Parenting Times: What Is The Difference Between The Old UPSR And The New UPSR Formats

Thursday, October 08, 2015

What Is The Difference Between The Old UPSR And The New UPSR Formats

We have done an analysis of some of the UPSR 2016 new so this is just a summary of what we have done before but it is interesting to note nevertheless. Do note that not all of the papers are covered eg SJKT papers are not included in this comparison. We make our comparison largely based on the SJKC papers but overall more or less it is the same.

Differences between the old UPSR and the new UPSR formats

Here's what we noticed.

BI (English) will now be counted as 2 different subjects. In actual fact, students used to sit for 2 papers previously too. Only now, the time allocated for the paper 1 has been increased from 50 minutes to 1 hour 15 minutes. Time allocated for paper 2 remains the same at 1 hour 15 minutes. However, it will be counted as a separate paper. (overall time increased 25 minutes)
BM (Malay) no change in the number of papers required to sit for. Used to be 2 papers counted separately. However, the time for Paper 1 has also increase from 50 minutes to 1 hour 15 minutes. Paper 2 remains unchanged at 1 hour 15 minutes. (overall time increased 25 minutes)
BC (Chinese) same observation as BM. Paper 1 has increased from 50 minutes to 1 hour 15 minutes (overall time increased 25 minutes)
Math Candidates sat for 2 papers. Math 1 = 1 hour. Math 2=40 minute. In the new UPSR, Math 1=1 hour, Math 2=1 hour (overall time increased 20 minutes)
Science Candidates sat for only ONE paper previously. Time allocated was 1 hour 15 minutes. In the new UPSR format, candidates will now sit for TWO papers but it will still be considered as one subject. Time allocated is 1 hour for each paper. (overall time increased 45 minutes)

Time increased overall is 2 hours 20 minutes due to the increased number of subjective questions.

Major difference between the old UPSR and new UPSR format is

more subjective questions
more time overall
English considered as 2 subjects
Science will now have 2 papers instead of 1 but still considered as 1 subject
one paper for all for BM and English papers (Only 1 sample is given for SK/SJKC and SJKT suggests this but no confirmation on this yet. Previously the SK school and SJKC/T schools sat for different sets of papers.