Did anyone else struggle with the QTS Numeracy test for teachers?

[FlorenceofArabia]

I had no trouble with the Literacy and ICT tests but I have failed the bloody Numeracy several times . I'm a mature student and have always struggled with maths but got my GCSE a few years ago with lots of studying. However, I've done the practice materials and get by but things go to pot when I take the actual tests.

The invigilator told me she has had some students take and fail the Numeracy test over 40 - yes FORTY - times .

Help!

[MIAonline]

I think some of you have missed the point of the OP. It was a plea for help if you re-read it. I don't think the OP was asking for a full on debate about the pros and cons of specialist teaching. She needs help. If she had posted in AIBU, then fair enough. However, she didn't and I think it is unfair to pick apart somebody who asking for help.
I can understand the reservations that some people may have, but this was not the post to air them and Practical advice or support would be more suited.

[belladonna79]

But she's posted on a forum filled with parents, if she had wanted help then perhaps a teachers/student teachers forum would have been more suitable...

I have just looked at the test online out of interest and to echo what everyone else on here is saying there is no way I would want someone who struggles with those mental arithmetic questions teaching my children. A teacher should be 100% confident in the material they are teaching, it needs to be second nature. Perhaps this is part of the reason why so many children are struggling with maths.

Looking at university prospectuses you can get a place on a degree to become a primary school teacher with 280 ucas points at Edge Hill you only need a minimum of 240 points at Derby and even Durham only asks for BBB.

To put 240 ucas points into perspective that could be as low as CDD with a c at a 4th AS level, the combination of exams most school leavers offer (3 A2 levels and 1 AS)

[MIAonline]

yes she has, but is MN all about bringing together a range of people for various reasons, in this case for support. Just because you are a parent does not mean you should not see the person behind the post.
If it was your child's teacher and if she was struggling to provide teaching that was of high quality, then fair enough. But this is a fellow MNetter asking for help.

[RachieW]

Throckenholt- sorry been to baby swimming so only just seen your post. I agree that schools can adapt their timetables for specialist teaching. I guess it's just going to take time to adapt a new way of teaching in primaries. I think it will happen though and I can only see it being a positive thing.

[FlorenceofArabia]

Thanks MIA!

Who says I'm struggling with mental arithmetic, that is only the first part of the test.

My course is a PGCE/SCITT (School Centred Initial Teacher Training) and they require a 2.1. They have about 100 students applying for each place. Competition for places on a PGCE is very tough.

[FlorenceofArabia]

Whoops - showing my crappy maths with the typo! That should read 15 for every place. Now I know where I'm going wrong

[blueeggs]

Florence - I failed my driving test twice but I think it made me a better driver. The more you work at this, the more confident you will be when you are eventually in the classroom. Good luck.

[algee]

...are you alowed to write down the data during the mental arithmetic test, or is it to be entirely 'mental'?

[FlorenceofArabia]

Thanks, blueeggs.

Algee - yes you can write down the data. You don't "see" the question, you hear it twice and have pen and paper for jottings.

[algee]

Crikey, shocked at how much of my schoolgirl maths has vanished! Good luck...

[throckenholt]

general advice for all exam subjects you struggle with - practice practice and practice again until it becomes so familiar you are no longer frightened by it.

Something about exams make your brain frazzle - so do yourself a favour and make it so familiar it doesn't bother you.

[piscesmoon]

I don't think that you need specialist teachers for basic subjects at primary level, any teacher should be able to teach maths and literacy. There is more call for it in subjects like music, if the teacher is tone deaf in the first place it doesn't matter how much they practise they will still be tone deaf.

[myredcardigan]

I teach primary and it depresses me how many teachers have poor numeracy and literacy skills. Certainly not the majority but a significant minority.

The test is not difficult, it's not even maths just arithmetic which you do day in day out when you're teaching. If you're genuinely failing it through stress or mental block then that's one thing but if you're failing it because you can't do the calculations then IMHO, you shouldn't be teaching.

I went to a good RG university with 3 very good Alevels. It does piss me off sometimes that some colleges offer ITT courses requiring EE at Alevel. The government need to raise the bar.

Also, new teachers should be able to get 3 level 5 SATs first time to be fit to teach. How can we possibly expect 11yr olds to reach a standard we're not capable of reaching ourselves?

[piscesmoon]

I would agree, myredcardigan-I could give that test cold to my regular yr6 top maths group and they would all do well on it.

[FlorenceofArabia]

Picesmoon & redcardy - stop carping on. I bet you two bores can clear a staffroom in two minutes! I can just imagine the pair of you sitting with your mugs of tea whinging about new teachers today and how it wasn't like that when you were lasses and it were all fields round here ....

[myredcardigan]

I'm not even 35 yet! But I am a LMT.

I hope you don't make such sweeping assumptions about the children you teach.

[myredcardigan]

Maybe that should have read, 'the children you'd like to teach!'

[blueeggs]

What a smugathon. I find it depressing that so many teachers cannot take into consideration that Florence's learning style may not be suited to the format of the test.

[FlorenceofArabia]

Big deal! The fact is that where you could have offered encouragement or advice you chose, along with a few others, to attempt to belittle me. I really hope you don't do this to your pupils or colleagues. It's water off a duck's back to me but you could do some real damage to kids in your care. During the time I've been volunteering in schools and doing my ITT I've come across teachers and also Head Teachers like you and you are as much a danger to young kids as those teachers you claim struggle with basic literacy/numeracy.

Keep insulting my ability to teach as much as you like but you just reveal yourself to be a bully ... and a bore

[MrsMattie]

Oh God, this puts me off teaching.

[myredcardigan]

Smugathon my arse!

The OP wants to teach children at a level she (apparently) cannot herself, attain!

If you can't pass the test, get out of the classroom.

[MrsMattie]

Cor blimey, I never had a maths teacher / science teacher who could write in a vaguely legible hand. Most of them could just about spell.

[blueeggs]

As Florence has said, her tutors do not think that retaking the test means that she is unfit to teach. Are you qualified to train student teachers my red cardigan?

[purits]

Florence: get real. That test is pathetically easy. If you are struggling (several times over) then you just have to admit to yourself that you are not up to the job.
MRC is not exhibiting bullying behaviour. She is merely imparting an unpleasant truth.

[myredcardigan]

There you go making assumptions again.

I'm a LMT which I'm sure you know means I'm on the AST track. Because of this, my teaching is judged more often than most so plese don't suggest my teaching is poor or that I make no allowances for children with differing learning skills.

You are a grown woman who has chosen to do a job that you are struggling to cope with academically. You are not a child in need of nurturing.

TBH, your defiant and flippant attitude to the test and your inability to accept criticism over it says a lot.