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Post by kstar on Apr 17, 2016 14:57:30 GMT
I consider myself to be articulate, well read and quite good at manipulating the English language to express myself. I did English A-Level, five years of languages at university, spent two years teaching English in Germany and generally am one of those people who finds spelling and grammar both easy and intriguing.
So why, after a lot of head scratching and reflection, did I only get 9/10 on the year 6 SATS practice paper I found online?
What is the point of this test? It's full of technical terminology which I struggled with, even with all of my experience. I cannot see a single benefit to this test - it does not address the actual issues, such as failure to use apostrophes, not knowing the difference between they're/ there/ their or your and you're... It's making my blood boil. We are setting a generation of young people up to feel like complete failures, and driving their teachers out of the profession in droves.
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Post by mrmlegal on Apr 17, 2016 15:40:28 GMT
The inability to differentiate between there and their and your and you're also drives me up the wall.
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Post by serrakunda on Apr 17, 2016 19:00:22 GMT
I read a very interesting article about how big business is taking over education systems worldwide,, and the international tables, the Pearsons of the world, They are driving the testing, the curriculum, 'standardisation', because it's easier, more economic or cost effective for them, so generates the profit. They provide the resources, are increasingly running the schools, I've academies in England. And govt globally is falling for it.
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Post by kstar on Apr 17, 2016 21:26:02 GMT
I won't give you the multiple choice answers but some of the questions so you can see what I mean:
- Tick all the determiners in this sentence - Which of the following sentences contains the past progressive? - Which sentence is written in the active voice? - In the following sentence, is "after" used as a preposition or as a subordinating conjunction?
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Post by serrakunda on Apr 17, 2016 21:43:42 GMT
I've always found the past progressive rather useful down at the soft play Subordinating conjunctions, Take 'em or leave 'em
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Post by corkwing on Apr 18, 2016 6:53:55 GMT
It does seem crazy. I think it was in year R that kids were expected to be able to chant something along the lines of, "A phoneme is a unit of sound".
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Post by elderberry on Apr 18, 2016 12:15:26 GMT
I'm sure there was no such thing as a "determiner" when I was at school. I had to google it the first time I saw it. Not that DD was even entered for English SATS, and that doesn't seem to have done her any harm.
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