28 August 2025 | Media Replies 2025

PSLE ORAL EXAMINATION TOPICS ARE ACCESSIBLE TO STUDENTS AND HAVE STANDARDISED DIFFICULTY LEVELS

We would like to thank 杨炀 (“The reality behind an oral exam question”, 21 August 2025) and 王芳 (“Disparity in difficulty between oral exam topics over two days”, 21 August 2025) for their feedback.

The Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board (SEAB) has rigorous processes in place for developing national examinations. This includes the oral examinations where the topics and questions are set to be comparable in difficulty across different days.

The panel responsible for developing the PSLE papers comprises experienced teachers, curriculum specialists from the Ministry of Education, and assessment specialists from SEAB. The panel ensures that the examination questions are aligned with the teaching syllabus. For example, the PSLE Chinese Language topic for Day 2 mentioned in王芳’s letter is aligned to the curriculum; the topics tested (e.g. local attractions such as the zoo, and the botanical gardens, as well as overseas travel) were featured in the students’ textbooks. The panel also ensures that the oral topics take into consideration the experiences of students. For example, the PSLE English Language oral topic for Day 1 on queueing and orderliness are common occurrences that students experience in daily life and are topics that they can talk about.

In the PSLE oral examinations, students are assessed on their ability to converse with the oral examiners using appropriate vocabulary, sentence structures and good pronunciation, and not on their knowledge of specific content. As a principle, the oral topics and related prompts are set in a manner that provides students with a wide scope to respond, based on their perspectives. Should students require support during the conversations, the oral examiners will provide additional prompts and students will not be penalised.

Mr Yue Lip Sin
Chief Executive, Singapore Examinations and Assessment Board