11 Plus Exams Forum

My son has been asked to prepare for level 6 maths by his school & been given practice papers. Are they allowed to do level 6 maths in year 6?

He can do the papers & is really excited about it. Their school does not do SATS but will be doing CATS for the first time this year. Are the levels different for the two tests?

How can he do the paper if the school don't do KS2 tests? To get a level 6 you have to do the level 3 to 5 papers and get a level 5 as well as sitting the two additional papers.

Quite a few schools doing level 6 this year. Need to be at strong level 5 before they will let you do them so congrats to DS

Cutting42 - you do know that the papers do not contain proper level 6 questions don't you?

Please see several recent threads on this in KEY STAGE 2 & KS2 SATs in the General section of the forum.

Also interesting is the I Just Don't Understand Year 7 Levels thread in the Beyond 11 Plus - General section where some Yr 7 children and parents are shocked when children passed as 'level 6' in Primary get told at the end of Yr 7 that they're level 5!

Primary Schools wanting to enter candidates for Level 6 Maths and English SATS had to apply by November 30 2011. As already stated it works the same as Level 3 maths and English papers at Key Stage One. Only those obtaining Level Two A on the Level Two paper are allowed to sit the Level Three paper. Every Y6 student will be able to take the Year six paper in addition to taking the 3-5 paper. But only those obtaining Level 5 on the English and Maths papers in KS2 SATS will be eligible to be awarded a Level 6 on the Level 6 papers. It is not possible to just take the Level 6 papers so your school must be doing SATS because the Level 6 papers are SATS papers. It will be interesting to see just how many students take Level 6 Maths and English this year and if these students will then have an advantage in Year 7. DG

So how does it work in practice?- you say the children take the level 3-5 paper first- who marks this paper? I think my dd has been working towards doing the level 6 paper but not told formally by school if she will do this test or not.

If they are entered for the level 6 they take all four papers. The level 3 to 5 are marked externally as well as the level 6 papers. They need to get a level 5 before the level 6 paper mark will be looked at. If they then get sufficient marks on the level 6 paper then they will be awarded a level 6.

I expect it will be as it was before at secondary; these pupils had little advantage if any. They had been taught extra 'stuff' to pass the test ... not to understand it necessarily.

Guest55 wrote:Cutting42 - you do know that the papers do not contain proper level 6 questions don't you?

This comes across to me as a cynical response. Sorry if I am dumb but this is what my DS school told me. Maybe they are lying to me how would I know?

What do you mean by "proper" questions. Are they not actually at level 6 or are they at level 6 but not sprinkled with holy water from SATS?

My understanding is that they are not 'true' level 6 to the extent that they don't cover topics that are taught in secondary school as part of the KS3 curriculum and therefore you can't say a child passing that paper is at level 6 (a KS3 level) when they haven't been tested on a full range of topics. They are however more advanced and complicated questions on KS2 topics which test the ability of the children beyond that which is considered 5A level and beyond the depth that is usually taught at primary school. I interpret them more to be 5A*.

I would imagine that a lot of forum member's DCs will be selected to sit the level 6 papers this year. Our school is entering 4 children for the level 6 maths papers and 8 children for the level 6 English papers, these are additional to the level 3-5 papers that everyone in Y6 will sit.