Difficulty of practice materials
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Road Runner
- Posts: 410
- Joined: Thu Sep 14, 2006 8:32 pm
Mel x
Hi there
Agree with Sally-Anne about these papers. Level 4 will definitely have you scratching your head or pulling your hair out.
I would suggest before giving a child level 3 ensure the child is very confident and has a wide vocab. Maybe check out the words first, teach your child and then give the test at a later date, that's what I did.
As for level 4 again look at the test first and check out any vocab first before giving the test. This will atleast give the parents an idea of what they can expect from child and maybe again can practice some of the vocab first before doing the test.
Sally-Anne I seem to recall you saying you sat level 4 with your ds. After reading that I did the same and worked through with dd. This was better and allowed me to see just how dd was thinkning things thorugh and elliminating where she had to.
I think the numerical and cod questions are good as make the child think harder(something definitely needed) and I actually think they will stand any child in good stead for the real thing.
Not wishing to offend any authors but I wouldn't give these test just before real thing as could dent a child confidence
Mel
Agree with Sally-Anne about these papers. Level 4 will definitely have you scratching your head or pulling your hair out.
I would suggest before giving a child level 3 ensure the child is very confident and has a wide vocab. Maybe check out the words first, teach your child and then give the test at a later date, that's what I did.
As for level 4 again look at the test first and check out any vocab first before giving the test. This will atleast give the parents an idea of what they can expect from child and maybe again can practice some of the vocab first before doing the test.
Sally-Anne I seem to recall you saying you sat level 4 with your ds. After reading that I did the same and worked through with dd. This was better and allowed me to see just how dd was thinkning things thorugh and elliminating where she had to.
I think the numerical and cod questions are good as make the child think harder(something definitely needed) and I actually think they will stand any child in good stead for the real thing.
Not wishing to offend any authors but I wouldn't give these test just before real thing as could dent a child confidence
Mel
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sensible mum
- Posts: 14
- Joined: Mon Mar 31, 2008 9:28 am
Hi Mel X
I have mised much of this thread, so the following may have already been covered elsewhere.
When considering difficulty levels in question types we found that there is much greater variance within the maths and coding questions than there is in the vocabulary questions.
By the time a student is due to take the tests, with so many preparation papers completed there vocabulary level should be quite high. The difficulty of the vocabulary questions is contained within the level of ambiguity in the question.
There are a range of coding and maths questions that the students may only come across a few times within the available preparation material, for example reverse mirror-image codings, double function maths and fibonacci sequences. Even if students are taught by rote to identify and complete these questions they still need to practice them.
The Level 4 papers were written to contain the most difficult level of questions found in the NFER papers. Question types 16-21 (IPS HIKNOS) are difficult to write because NFER only provide 4-5 familiarisation questions for each of these types, therefore authors need to be a little more creative when writing practice questions for these types.
The best way that Level 4 questions can be used is immediately before the real tests and after the student is attaining high marks in the Level 3 papers. Level 4 questions should not be used in isolation.
Level 4 question papers can also be used by children to get their own back on parents. As the papers are written in sets to cover all 21 question types in 100 questions, I can see no reason why a child should not ask a parent to complete a full set of papers under exam conditions, given 50 minutes with a pass mark of 90% or above, and watch them sweat!!!!
Regards
Mike
I have mised much of this thread, so the following may have already been covered elsewhere.
When considering difficulty levels in question types we found that there is much greater variance within the maths and coding questions than there is in the vocabulary questions.
By the time a student is due to take the tests, with so many preparation papers completed there vocabulary level should be quite high. The difficulty of the vocabulary questions is contained within the level of ambiguity in the question.
There are a range of coding and maths questions that the students may only come across a few times within the available preparation material, for example reverse mirror-image codings, double function maths and fibonacci sequences. Even if students are taught by rote to identify and complete these questions they still need to practice them.
The Level 4 papers were written to contain the most difficult level of questions found in the NFER papers. Question types 16-21 (IPS HIKNOS) are difficult to write because NFER only provide 4-5 familiarisation questions for each of these types, therefore authors need to be a little more creative when writing practice questions for these types.
The best way that Level 4 questions can be used is immediately before the real tests and after the student is attaining high marks in the Level 3 papers. Level 4 questions should not be used in isolation.
Level 4 question papers can also be used by children to get their own back on parents. As the papers are written in sets to cover all 21 question types in 100 questions, I can see no reason why a child should not ask a parent to complete a full set of papers under exam conditions, given 50 minutes with a pass mark of 90% or above, and watch them sweat!!!!
Regards
Mike
Mike Edwards is a co-author of The Tutors product range.
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JaysDarlin
- Posts: 548
- Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2008 6:34 pm
Dear Mike
I have finally completed going through Levels 3 & 4, and I have to congratulate you on such excellent and challenging papers. And I have just covered the vocabulary - haven't even indulged in the Maths and Codes.
I now feel I am qualified to go in for brain surgery.
I must ask you what the colour questions are all about, eg, Purple is to (blah, blah, blah) and Yellow is to (blah, blah, blah) is there a specific science I am missing?
I have finally completed going through Levels 3 & 4, and I have to congratulate you on such excellent and challenging papers. And I have just covered the vocabulary - haven't even indulged in the Maths and Codes.
I now feel I am qualified to go in for brain surgery.
I must ask you what the colour questions are all about, eg, Purple is to (blah, blah, blah) and Yellow is to (blah, blah, blah) is there a specific science I am missing?
I assumed that colour question was about which two colours make up the third so 'Purple is to yellow, red, blue' answer is yellow cos red and blue make purple. My Ds is colour blind and doesn't even recognise most colours let alone guess which two other colours make up a third so we had no chance on that one.
Apologies if I've misquoted it Mike....the question paper is now happily in the recycling as we finished the exams this week! Just noticed the Freudian 'we finished the exams'!!!
Apologies if I've misquoted it Mike....the question paper is now happily in the recycling as we finished the exams this week! Just noticed the Freudian 'we finished the exams'!!!
