I was delighted ~ and, indeed privileged ~ to be asked to sit in as an 'Observer' while the Year 6 children at a local school did their SATs tests.
The children were lovely ~ well behaved, disciplined, polite, friendly and enthusiastic.
Thinking that the tests (English and Maths) would be similar to the 11+ exams which 'processed' us in the 50s and 60s I was surprised at how much more difficult the tests were than those to which we had been subjected!
I'm not really sure how the tests can profit the children as the results appear to be used more to grade the schools than the pupils but maybe they are used to stream the children at their senior schools? Or maybe it's just good practice for all the exams they will have to sit in the years to come? Anyway the children did actually seem to enjoy the tests and at the end of each one excitedly asked their chums how they thought they had 'got on'. So maybe it is not a bad thing. I liked the experience of being there!
One interesting thing . . . in the second English paper (Comprehension) the children were given two extracts from books and one of them was 'Moondust' which we had read in book club fairly recently. This is a book about the 12 'Moonwalkers'. I had been looking forward to reading this as the First Landing was about the most exciting thing to happen in the summer of '69. It was the most tedious read we had had for quite a while ~ 'chaotic' would be a good way to describe it. So I was surprised at it turning up for 10 and 11 year olds to look at although the chosen extract was not too bad.
Back soon
Po x
2 comments:
Funny, in the US the SATs are tests that 17 year olds take that are used to determine where they get to go to college.
That's interesting!
I'm not sure how things are these days but, when the daughters were looking at Uni, entrance tended to depend on passes at 'A' Levels (like the US?). Although even then a good interview could get a student through even if they messed up on the exams at the end.
I don't think exams are the best way to determine capability although I can't offer an alternative and it can sometimes work in a student's favour ~ I always did far better in exams than through anything I achieved in course-work!
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