missed questions

[Ronald]

So do you think the papers are better for bright but lazy children who don't check their answers thoroughly?

[Ed's mum]

My opinion would be that a child needs to be quick, thorough and accurate not necessarily in that order. A child would have to be incredibly quick to be able to go back and check their answers before living on to the next section. They should not expect to complete all answers - and I am referring to children who are capable of answering the questions. It is the children who don't have good mathematical knowledge that seemed mire likely to think they had answers all of the questions...for reasons which I assume are probably obvious.

[cherrypicker]

Did i miss something? How do we know the maths was so easythis year that a y4 child could answer it?

The difficulty of the paper is subjective. We will never know if it was easy as we will not get a copy of the papers.

Children will provide their opinion.

But, surely you agree the sample questions could be answered by a year 4 child.
I know year 4 children (who scored 4C in year 3 optional SATS) and can add, subtract, multiply, divide fractions), understand percentage calculations and can answer 27% of 50 in less than 4 seconds (reverse to half of 27!), can do probability etc. In fact they have learnt all of year 6 already.

It is not they are clever, they have just been taught.

What is clear is CEM maths papers is not challenging in the sense long questions are not possible as questions are 1-2 marks and they require rapid answers. The standard is lower than many independent school papers.

Bond and NFER papers are no more difficult than CEM papers.

How may CEM candidates could answer the second question in this problem?
(A typical question in full independent school papers). Would they ever see such a question on a CEM paper?


Look carefully at the following pattern:
1 + 2 = 3 = 2 x 2 - 1
1 + 2 + 4 = 7 = 2 x 4 - 1
1 + 2 + 4 + 8 = 15 = 2 x 8 - 1
1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 = 31 = 2 x 16 - 1

By using this pattern, work out the following:1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + 32 + 64 + 128 + 256 + 512 + 1024 + 2048

Great Aunt Maud gives Fred some money for his birthday each year, which he decides to save. On his first birthday she gives him £1. On his second birthday she gives him £2, on his third birthday she gives him £4 and so on, doubling the amount each year. On which birthday will the total amount saved reach £16,383?

CEM is about simple questions answered at speed and not application in complex questions.

Also, some candidates reported children were caught turning over to the next sections and had their names written down.
Guess what, Warwickshire claim they are not aware any children went on to other sections!
Have any schools told parents how their children had performed? They have the results!

[DenDe]

Which schools know the results? The grammars or the primaries. Surely the primary heads would not have to keep such an important secret for so long!