UPSR 2016 - English Paper (Actual UPSR Papers)

Key notes:

• There are 2 papers for English subject, 
• Paper 013 - Comprehension
• Paper 014 - Writing
• Both papers will be graded separately (if a student gets an "A" for Paper 013, he's not necessarily get the same grade for Paper 014, depending on his performance in each papers)
• Time allocated for both Paper 013 and Paper 014 are 1 hour 15 minutes each.
• Total possible points for both papers are 50 marks each.

Here is an analysis based on the actual paper for UPSR 2016:

UPSR 2016 - Analysis of Actual English Papers from IMSHA LEARNING

Latihan Peratus Tahun 6

Bidang: Nombor dan Operasi
Tajuk: Peratus

Standard pembelajaran
Murid boleh:

• menukar perpuluhan hingga 2 tempat perpuluhan kepada peratus dan sebaliknya
• menukar pecahan kepada peratus dan sebaliknya
• menyelesaikan masalah harian termasuk simpanan dan pelaburan yang melibatkan peratus

Peratus adalah antara topik yang agak mencabar bagi sesetengah murid. Soalan-soalan berkaitan peratus selalunya melibatkan permasalahan yang melibatkan aplikasi dalam kehidupan seharian.

Pentaksiran
Murid dapat: 

• menyatakan istilah yang melibatkan peratus seperti simpanan dan pelaburan, kebaikan melakukan simpanan dan pelaburan
• menyelesaikan ayat matematik yang melibatkan peratus.

Nilai dan sikap
Pengurusan risiko dalam simpanan dan pelaburan, berjimat cermat, bijak mengurus dan kerjasama

Cadangan aktiviti tambahan:
Untuk memantapkan kefahaman murid dalam topik Peratus ini, terdapat beberapa aktiviti pengukuhan yang boleh diapplikasikan dalam sesi pembelajaran.

1) Minta murid menceritakan senario yang melibatkan wang simpanan. 
    Contohnya:

• Berapakah jumlah wang simpanan yang kamu telah kumpul?
• Apakah yang akan kamu lakukan dengan wang tersebut?
• Di manakah tempat yang sesuai untuk menyimpan wang tersebut?

Nota Padat Matematik UPSR

Dalam Modul PdP Tahun 6, ada dinyatakan bahawa "Matematik di peringkat sekolah rendah adalah satu mata pelajaran asas yang menegaskan kepada penguasaan bahasa matematik, kefahaman konsep, penguasaan kemahiran mengira, menaakul dan kemahiran menyelesaikan masalah serta penerapan nilai-nilai murni. Elemen kreativiti, keusahawanan dan teknologi maklumat dan komunikasi (TMK) perlu diterapkan melalui konteks yang sesuai bagi setiap standard pembelajaran".  

Secara keseluruhannya, terdapat 12 topik matematik yang terdapat dalam KSSR (Kurikulum Standard Sekolah Rendah). 

1. Nombor dan Operasi
2. Pecahan - 1
3. Perpuluhan
4. Peratus - 1, 2
5. Wang - 1, 2
6. Masa dan Waktu
7. Pajang, Jisim dan Isipadu
8. Ruang
9. Koordinat
10. Nisbah dan Kadaran
11. Statistik dan Kebarangkalian - 1

Nota padat seperti yang di bawah merangkumkan konsep-konsep asas matematik yang perlu dikuasai oleh pelajar-pelajar yang akan menduduki UPSR. Penguasaan dalam konsep-konsep asas ini selanjutkan akan membolehkan murid menyelesaikan permasalahan matematik yang lebih mencabar, yang mana sebenarnya hanyalah menguji keupayaan dan ketajaman berfikir murid terhadap permasalahan yang dimanipulasi daripada konsep asas matematik.

Nota Padat Matematik UPSR from IMSHA LEARNING

LP - Crawling

Crawling in my skin
These wounds, they will not heal
Fear is how I fall
Confusing what is real

There's something inside me that pulls beneath the surface
Consuming, confusing
This lack of self control I fear is never ending
Controlling
I can't seem
To find myself again
My walls are closing in
(Without a sense of confidence I'm convinced
That there's just too much pressure to take)
I've felt this way before
So insecure

Crawling in my skin
These wounds, they will not heal
Fear is how I fall
Confusing what is real

Discomfort, endlessly has pulled itself upon me
Distracting, reacting
Against my will I stand beside my own reflection
It's haunting how I can't seem

To find myself again
My walls are closing in
(Without a sense of confidence I'm convinced
That there's just too much pressure to take)
I've felt this way before
So insecure

Crawling in my skin
These wounds, they will not heal
Fear is how I fall
Confusing what is real

Crawling in my skin
These wounds, they will not heal
Fear is how I fall
Confusing, confusing what is real

There's something inside me that pulls beneath the surface
Consuming (confusing what is real)
This lack of self control I fear is never ending
Controlling (confusing what is real)

Album: Hybrid Theory
---

UPSR: Proverbs and Idioms

Although there's usually only one question on proverb or idiom (particularly in Paper 1 - MCQ), students have nothing to lose in learning new proverbs and idioms. The benefit is obvious when they come across those phrases later in life.

But, first of all, what's the difference between proverbs and idioms? Here, I quoted the definition of both according to Merriam-Webster:

An idiom is a phrase that has a meaning of its own that cannot be understood from the meanings of its individual words. 

Here are some examples of idioms:

• break a leg
• over the moon
• a little bird told me

If translated literally, "break a leg" means to break a person's leg with a stick or anything. But, the idiomatic meaning is to wish someone good luck before any event, exam or performance. So, the meaning should be taken figuratively and can be understood only as a whole since the combination of words when taken together has a meaning different to its literal interpretation.

A proverb is a short popular saying that gives advice about how people should behave or that expresses a belief that is generally thought to be true. Here are some examples:

• Curiosity killed the cat. 
• Those who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. 
• A stitch in time saves nine. 

Compared to idioms, a proverb can stand on its own, meaning the words mean what they define. For example, "Curiosity killed the cat" means being curious can get you into trouble. In short, proverbs are wise sayings based on comon sense or practicality. Every culture has it. In Malay culture, for example, we have, "Sepandai-pandai tupai melompat, akhirnya jatuh ke tanah jua" which means no matter how cunning you are, you'll finally get busted.

Citizen Cope – Sideways

You know it ain't easy
For these thoughts here to leave me
There's no words to describe it
In French or in English
Well, diamonds they fade
And flowers they bloom
And I'm telling you
These feelings won't go away

They've been knockin' me sideways
They've been knockin' me out lately
Whenever you come around me
These feelings won't go away
They've been knockin' me sideways
I keep thinking in a moment that
Time will take them away
But these feelings won't go away

---

Really, such a beautiful song. It got me immediately the first time I listened to it. I could feel it and somehow could relate to each lines of it. I'm personally find the first few lines are most especially and accurately relatable. Dealing with my own thoughts and emotions, uncontrollably, was/is truly not an easy thing.

The language of this song is absolutely gorgeous. Deep. Isn't diamond one of the hardest/strongest metal? But, why it says "diamonds they fade"? Would that be possible? And "flowers they bloom" follows next. These two lines contradict each other, aren't they?So, why?

So amazing, we can get this song interpreted in many ways, anyway we want to, and one's interpretation is very likely to differ from others.

These type of songs really catch my attention and interest.

Here's the video:

Matematik Tahun 6: Topik Wang

Matematik Tahun 6

Bidang: Nombor dan operasi
Tajuk: Wang

Standard pembelajaran:
Murid berupaya untuk menyelesaikan masalah harian melibatkan bil, rebat, cukai, aset dan liabiliti.

Istilah-istilah di atas ini juga boleh digambarkan seperti dalam video di bawah:

Cadangan aktiviti tambahan:

1. Bil
• Soal murid jika mereka tahu contoh-contoh bil lain
• Jelaskan bahawa setiap bil mempunyai identiti korporat masing-masing dan menunjukkan perkhidmatan yang telah diberikan kepada pengguna
• Latih murid berjimat cermat dalam perkhidmatan yang digunakan bagi mengurangkan pembayaran bil
2. Rebat
• Wujudkan situasi-situasi yang bersesuaian bagi menambah kefahaman murid tentang rebat
3. Cukai
• Bincang mengapakah cukai dikenakan? Siapakah yang memungut cukai? Apakah manfaatnya kepada rakyat dan negara?
4. Aset dan liabiliti
• Bincang situasi manakah yang lebih baik sama ada mempunyai aset yang banyak atau liabiliti yang banyak? Mengapa?

Fahami Bacaan dalam Solat

Rasulullah s.a.w bersabda yang maksudnya: 

Sesungguhnya amal yang mula-mula sekali dihisab pada hari kiamat ialah sembahyang (solat) seseorang, jika sembahyangnya diterima maka sesungguhnya beruntunglah dan berjayalah ia, dan jika sembahyangnya tidak diterima maka kecewa dan rugilah ia. Sekiranya terkurang dari sembahyang fardhunya sesuatu, Allah berfirman: Periksalah, adakah hamba-Ku itu mempunyai sembahyang-sembahyang sunat untuk dicukupkan dengannya apa yang terkurang dari sembahyang fardunya? Demikianlah keadaan amal-amalnya yang lain.  

(HR Tirmizi) 

Makna Bacaan Dalam Solat (Lafaz dan terjemahannya). Semoga solat kita lebih bermakna seterusnya berjaya mewarnai segenap kehidupan kita.

Makna bacaan dalam solat from IMSHA LEARNING

Solat itu...
membuahkan perasaan berlainan
daripada satu insan ke insan lain
meski untuk insan yang sama
tidak mustahil berubah perasaannya 
kerna solat itu
ibadah paling terutama
selayaknya paling perlu istiqamahnya
kerna itu butuh kesungguhan memeliharanya

kesempurnaannya membutuhkan kesiagaan...
dalam niatnya
dalam lafaznya
dalam fahamnya
dalam amalnya
dalam mujahadah memeliharanya

nikmatnya...
hanya dirasai oleh yang merasai...
tak terungkapkan dek kata-kata
manisnya... 
jauh berganda daripada gambaran
manisnya rasa
madu, gula mahupun epal.

Matematik - Kertas Sebenar UPSR 2016 & Latihan

Kertas peperiksaan sebenar bagi subjek matematik yang dijawab oleh murid-murid yang menduduki UPSR pada tahun 2016.

Matematik Kertas 1 (015/1)

• 40 soalan MCQ (Setiap soalan mempunyai empat pilihan jawapan; A, B, C dan D)
• 40 markah
• Masa menjawab: 1 jam
• Dalam peperiksaan sebenar, murid perlu menghitamkan jawapan pada kertas objektif yang disediakan

Matematik Kertas 2 (015/2)

• 15 soalan
• 60 markah
• Masa menjawab: 1 jam
• Jalan pengiraan perlulah ditunjukkan dan jawapan mestilah ditulis dengan jelas dalam ruang yang disediakan

UPSR 2017 - English Paper 013 & 014 Exercises

UPSR is approaching very soon! So, here I've uploaded some exercises students can do on their own. These files can be easily downloaded (if you have SlideShare account) within few seconds. Answers for multiple choice questions (Paper 013 - Section A) are included at the very end of the document. I purposely segregated the papers into their respective sections, so as not to massing all in their one formatted paper, hence easier for students to practice sections they feel/think need to focus on.

So, there are 5 documents in total. The last document is exercises for Paper 2 - Section C, with sample essays at the back.

Prenatal Development: Environmental Factors (III)

Drugs Taken by the Parents

1. Thalidomide

• In the 1960s, it was used to treat insomnia and nausea.
• Now, it is used to treat disorders as various as dermatological problems and Kaposi's sarcoma.
• Effects: babies with missing or stunted limbs will be born

2. Antibiotics

• Tetracycline is usually prescribed for bacterial infections.
• Effects: babies with yellowed teeth and bone abnormalities.

Prenatal Development: Environmental Factors (II)

B. Teratogens and Health Problems of the Mother

• Teratogens are environmental agents that can harm the embryo or fetus (e.g., drugs, alcohol, radiation, etc.)
• The harmful effects of teratogens varies according to the critical period that correspond to the times when organs are developing.
• For example, the heart is most vulnerable to certain teratogens in the third to fifth weeks after conception. Thus, the same teratogens that can harm a 4-week-old embryo may have no effect on a 4-month-old fetus.

Prenatal Development: Environmental Factors (I)

There's nothing much we can do if a child's defect in development is due to natural factors, commonly known as the heredity factors (the genetics). But, as technology progresses, scientists have identified more of external factors that could affect baby's development and growth. Compared to natural factors, we could take necessary action and prevention, thanks to sound knowledge and understanding of these factors. So, here I lay out some of the environmental factors that could affect prenatal development and actions that could be taken to address the issue.

A. Nutrition

How a mother's nutrition affects the prenatal development?

• Malnutrition in the mother is associated with low birth weight, prematurity, stunted growth, retardation of brain development, cognitive deficiencies, behavioral problems, and cardiovascular disease.
• Mother's obesity is linked to a higher risk of stillbirth and neural tube defects (brain, spinal cords and related structures don't form properly).

Neural Tube Defects.

What should a pregnant woman eat?

• To give birth a healthy baby, a pregnant women should consume a well-rounded diet, i.e., food high in: 
• protein - red meat, fish, poultry, eggs, beans, milk, cheese
• Vitamin A - milk, vegetables
• Vitamin B - wheat germs, whole grain breads, liver
• Vitamin C - citrus food
• Vitamin D - fish-liver oil, and sunshine exposure
• Vitamin E - whole grains, eggs, peanuts, some vegetables
• calcium - dairy products
• iron - meat (esp. liver), egg yolks, fish, raisins
• minerals zinc and cobalt - seafood
• calories
• folic acid - leafy green vegetables
• Pregnant women who take folic acid supplements reduce the risk of babies having the neural tube defects.
• Those who eat a balanced diet don't require to take supplements but most doctors recommend them to be safe.

Sources of folic acid

What is the normal gain in weight for pregnant women?

• Inadequate weight gain increases the likelihood of having a premature or low-birth-weight baby.
• The desirable weight gain is between 10kg to 15 kg of gain during pregnancy.

To read on other external factors, click here.

Reference:
Rathus, S. A. (2008). Childhood and Adolescence: Voyages in Development. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.

Babies are geniuses!

It was mesmerizing knowing that newborn babies can differentiate monkey faces. Say for example, while we human know who is Ali and who is Zizi, a newborn knows who is monkey A and who is monkey B.
But, their brilliance isn't just that. They are incredible language learners, way better than adults! Babies have the capability to acquire languages rapidly and effortlessly. Indeed, another puzzle of life!

Kuhl hypothesized that this phenomenon is due to the computational abilities (or statistical learning) and special social skills that embraced by babies innately. (Please watch the video below!)

So, the take-home messages are:

1. Babies can acquire any languages that they are exposed to. 
2. But, they need social tutors, not media (TV, audio, etc.) as their language teacher.
3. Their super-acquisition abilities are at their peak from birth until at age seven. So, don't wait, just start early.

Needless to say the countless benefits children would have when they can speak multiple languages (I might write about this some time later).

Kuhl, P. K. (2004). Early language acquisition: Cracking the speech code. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 5(11), 831-843.

Latih Tubi Matematik

Operasi matematik yang asas (operasi tambah, tolak, darab dan bahagi) perlulah dikuasai dengan mantap semenjak dari kecil supaya dapat diguna pakai untuk penyelesaian masalah matematik yang lebih mencabar dengan berkesannya. Penguaasaan operasi-operasi yang asas ini sangat penting untuk mencapai "number sense" (tahap penguasaan matematik yang tinggi). Tidak dinafikan pencapaian matematik mempunyai implikasi yang penting untuk semua jurusan baik di peringkat pengajian atau applikasi kehidupan. Banyak kajian telah menunjukkan pelajar yang mempunyai penguasaan matematik yang baik akan cemerlang dalam pengajian mereka di universiti (GPA yang tinggi) (Bremer et al., 2013).

Latih tubi perlu kerap dilakukan supaya pelajar dapat membentuk "number sense" sedari awal. Di sini saya sertakan antara latih tubi yang boleh dilakukan. Untuk mencapai kecekapan (fluency) maksimum, tempoh masa latih tubi perlu dikira semasa pelajar membuat latih tubi. Pelajar perlu mempunyai sasaran tempoh masa yang mereka ingin capai. Contohnya, pelajar yang berusia 12 tahun perlu sekurang-kurangnya dapat menyelesaikan 100 soalan (dengan tepat) dalam tempoh kurang daripada 5 minit.

Jika berminat, boleh baca mengenai kehebatan latih tubi yang kerap di sini, saya tulis mengenai salah satu komponen otak manusia yang hebat - hippocampus.

Maths Drill (Basic operations) from IMSHA LEARNING

UPSR 2017: Peratus & Wang Matematik Tahun 6

Tajuk: Peratus
Standard Pembelajaran - Murid berupaya untuk:

• Menyelesaikan masalah harian termasuk simpanan dan pelaburan yang melibatkan peratus

Aktiviti-aktiviti tambahan yang boleh dilakukan dalam topik Peratus boleh lihat di sini.

UPSR 2017: Peratus tahun 6 from IMSHA LEARNING

Memory

Oftentimes, "memory" is the one subject (among other cognitive operations) that genuinely triggers my curiosity and effortlessly prompts me to further explore issues surround it. It's fascinating to comprehend just how memory could induce the underlying meaning of people behavior. For the most part, I actually seek to understand my memory, myself better.

So, what really is memory? For simplicity, memory enables us to learn and remember different types of information by way of independent operations in our brains. Isn't that cool?

I'm particularly interested in (to list just a few):

• How do we remember things?
• Why do we remember things?
• Why do we have strong memories for certain things?
• Why do we forget things?
• Can we improve our memory? How? And to what extent?
• Can we selectively delete some memories?
• How memory correlates with other cognitive processes?
• How do we explain dream in relation to memory?

I've better comprehension for some of these questions now that I'm taking my second cognitive class. Still, I have vague idea for some of others. I will continue researching (read: re+searching, not doing experiment) to shed light on these queries.

Mathematical Statistic

Honestly, this is the most difficult subject I've ever studied! Like, seriously hard! I love maths, and I love statistic too... But when these two came together, it just went over my head! (Admittedly, I was somehow curious about this subject which in a way motivated me to enrol for this subject).

Well, anyway, I want to share these lecture notes of mine, in hope they could be of any benefits to someone (though, I might not well versed or immersed enough in this subject). Here they are:

Human Brain: Hippocampus

Hippocampus is one of the many important components of human brain. The processes of long-term memory and emotional responses deal heavily on this part of brain.

Knowing hippocampus is particularly important to me because I have a great interest in the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage of sleep. REM is the part when we dream in our sleep. So, basically, studies have shown that our hippocampus is active during the REM stage because they are producing new cells and integrating these cells into the neural networks. Psychologists call these process as consolidation. Or to make it more understandable, consolidation is simply a process of integrating new information into previous information that we stored in our memory, i.e. making sense of the new information so that it can be stored in our long-term memory.

Researchers thus came up with a theory suggesting that the more REM we have, the more consolidation process happens; ie the better our memory is. What's more, not only can we benefit this REM stage at night sleep, it's applicable to taking a nap too as shown in a study done by neuroscientists at Harvard University. You can read more from this link.

Practical example:

Let say Ali and Abu have mathematic examination next week. They both allocate the same amount of study time; 4 hours, but they differ in their spacing time.

• Ali spends the whole 4 hours in a single study session (i.e. his revision is crammed in a day)
• Abu spaces his study time by spending 1 hour per study session (i.e. his revision is distributed in 4 days)

Whom do you think will score better in exam? Yes, Abu! Indeed, a lot of researches have been done to prove this. (If you are interested, you may want to look at researches on the spacing effect; viz. distributed practice and massed practice).

All in all, the take home message is; in order to enhance our memory consolidation, it's of great importance to sleep with dreams.

Questions to ponder:
- What happen if our hippocampus is damaged or worst, removed?
- How does this hippocampus removal affect our daily life?

** The most famous case study, not limited to just hippocampus study but in all of memory research involves HM (Henry Molaison). More interestingly, his hippocampus is still being displayed in a museum in California. 

Location of Hippocampus

Hippocampus of human brain compared to a sea horse

Latihan Matematik UPSR 2017: Ujian Bulan Mac

Kepentingan membuat latihan ulang kaji


Banyak kajian menunjukkan membuat latihan (practising retrieval) mempunyai kesan yang positif terhadap pembelajaran dan pengekalan ingatan pada jangka masa panjang (long-term retention) (Karpicke, 2007). Berbanding mengulang bacaan nota, pelajar dapat lebih mengingat bahan belajar apabila mereka membuat latihan ulang kaji.
Membuat latihan ulang kaji lebih berkesan daripada mengulang bacaan nota. Dan kesannya lebih mendalam, jika pelajar membuat latihan sebagaimana mereka akan diuji nanti. Contohnya, pelajar yang akan menduduki UPSR, sebaiknya mereka diuji dengan ujian yang menggunakan format UPSR sebenar - format kertas ujian dan masa. Ia adalah lebih efiktif, berbanding jika pelajar hanya membuat latihan mengikut topik-topik yang berasingan.