The schools minister will look at concerns that Sats exams taken by Year 6 pupils this year were too difficult, but how could you do on last year’s exams?

Sats, or Standard Assessment Tests, are used to measure children’s English and maths skills in Year 2 and Year 6, and consist of six 45-minute papers.

Here are some example questions from last year’s exams to see how you get on.

Question 1

Which word is the subject of the below sentence?

A whale lives in the sea.

Question 2

Which sentence uses commas correctly?

A – The band will perform at concerts in Belfast, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham and, Sheffield.

B – The children could choose to play netball, cricket, hockey or tennis.

C – Owls badgers, hedgehogs and bats are all nocturnal animals.

D – Painting, drawing, sculpture and print-making, were all options on the art day.

Question 3

Match each word to its antonym.

Near                                                 Close

Cold                                                 Far

Distant                                             Hot

Warm                                              Cool

Question 4

4/9 + 2/3 = ?

Question 5

7/10 of 30 = ?

Question 6

6 + 4 / 2 = ?

Answers

  • Question 1 – Whale
  • Question 2 – B
  • Question 3 – Near and Far, Cold and Hot, Distant and Close, Warm and Cool
  • Question 4 – 10/9 or 1 and 1/9
  • Question 5 – 21
  • Question 6 - 8

Addressing concerns around the difficulty of this year's Sats which left some Year 6 pupils in tears, schools minister Nick Gibb said: “I’ve not seen the paper yet. I’ll look at it next week when it’s available.

“The Standards and Testing Agency have tested this test before in tests before the pandemic, they tested it last year with a large group of children, they monitored the response of those children to the test, to the questions, they found that 85% enjoy taking the test.

“But we will look at this. I will certainly look at this because I know that there has been concern expressed by some schools.”