Effective Strategies to Practice PSLE Oral SBC Skills at Home with Your Children
- Discovering Potential
- 7 days ago
- 4 min read
Preparing for the PSLE Oral Stimulus-Based Conversation (SBC) can feel overwhelming for parents and children. The SBC assesses several key areas: a student’s command of language, breadth of vocabulary, ability to empathise with everyday situations, and most importantly, their communication skills. Parents and caregivers at home can play a powerful role to help your children build up their communication skills in a nurturing and positive manner on a daily basis. The more consistent the practice, the more natural the SBC will feel for them, which in turn then boosts their confidence for the PSLE English Oral exam. Here is how you can support your child's PSLE Oral SBC preparation meaningfully at home.
Integrate vocabulary building into everyday life
A limited vocabulary is one of the most common challenges students face during the PSLE Oral SBC. Many end up repeating the same words over and over again, especially when describing emotions and actions ("happy", "sad"). This makes their responses repetitive and less expressive.
Try to expand their vocabulary whenever the opportunity arises. For example, when you are watching the news, and you hear an unfamiliar word, ask them "Do you know what that means?". Make it a fun experience - you can always look up the words together or build a vocabulary notebook. Pay attention to posters, websites, books, and even lyrics from their favourite Taylor Swift songs - these are all fantastic vocabulary opportunities. What matters is being alert to these moments. Even a one-minute discussion each day can add up to significant improvement over time.
Teach them to brainstorm, not memorise
Many students try to memorise answers to common SBC topics. It is very important to understand that while it appears to be a comfortable and reliable method when doing it at home, in reality, memorized scripts often fall apart when the student is under pressure or the questions or prompts are different from what was rehearsed. When it does fall apart, it is very difficult for the student to recover as they have not built up a strong foundation of being able to brainstorm ideas on their own. The true skill lies in being able to think on their feet.
Encourage them to brainstorm for ideas using your daily routines. For example, if you are out driving them in the car and you see a food delivery driver on the road, ask them questions such as "how do you think the food delivery driver is feeling", "what do you think his job is like", "what do you think are some challenges he faces". These are effectively picture stimulus thinking skills. And if you do this on a regular basis, discussing a picture stimulus will feel like an everyday affair. This is how you build communication skills - not by rote learning but by building strong foundational habits in generating ideas, increasing confidence, and enhancing adaptability.
Encourage interest in current affairs
Many of the SBC questions seem challenging to students because it asks them for their opinion about something that is happening around them. For example "why do you think recycling is important", or "do you think it is important to encourage our elderly to embrace technology". Reading the newspaper or listening to the news broadcasts on television or radio can help children understand why these topics are important. They struggle not because the concepts are difficult, but they lack context.
Try to model the way by bringing up such topics during meal times and asking them to think through the whys. If they can understand why something is happening, they are able to confidently discuss their opinions and present their thoughts when asked "why do you think it is important" and "how can we" type of questions.
Final thoughts - the PSLE oral exam is a life skill
The PSLE English oral exam is a substantial part of the overall PSLE English score, but it also tends to be the part that is most overlooked and least practised. Parents and caregivers can definitely play an important role in supporting their child's practice at home. Consistent practice and coaching is far more effective than last-minute practice as the PSLE Oral SBC is a conversational skill that requires time and focus to build up. And the best part? This skill goes way beyond the PSLE Oral exam - your child carries it into secondary school, presentations, scholarship interviews, university interviews, and life itself.
Written by:
Siew Ling Hwang, Founder, Discovering Potential www.discoveringpotential.com.sg
Siew Ling is the founder of Discovering Potential and she specialises in providing Interview Skills Coaching and Communication Skills Coaching to youths and adults. Her experience includes both 1-on-1 coaching and workshop coaching for clients that come from a wide range of industries and age groups. Siew Ling coaches students for their PSLE Oral examinations. In addition, Siew Ling coaches students for their Primary 6 and JC DSA interviews as well as university entrance interviews in many areas including medicine, dentistry, physiotherapy, law, business, accounting, renaissance engineering and more for both local Singapore universities and overseas universities. She has also coached students for internship opportunities in several of the large consulting firms and financial institutions, as well as scholarship interviews including PSC scholarships, SAF scholarships, MOH scholarships, MOE scholarships and others.
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