QTS Professional Skills Test 2016

I couldn't find any recent forums on this topic so I wanted to start one up. I just took my Maths skills test earlier today, I have been absolutely dreading it so much and I passed first time! If anyone has any questions about my experience let me know and I'll get back to you, as I sure had some to ask but there were no current threads! Best of luck to all prospective teachers :tongue:

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Reply 1

Chlolouxxo

Amazing, well done! Bet you're so relieved :smile:

I am so nervous to take mine as my maths skills aren't great...

What advice would you give in terms of revision etc?

Reply 2

username2637499

omg! Well done I'm so happy for you
I'm soooooo scared atm

Which books did you use?
What were the questions like - what came up
How was the timing

Reply 3

EmsJayne

Original post by Chlolouxxo

Amazing, well done! Bet you're so relieved :smile:

I am so nervous to take mine as my maths skills aren't great...

What advice would you give in terms of revision etc?

I thought the same too! Most of the time people are better at maths than they think.

I used Chris Tyreman How to Pass Numeracy and Literacy Skills test (this was recommended to me from my college. I later purchased Mark Patmore's numeracy book- it had all the graphs in more detailed explanations which the first one lacked.

Once I worked my way through the whole book, I printed practice questions from the internet on my weakest parts (simplifying fractions for ex) and improved that.

This youtube video is worth watching: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM6zkJ-_RRU

I then continued practicing the DofE official practice tests. Once I hit 78% I booked the test. The final practice one i took before today I got 82%.

Book it when you're ready! With more practice you'll become more confident with it. It's scary when you hate maths but you'll be fine.

Reply 4

EmsJayne

Original post by AppleB

omg! Well done I'm so happy for you
I'm soooooo scared atm

Which books did you use?
What were the questions like - what came up
How was the timing

Thank you! You'll be fine. :redface:

I used Chris Tyreman's how to pass numeracy and Literacy and Mark Patmore's Numeracy book. They were good combined.

My test had pretty much everything on it! It was particulary heavy on finding percentages of amounts and adding fractions (mental)

My worst part (by this I mean the part that scares me most) is the mental section! But after so much practice I began to cope with the timing and it didn't seem as difficult as it did to begin with. I had enough time to answer everything.

In my opinion, the key is to gain the majority of your marks in the mental part, so this leaves room for error/silly mistakes in the rest of the exam.

Good luck!

Reply 5

Chlolouxxo

Great, thank you for all of that advice :h:

Reply 6

username2637499

Original post by EmsJayne

Thank you! You'll be fine. :redface:

Oh I've only got Patmores book
Will that be ok?

Are you allowed paper in the mental section?
How long on average was the test?

Reply 7

EmsJayne

Original post by AppleB

Oh I've only got Patmores book
Will that be ok?

Are you allowed paper in the mental section?
How long on average was the test?

I took my test at the Ilford centre and they provided me pen and paper. I asked for more paper just to be sure nothing would disrupt me during the test. I have heard some people say they were provided with white boards instead, so I guess it depends on your test centre.

Once seated, you can begin the test at your leisure and the timer only begins once you start (it will be in the top right hand of the screen). The whole test lasts 48 minutes and I used the last 5 to read over my answers.

It depends on how you feel with that book! It should be fine, once you research practice tests you'll discover what you're weak on and can use that as guidance for your revision.

Reply 8

username2637499

Original post by EmsJayne

Oh right ok
Thank you for your replies :smile:

Do you know the pass mark by any chance?

Reply 9

EmsJayne

Original post by AppleB

Oh right ok
Thank you for your replies :smile:

Do you know the pass mark by any chance?

No worries! Any questions dont worry to ask!

It's 63%, you need 18/28 to pass!

Reply 10

username2637499

Original post by EmsJayne

No worries! Any questions dont worry to ask!

It's 63%, you need 18/28 to pass!

Omg that's quite high :redface:

Have you done English?

Reply 11

EmsJayne

Original post by AppleB

Omg that's quite high :redface:

Have you done English?

It is! And I have it booked for next thursday, fingers crossed! Have you?

Reply 12

username2637499

Original post by EmsJayne

It is! And I have it booked for next thursday, fingers crossed! Have you?

Good luck!!
Do keep me updated :biggrin:

Nope, not yet :redface:

Reply 13

pri.6

Original post by EmsJayne

i'm currently trying to revise for the numeracy test, really scared about answering in the time limit for the mental section! can you revisit these answers if you have time at the end?
Also, it'd be great if you could tell us what you're using for the english test revision :wink:

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 14

runforseven

I'm terrified of booking mine! I'm getting 80% average on the literacy mocks online, do you think I'll be okay to sit it next week?

Maths is definitely the worry!

Reply 15

EmsJayne

Original post by pri.6

Yeah the timing puts a lot of pressure on! You can't revist the first 12 questions on the Maths exam (these first 12 are all of the mental maths) so once you answer the question, the page is locked and you can't revisit it even if you have extra time during other questions. However, you can go back and forth on questions 13-16 which are written data & written arithmetic.

Try to secure all your marks in the mental part, that allows for you to make errors in the rest of the paper.

The mental bit was always my worse part just because of the timing, but I got soo much better with practice. Keep practicing, you'll feel more confident with it eventually.

I study English Language as an A Level, so I'm not using too much revision material, just the english section of Chris Tyreman's "How To Pass the QTS Numeracy and Literacy Skills Tests". I'm going to be practicing commonly misspelt words and reading over that book. :smile:

Reply 16

EmsJayne

Original post by runforseven

I'm terrified of booking mine! I'm getting 80% average on the literacy mocks online, do you think I'll be okay to sit it next week?

Maths is definitely the worry!

Yeah I think you'll be fine for booking it. I'd reccommend scoring at least 80%s frequently on the practice exams before booking them! Good luck.

The maths will be fine providing you apply hard work and time. :smile:

Reply 17

EmsJayne

Original post by pri.6

That helps a lot! thank you for replying :smile:

one more thing, besides the dfe practice tests and Tyreman's book, is there anywhere else we can practice the tests?

It's ok, ask away! There may be one or two practice tests on youtube, but other than that I didn't come across many.

I know NumeracyReady sell practice exams but many people have given negative feedback on these, and said they're way harder than the DofE practice ones.. So I'm not sure I'd reccommend it. I passed without it anyway. :smile:

Reply 18

pri.6

Original post by EmsJayne

Oh okay! Thanks again!

Reply 19

Sam89

I would say for Maths, practice, practice and practice some more! I joined a group on facebook and someone happened to pass their test with around 10 mock tests left (that they'd bought online) she said she'd let whoever asked first have them free and luckily I got them. They helped massively as mental maths etc is my weakness too.

I also bought some books for English from amazon.