Tests and exams

[Ijustwanttoask]

My DS is in year 6 and he never had to officially revise for any assessments or exams at school (except SATs in non covid times).

Will there be a lot more tests and exams when he moves up to secondary school?

[Chimoia]

They tend to do end of topic tests and end of year exams at our school, which are held in the main hall in exam conditions from year 9 so they get used to the drill. Seems about right. SATS were weirdly pressurised in comparison. It'll be fine. Year 7 8 and 9 are pretty low pressure.

[Ijustwanttoask]

Do end of topic tests happens termly maybe? For every subject? Sounds a lot compared to primary!

[Hersetta427]

I would say tests rather than exams. We have topic tests virtually every half term and an end of year test.

[TeenMinusTests]

Yes. Regular low stakes tests / in class assessments.
They get used to them, and they are a chance to get the idea you should do at least some revision, even if only an hour.
At DD's school, some subjects check content (eg maths) whereas others check answering technique (eg history).

[Ijustwanttoask]

Thanks everyone it's good to know. Do you think this assessment frequency (half term tests/end of year exams) is pretty much universal? Or does it depend on whether a school is state or grammar or private?

[RandomGrammarPun]

Low stakes testing is pretty frequent in most subjects. It builds up resilience, and understanding of how to revise/how you learn retain information.

At my school we have end of year exams in the Hall in year 7, 8 and 9 in maths, English and science. I think that's better than waiting until year 10 until they've had the opportunity to experience formal exam conditions. It's not a big deal.

[TeenMinusTests]

DD's school (see above) is a good, leafy, comp.
I would personally imagine (based on no real info whatsoever) that regular testing is pretty universal across all types of school.

[ineedaholidaynow]

@Ijustwanttoask are you trying to avoid tests and exams?

[Ijustwanttoask]

@ineedaholidaynow I wouldn't say I am trying to avoid them, more to get an idea of what to expect. I didn't do my primary and secondary schooling in this country, but somewhere way more exam focused, and there was quite a bit of pressure. I was surprised (nicely) by the lack of exam in the primary years so was wondering what happens at secondary.

I imagine in year 7-9 these tests affects setting and not much else unless the results are consistently bad?

[ineedaholidaynow]

There might not have been much revision type tests in Primary but there would have been quite a bit of testing/assessments going on

[reluctantbrit]

DD has two test weeks, one in December, one in May. They do all subjects over a period of two weeks.

In addition most teachers do small assessments as one-offs every now and then, especially science and maths in her school. They get a week notice to review.

In others like English Lit or History they are asked to write essays which are marked, it helps to give an idea how the children are. It was a learning curve in Y7 but DD finds it useful to see how she is doing.

We are also getting reports each term with how DD is doing against her prediction.

[SeasonFinale]

It is fairly standard across all schools - state and independent.

[Ijustwanttoask]

Good to know, thank you everyone!

[UncomfortableSilence]

DD Y6 has regular end of half term assessment, obviously they don't revise but she is aware they are being assessed. They've done some past SATS papers too.

DD Y11 like a PP said had formal end of year exams from Y7 in the hall, exam conditions, they also have very frequent end of unit/topic tests, in my opinion it has been a good thing she went into her mocks before Christmas not daunted as they are so used to exams, they are both at state schools btw.

[RedGoldAndGreene]

Didn't your child get weekly spellings or time table tests? I think that's pretty unusual?