The
English
SATs Tests
May 2014
What’s involved?
Reading Test
Monday 12th May 2014
Spelling, Punctuation and
Grammar Test (SPAG Test)
Tuesday 13th May 2014
Reading Test
 This
year the texts in the English reading booklet will
not be linked by a theme. The booklet will contain
three or four texts. The least demanding text will
come first with the following texts increasing in level
of difficulty.
 Instead
of being given 15 minutes reading time and
45 minutes to answer the questions, children will
now have a total of one hour to read the texts and
complete the questions at their own pace.
What will the
children be asked to do?
The reading answer booklet will comprise of
approximately 35 to 40 questions (totalling 50 marks).
The questions are:
 shorter,
closed response items (such as multiple
choice and matching questions);
 shorter,
open response items; and
 longer,
open response items that require children to
explain and comment on the texts in order to
demonstrate a full understanding.
Questions are worth 1, 2 or 3 marks.
Level 6 Reading Test
The level 6 test consists of:


a reading booklet containing around three or four texts
(unlike the Level 3-5 paper, these will be based on a
single theme)
a reading answer booklet comprising approximately 25
questions (totalling 30-35 marks)
Reading Time: 10 minutes
Working Time: 50 minutes
Additional skill needed to demonstrate Level 6:

the ability to fully explain and comment on all aspects of
the texts and the writer’s craft in order to demonstrate a
full understanding.
Questions are worth 1, 2, 3 or 4 marks.
Tips and Tricks to Help your Child

Read together regularly, then question your child
about what he/she has read to check
understanding

Ask quick-fire questions to get your child to find
facts quickly

Ask tricky questions to encourage your child to
think more deeply and use inference

Ask your child to provide quotes from the text to
back up what he/she has said

Encourage your child to read a range of texts to
build familiarity
Spelling, Punctuation and
Grammar Test
The English grammar, punctuation and
spelling test has two components, worth a
total of 70 marks.
 Paper
1: short-answer questions (50 marks)
 Paper 2: a spelling task (20 marks)
SPAG Paper One
Paper 1 consists of between 40 and 50
questions which assess grammar,
punctuation and vocabulary.
The questions are:
 selected response items (such as multiple
choice questions)
 short, open response items, in which children
may have to write a word, a few words or a
sentence
 basic insertion questions, where the children
may need to add appropriate punctuation
1. Complete the sentences below using either I or me.
•
•
•
I wanted my mum to watch ____ in the school play.
After we went cycling, Emma and ____ were very tired.
The teacher asked Tim and ____ to collect the books.
2. I thought the football match was exciting but Tom said he was bored by
the end.
Put a tick in each row to show whether each underlined word is a noun or
an adjective.
Word from the
sentence
Noun
Adjective
match
exciting
bored
3. Insert the capital letters and full stops in the passage below.
the sun shone while Luke was walking to school as he passed ben’s house,
he was thinking about the weekend and their trip
Just in case you were wondering...
1. Complete the sentences below using either I or me.
•
•
•
me in the school play.
After we went cycling, Emma and I were very tired.
The teacher asked Tim and me to collect the books.
I wanted my mum to watch
2. I thought the football match was exciting but Tom said he was bored by
the end.
Word from the
sentence
match
Noun
Adjective

exciting

bored

3. Insert the capital letters and full stops in the passage below.
The sun shone while Luke was walking to school. As he passed Ben’s
house, he was thinking about the weekend and their trip.
SPAG Paper Two
Paper 2, the spelling task, consists of 20 sentences
which are read aloud by the test administrator.
Each sentence has a word missing which the child
must complete. The words will usually be chosen for
their use of common letter strings.
The task is worth a total of 20 marks. This shows more
emphasis is now being placed on spelling as
previously, only 7 marks were allotted to spelling.
Level 6 SPAG Test
The level 6 test consists of three components, worth
a total of 50 marks.
These are:
 an
extended task (14 marks)
This assesses children’s grammar, punctuation and vocabulary
through a short piece of writing.
a
booklet of short-answer questions (21 marks)
This consists of between 18 and 21 questions assessing
grammar, punctuation and vocabulary. Each question is
worth one or two marks.
a
spelling task (15 marks)
This consists of 15 sentences, which are read aloud by the test
administrator. Each sentence has a word missing which the
child must complete.
Tips and Tricks to Help your Child

Encourage your child to pick out errors in
punctuation he/she may spot – eg. i’m lovin’ it

Quiz your child on word classes – nouns, verbs,
adjectives, adverbs

When your child is learning his/her spellings, look
for rules to learn rather than just learning the
words on the list

When practising spellings, make sure that your
child only uses a capital letter where necessary