Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) is the first major examination for most children in Singapore.

The amount of stress on Primary Six students and their kiasu parents is a real-life phenomenal -- so much so it inspired Jack Neo's hit film, I Not Stupid.

However, changes have been made to the primary school system to drive parents and students away from toxic competition.

This will be the first major revamp of the PSLE in a while.

Changes to PSLE scoring system from 2021

1. Scoring format changes from T-score to Achievement Levels

Instead of having a T-score system, students who take PSLE in 2021 will be graded by Achievement Levels (AL).

ALs are much wider scoring bands and that means more students will have the same ALs as compared to T-score in the past.

In the past, T-score reflects each student's relative performance against the rest of the cohort.

That means the T-score of a student can be lower if the rest of the cohort did better.

Under the new PSLE scoring format, the students' raw marks will be categorised into eight ALs in total from AL 1 to AL 8.

The raw marks will not be taken into account for the Secondary One posting.

The total final score will be the combined ALs of all four subjects that the student takes.

With the AL system, students can focus more on their own individual performance.

2. Standard and Foundation levels

The new PSLE scoring system also hopes to cater to students of different interests and learning paces.

Therefore, PSLE subjects will be offered at Standard and Foundation levels.

For students with weaker foundation or aptitude in certain subjects, they can choose to do Foundation levels.

With that, Foundation level subjects will be graded as AL A to AL C which will be equivalent to AL 6 to AL 8 of Standard level subjects for PSLE.

For students who take subjects of a mixed of Standard and Foundation levels, the PSLE final score will be a sum of the ALs.

Here's an example:

The total score of 15 is made up of AL2 + AL4 + ALB (which is converted to AL7 of Standard level) + AL2.

3. Secondary One Posting

The PSLE students will be posted to different streams according to their PSLE total score with Express Stream having the widest range of score from 4 to 20.

Students who take Foundation level subjects are able to go to Express stream too if their total PSLE score is within the range.

The indicative Cut-Off Point (COP) in AL terms for each secondary school will be provided by the first half of 2021 for students and parents to refer to.

4. Choice order of secondary schools becomes more important

For students with the same PSLE score, the choice order of secondary schools will be one of the tie-breakers to decide which students get the placement.

Other tie-breakers are citizenship and via computerised balloting.

However, not often computerised balloting is used based on the past cohorts' choice patterns.

As the scoring differentiation is much finer in the past, the need for a tie-breaker is lesser.

Furthermore, the school allocated will be dependent on the availability of placements in schools.

If the school of one's first choice is filled, the student will be allocated to the second choice.

Under this new system, more students will share the same PSLE final score, which is why there is an additional tie-breaker.

With the emphasis on choice order of schools, the Ministry of Education hopes that students and parents can consider whether the student likes or fits into the schools' culture.

5. Higher Mother Tongue Language

Under the new PSLE scoring system, students who score a total of 8 or better can take Higher Mother Tongue Language (HMTL) in secondary school.

Students with PSLE score between 9 and 14 and attain AL 1 or AL2 for their MTL or distinction (D) or merit (M) for HMTL is also eligible.

However, schools can still offer HMTL to students who are interested and prove to have the aptitude to study HMTL in secondary school, on a case-by-case basis.

PSLE students who take HMTL will have an advantage in getting into the Special Assistance Plan (SAP) schools.

For example, a student with a PSLE final score of 12D will have an advantage over a student with a final score of 12.

However, between a student who scores 12D and a student with a higher PSLE final score of 11, the latter will be given the placement.

6. Getting ready

To prepare students and parents for this change, Primary 5 and Primary 6 students in 2020 will have their examination results reflected in AL terms.

Here's how the result slip might look:

Top image from MOE