Two jobs, one mark: apostrophes
An apostrophe does one of two entirely separate things, and mixing them up is where the marks go. Missing letters, belonging, and where the s sits.
Grammar
9 posts on this. Written by Mat and Alicia, who prepare pupils for the Buckinghamshire Transfer Test every week in Winslow.
Can you lift it out? punctuation
By Year 5 you know the marks; what you need is an order to apply them in. Four questions, and the test that decides where a pair of commas belongs.
Has it got a verb? clauses and phrases
Two questions, asked in order, sort every group of words into phrase, main clause or subordinate clause — and once you can do that, sentence types follow for free.
What relationship is it showing? connectives
A connective joins two ideas and tells you how they relate. Choosing the right one is choosing the right relationship — and which kind you use decides the sentence type.
It sounds right is not a test: proofreading
A sentence with one deliberate error, and four places it could be. Where the errors are planted, and why reading it aloud is not enough on its own.
Count the main clauses: simple, compound, complex
Once clauses make sense, sentence types are counting. Why a comma does not make a compound sentence, and the trap in every one of these questions.
Passive is not past: verb tenses
The tense says when. The voice says who is doing it. Confusing the two is the trap in this question type, and a sentence can be present tense and passive at once.
Same word, different job: naming word classes
A list of nouns and a list of verbs will let your child down, because the same word does different jobs in different sentences. The Word Job Test, and three traps.
Cross out the of-the-something: subject and verb agreement
The box of apples were left by the gate sounds fine to almost everybody. Why your ear grabs the wrong noun, and the pencil mark that fixes it.