Singapore Math Drills Team · 19 October 2026
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The video opens on a single line: "PSLE year doesn't need late nights. It needs fifteen minutes a day." Then it follows one ordinary week from the parent's side. Ethan, a Primary 6 pupil, answers a percentage question in his Daily Five. His parent, Grace, glances at the family dashboard, sees his topics filling in on the skill map, and reads one short summary at the end of the week: what went well, and what to try next.
That is The Parent's Week, one of our Primary 6 Topic Explainers. Watch it first (it is under a minute), then read on. This post is about the parent's half of PSLE year: what to look at, how often, and what to do with what you see. We finish with the exact P6 question Ethan answers on screen, worked out step by step.
Many parents feel PSLE year asks them to do more: more checking, more worksheets, more questions at the dinner table. The video suggests a quieter plan. Your child does a small amount every day. You look a little, and mostly once a week.
Here is that plan as four simple habits, one for each thing Grace looks at in the video.
Your child's job each day is short: a handful of questions, done properly. Your job is to protect the slot (after school, after dinner, before screen time) and then step back. Sitting beside every question tends to turn practice into a performance. If your child gets stuck, a hint is there for exactly that moment, so you do not have to be the first helper.
Once in a while, look at the family view. You are not looking for a score. You are looking for one thing only: did practice happen this week, more or less as planned? If you have more than one child, this is where you see each of them on one screen, without comparing them with each other.
Primary 6 math is a set of topics, not one long list of questions. Fractions, Ratio, Percentage, Algebra, Circles and Volume each grow at their own pace. Looking topic by topic tells you far more than an overall mark. A child who is steady in Fractions but still unsure in Percentage needs a different week from a child who is the other way round.
This is the part that matters most. Read the week's summary once, in plain words. Notice what went well and say it out loud to your child. Then pick one thing to try next week, not five. One small, clear change is something a child can actually carry out. Our guide to the weekly parent digest shows what that page contains in more detail.
The whole method costs you perhaps ten minutes a week. The rest of the time, the habit does the work.
The question Ethan answers in the video is a classic Primary 6 percentage type: finding the whole when you know a part. Children meet "find 40% of 250" first. This is the same idea run backwards, and it catches many P6 pupils out.
40% of a number is 100. Find the number.
Step 1: Say what you know. 40% of the number is 100. The whole number is 100%, and that is what we want.
Step 2: Find 1%. If 40% is 100, then 1% is 40 times smaller: 100 ÷ 40 = 2.5.
Step 3: Find 100%. The whole is 100 lots of 1%: 2.5 × 100 = 250.
The number is 250.
Step 4: Check. Find 40% of 250 the forward way: 10% of 250 is 25, so 40% is 4 × 25 = 100. It matches.
This is the unitary method: find the value of one unit (here, 1%), then build back up to the amount you need. Some children prefer a friendlier unit: 40% is 100, so 10% is 100 ÷ 4 = 25, and 100% is 25 × 10 = 250. Both routes are correct. Let your child use whichever unit makes the division easier.
After spending 20% of his money, John had 120 dollars left. How much money did John have at first?
The trap here is the word "left". The 120 dollars is not the 20% he spent. It is what remains.
Step 1: Find the percentage that is left. He started with 100% and spent 20%, so 100% − 20% = 80% is left.
Step 2: Find 1%. 80% is 120 dollars, so 1% is 120 ÷ 80 = 1.5 dollars.
Step 3: Find 100%. 1.5 × 100 = 150. John had 150 dollars at first.
Step 4: Check. 20% of 150 is 30, and 150 − 30 = 120. It matches.
A quick bar model helps here. Draw one bar for all his money and split it into five equal parts, each worth 20%. Shade one part as "spent". The other four parts are 120 dollars, so one part is 30 dollars and the whole bar is 5 × 30 = 150 dollars.
Ethan has read 36 pages of his library book. That is 30% of the book. How many pages are there in the book?
30% is 36 pages, so 10% is 36 ÷ 3 = 12 pages, and 100% is 12 × 10 = 120 pages. The check: 30% of 120 is 3 × 12 = 36. The book has 120 pages.
Notice how each example ends with a check that goes the forward way. That habit is worth more than any single answer, because it lets your child mark their own work.
40% of 100 = 40. Ask your child, "Is 100 the whole, or only a piece of it?"If your child would like more Primary 6 practice in this style, our guide to Primary 6 sample questions explained walks through the shape of a P6 paper.
The video is a tour of the parts of the app built for exactly this rhythm:
Fifteen minutes a day for your child. About ten minutes a week for you. That is the whole plan.
Try a free interactive Primary 6 worksheet and see how calm practice feels, with no signup or credit card required.