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I have received a lot of private messages from parents as well as questions raised in the comments sections on our Malaysia Secondary School Parents Group on Facebook. Though I try my best to, sometimes I may miss out replying to some of these messages so I shall attempt to address some of the issues or questions raised in this post.
Firstly, the picture shows the Form 4 books for 2020 for a Science stream student. Well, there isn't supposed to be anymore streaming, but rather one can select "packages" to decide on the subjects one would like to take in Form 4. Reading into some of the comments in our group, it would seem that the packages are not easy to implement. Implementation is never easy. There's the problem of logistics and availability of teachers and classrooms and scheduling and all that. We won't go into that because that is not the purpose of this post. Anyway, we decided to take the safest route by selecting pure sciences to have more options for tertiary studies later on. Now back to the textbooks. Here are some things one can note just by looking at the textbooks. 1. DLP - Dual Language Programme
If you are doing DLP and in science stream. Most of what you will be sitting for in SPM is in English (see the top half of books, they are all in English, Math, Add Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and English with the literature components (the four little books at the top right corner). This is good for those who is more comfortable speaking in English. It really helps. If your child is one of those, you should try your best to get into a DLP school. Note that not all schools run DLP school wide. Some open one or two classes, so you have to make sure you ask about the criteria of getting into those classes. Just because the school you are applying to is a DLP approved school does not necessarily mean your child will automatically get to do Math and Science in English unless the school is running it school wide. Note that, Arts stream students will be doing less subjects in English. The bottom half are those in BM including BM and the BM literature books (KOMSAS or Komponent Sastera), Sejarah, Moral and PJPK. PJPK is not tested in SPM. We also have Chinese but those not doing Chinese won't need that.
2. KSSM subjects: Asas Sains Komputer (ASK) and Rekabentuk dan Teknologi (RBT) This is another frequently asked question mainly by parents with children going into Form 1 in secondary school. The two subjects ASK and RBT are new subjects under the KSSM syllabus. Note that some schools offer students a choice to select either one of the two whereas some offer only one choice so you need to check with your school. Whichever it may be, once you start in Form 1, you carry on learning the subject till Form 3. It looks like ASK or RBT subjects are learned from Form 1 to Form 3 since there is no textbook for this in Form 4 as shown above. 3. PT3 This is another frequently asked question. Students from last year, 2019 will tell you that they are the first and final batch for PT3 changes. They are the first batch to do PT3 with a new structure and they are the last batch to do PT3 as a centralised exam. To answer some of the questions from parents, there will still be PT3 in 2020. However, it is no longer a centralised exam like UPSR or SPM. It will be a fully school based exam just like the mid term or year end examinations. There have been some sharing on social media on PT3 exam dates. Do not let that confuse you. Even if the dates were set to be the same for all schools, the exams is not a centralized one going forth starting from this year 2020. I also received some questions on how to study for PT3. Well, here are a few quick tips. Quick Tips for PT3 - Consistent study is necessary so instill a study habit in students early - When it comes to Science, one must be very specific, if you write off point, the mistakes you make will cancel off the parts which you got correct (within the same question) so memorize your keywords well - There will be essay like question in Sejarah. For these types of questions, especially KBAT (Kemahiran Berfikir Aras Tinggi) or HOTS (High Order Thinking Skills) questions, unlike Science, you can write as much as you know and your mistakes won't cancel out the right answer as long as you touched on it in your overall answer. - For the languages, English, BM and Chinese, one needs to practice reading, writing, speaking and listening skills. BM writing and BM Lisan are counted as two separate papers wheres the speaking and listening parts of English and Chinese are counted and included as one paper together with the writing test. There is no short cut for languages. One just has to read a lot to build vocabulary and practice consistently to improve writing skills. - For papers with projects, Geografi, Sejarah, ASK or RBT, just follow teacher's instructions and do them well. It will help as they are included in the overall subject marks. - Finally, practice makes perfect in Mathematics so get workbooks to do frequent practice.
I hope this answers some of the questions raised by parents by pm or in our FB group. Sorry I am unable to reply to each one individually.
