This month’s blog starts with me talking to a learner. The learner was unhappy, unhappy with what had just happened in their lesson. Last week the class had done a maths past paper in class, a full one, taking up the whole lesson. This week they were given their results and another past paper to complete. The learner asked why they weren’t being taught, another stormed out. It just felt like a complete waste of my time is what they said to me. I must admit, I found it hard to disagree. The learners here appear to be losing on the swings and losing on the roundabouts. Out of this was borne an idea, an idea for a blog, so some good could come of this. How can we effectively use past papers in the Functional Skills classroom.

First of all, let’s start by saying that there is a place for using past papers in full. Learners need to understand how prepared they are for an assessment, they need to experience what an assessment is like, and they need to practice time management skills. In addition, providers need to prepare evidence in case there is a repeat of the COVID lockdowns. That being said, there feels there is an over-reliance on “mocks” at the expense of “real” teaching. So how can we effectively use past papers?

The first thing is that the past paper experience should mimic the live assessment experience as much as possible. Learners need to experience the papers without distraction and to judge their skills against a live paper. Time management is a key skill too. Done correctly, a past paper can help a learner understand how prepared they are. But it is an experience of potentially diminishing returns, you are clutching at straws if you think repeated past papers are the best use of classroom time. In the example that started this blog, the tutor is doing all their work outside the classroom, away from the learners, marking the papers. Very little learning is taking place.

Then we need to consider what to do once the papers have been completed. The key is to review the papers, for both the tutor and the learner. Feedback can be given, mistakes can be highlighted, analysed and hopefully learnt from. Future classroom sessions can be planned around common misconceptions and shared errors. Below are some examples of activities that could benefit groups of learners.

Error Correction

Using examples of learner work from the writing paper, the learners can work in pairs to correct sentence errors. As a tutor, you can analyse the papers to look for common errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar. The same can be done with maths. Look for questions where the majority struggled and go through it with the class. You could provide a scaffolded version of the question, with each stage a separate question, breaking it down step by step. Then follow it up with a similar question or even the same question with the numbers changed.

Understanding the Question

Learners can look at questions (maths in this case) and ask themselves what the question is asking them to do. Not just in terms of the maths, but also in terms of the outcome. Let’s look at the question below:

Darcey is the manager of a swimming pool.

The pool is empty and needs filling with water. 
Darcey knows it takes 24 hours to fill the pool at a rate of 9 litres per minute.

How much time will it take to fill the pool if Darcey increases the rate to 12 litres per minute?

What is this asking the learners? What do they need to know (or work out), that isn’t in the question, in order to be able to answer it? Or simply breaking it down into steps.

Focusing on this in maths, can really help them apply their skills.

Analysing Mistakes

The traditional go through the paper and correct your errors, possibly in groups, with the tutor monitoring and providing support. Plenary activities can be built into this to share knowledge and skills. With this I also like to use mark schemes to support and show where marks can be picked up (and lost). The learners do need to learn from their mistakes. 

How Feasible is Your Answer?

Another tip for looking at errors is to ask learners how feasible is your answer? Let’s have a look at a Level 2 probability question:

The probability that it rains on Saturday is 0.3.

The probability that it rains on Sunday is 0.8.

What is the probability that it rains on both days?

The learner gives the answer of 1.1, so tutor can ask how feasible is that? In this case we know that the answer cannot be more than 1 and it cannot be bigger than the two individual events, so we should be steering the learner into realising this.  

Common Misconceptions

The above question is a good example of an opportunity to use misconceptions to help learners understand their mistakes. According to our Chair of Examiners’ Report, many learners add the decimals in the above question (which is no doubt what the learner in the example has done) instead of multiplying them. This can be reiterated to the learners in the feedback process.

Slips vs. Mistakes

One final thing that can be done is to look at the difference between slips and mistakes, where a slip is an error that has the correct intent, and a mistake is an error that has the wrong intent. A slip could be one of the following:

• A typographical error in an online written assessment.
• Inputting numbers incorrectly into the calculator in a maths assessment.
• Making a spelling or multiplication error you would normally get correct (where you know the correct answer).

An error is usually something more substantial like adding the two probabilities above instead of multiplying.

Learners could relook at their work and look for slips, which should be easier to correct without support and guidance.

Using Past Papers Effectively

As well as using past papers for mock exam practice, they can also be used to support teaching and learning. Instead of focusing on a whole paper, individual questions, or small groups of questions, can be used to support learners. They can be given as homework, revision packs or as support for areas of weakness highlighted by ResultsPlus after an assessment. They can also be used in lessons to help learners understand how they will be assessed on a particular topic and to apply what they have learnt in the lesson in an assessment-based context. To help with this, Pearson has two tools to support: ExamWizard and Onscreen Mini Tests, both of which are free to access.

ExamWizard

ExamWizard is a Pearson tool that allows you to cut up our past papers by coverage and range point. It is available for all levels of Functional Skills maths and English and means if you are teaching a particular topic, you have easy access to a range of actual exam questions on that topic. If you have a lesson tomorrow on writing emails for Entry 3 English, you can look for example email questions. It’s the same with maths. If you want questions on averages, you can look them up.

Onscreen Mini-Tests

Where we have ExamWizard for paper-based assessments, we now have onscreen mini-tests for Level 1 and 2 onscreen maths topics. These are a series of mini papers (generally six questions across non-calculator and calculator) on set topics. We will be regularly introducing new mini-tests, and this means learners can practice onscreen questions in the same way as they would paper based ones.

Pearson has one of the largest selections of past papers to use with your Functional Skills learners. Using them effectively can have many benefits, but the key is to use them in moderation, with real purpose.

Christopher Briggs - Product Manager - Post 16 English, Maths & Digital Skills - BTEC Product Management