PSLE Common Mistakes — the 11 our marked answers show most often (2026)

PSLE common mistakes: the short answer

A mark comes home, and the child makes the same mistake again next week. These are the mistakes our own marked answers show most often — counted, not guessed.

What is counted339 wrong answers, each with a written reason, from the bank our free practice page loads (113 questions)

The biggest single leakPicking a word that means something else — 25 of the 239 named mistakes

The eleven that recur142 of the 239 named mistakes (59%) sit in eleven patterns

Where it is worst in MathsTaking a fraction of the wrong starting amount — 11 records

What it cannot tell youHow often any of this happens across Singapore — stated plainly below

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The eleven mistakes that recur most

Every name below is a thinking pattern we record against a real wrong answer, with how many records it carries. The line after each one is the correction we give the child.

Picked a word that means something else — 25 records Say what the missing word has to mean in this sentence, then test each choice against that meaning. Every choice that loses here is a real word. It is simply the wrong meaning.
Turned the meaning the wrong way round — 19 records Mark the question before you answer: does it ask for the same thing as the passage, or the opposite? Two of the choices usually say opposite things, and the pair is the trap.
Gave a part the job of another part — 15 records Name the job of each part before matching it to a job. A heart is a pump; it is not the breathing organ, however often the two share a diagram.
Read the link the wrong way round — 14 records Say the link out loud in the direction the sentence uses it: plants make food from light, not light from plants.
Used the wrong whole — 11 records Write down what the fraction or the percentage is a share of before you calculate. The commonest version of this is taking 20% of the wrong starting amount.
Stopped at the first step — 11 records Cover the answer, then re-read the last sentence of the question. If it asks a second thing, the first answer was a step, not the answer.
Invented a way for it to happen — 11 records Point at the line in your notes that says it happens. If you cannot point at it, it is not a science fact yet.
Answered the familiar word — 9 records Cover the choices, answer the question in your own words first, then look for the choice that matches what you said.
Added something the passage never says — 9 records Underline only the words printed in the passage. An answer can be true about the world and still be wrong because the passage never said it.
Used one condition of two — 9 records Count the conditions the question gives and tick each one before answering. Most of these questions give two, and the tempting answer uses only the first.
Gave a reason that has nothing to do with it — 9 records Ask whether the reason explains this outcome in particular, rather than whether it sounds plausible about the topic.

The other 97 named records spread across 35 further patterns, and 46 distinct patterns are in use in all. No pattern in the list is decorative: each one names a signal a human can point at in the answer itself.

Read the list as a parent and one thing stands out: almost none of it is a method problem. A child who knows the method still loses marks on what the words and the question actually mean.

Where these mistakes show up, subject by subject

The same count, split by subject, so you know which one to look at first.

Maths — 62 of 63 namedTop three: the wrong whole (11), stopping at the first step (11), using one condition of two (9)

English — 36 of 132 namedTop three: a word that means something else (8), something the passage never says (5), off the task (4) · the 96 secondary English answers carry no pattern tag yet

Science — 69 of 72 namedTop three: a part given the job of another part (15), a link read the wrong way round (14), an invented mechanism (11)

Chinese — 72 of 72 namedTop three: a word that means something else (17), the meaning turned the wrong way round (17), a character chosen by its sound (8)

In every one of the four subjects the commonest leak is a meaning, not a method. That is the one thing worth telling a child before the next paper.

One of the 339 records, in full

This is what we store against a wrong answer — the thinking behind the choice, not a tick or a cross.

‘Conference’ means a formal meeting. The detective is deciding who the thief is, not holding a meeting. From our own bank: the stored explanation behind one wrong choice in a P6 vocabulary question (question e3, option a), read from the served file on 15 October 2026. The reason is about the child's thinking, and it never says the child was careless.

A tick tells a child nothing. A reason like this one tells them the exact step to change, which is why every wrong option in the free drills carries one.

How the count was taken

So the numbers can be checked rather than trusted.

The free practice page loads one question file. On 18 October 2026 it held 113 questions with three wrong options each — 339 wrong answers. Every wrong option carries a written explanation, and 239 of the 339 also carry a named thinking pattern; the other 100 are the 96 written for Secondary 1 and Secondary 2 English, which name the error in words without a pattern tag yet, plus four deliberately left unnamed, and the notes say why for each one. Those four are counted in the total and excluded from the pattern counts, which is why the list above adds to 239.

The tagging rule we hold ourselves to: a pattern is only ever named on a signal a human can point at. The tag is rejected unless the phrase it quotes appears word for word in that answer's own explanation, so a name here is evidence, not a label somebody guessed at.

For anyone who wants to re-run it: the file is /psle/psle-all.js, 133,919 bytes, and the first twelve characters of its SHA-256 fingerprint are f5c68ac80ffe.

What this count cannot tell you

Stated plainly, because a number like this is easy to over-read.

It is our own bank, not a national sample. It cannot say how often each mistake happens across Singapore, and it is not a claim about the 2026 paper.
It counts records, not children. One question holds three wrong options, so a single topic can contribute several records without a single child being involved.
It cannot rank mistakes by marks lost. We record the thinking behind a wrong choice; we do not record what each wrong choice costs in the exam.
The sums are not counted here, on purpose. The step-by-step problem sums on the free practice page are written as instructions, not as descriptions of what a child did, so naming a thinking pattern against them would be a guess. We would rather leave a number out than publish one that means something else.
The bank grows. These are the records as they stood on 15 October 2026; the counts move as questions are added.

Questions parents ask about these mistakes

What are the most common PSLE mistakes?

In our own bank the most common named mistake is picking a word that means something else (25 records), then turning a meaning the wrong way round (19), then giving a body part or an object the job of another part (15). Eleven patterns carry nine or more records each - 142 of the 239 named mistakes between them.

How were these numbers counted?

Every wrong option in the bank our free practice page loads carries a written explanation of the thinking behind it. On 18 October 2026 that file was read and its 339 explanations were counted: 113 questions, three wrong options each, 239 of them carrying a named pattern (the 96 written for Secondary 1 and Secondary 2 name the thinking error in words, without a pattern tag yet). The count is of our own bank and of nothing else.

Which mistake costs the most marks?

The bank records the thinking behind a wrong choice, not the marks each wrong choice costs, so it cannot rank mistakes by marks. What it can say honestly is which kinds of mis-thinking show up most often in the answers children actually give.

Is the same mistake common in English and Chinese?

Yes. Picking a word that means something else is the most common pattern in both - 25 records overall, 8 of them in English and 17 in Chinese, and it is the same mis-thinking in two languages: the choice matched the sound or the familiar phrase instead of the meaning the sentence needed.

Does this mean my child will make these mistakes?

No. This is a count of records in our bank, not a forecast and not a national sample. It says which mistakes are worth knowing about; it cannot say what any one child will do. The free diagnostic is what shows which topics are weak for your child.

Do you mark my child's work on this page?

No. This page counts the mistakes the bank records. Nothing here reads your child's writing.

Is the practice free?

Yes. The drills are free for your first month, from the day you register, with no signup and no card. The 3-minute diagnostic is free as well.

What this page does not do

It counts mistakes. It does not know your child.

Nothing here reads your child's answers, and none of it is a prediction. The page's only job is to name the mistakes that keep turning up, so a parent can recognise one when it does. Which of them your child actually makes is a question only practice can answer — the free 3-minute diagnostic gives you a topic-by-topic gap map for Mathematics, with no card and no signup, and every wrong answer in the free drills comes back with a written reason rather than a mark.

Try the free diagnostic →

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