Key Stage 2 Maths SAT Papers The beginning of a brand new school term and what better time for all those children who have just entered Year 6 to look forward to the Key Stage 2 Maths Papers that they will be taking next May. Schools will be working throughout the year to prepare their children for these tests and parents can play a large part too. But, in order to help, it is important to know about the tests themselves and how they are presented. Hence we have just published both last year’s SAT papers and the Sample Papers that were produced prior to this. These tests are significantly different from the old tests in a number of ways: Firstly: there is an Arithmetic Paper which tests children’s ability to use the formal written methods of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division as well as working out decimals, percentages etc. A good knowledge of times tables will really help to answer as many questions as possible in the time available; the 2016 test had 36 questions but only 30 minutes to answer, so a child who has to laboriously go through reciting tables to find the right one will find they are short of time!  Marks can be gained from using the formal method correctly, even if the end answer is incorrect. A square grid is provided to help with answering. It is also worth noting that they have suddenly decided to put a comma into larger numbers such as 123,456 to help with reading them. Secondly: there are two further tests called “Reasoning” which cover the other areas of the curriculum such as measurement and number, although it must be said that there are quite a few questions on these papers which involve calculating as above. Neither of these papers allows the use of a calculator. Thirdly: levels have been replaced by scaled scores. Parents will be given a raw score (the actual number of marks gained) and a scaled score which illustrates whether they have reached the national average or not. Fourthly: the old Level 6 test for the most able has been scrapped and each of the tests is more challenging than in the past. It is well worth looking at these tests to see what is expected and we have published them completely free of charge. We will also be developing our ‘Booster’ SAT practice category with plenty of questions using a similar format to that found in the tests. We already have a significant number of pages for the new Arithmetic test which are well worth visiting and plenty more are in the pipeline. These are free to use SAT Papers for all trial users and subscribers. Go to Key Stage 2 Maths SAT Papers