Chapters
Ministry of Education (MOE) or also known as Kementerian Pendidikan Malaysia (KPM), has announced on the 15th of April last year, the Malaysia that Ujian Penilaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR) and Pentaksiran Tingkatan Tiga (PT3) for that year will be cancelled following the rise of Covid-19 cases that has engulfed the nation, and even the whole world in a state of emergency.
While some students whooped and cheered at the short respite from sitting in one of the major examinations of their school year, KPM officials had been busy figuring out their next step in making necessary changes for students and teachers to adapt to the current pandemic situation that may or may not persist in the following years to come.
One of the changes that are still being discussed among the officials is the total abolishment of the UPSR examination for the primary school students. KPM stated that they are in the final stages of research and discussion before considering abolishing UPSR from the national level examination.
The Primary School Achievement Test, also most commonly known by Malaysian as Ujian Pencapaian Sekolah Rendah (UPSR), is a compulsory form of examination taken by all sixth year primary school students before they leave for secondary school. There are five main subjects focused for UPSR examinations, English being one of the core language subjects for students to score in order to gain the recognition in advancing a grade.
However, don’t celebrate yet! The final decision on whether UPSR will really be abolished or not hasn’t been made yet. The Deputy Minister of Education stated that KPM hasn’t reviewed other options to replace UPSR with another type of examination that has a similar function as UPSR.
So, like it or not, you still have to study for the probability of UPSR being continued or another form of examination that will replace it afterward. And here at Superprof, we will do our utmost best to help you get that sweet A’s for your UPSR, starting with- English!
Mastering English at an Early Age
In this age of modernization, it is becoming uncommon to see or meet someone who doesn't know at least some basic English, like ‘Hello’ or ‘Good day’, especially in Malaysia where the English language has been integrated into our society and commonly used as a form of communication in school and even at work. Out here in the city, we could see children speaking fluent English with their parents and friends. This could be factored by the increasing influence and popularity of American cartoons among Malaysian children.
Remember the time when the famous Disney movie, ‘Frozen’ came out? All the kids were obsessed with the movie’s hit song- ‘Let It Go’, singing and dancing along as soon as the music played on the radio or the mall. Even a non-English speaking three year old is capable of singing the song, without reading the lyrics!
So, mastering the English language at an early age is entirely not impossible! In fact, starting your education and learning early in life is the key to success. Research has shown that children are capable of understanding and absorbing a lot of information, thus making learning English easier once they get the hang of it.
The Latest UPSR English Examination Format
To know how each paper is marked, first, we need to understand the format of both papers, Paper 1 Comprehension and Paper 2 Writing. Paper 1 first has a total mark of 50 marks and the time allocated for the comprehension paper is 1 hour 15 minutes.
Paper 1 Comprehension is divided into two sections, Section A and Section B.
Section A
- This section consists of 20 multiple choice questions which tests the main aspects of English that you have learnt in class such as adjectives, nouns, adverbs, tenses, punctuation, synonyms, idioms and simile. You will also need to analyse a text or a graph to show your level of English understanding.
- You are required to shade the correct answer in the answer sheet attached to the question paper. This section consists of multiple-choice questions which tests the main aspects of English that you have learnt in class such as adjectives, nouns, adverbs, tenses, punctuation, synonyms, idioms and simile. You will also need to analyze a text or a graph to show your level of English understanding.
Section B
- There will only be 5 questions in this section, however this section might be more complicated than Section A because the format is in subjective type questions. Even so, most of the time, the answer for these questions will be uniform as this paper focuses on reading comprehension instead of mainly writing.
- The question will test you on your written response to a given situation and even your understanding of a story or graph. You are required to construct your own answers based on the given question.
Paper 2 Writing is divided into three sections, Section A, Section B and Section C.
Section A
- This section requires students to fill in 5 missing information from poster, dialogue, notes or pictures.
Section B
- In this section, the student need to analyse and transfer the information from the given advertisement or table. The total marks for this section is 15 marks. The first question will ask the student to transfer 3 information. Meanwhile the second question requires the student to write 50-80 words of short notes, email or messages.
Section C
- The students need to write a short essay of 80-100 words according to the pictures by using the word given.
Check out the detailed and latest UPSR English Format.
UPSR English Examination Marking Scheme
Paper 1 Comprehension
Section A
- 20 objective questions
- 20 marks
Section B
- 5 subjective questions
- 30 marks.
Paper 2 Writing
Section A
- 5 blanks
- 10 marks.
Section B
- 2 Questions
- Question 1: 3 questions
- Question 2: Short essay, 50-80 words
- 15 marks.
Section C
- Essay Writing, 80-100 words
- 25 marks.
Understanding the UPSR English Marking Scheme will help you grasp the concept of how the paper is marked.
UPSR English Essay Writing Tips and Format
From the section above, we know Paper 2 will be a Writing paper. You must write the longest of 80-100 words. How can you do that?
Honestly, writing is my most favourite part. I am able to write a very long essay in a short period of time. However, is it okay to write longer than how it is supposed to be?
Nope, it is not okay. You tend to do more mistakes the longer the essay you wrote. Nonetheless, writing longer doesn't mean you’ll get more marks. Sometimes, you will just write something that is out of context.
This is why you’d need a few guidelines and tips of writing that you can adapt whenever you write an essay in the future.
- Understood the essay format – what tenses would you like to use as you’ll need to be consistent in your tenses throughout the essay.
- Start by creating a draft – this is important to make sure your writing will be on track and you’ll get a point from each paragraph.
- Identify the subject, verb, and object
- Subject- Who/what is the subject that was shown in the picture?
- Verb- What is the action that is going on in the picture?
- Object- Identify the who, what, where and when.
- Answer all the 5 wives and a husband (5W1H) to get a basic idea on what to write
Find out more tips on scoring for UPSR Essay Writing.
UPSR English Past Year Papers and References
Living in the era of cyber and IT, we can be relieved everything around us gets easier and simpler. With the help of a computer or smartphone, we are able to access most resources available on the net.
Today, with Pengajaran dan Pembelajaran dari Rumah (PDPR) or Lesson and Learning from Home has been going on since the pandemic hit, schools and teachers have started to use online learning too.
This has made more materials can be gathered online. However, we must bear in mind that some sites contain malicious viruses, not up-to-date and not credible. Superprof has lined up the best references you can find online and offline.
The best references are one that is printed, by means, book. Quite traditional and yeah, not environmentally friendly (waste of paper), however, the book publishing companies have done thorough research on the syllabus and their authors are mainly educators. I am waiting for them to have an online version too.
To gather resources and references from the net will need you to do a bit of research first. You’ll need to head out to the ministry of Education site first to get the recent UPSR format and learn the differences between the prior and latest format. But since you are here at Superprof, we have done that for you - Cheers!
You can check out our post on where to find UPSR past year papers to get more downloadable references.
In Malaysia, our future in this English-speaking community has already been assured. The English subject has been made a compulsory subject ever since we entered standard one of primary school. And to top it off, some parents prefer to enroll their children in English preschools as early as 3-4 years old. This makes it easier for them to get the hang of the English syllabus once they entered primary school
We shouldn't get left behind just because we didn't take the opportunity to learn English properly, don't we? To learn more on where to find an experienced English tutor near your home area, visit Superprof now.
The platform that connects tutors and students
Enjoyed this article? Leave a rating.
Loading...
