SATS PAPERS

Just seen the 2007 sats publications on amazon :

KS2 2007 SATS PAPERS
ISBN (13) = 978-0955614309
ISBN (10) = 0955614309

KS3 2007 SATS PAPERS - HIGHER TIER
ISBN (13) = 978-0955614323
ISBN (10) = 0955614325

KS3 2007 SATS PAPERS - LOWER TIER
ISBN (13) = 978-0955614316
ISBN (10) = 0955614317

You can search on Google for these ISBN's and try to get the best deal, or go straight to the publisher's website at : http://www.actual-sats.co.uk, where you can buy them on-line, as mentioned in a previous post.

I've not seen the ability to take the on-line mental maths test in the way provided in these publications, but it's very neat - effectively, you go to the publishers website, with the user name and password given to you in the pack, and then you see a button - by pressing the button you can take the key stage 2 or key stage 3 mathematics test (depending upon what you have bought). The official audio is played through the speakers of your PC, and your child write down the answers on their answer sheet. You can take the mental maths test as many times as you like before the beginning of the sats in May.

They offer the mental maths in this way to replicate the real test, which children take by listening to a CD of the audio in their classroom during the test.

Children get 5, 10, and 15 seconds to answer each question, depending upon the difficulty of question. Each question is read twice, before moving on to the next question, and so on until the test is complete.

http://www.sats-past-papers.co.uk/ also has a simulated test (called the Harris test), which works in the same way, that they sell for £3.99 I would keep checking this site, because I know they sometimes have offers, and you can download the mental maths and other items too ...

The BBC site is also good for practicing using their Bite Size questions. They also supply the actual past papers, but they are more expensive. Last year, the maths papers alone were £9.99 I believe, and when you add the science and the english, that comes to a whopping £29.97 (or thereabouts). The Actual Sats publications are only £14.50, so make much better value for money and sense to me.

UK SATS EXAMS

Well these will kick off again in May 2008 for all UK schools.

I always recommend practicing the past papers to get the best results. This means going through them, and spending time looking at the questions you find most difficult.

The Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 are statutory tests before you get to GCSE. These are taken in Year 6 and Year 9 (although more and more schools are taking these in year 8, to give a longer GCSE course - and more change of higher GCSE grades!).

At KS2, pupils sit English, Maths and Science - three papers in English, two papers in Science, and two written papers and one oral paper in Mathematics.

At KS3, pupils sit the level 4-7 papers in English, and then sit either the 3-5, 4-6, 5-7, or 6-8 papers in Mathematics - they are put in for the appropriate level by their school according to their academic ability. There are only two different levels in Science - the 3-6 and the 5-7 levels. Once again the school will judge which paper each pupil is aligned to, and they will sit the exam accordingly. The more difficult papers are the higher tiered papers, with 6-8 being the most difficult in Mathematics and 5-7 in Science.

http://www.actual-sats.co.uk/ is the publisher for the Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3 papers, and they provide three packs. The KS2 pack comes with all the papers and all the levels, and the mark schemes and on-line mental maths are also available. They do two packs at KS3, a higher tier, which contains the 5-7 & 6-8 maths papers, 5-7 science papers and 4-7 english papers. The lower tier contains the 3-5 & 4-6 maths papers, 3-6 science papers and 4-7 english papers.

These packs can also be obtained from http://www.sats-past-papers.co.uk/ where you can also get past papers from 2004, 2005, and 2006, as well as the latest 2007 papers.

After KS3, pupils are usually streamed according to ability in mathematics and science - those that attain good KS3 levels will be in the higher sets in maths and science. At GCSE, there is a combined science course, as well as the traditional physcis, biology, and chemistry split sciences. The split science are usually only offered to the more academic students, and so KS3 results in science becomes hugely important for what comes later for children at GCSE, and ultimately their overall GCSE results.