Dear Members,

Can some one kindly confirm the duration of writing task for Sutton/Wilson 2nd stage exam . Is there only one task? And how long , 30 minutes or an hour ?
Also generally how many A4 pages child should be writing if it is an hour long.

Many thanks

1 question only

Was approximately 15 mins planning, 25 mins writing.

A side of A4 would be sufficient IMO.

I will just say that length (in terms of sides) is partly going to depend on the size of your child's writing. Some kids will get twice as many words on an A4 side as another.

My daughter's writing is large, and we had to make sure to tell her that she needed to write more than she was. They are supposed to be writing for 20 minutes, and then should leave 5 minutes to check.

That said, quantity isn't everything, but if they don't write enough, they won't give the examiners enough evidence of what they can do.

Good points.

My daughter wrote 4 paragraphs and I’m sure her writing will have gone from small and neat to big and messy after about 15 mins

My DD says she wrote about 2 pages (Checked with proper spelling,punctuation,good vocab eidted by moderator )and not sure this is common, but she is saying that because they gave the task for 40 marks she has done that.

We have to wait for the result.

Hi. If I am looking at the comments properly eVeryone seems to be relating it to the girls test. Will the boys test be the same... different subject obviously... but lengthwise or could it bei completely different ?

Thanks

It is similar. Both times my sons had one question based on a given text extract. Approximately 45 minutes to do it - read, plan, write, check.

One had to write a letter from a participant of the mutiny on the Bounty. The other one who sat the test last year had to continue a story told in the beginning of "The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared" by Jonas Jonasson.

Irisa, thanks for the info however if a kid hasn't read about the mutiny on the Bounty or the other story you mentioned, how would he be able to write something about it?

An extract is provided.

The child then writes about the extract.

It's not linked to the book/story as a whole.

They are not being tested on their knowledge of literature.

They are being tested on their ability to write a story/letter/diary extract/description. DG