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.

Just how do these sums add up? THE Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board declined to give The Sunday Times the questions for this year's PSLE Maths paper. The questions above were provided by the pupils who sat for the paper. The Maths paper had 48 questions and pupils were given two hours and 15 minutes to complete it. Tough for average pupil: Ex-teacher RETIRED teacher Ho Kong Loon, 60, who taught at the Primary 6 level for 40 years, thought the questions are difficult for the average pupil. 'I took 19 minutes, or 14 per cent of the total time, to complete the three questions. Unlike pupils who took the exam, I was not under any pressure and worked... with a calculator.' Straightforward, say 2 students THE top PSLE student in 2005, Adil Hakeem Mohd Rafee, and his younger brother, Arif Izzuddin, a Primary 5 pupil, had no problems with the questions. Adil Hakeem, who is now in Secondary 2, said: 'These are rather straightforward questions.' Arif Izzuddin, 11, took less than 20 minutes to solve all three questions. 'I've been exposed to this type of questions in school, so solving them was not a problem. I'm quite surprised so many Primary 6 pupils cried after their Maths paper.'

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*.'

Exam questions set under a cloak of secrecy

THE Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB), a government statutory board, operates under a cloak of secrecy to ensure that questions are not leaked.

Even principals would not know if their teachers had been approached by the board to set PSLE exam questions. The teachers cannot tell their colleagues or even their spouses that they are setting questions.

'All exams must be set in a confidential manner, no matter if it's in Singapore or elsewhere,' said SEAB chief executive Tan Yap Kwang, who declined to reveal how many teacher setters there are, but said the numbers are few.

He said 'setters have to bear in mind that questions cannot be vague, the language used has to be easy to understand and the concept that is being tested has to be clear'.

Setters are not told when their questions are used or if they will be used at all as some questions are kept for future papers.

Questions set must clear two hurdles. First is scrutiny by curriculum and assessment specialists from the Ministry of Education (MOE) and the SEAB, who will accept, modify or reject them. Then a separate panel of curriculum and assessment officers will assemble the final exam paper.

Panel members and clerical staff must declare if they have children or relatives sitting the exam that year. If they do, they will move to a different part of the building so they have no contact with the exam papers. Panel members will be taken off the panel for that year.

For further security, the rooms containing the papers at the SEAB headquarters in Jalan Bukit Ho Swee can be accessed by only a select few.

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