SATS question

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loobylou
Posts: 2032
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 5:04 pm

SATS question

Post by loobylou »

Ds had a practice SPAG paper this week and lost a mark on the following question....

'Mr Sparks the teacher shouted at the children for being noisy.' Replace the word "shouted" with another word with the same meaning.

He used the word "bellowed" but according to the mark scheme only "yelled" or "screamed" were permitted answers.

Does this seem crazy to anyone else?
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: SATS question

Post by mystery »

My daughter told me a similar tale a while back. I wonder if some schools are using some not very good commercial mark schemes.
Amber
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Joined: Thu Sep 24, 2009 11:59 am

Re: SATS question

Post by Amber »

All I can say is get used to it Loobylou. It is great practice for GCSEs when in many cases only the buzzword will do (in the mark scheme it will appear in underlined script) and even if it is screamingly obvious that a candidate knows exactly what s/he is talking about, if that word isn't there, there will be no mark. My son did a practice biology paper this week and lost marks on a question about the difference between arteries and veins as the mark scheme said 'ignore references to function'. Seriously.
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: SATS question

Post by mystery »

Oh goodness. Was that an exam board mark scheme? How can one ignore references to function in a question which asks the difference between arteries and veins? What was the answer "supposed to be"? Don't things like that get argued over by teachers after the exam and put right by the exam board? It's quite shocking ... but by now I'm not really surprised by anything so I'm not shocked.
loobylou
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Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 5:04 pm

Re: SATS question

Post by loobylou »

I was really hoping you were all going to say that the external markers will obviously have enough sense to recognise when a word fits despite not being on the "approved list". My dh said I was mad for even assuming that examiners have the ability to act as they see fit... (He said there is probably a list of Gove-approved synonyms out there somewhere).
Oh well... It does make me bemused though. My ds (who is only in year 5 and is just doing these mock SATs because he is in a class with 2 year groups) said "so I just have to use the least imaginative word I can think of then?" and that's rather sad...
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: SATS question

Post by mystery »

I would like to see if these SPAG mark schemes really say these things ... surely they say "suggested answers" ......... but Amber's biology example is still taking my breath away. I think I would be writing to the exam board right now and demanding the entry fee back on behalf of the school if this is the quality of the mark schemes they hand out to markers!
Guest55
Posts: 16254
Joined: Mon Feb 12, 2007 2:21 pm

Re: SATS question

Post by Guest55 »

https://www.gov.uk/government/collectio ... ast-papers" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Have a look mystery ...
kenyancowgirl
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Joined: Mon Oct 21, 2013 8:59 pm

Re: SATS question

Post by kenyancowgirl »

....it also bugs me that there isn't a parenthesis around "the teacher"...unless that is the punctuation part of the question. Bellowed is a far better word...it fits in with shouted and yelled, to me. Screamed seems daft...
mystery
Posts: 8927
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2009 10:56 pm

Re: SATS question

Post by mystery »

Oh dear. Which year and which paper was it with this ridiculous mark scheme then? Can't headteachers comment afterwards and get the marking adjusted?
loobylou
Posts: 2032
Joined: Thu Nov 27, 2014 5:04 pm

Re: SATS question

Post by loobylou »

kenyancowgirl wrote:....it also bugs me that there isn't a parenthesis around "the teacher"...unless that is the punctuation part of the question. Bellowed is a far better word...it fits in with shouted and yelled, to me. Screamed seems daft...
No kenyancowgirl, that one is my fault. Ds just told me the sentence so I just typed it as I heard it!
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