and the paper two really is two writing pieces. They are asked to compose a letter and a little composition, a narrative, just a little story.”
Keith Swift,
Some of the students told me they were over prepared. Is it that the exam is easier this year?
Yvonne Davis,
“I am happy to hear that. It means that they have now become very familiar with the PSE. We have not changed the content, because the curriculum has not changed so we have not changed the content.”
Keith Swift,
When is part two?
Yvonne Davis,
“Day two is I think Monday the fourth day of May and on that day they will be writing the math papers because there are two papers for the math test as well as they will be writing the social studies test.”
Keith Swift,
What do you find as you look throughout the years, what continues to be the most challenging subject for our students?
Yvonne Davis,
“Math problem solving is the most challenging of all the tests. We have found that problem solving is the most difficult, is the most challenging for them, as well the writing paper for English, in particular the letter and the composition. For the letter we find that for the most part the problem is the tone, expressing their ideas in a tone that is required by the question so we find that for English that is the most challenging paper. But overall, the math problem solving seems to be the most challenging.”
And that’s why these students won’t breathe a sigh of relief until after May 4th.
Examinations Unit Director Yvonne Davis says that students who signed up but didn’t show up to take today’s papers – can still sit the math and social studies papers on May 4th. The PSE results should be out by early June. 300 more students took the PSE this year, than did last year.
