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Primary education

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Original poster

Maths levels

17 replies

AbbyR1973 · 19/02/2014 21:22

Following on from another thread about adding 2 digit numbers and year 2 maths. What sort of level would you expect a child to be able to add 2 2-digit numbers mentally, without any equipment/ number squares etc at hand.
Thanks.

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juniper44 · 19/02/2014 22:05

tiredbutnotweary · 19/02/2014 23:33

Does mentally include workings out with pencil & paper, or all in head & only the answer written down? Really sorry if it's a daft question but it's all so different from how I used to do maths!

juniper44 · 19/02/2014 23:40

Mentally means in your head. Well, I'd expect a level 3 child to work this sort of thing out mentally. Depends on the question though. 21+34 is very different to 89+94.

usernameunknown · 20/02/2014 00:23

A level 3 means no apparatus. But they are expected to show their workings out.

Ds frustrated his y2 teacher by not showing how he worked things out. He's now y4 and working at a secondary school level. His y2 teacher is still frustrated!

usernameunknown · 20/02/2014 00:26

Adding 2 two digit numbers is one part of a L3 but there is much more expected than that for a child to actually be a L3

teafor1 · 20/02/2014 09:29

So for level 2 an abacus is acceptable? From your description I'm assuming yes. And yikes on doing it mentally! I still need to at least write things down!

Original poster

AbbyR1973 · 20/02/2014 09:42

What would happen in a test if DS didn't show his workings out? He just does it in his head. I suspect if 43 + 55 came up in a test he would just write down 98. He wouldn't see the need to show workings, anymore than he would see the need to show working out for 3+5.

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toomuchicecream · 20/02/2014 11:08

Depends on the test question! Some (SATS) question specifically instruct the child to show how they worked out the answer. These are normally 2 mark questions, with 1 mark being for the working out and 1 mark being for the answer. If the child doesn't show any working out in the big box provided, they can't have the mark for showing working out.

Some 1 mark questions just ask the child to perform a calculation. No marks for the working out there, just 1 for the correct answer.

Feenie · 20/02/2014 11:17

Some (SATS) question specifically instruct the child to show how they worked out the answer. These are normally 2 mark questions, with 1 mark being for the working out and 1 mark being for the answer. If the child doesn't show any working out in the big box provided, they can't have the mark for showing working out.

Sorry, but that just isn't true.

If the child gets the answer right, they receive both marks whether they showed their method or not.

TeenAndTween · 20/02/2014 15:11

Showing workings out is good practice to get into as soon as they can.
If they get too used to just bunging down the answer, then as the questions get harder they are less used to showing their working so find it harder to do.
If they do show working then even if they get the answer wrong eg from a silly mistake, they can still get method marks. Also a plea here for writing some actual words when doing word problems - makes it so much easier to follow (DD1 - I'm looking at you here!)

(Though I agree difficult to show working for 45+53 if it is done in head)

toomuchicecream · 20/02/2014 17:19

Sorry Feenie, I was thinking about the question on the 2009 paper which says that a child has got the wrong answer to a question - show him how he should have worked out the answer. I know I had to keep referring back to the mark scheme when I was marking it, but I've left the mark scheme at school so I couldn't check it. I was 99% sure that it says if a child just writes down the correct answer they could only have 1 mark. But I'm happy to be corrected.

Feenie · 20/02/2014 17:25

I don't know about that one question - but it sounds like a one off compared to the general run of the mill show your working question.

toomuchicecream · 20/02/2014 17:45

That's why it stuck in my mind!

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 20/02/2014 18:22

I'm pretty sure just the answer would get you both marks in general. The assumption is that if you got the correct answer then you used a correct method so you can get the method marks.

lljkk · 21/02/2014 13:31

What sort of level would you expect a child to be able to add 2 2-digit numbers mentally, without any equipment/ number squares etc at hand.

See I don't know about levels, but I am thinking half way thru English yr3 typically, so just about 8yo.

lljkk · 21/02/2014 13:31

ps: huge range on that, though, some will get to y6 still not confident at it, some will manage at 4yo.

Longsufferingmrs · 21/02/2014 15:39

In a SATs test you will get 2 marks for the correct answer but you can still get one mark if you got the answer wrong but used the correct method for the calculation. This means that even if you miscalculated somewhere, you can still get a mark.

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