How your child can triumph in KS2 Maths SATs!
If you have a child in key stage 2 of school, you are inevitably heading towards the SATs papers which they will sit in Year 6. We understand that this can be daunting, especially if you don’t know a lot about the papers to help them… But, that’s why we are here!
This article will be a simple guide to key stage 2 Maths, providing you with tips, tricks, and everything that you need to know. Read on to find out what the KS2 Maths SATs include, how to prepare your child, and how we can help you with that – the SATs made easy!
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What is the structure of KS2 SATs Maths?
Year 6 SATs Maths, which are an important element of the KS2 SATs papers, test children in three different areas.
Paper 1 covers Arithmetic, lasting 30 minutes.
This part of the Maths SATs tests the children’s mental maths ability and helps to discern the speed and accuracy of their basic mathematics skills.
Below are some example SATs questions taken from a past KS2 Maths test:
As you can see, these SATs Maths questions test basic mathematics, requiring your child to work quickly through simple problems.
Paper 2 covers Mathematical Reasoning, lasting 40 minutes.
The Year 6 Maths reasoning questions are more complex and will require the children to spend more time on each individual problem. This paper tests applied Maths, challenging the logical, verbal, and spatial reasoning ability of the pupils, and features worded Mathematics questions.
Below you may see examples of KS2 Maths reasoning questions featured in SAT past papers:
You will notice from the sample questions above, that the Year 6 reasoning paper consists of longer questions than the arithmetic test which will take multiple steps to solve.
Paper 3 also covers Mathematical Reasoning, lasting 40 minutes.
The last of the KS2 Maths SATs papers, this paper is similar in parts to Paper 2, as both test KS2 Maths reasoning. It is important to note, though, that this paper has an increased level of difficulty. The logic-based questions will be more challenging, and the paper will feature more word problems for the children to solve.
As every year passes, the KS2 SAT papers are made increasingly challenging. This means that second paper of Maths reasoning questions Year 6 pupils face, includes all of the most tricky, logically based problems. (Paper 3 aims to assess the complete Mathematical ability of the children on a standard level.)
The difference between Maths SATs KS2 and what is taught in Year 6 Maths lessons…
Understandably, many parents doubt that they need to work on additional preparation with their child for Year 6 Maths SATs; most would assume that pupils at school get all of the KS2 SATs practice that they need…
Firstly, there is no such thing as being over-prepared for the Maths SATs papers KS2. SATs practice papers are abundantly available, so it only makes sense that you make use of this!
Secondly, and sadly, there is another thing that you should consider when questioning whether to get further help with KS2 Maths: the disparity between what your child learns from Year 6 Mathematics at school and what SATs Maths they are tested on.
Of course, Primary and Junior schools cover in KS2 Maths almost all of the topics which are then tested by the Year 6 Maths SATs papers. However, the Maths SATs questions go a little bit further, testing the logical ability of pupils by applying mathematics to real world problems. Such logical skills required in the tests are often missing from the general school curriculum. (Therefore, this new element can confuse students if they take their exam without doing any KS2 Maths SATs revision, or looking at any SAT Maths past papers, to prepare themselves.) The school curriculum focuses on a fixed number of assigned KS2 Maths topics, limiting the imaginative and intuitive capabilities of students – the Year 6 SATs reasoning questions challenge this by presenting children with real life scenarios to enhance and assess their general Mathematic ability.
So how should you prepare for the SAT Maths papers?
Here at PiAcademy Tutoring, we have worked hard to bring you SATs revision made easy! We aim to help you, the parents of KS2 Maths students, by offering all of the Key Stage 2 SATs papers resources all in one place.
As well as providing countless practice SATs papers, and giving you access to free Key Stage 2 Maths SATs past papers, we have arranged our resources in easy-to-navigate, topic-based categories. We understand that it is difficult for parents to know which topics from Key Stage Two Maths are most important in terms of Key Stage 2 Maths SATs. This is where our site comes in handy – below you can see a concise topic list, including the number of questions we have collected from Mathematics SATs papers from the last 20 years:
Topic | Number of Questions |
Numbers & Basic Operations | 200+ |
Fractions, decimals and percentages | 200+ |
Ratio and proportion | 100+ |
Algebra | 90+ |
Measurement | 80+ |
Geometry – properties of shapes | 120+ |
Geometry – position and direction | 80+ |
Statistics | 100+ |
Logical and Worded problems | 300+ |
*Please note that some questions cover multiple topics, in these instances the questions have been added into the list for both topics concerned.
From this list, you can clearly see that the SATs focus more on logical, worded problems which bring Mathematics into real-world context, than for example, algebra. (This, therefore would be a good place to start your Mathematics SATs practice!)
As well as using the above table to identify the most prominent topics, e.g. those questions which we can identify as popular in the Maths reasoning KS2, you can use our categorised questions to work specifically on your child’s weaknesses. This will allow you use practice SATs papers efficiently and cover the content of Key Stage 2 Maths papers thoroughly.
A great collection of KS2 SATs past papers, able to be filtered by topic, is the best way to carry out your Year 6 SATs practice, and we have this ready for you! You can practice, practice, practice, with all SAT Maths past papers available and cost-free on our website… And, on top of this, our team of elite teachers have custom-made KS2 Maths practice papers to help familiarise your child with new questions and logical problems which the SATs reasoning paper will challenge!
Don’t forget…
Our plentiful supply of Maths SATs questions (KS2) and complete SATs practice papers, will set you up perfectly to get prepared for the KS2 arithmetic paper and all of the Year 6 SATs reasoning questions… whilst using our resources, remember these
TOP TIPS:
- Good practice of past SATs papers always helps! (With so many available free, what could be stopping you?)
- Use our categorised questions to practice specific skills and work on topics which you find difficult!
- Familiarise yourself with all of the different topics, you don’t want to forget anything!
- Particularly practice lots of worded problems, logic is the way to ace the test!
- Do not rely on school to prepare you for every single thing you need to know!