English Revision for PSLE

Dear all,

Keep Dean in your prayers and we hope for a speedy recovery and for strength in this period of time for his family and loved ones. We look forward to him coming back for the end of the year party :) Take good care of your health everyone and stretch yourself a little these coming few days for your last lap.

English Revision Notes 4

We went through another format of Letter writing for situational writing and it can be formal and informal. For informal, it is like writing an email or note.

Dear Peter,

     How are you? State purpose. Points 1 - 3.

     Points 4 - 6.

Regards/Your friend, 
(Name)

For formal,

Dear Mr Lee,

      (State purpose) (Points 1 - 3)

      Points 4 - 6.

Yours sincerely,
(Name)
(Position if any)

• Always remember your role (who you are? gender?)
• Audience (who you are writing to? formal or informal?)
• Format 
• Purpose (Aim of the writing)
• Highlight and identify the six points first. 

For composition,

It is always safer to stick to the picture composition for you will not need to break down difficult words as given in the situation composition writing.

Note the:

• main characters (choose the main character in the picture to write as)
• side characters (other useful characters? good? bad?)
• place
• time
• weather
• Link your ideas together and explain.
• Logical story. Keep it simple and in the Singapore setting as far as possible
• End off your story by solving the problem (happy ending). Do not leave the story without any proper conclusion. 

DO NOT:

• Write about dreams, bombs, terrorist attacks, other plants, Hollywood, Korean or cartoon characters. 

Watch your tenses (past), punctuation and handwriting!

Grammar items

• Will, would, can, could, shall, should, may, might, do, did --> The verb that comes after these words are always in the 'PRESENT' + 'PLURAL' form.

• will eat, would eat, can eat, could eat, shall eat, should eat, may eat, might eat, did eat, do eat. 

• Neither of
• Either of
• None of
• Not one of 
• No one
• One of 
• Each
• Every
• Everybody/Everyone
• All these words are in the SINGULAR form

• The flock of birds, The group of boys, The pack of cards, The box of toys, The bouquet of flowers
• These phrases, we look at the main noun which is flock, group, pack, box and bouquet which are in the SINGULAR form

• Verb (Noun/Subject) Verb (Present + Plural)
• Made him run, Heard him sing 

• You (Plural form *Special word)
• I + am 

• 'Has', 'Have' --> The verb that follows after that is usually in the perfect tense.
• Has done his homework
• had gone to work
• has slept soundly
• had flown away 
• Had I done this, .......
• Has he completed his work yet?
• Has he gone there yet?

• 'I wish' and 'If I' --> Verb that follows is in the past perfect form
• I wish I had done it
• I wish I had eaten that sweet.
• If I had gone there, .....
• If I had flown to India, ........

Synthesis and Transformation

• Direct to Indirect speech 
• Always look at the tense of the verb OUTSIDE the speech first. if it is in the past tense, change the tenses in the speech
• Present --> Past
• Past --> Past perfect (always starts with a 'Had')
• If it is a question (?), then remember that the subject/noun comes first followed by a verb
• now --> then 
• yesterday --> the previous day
• last night --> the previous night
• tomorrow --> the following day
• next week --> the following week
• is, are, was, were --> VERBS
• Q. "Where was Mary" asked Mother.
• Ans: Mother asked where Mary had been.

• Because of
• In spite of
• Despite
• Owing to 
• For these above phrases, I can use the words 'the fact that' after that.

• Much to (pronoun) (noun)
• Pronouns include:
• her / his / their / my / your / John's / the boy's / the boys'
• boy's (singular) 
• boys' (plural)

• Unless (is followed by a positive statement), (negative)

• Not only........., but also ..............
• either ............... or ................
• Look at how many verbs there are in the original sentence.
• If there is only 1 verb, the verb comes BEFORE the words 'not only' and 'either'
• He visits either the park or the playground. 
• He visits not only the park but also the playground.
• If there are 2 verbs, the verbs comes after the words 'only' and 'also' / 'either' and 'or'.
• He not only visits the park but also plays at the playground.
• He can either visit the park or play at the playground.

Comprehension MCQ & OE

• Take note of doing your pre-reading first and make notes.
• Highlight key words in the questions.
• Look out for tenses
• When you quote, make sure your copy correctly. 
• Answer in complete sentences. 
• Do not lift directly from the passage. 

Vocabulary cloze and MCQ

• Read the questions and passages first.
• Highlight key words.
• Eliminate answers not possible to narrow down the range of answers possible.
• Identify if the clue is in the negative or positive sense. 

Grammar Cloze, Editing and Comprehension Cloze

• Read first.
• Get the main idea of the passages
• Highlight key words and look for clues
• Look out for Singular/Plural and Present/Past/Past perfect/Continuous tenses

All the best for Thursday's paper. You will do well because I will be rooting for you. Your parents will be rooting for you. I will be praying hard for all of you. 6 years of hard work and these 2 years of extra hard work will all be given back to your exams. 

Eat well, rest well and study well. 

Sincerely,

Mr Nelson Ong