SD - I read your request and felt I could provide a pretty good overview of SATs, having worked in Year 6 for many years! I hope this info is of use to you.
National Sats Week this year is w/c Monday 14th May 2012. The Year 6 tests are administered in school, during normal lesson times and should follow a national timetable (although I think this year there has been a more flexible structure as there are changes to the English papers).
Normally the week goes like this :
MONDAY
English - Reading comprehension paper (15mins to read booklet on particular topic then 45 mins to answer questions about booklet). Questions are a mixture of 1,2 and 3 marks answers, covering all aspects of understanding and comprehension of the booklet. 2011 booklet was all about the sport of caving, 2010 was about gold (Midas, the Wild West etc).
TUESDAYIn previous years the writing tasks have been as follows:
English - Long Writing task (45mins inc. max 10mins planning time to complete written task given on prompt sheet - could be biography, playscript, report, formal letter, starting/finishing fictional story etc)
English - Short Writing task (20mins inc. max 5mins planning time to complete written task given on prompt sheet - again, could be one of a variety of sorts of writing as above)
English Spelling test - (no time restrictions) usually several paragraphs on particular topic with spaces for missing 20 words throughout the text. The class teacher reads through complete text including the missing words and the children fill in the gaps on their copy. Usually quite challenging words.
From this year, schools have been asked to use the provided writing assessments and have been given the option to either have these marked internally or externally. I think it is assumed that the tasks will be along similar lines to previous years, but we won't know until we open the packs in exam week!
WEDNESDAY
Maths - Paper A non-calculator (45mins)
(Total marks 40)
THURSDAY
Maths - Paper b calculator allowed (45mins)
(Total marks 40)
Mental Maths Test - 20 questions from CD recording provided with papers, combining 5 sec, 10 sec and 15 second answers.
(Total marks 20)
The total marks for English and Maths are converted into Levels using certain thresholds which change slightly each year - eg. Maths 0-19 = N, 20-35 = Level 2, 36-54 = Level 3, 55-72 = Level 4, 72-100 = Level 5.
Off the top of my head I'm afraid I can't remember how the marks break down between the different parts of the English - I know the max marks for handwriting is 3, and the max mark for 20 correct spellings is 7 (someone will correct me if I'm wrong, I'm sure!
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Science - Papers A & B (both 45 mins) - schools are now randomly selected to sit these. (When all schools sat them they were both done on Monday morning.)
Level 6 papers are also available, and I understand they will be sat the following week - I think there is 1 maths paper, 1 writing and 1 comprehension for English and I am not sure about Science. I have no experience of how these are marked/levelled etc, so I will be interested to hear from anyone else who can shed some light on this for me.(Thanks!
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The results are usually published early July, and normally accompany the child's final primary report at the end of the summer term.
Hope that doesn't bore you to tears!