Asked for a personal example, four in ten PSLE English oral practice answers give none, study finds
Key findings:
- When a question asked for a personal example, four in ten English answers did not give one.
- Asked for an opinion, 96 per cent of English answers gave a reason.
- In Chinese, 78 per cent of answers to personal-example questions gave one; the two languages are not directly comparable as the questions are different.
- More than a quarter of all practice sessions took place in the four days before the oral examinations began on 12 August.
- 8pm was the busiest hour for practice.
The main finding concerns questions such as “Have you ever…” and “Tell me about a time…”. Four in ten English answers to them stayed general: what the child usually does, or what people should do, without describing a specific experience of their own.
The problem is not that children cannot explain themselves. Almost every opinion answer gave a reason. What went missing was the child’s own experience, and that is part of what the oral paper assesses. In the PSLE English oral, the conversation section carries 25 of the 40 marks, and the Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) lists expressing “personal opinions, ideas and experiences” among its assessment objectives. In August, SEAB said the oral assesses communication skills, and that pupils are “not expected to reproduce … pre-prepared responses”.
Here is the same question answered two ways. Asked “Do you enjoy eating at hawker centres? Tell me about a time you went”, a general answer says: “Yes, I enjoy hawker centres because the food is cheap and tasty.” A specific answer says: “Yes, because there is so much choice. Last month my grandmother took me to the Bedok hawker centre and I tried chee cheong fun for the first time. I did not like the sauce, so she laughed and bought me chicken rice instead.” Both give a reason. Only the second describes a particular visit. The examples were written by PSLEPrep to illustrate the point; they are not children’s transcripts.
“Children have learned to say ‘because’. What they often leave out is the moment that makes the answer their own, and that is one of the things the examiner is listening for,” said Paul Whiteway, founder of PSLEPrep. “The most useful question a parent can ask is a simple one: when did that actually happen?”
Practice also bunched up before the exam. More than a quarter of all sessions in the three months began in the four days before the oral examinations started on 12 August. The busiest hour of the day was 8pm.
“At 8pm on a school night, a child can practise answering aloud with a patient examiner, and get feedback straight away,” said Mr Whiteway. “AI does not replace a good teacher. It gives children more chances to speak between lessons.”
The analysis used de-identified transcripts and reports only aggregated findings; no child is named or identifiable. The children are a self-selected group, so the findings describe children practising on the platform, not Singapore children as a whole. The full report at https://psleprep.sg/findings sets out the method and limitations and carries a chart free for editorial use.
PSLEPrep was founded by Mr Whiteway, a Singapore-based parent who does not speak Chinese and began using AI voice practice to help his son with spoken Mandarin at home. Its AI oral examiner runs a full PSLE oral practice session in either language and gives feedback and a score on each session, explained in plain English. The oral paper carries 20 per cent of the PSLE English grade and 25 per cent of the Chinese grade. PSLEPrep was named in The Straits Times in May 2026 among AI tools for PSLE oral preparation.
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PSLEPrep
PSLEPrep is a Singapore-built AI oral examiner for PSLE English oral and PSLE Chinese oral practice, operated by Studio P2 Pte Ltd. Primary 5 and 6 pupils practise reading aloud and stimulus-based conversation by speaking, and receive feedback on every session. The first ten practice sessions are free; a subscription is S$29.90 a month. PSLEPrep publishes findings from its practice data, free study guides and a public database of reported PSLE oral topics. Learn more at https://psleprep.sg.
