Form 6 preparation for entrance exams
Form 6 is a very important year. Preparation for their entrance exams begins in September.
English – as well as the usual creative and factual writing, comprehension and reading practice, verbal reasoning exercises are worked on to prepare pupils for schools Entrance Exams in January. Some schools include a verbal reasoning paper as part of the entrance procedure and pupils begin work on the skills needed for these papers in Form 5.
Maths – weekly 30 minute test papers are given to familiarise the pupils with the sorts of topics that they may receive questions on in the Entrance Exams. These show weaknesses that can then be worked upon in class or with extra homework.
After the Entrance Exams the class work emphasis changes in these subjects to the SATs style of exam papers. The 45-minute written papers are looked at in the 2 core subjects, English and Maths.
Practice SATs papers are used in class time to discuss the type of questions to be expected. Pupils can then explore strategies so they can use their knowledge to develop their answers.
This is a time of hard work and concentration that is, hopefully, rewarded by the pupils achieving their goals. Form 6 then move on to more co-operative based work in the latter part of the Summer Term to develop their skills of listening to one another, putting their points of view forward and working as a team.
