What should my child know for the Northern Ireland Transfer Test?
The AQE and GL Transfer Test are both based on the English and maths content of the Northern Ireland curriculum. In theory all the necessary content will have been taught in school but extra revision and practice at home will be of great benefit to any child.
Your child doesn’t have to take the Transfer Test but you will need to be making this decision late in P6 or very early in P7 – so don’t miss the cut-off date.
One of your first questions might be, “Is my child capable of sitting the Transfer Test and what do they need to know?”
The Transfer Test is not easy to pass and every child has to have a great deal of knowledge fully embedded by early P7. It is not usually possible to do all this learning and understanding in the last few weeks of P6 and the first few weeks of P7 however with careful work spread over a longer period of time success is possible.
So, what Maths does my child need to know and understand?
Maths can be split into a number of different sections:-
Algebra, measures, shape and space, data handling and number.
Algebra:-
This involves problem solving or using letters as numbers.
Measures:-
Length, weight and time are just some of the elements of measures.
Shape and Space:-
Children will need to recognise and classify 2D and 3D shapes; their position, their rotation and be able to calculate area among other things.
Data Handling: -
Can you child read graphs or pie charts or a bus time table?
Number:-
A sound grasp of their tables and all number bonds are essential. They must be able to do addition, subtraction, multiplication and division very quickly and accurately.
Your child must apply problem solving skills to more complex problem questions.
So what does my child need for the Literacy (English) section of the Transfer Test?
The main key in Literacy is to encourage your child to read as widely as possible. Children who read a lot will be increasing their vocabulary, improving their spelling and are being exposed to a wide variety of texts – many different text formats are used in the Transfer Test.
The English (literacy) content will be based upon the various components of English including all the aspects of grammar such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Other areas of literacy such as homophones – eg were and wear may be used to test your child’s knowledge.
You can be fairly sure that punctuation and spelling will be tested. Is your child confident with capital letters, full stops, commas, question marks, explanation marks or speech marks?
They may also be tested on their vocabulary in relation to words with the same meaning (synonyms), opposite meaning (antonyms) or alphabetical order.
Knowledge is key but children must practice exam technique for both subject areas.
Full details of the content tested in both the AQE Transfer Test and the GL Transfer Test can be found on their respective websites.
They need to understand the content of the curriculum but have practice and experience in exam techniques as well.
Allow adequate time for your child to prepare and absorb all this knowledge.
You may find our products useful as you both prepare for this important exam.
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