Look at this Paper 2 question from Ai Tong’s 2025 Prelim:
Three girls, Mabel, Candy and Lilian, had the same number of coins. Mabel had only twenty-cent coins. Candy and Lilian each had a mix of twenty-cent and one-dollar coins. Candy had 36 one-dollar coins while Lilian had 13 one-dollar coins. Of the three girls, who had the least and who had the most amount of money?
It looks like a Money question. It isn’t.
The real test is whether your child spots a pattern: each $1 coin replaces a 20¢ coin and therefore adds 80¢. The girl with the most $1 coins has the most money. Candy > Lilian > Mabel. You don’t even need to know how many coins they each have.
A student who doesn’t spot the swap pattern stares at the question, tries to guess numbers, runs out of time. A student who sees the pattern answers in 30 seconds.
This is the difference between AL2 and AL3 in Paper 2. And it’s hiding in plain sight.
How we analysed 221 PSLE Math Paper 2 questions
We pulled 2025 Paper 2 papers from 13 Singapore primary schools: ACSJ, Ai Tong, Catholic High, Henry Park, Kheng Cheng, MGS, CHIJ, Nan Hua, Nanyang, PLMGS, Raffles, Red Swastika, Tao Nan. That’s 221 questions and 715 marks in total.
Every question got tagged: what topic, what underlying method, how many marks. Then we looked for patterns.
Finding 1: “Money” questions rarely test money
Out of 50 questions tagged with Money, only 2 are pure money arithmetic. The other 48 use Money as a costume for a deeper thinking skill.
Rename them from “Money question” to what they actually test:
- Tiered Rate (first X units at rate A, rest at rate B) — 6 questions
- Ratio of priced items (Units & Parts) — 6 questions
- Supposition / Replacement (like the coin question) — 6 questions
- Fractions Remainder (spent-and-left chain) — 5 questions
- Statistics × % or × price (graph reading + operation) — 6 questions
- Bar model Sum-and-Difference — 2 questions
- Undo-the-discount (reverse %) — 2 questions
If your child has done 20 “Money questions” in practice but never been taught the Supposition method or the Remainder model, they’ll still freeze on the coin question. That’s the problem with tagging by topic instead of method.
Finding 2: The fractions, ratio, percentage overlap myth
Parents often tell us “my child is weak on fractions and ratio.” Tutors respond with questions that stack fractions, ratio, and percentage together.
Here’s the data: only 2 out of 221 questions combine all three at once. Under 1%.
Examiners treat Fractions, Ratio, and Percentage as three flavours of the same underlying idea. Stacking all three in one question makes it notation-heavy without adding cognitive demand. They prefer to pair one proportional topic with one concrete topic like Money, Volume, or Mass.
Drill these combinations instead: Fractions + Money, Ratio + Money, Percentage + Money, Fractions + Ratio, Ratio + Percentage. Skip the three-way frankensteins.
Finding 3: Five patterns cover two-thirds of the hardest marks
We looked at where Q14-17 marks sit: the 4-5 mark questions at the end of Paper 2, where strong students separate from average ones. Five recurring patterns dominate:
- Fractions Remainder (spent-and-left chains)
- Units & Parts (ratio of priced items)
- Supposition (the coin question and its cousins)
- Angles + Quadrilaterals (geometry angle-finding)
- Circles + Area and Perimeter
Together, these five patterns account for 47.7% of all Paper 2 marks across 13 papers, and 65.4% of Q14-17 marks.
A child fluent in these five patterns reads the hardest Paper 2 questions differently. What looks like “a hard exam question” becomes “oh, this is a Remainder chain” and the solution structure appears.
Finding 4: Surface topics hide the actual skill
The Supposition method disguises itself as different topics across the 13 papers:
- Ai Tong Q16: 3 girls, coins. Looks like Money.
- Catholic High Q17: 3 boys, coins. Looks like Money.
- Henry Park Q10: 20¢ and 50¢ coins. Looks like Money.
- Nanyang Q9: Curry puffs and sandwiches, different prices. Looks like Money.
- Kheng Cheng Q8: Watermelons and papayas, different prices. Looks like Money.
- Raffles Q7: Three boxes on a balance scale. Looks like Average.
- Nan Hua Q14: Stacks of bowls of different heights. Looks like Measurement.
Seven different topic labels, one method. Teach the method and you unlock all seven.
What this means for PSLE Math preparation
Stop asking “which topic is my child weak on.” Start asking “which method.” Topic drill is low-leverage. Method training transfers across questions that look topically different.
Pattern recognition is trainable. The first 30 seconds of every Paper 2 question is pattern recognition. Students drill solutions but rarely drill pattern recognition. That’s a gap.
Heavy-mark questions reward method fluency. Q14-17 is where AL grades are decided. 65% of those marks come from the five patterns above. Fluency on these five is more valuable than broad topic coverage.
LevelUp Tuition runs three branches across Hougang, Toa Payoh, and City Square. We teach P1-P6 Math and Science using systems designed to work across tutors and students. Our philosophy: It’s Fun. And It Works. If you’d like to discuss your child’s Paper 2 preparation, WhatsApp us or drop by any of our branches.
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