SILENCE

Examination in Progress

You're 12 years old and the direction of your life could well be determined by the exams you are about to take. The Primary School Leaving Examinations are considered by most parents and interested observers as being the most stressful and high pressure exams in a student's life - more than O or A levels, GSCE, or even university exams. The PSLE is a ranking exam - you take English, Math, Science and a second language. You're marked on a bell curve. Your results are ranked on a bell curve, and the better you do, the higher your priority to choose your secondary school. All 12 year olds take the exam, so a cohort of about 40,000 kids every year.

sunshine sat his first paper today, whilst on antibiotics for an infected throat and neurofen for a fever and headache. Not the best prescription for doing well. He's home now and his fever has spiked again, so we're hoping he feels better for tomorrow's Math paper, which traditionally is so tough many kids come out crying after the paper.

Our great comfort is that he's managed to be pre-admitted to a good school based on sporting ability, that means that so long as he passes a minimum mark (which should be more than achievable for him even when sick), he's guaranteed a place in that school. It takes a helluva lot of pressure off him. I'm so thankful we pushed him to explore this route because I was worried that something like this would happen - that he'd be sick or injured and his exam results wouldn't be a true reflection of his ability or preparation.

I'm probably going to be slow commenting this week - we're all under exam stress here ...