The buzz around PSLE Math 2025 has been hard to ignore. Parents, teachers and students alike have been debating whether this year’s exam lived up to its reputation of being difficult. But what’s the truth behind those viral social media threads and WhatsApp group chats? Let’s dig into the facts and find out whether PSLE Math 2025 deserves its fearsome reputation.
Past PSLE questions and answers
PSLE-related information
The Official Position: Same Exam, Same Standards
The Ministry of Education (MOE) maintains that the core difficulty of PSLE Math hasn’t drastically changed. While every year includes a mix of questions of varying challenge levels, only about 15% of the paper is designed to be “challenging”—a cap that’s been consistent for years to ensure comparability and fairness across cohorts.
That means a student doesn’t need to solve every question to score well. Strong foundational skills and clear logical working can still carry students through the majority of the paper.
We’ve selected 3 interesting math problems from this year’s PSLE Math exam that require a bit more thinking. Let’s have a closer look at them.
2025 PSLE Math question | Length of equilateral triangle
In this geometry question, we are given 3 identical overlapping equilateral triangles and we need to find the length of one of the sides of a triangle.
How to solve this triangle math question
Here’s the answer to this math problem:
To solve this problem, students need to make use of the properties of an equilateral triangle that they’ve learnt in Primary 5 and apply some visualization skills. The concept used is pretty similar to the semi-circle question in the 2019 PSLE exam paper.
PSLE Math 2025 question | Ratio and length question
In this math problem, we are given a rectangle with 2 identical squares inside. We’re given the ratio of AB to BD and we need to find the length of the rectangle.
Here’s the solution to this problem!
How to solve this paper 2 question
To solve this problem, students need to understand the concept of same difference that they’ve learnt in P4 and apply it to the ratio that’s given.
PSLE Math 2025 question | Volume problem
In this math problem, we are given a solid that is made up of some unit cubes. All the surfaces of the solid are painted blue. We know the number of cubes with 2 painted faces and we need to find the volume of the solid.
Here’s the solution to this problem!
How to solve this paper 2 question
Once again, students are being tested on the application of what they’ve learnt about volume in a real-world context. This question is a bit tricky (some students might miss out the cubes at the corners). It isn’t hard, but does require some patience and deep thinking to solve it correctly.
How should students prepare after PSLE Math 2026?
As you have seen, most of the math problems that are “tricky” or “hard” usually involves the application of past concepts learnt in real-world contexts. Hence, it’s important for students to strengthen core concepts, practise heuristic problem-solving and learn to manage time effectively under exam conditions.
Practicle helps with that. With its AI constantly analyzing your strengths and weaknesses as you work on math problems, you can be sure that you’re building your math confidence and improving with every question done.