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PGCE Professional Skills Test

Soon I will take the numeracy and literacy professional skills test.

Can anyone advise what to expect on the tests? Are there any good revision materials available online? (or a book?)

For someone with a relatively strong academic record in Maths and English is it s difficult test?

Reply 1

Pierson

There are practice tests on the DfE's website: https://practice.skillstestbooking.com/phoenix/s/login/show.do?theme=sta&hostname=practice.skillstestbooking.com

Reply 2

rhean18

Have you been doing the online practice tests on the sta website? They're really good and youtube videos for the maths have been really helpful!

The practice tests aren't really hard (they were at first though lol), its just remembering the methods behind things, once you've got that you're fine :smile:

I did well in maths GCSE but I'd forgotten how to do a lot of things so its just practice!

Good luck! :smile:

Original post by Rose M.

Reply 3

Smileygal

Original post by Rose M.

I did mine last year and passed both on my first attempt. The Literacy test was okay, but the comprehension section (4th and last section) was a little tricky as some of the answers were similar and you really had to use time and dwell on it. For the punctuation section (3rd section), try to put in a punctuation mark where ever you feel it is necessary as they don't take off marks for using too many. The spellings section (1st section) was the easiest, you just need to make sure that you hear what they are saying and repeat it if necessary. On to the Numeracy, the real test was much easier than the practice tests on the official website! For the arithmetic section, don't worry if you miss a few questions because you ran out of time, you could pick marks up in the second section. You need 18 out of 28 (depending on how hard the test is) to pass. If you were to miss 6-8 questions or get them wrong in the arithmetic section, you can still pass!Good luck!

Reply 4

letitiarw

What Youtube videos for Maths would you recommend? I'm really nervous for the Maths one as I haven't done Maths without a calculator in years!!

Reply 5

Angelil

The Patmore book is good for numeracy. Numeracy Ready is great as well. Oh, and if one of your parents works as a finance officer and can help you with some fundamentals that's helpful too :tongue:

#thanksmum

Didn't revise for the literacy test as I'm an English teacher and so found it to be a joke on wheels :tongue:

Reply 6

EmsJayne

Original post by Rose M.

I got a B in maths GCSE and with a little revision passed first time today. It's not any harder or easier than the practice tests avaliable on their website.

Expect:
-Fractions
-Percentages
-Converting the above three to decimals, vice versa
-Quick addition
-SDT
-Bar graphs, box and whiskers, pie charts, two way tables, etc

Reply 7

EmsJayne

Original post by letitiarw

What Youtube videos for Maths would you recommend? I'm really nervous for the Maths one as I haven't done Maths without a calculator in years!!

G&A numerical go through the practice test answers step by step and were really useful to me in passing my maths skills test! Also this one is so useful https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM6zkJ-_RRU

For this skills tests, it's not just about knowing the maths, but knowing the quick ways of getting the answers too.

Reply 8

Danielng10

I am taking my Skills Test on Tuesday, could I have some advice on the pass mark, please? I am told its 63%, do I have to hit this percentage in each section, or is it an average throughout the test. Thanks.

Reply 9

Pierson

The pass mark can actually vary from test to test because it isn't possible to guarantee the same level of difficulty across all the different versions of the tests. Subsequently, tests that statistically have harder questions can have a lower pass rate than 63% whereas those with statically easier questions can have a pass rate higher than 63%. There aren't any minimum thresholds for individual sections of the test - you just need to get a certain number of questions correct overall to pass.