How many questions?

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bexamy
Posts: 57
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2013 11:08 am

How many questions?

Post by bexamy »

I have looked on the KCC website and they say that the maths paper is 1 hour. The GL assessment papers maths test is 50 mins for 50 questions. Does anybody know if that means there will be 60 questions for 60 mins? The reason I ask is that if I prepare my daughter for 50 questions and 50 mins and it is 60 questions in 60 mins on the day, it will panic her. Therefore if I can prepare her for the fact that there will be more questions but more time she will be more settled.
ToadMum
Posts: 11946
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:41 pm
Location: Essex

Re: How many questions?

Post by ToadMum »

Just a thought, but because a certain company has the contract to set the test, does it necessarily mean that on the day, the test will look exactly like their commercially-available papers?

We have GL VR, but English and Maths papers set by the Consortium schools themselves, therefore the best advice I feel that I can give DS2 is that the papers will be what he finds in front of him on the day - with the proviso that the English is usually out of a total of 50 marks and the Maths 40 (although six years ago the Maths was out of 38), so he just has to work as quickly and carefully as he can for all of them. Does your DD actually need that level of detail, or would it help to prepare her for just a bit of uncertainty?
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx
bexamy
Posts: 57
Joined: Thu Jul 11, 2013 11:08 am

Re: How many questions?

Post by bexamy »

ToadMum wrote:Just a thought, but because a certain company has the contract to set the test, does it necessarily mean that on the day, the test will look exactly like their commercially-available papers?

We have GL VR, but English and Maths papers set by the Consortium schools themselves, therefore the best advice I feel that I can give DS2 is that the papers will be what he finds in front of him on the day - with the proviso that the English is usually out of a total of 50 marks and the Maths 40 (although six years ago the Maths was out of 38), so he just has to work as quickly and carefully as he can for all of them. Does your DD actually need that level of detail, or would it help to prepare her for just a bit of uncertainty?
She is one of those kids that will get flustered if anything is out of the ordinary, so if she thinks there is supposed to be 50 question in 50 mins, and there is say 70 questions in 60 mins it would completely throw her, so I do think she needs that level of detail.
bravado
Posts: 468
Joined: Thu Jun 07, 2012 11:28 am

Re: How many questions?

Post by bravado »

We made sure that we "trained" DD2 to expect the unexpected on the day - as ToadMum has said, paper formats can change. Never leave anything to chance.

We made sure DD2 covered as many different formats and publishers as possible, as well as doing true past papers for Maths and English (there aren't any past VR papers in Essex) Focussing on only past papers can sometimes encourage a false sense of security, perhaps sometimes even complacency. From time-to-time, truly test their timing skills by doing papers from other publishers where you may get 80 questions in 50 mins rather the number your DD is used to doing. If you have Maths and/or English, do the same as we found it very useful to get DD to look at Maths topics in different format.

This really built-up DD2's confidence so that she knew that

a) she really could cover the topics,
b) her exam technique was spot-on and
c) she could cope with anything they threw at her on the day.

It really is important to nail that exam technique down as soon as possible - I can't emphasise that strongly enough. Of course you should focus on past papers but on the day, finely-honed exam technique can make all the difference. Practising this will help to eliminate exam nerves and possibly avoid your DD panicking, should anything not go as planned. All manner of things can be "out of the ordinary" on the day - from someone jingling croatl bells, through to vomiting and persistent coughing.

What you're aiming for, in riding terms, is a bomb-proof little pony :D
ToadMum
Posts: 11946
Joined: Wed Jan 18, 2012 12:41 pm
Location: Essex

Re: How many questions?

Post by ToadMum »

Well, it's a slack evening here...

Found a reference to Kent Maths (not sure how this will link but there is discussion about this on p85 of the thread):

http://www.elevenplusexams.co.uk/forum/ ... &start=840
Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.Groucho Marx
neurotic kent mum
Posts: 970
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2007 12:40 am

Re: How many questions?

Post by neurotic kent mum »

50 questions in 60 minutes for the last few years.
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