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What you should you know about secondary school admissions under the new PSLE system
What is the new PSLE scoring system?
Under the new system, each standard-level PSLE subject will be scored using eight Achievement Levels (ALs). For each topic, each student will receive an AL score ranging from 1 to 8, according to the range of grades below:
Old PSLE scoring system
| GRADE | MARK |
| A* | 91-100 |
| A | 75-90 |
| B | 60-74 |
| C | 50-59 |
| D | 35-49 |
| E | 20-34 |
| U | <20 |
New PSLE scoring system
| GRADE | MARK |
| 1 | >90 |
| 2 | 85-90 |
| 3 | 80-84 |
| 4 | 75-79 |
| 5 | 65-74 |
| 6 | 45-64 |
| 7 | 20-44 |
| 8 | <20 |
A pupil’s total PSLE score will be the sum of ALs for his or her four subjects, with the best possible total being 4.
What is the key different between the old and new scoring systems?
The main difference is that PSLE scores will become much less finely differentiated. Under the AL system, students gain entry to schools based on a maximum of 29 possible scores (from the best possible score of 4 to the worst of 32), compared to more than 200 possible aggregates under the old system.
You may also have noticed that the lower AL bands have a wider marks range than the upper bands. According to the MOE, this decision was also made to reduce fine differentiation, because students’ scores are more widely distributed at the middle to lower ALs compared to the upper ALs. The wider marks range is sufficient to give a good indication of a student’s understanding.
