Using yr 6 KS2 SATs papers as revision

[walsallmum]

Hi all

Am wondering whether there is any meat in using past sats papers for revision towards the GT.
Esp the level 6 ones????

not that im short of revision material

my dd has about 10 packs of cgp papers to get thru before july 1st!

[Wee]

I'd say maths yes, tougher questions on level 3-5 paper and level 6 papers. I don't think that the reading or grammar papers would be particularly useful.

[FunkyMonkey]

Sorry to disagree with Wee but my lad in year 6 has just had his level 6 SATs and while he was doing his practice papers, I was very much reminded of the practice papers he was doing in preparation for his 11 plus.

As per the OP, only use them as top up material.

[UmSusu]

In these last weeks I would concentrate on building in time pressure to exam specific exercises on vocabulary as this is a very significant part of the exam. Concentrate on vocabulary use in comprehension exercises too. I know you have particular papers you want to work through with her, so only use the higher level SATs papers for selected questions rather than getting her to do whole papers: for maths pick up the wordy/ several part questions or the data questions. The grammar and spelling exercises might be useful to test if there are still any weaknesses but I would have thought she would have covered that stuff by now - dip into them if you have time.

Don't be tempted to get into the mindset that you must really plough through tons of material before the exam - it will only make you feel that it is insurmountable. I know it is time to step up the level if you are concentrating on the July exams but that should be in quality more than quantity now. Take more time looking at the errors and providing practice with targeted questions rather than just giving another paper to try again.

Good luck with these last weeks - it can be really tense for even the most relaxed of parents.

[moved]

The cognitive domain behind the level 6 papers includes: mathematical insight and reasoning. These are good skills to develop for future maths.

[80's girl]

Hi walsallmum, the maths yes, I went through the level 5 papers with my ds, picking out specific questions as UmSusu suggests and I would say that helped, I personally would not bother at all with the English, having worked through these for the sats, there are far more targeted materials to use at this later stage.

I would stick with the multiple choice comprehension and do lots of different types, the cloze and vocabulary. When we did the tests last year the CEM specific material was just appearing and I would say that this was the most useful practice before the exam. As UmSusu says, it's important to try and plan and target what you are doing now, and we tried to do this during the school hols. This saves time and makes the whole process less tedious. Good luck!