• The tests are designed for end of term periodic assessment, assessing a cross-section of the objectives for each block for Units 1, 2, and 3.
• They have different assessment purposes
• summative i.e. how well child has coped with objectives for a particular unit;
• diagnostic i.e to identify strengths and weaknesses for follow-up teaching.
• Each test covers a cross-section only of objectives for a particular unit as it is not possible to assess all the content in a reasonable time.
• The coverage is similar to that in end of year or end of key stage tests – mainly number questions with some shape, space, measures and handling data. Several questions in each test also assess using and applying mathematics.
• The mental mathematics tests are also similar in structure to EOY / end of key stage tests but are focussed on the objectives for a given unit.There are five questions each of 5, 10 and 15 second duration.

For year 3 we have avoided using questions from later year groups because of the reading requirements. The first test (Year 3 Term 1), is drawn from key stage 1 questions only. For Term 2 and Term 3, we have used mainly optional test questions with a small number of KS1 questions.

Format

Year 3 tests are available as Word documents and may be used by all schools. The unit tests for Years 3, 4 and 5 are Testbase files. You will need to have a licence for Issue 13 Testbase to open these documents.

Using the tests

The tests are intended to support teachers in delivering and reviewing the National Strategy. It is not intended that teachers will be able to get a ‘level’ from the unit test as there are other assessments designed for this. End of year and end of key stage tests have been through rigorous pre-tests and the results have been carefully analysed to give level thresholds. The Testbase unit tests, after teacher analysis, will show up weaknesses across the class (perhaps due to poor/rushed teaching!) or individual weaknesses that teachers can use to inform future teaching and learning. These are not level-based tests but provide some assessment of the learning objectives in each Year and Unit. Please see the grids to view the objectives covered by each Unit.