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The Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) is a national examination taken by all primary school students in Singapore.
It marks an important milestone in a student's academic journey, as it determines their eligibility for secondary school education.
In the past, the PSLE was scored using the T-score system, which ranked students based on their relative performance.
In 2021, the Ministry of Education (MOE) introduced a new scoring system based on Achievement Levels (ALs), bringing significant changes to how primary school students' academic achievements are assessed.
This article is brought to you by The Learning Lab – empowering students to succeed in the PSLE and beyond, building strong foundations to excel in school and thrive in life.
Under the new AL system, each student will be given a score from 1 to 8 for each subject, with 1 being the best possible score.
The scores correspond to specific mark ranges:
The total PSLE score is then calculated by adding up the AL scores across all four subjects.
This means there are 29 possible PSLE scores, ranging from 4 (the best) to 32 (the lowest).
Example of the PSLE Score calculation:
The AL Score is used to determine a student's eligibility for secondary school courses and can be compared against cut-off points set by the various secondary schools
Students with higher AL Scores have a wider range of courses to choose from, while students with lower AL Scores have a more limited range of courses.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) introduced the new PSLE AL Score system to promote a more holistic approach towards education.
The changes aim to reduce excessive competition among students and encourage personal growth instead.
The new system recognizes that students have diverse strengths and talents beyond pure academics, fostering more well-rounded development. MOE's decision reflects a commitment to nurturing future generations with essential life skills such as resilience, adaptability, and creativity.
Ultimately, the shift from T-scores to AL scoring provides a more inclusive education landscape and encourages both parents and children to prioritize learning and understanding over chasing after every last mark.
It's about celebrating your child's achievements while supporting their growth at their own pace.
In 2024, 60% of TLL students achieved AL1 or AL2, 1 in 2 scored 8 or lower overall and 1 in 3 attained the coveted AL1 grade.
Behind these results is a nurturing approach built on an MOE-aligned curriculum. Lessons connect classroom concepts to real-world applications and are delivered by experienced educators who take time to understand how your child learns. Classes are also kept to 10–12 students to ensure meaningful and personalised guidance.
Your child also benefits from resources such as termly revision booklets, colour–coded mind maps and in–house online platform TLL.360, ensuring continuous learning beyond the classroom.
You might notice that the mark ranges aren't evenly distributed across the ALs.
According to MOE, the scoring system is meant to let students demonstrate their abilities without making overly fine distinctions between them.
Since MOE expects slightly less than half of the PSLE cohort to score AL 1-4 for Standard subjects, the mark ranges for these levels are narrower.
For the middle to lower ALs, students' scores tend to be more spread out. Having very narrow mark ranges at these levels wouldn't provide much additional insight into a student's abilities and would go against the goal of reducing excessive differentiation.
This approach strikes a balance between fair assessment and avoiding unnecessary stress over minor point differences.
Foundation level subjects are available for students who need extra support to build their fundamentals.
These courses allow them to learn at a pace and level that suits them, helping build confidence in the subject.
Like those for standard subjects, the grades for Foundation Level subjects directly reflect a student's achievement level rather than how they have performed compared to their peers.
Students will be graded from A to C for Foundation Level subjects.
The new PSLE AL system is different from the previous scoring system in several important ways:
Under the previous scoring system, students' results were reported in T-scores, which compared their performance to the entire cohort's performance.
The old T-score method relied heavily on precise calculations based on bell curves, percentile ranks, and standard deviations.
Under the old T-score system, a student who scored just one point higher than another would be ranked above them, even if their actual abilities were quite similar.
The new AL scoring system simplifies things by assigning students an Achievement Level based on their raw scores.
This means your child's performance is now evaluated independently of how others perform, reducing unnecessary stress and competition.
Student's scores are now also less finely differentiated as there are now only 29 possible PSLE scores compared to over 200 possible T-Scores under the previous system.
The PSLE AL scoring system places greater emphasis on individual performance rather than how well a student performs relative to others.
Since ALs are based on absolute standards, the aim is to encourage students to focus on their own learning journey instead of constantly comparing themselves others.
The PSLE AL System employs broader ranges for lower Achievement Levels than for higher ones.
This design recognizes that student scores tend to be more dispersed in the middle and lower performance ranges, where precise distinctions become less significant.
By implementing wider bands for lower ALs, the system prevents over-differentiation and promotes more equitable assessment of student achievement while maintaining meaningful distinctions for secondary school placement purposes.
Your child's total AL score determines their eligibility for different secondary school courses and is compared against cut-off points set by various secondary schools.
Students with lower total AL scores (meaning better performance) have a wider range of courses to choose from.
When There Are Ties
If there are limited vacancies and multiple students have the same AL scores, MOE uses a specific set of tie-breakers in this order:
Starting from 2024, students are posted to secondary schools through three Posting Groups (1, 2, and 3), replacing the previous Express, Normal (Academic) "N(A)", and Normal (Technical) "N(T)" streams.
Unlike the old academic streams, Posting Groups are used only for secondary school placement purposes, and to offer a recommended subject level for students at the start of Secondary 1.
This gives students more flexibility in their learning journey.
The eligibility criteria for taking HMTL are designed to make sure students can handle the more challenging academic load.
Here's the eligibility criteria:
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