How did your year 6 find the reading SAT today?

[Thingsthatgo]

My DS did well in all his SAT practice papers, but said the reading paper today was tough.

DS said it was hard. But he finds them hard. He said there was no way he'd get GD

My ds said it went well, and that he felt proud to have finished because 3/4 of the class didn't.
However, to him the only important thing about sats is to finish as quickly as possible! Also, I can guarantee if there were questions designed to mislead, he will have been mislead!

I did ask him about the texts though, and he was able to tell me a fair bit of detail, so hopefully he did actually fully read the passages.

The teachers did seem quite low at pick up . The paper sounds horrid. My ds was quite relaxed about them and we didn’t make him revise a lot etc as they did enough at school . He missed out on 2 points on the mock but said he will be lucky to half correct on this one . It’s put him off tests . Feel sorry for the kids

Boring and hard was DS’s verdict.

he’s a good reader but this exam seems to be about making children hate reading.

Our Year 6 teachers said it was by far the hardest they'd ever seen. Seems everyone found it awful.

www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/headteacher-blasts-sats-exams-after-26888429

@Upanddownthemerrygoround yes . My DS too. Feel so sorry for them . My ds said when he looked at the paper he felt so stressed he had to go to the toilet . He did finish it but made a few answers up bless him . He has always been a high GD with reading but he does work hard .

My older DS did the notoriously difficult reading paper of 2016 and didn't reach the last few questions. Others in his class didn't even get to the last passage at all.

@Daydreamscometrue oh no 👎 lots of kids find it difficult do they change the marks ?

@Sweetie1980 the ground boundaries for 2016 were very low as a result. You needed 34 for GD then.

Interesting reading that 2016 was 'notorious' from you and a PP.

My DD also did her SATs in 2016 and got her best score of just 100 on the reading. She hasn't yet passed English Language GCSE, and since being diagnosed as dyslexic with poor working memory she gets a reader, rest breaks and extra time.

(For those who normally have readers, you can have an electronic reader for Eng Lang GCSE, just not an in person one.)

I think a hard paper will help properly distinguish the more able pupils, - too easy and too many can get full / nearly full marks. And if you must have SATs I guess you should be able to distinguish them.

Hope the rest of the week goes well for your DC.

Mine said it was “fine”. About as much as I get out of her generally, but she was knackered last night which suggests her brain was taxed.

I get what you're saying @TeenDivided but in order to do that I'd have an easier text followed by two that are progressively harder.

The pupils who find reading more difficult can get the opportunity to show what they can do on the first text then. It just sounds as though all the questions were hard so how do the lower ability students demonstrate what they can do if they can't answer anything? Apparently the third text was easier but most pupils didn't get to that.

Getting a very low score on this test doesn't mean the child can't read. I'm not sure what they are aiming to test tbh. Surely if you want a test that tests a range of abilities you need some easier questions mixed with harder ones 🤷‍♀️

I thought the idea of sats was to see Joe the school perform though . So making them too hard will not only knock the child’s confidence but also reflect badly on the school performance data

I believe that was the case in 2016 too with the 3rd text being easier.

Yes its ridiculous not to get progressively harder, otherwise you panic pupils who go to pieces, or they get stuck on a question and don't move on. I suspect the reason my DD did relatively OK in 2016 is she was used to not getting questions and missing them out!

They should be testing reading & comprehension not stamina / test technique. (See also my view on the length of GCSE English exams ...)

Yes that makes sense as easier questions at the start would relax the children . Let’s hope the maths is better today !

Yes my son came out very emotional yesterday and said it was horrible.. comprehension has always been his toughest paper and he scraped expected level in the mocks, even with tutoring and revision with me. He was so sad all evening, its breaks my heart. He's only 10 and a sensitive kid with low self-esteem so this is the worst for him. I am really hoping today goes better.

My daughter said it was really hard. There were not many questions were the answers could be lifted from the text, there were inference questions from what I can gather. PP mentioned the Bats bit, my DD also commented on that section. She felt the questions didn't tally with the text she read.

I believe if the results are low, they reduce the grade needed to attain the expected level etc.

Seems to be a lot in the press about how hard yesterday was

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/headteacher-blasts-sats-exams-after-26888429

yes this is interesting

Yea, this seems odd if this is true that they started with a more difficult text. You would think they started with the easier text first.

Heard maths hard too

I do hope it's not been too bad. DD's confidence will take a right battering at this rate!

Oh not maths as well !

Oh please don't say maths is awful as well - I can't cope!