Singapore Math scoring

From an earlier comment by Myrtle on "Slave Parents in Singapore" regarding scoring in Singapore:

1: 75% and above
2: 70% to 74%
3: 65% to 69%
4: 60% to 64%
5: 55% to 59%
6: 50% to 54%
U: Below 50%, considered Un-graded, or failed.

Which to me looks like you only need 75% to get an A.

My understanding is that Myrtle is close. I was told last summer that 65% or above was considered mastery of a concept.

I gave my 3rd grade students the 3A placement test this week. Yes, right before Halloween (I'm such a mean teacher). I use the placement test that is online as it is what the students would normally take at the beginning of 4th grade to be sorted into ability groups.

I also figure this will point out areas that I need to revisit before we start on the 3B work. Or, as it turns out, not. Fifteen of my 17 students scored 85% or above, two students scored in the mid-70% range. Even Singapore teachers would consider that mastery.

If you look closely at the 3A placement test, you'll see that it is scored 2 points for a basic problem and 5 points for a word problem. I score 1 point for a basic problem - it's either correct or not, and 4 for a word problem, as follows:

1 pt correct bars
1 pt correct brackets or labeling of bars
1 pt math
1 pt answer in a complete sentence

The reasoning is that the word problems are so simple at this level, the concept to master is how to get the model method correct so that students can move on to more challenging problems.

As the year is sliding into the holiday non-stop party mode, I will probably hand out the 3B books, but intersperse units with standards that Arizona requires like discrete math, probability and tangrams.