KEY STAGE 1 

The reading test for Year 2 pupils will involve two separate papers:

Paper 1: a selection of texts totalling 400 to 700 words, with questions interspersed

Paper 2: a reading booklet and a separate answer booklet

Each paper is worth 50% of the marks, and should take around 30 minutes, but children will not be strictly timed, as the tests are not intended to assess children’s ability to work at speed. 

The texts in the reading papers will cover a range of fiction, non-fiction and poetry, and will get progressively more difficult towards the end of the test. Teachers will have the option to stop the test at any point that they feel is appropriate for a particular child.

There will be a variety of question types:

• Multiple choice
• Ranking/ordering, e.g. ‘Number the events below to show in which order they happened in the story.’
• Matching, e.g. ‘Match the character to the job that they do in the story.’
• Labelling, e.g. ‘Label the text to show the title.’
• Find and copy, e.g. ‘Find and copy one word that shows what the weather was like in the story.’
• Short answer, e.g. ‘What does the bear eat?’
• Open-ended answer, e.g. ‘Why did Lucy write the letter to her grandmother? Give two reasons.’

Marking:
The papers will be set externally and marked by teachers at school.

KEY STAGE 2 

The KS2 English reading test comprises a reading booklet and a separate answer booklet. The reading booklet will contain a selection of three to four unrelated texts which will increase in difficulty. There will be a mix of text types, including fiction, non-fiction and poetry.

Time Allowed:

The total testing time is 60 minutes. This includes reading time and time to answer the questions.

Types of Questions:
Questions include short answers, several line answers, longer answers and selected answers (multiple choice responses, ordering, linking lines). They test the key expected skills that relate to comprehension, ranging from simple explanation to inference, prediction and understanding of vocabulary in context. Children also need to demonstrate that they can summarise and make comparisons.

There will be a selection of question types, including:

• Ranking/ordering: e.g. ‘Number the events below to show the order in which they happen in the story’
• Labelling, e.g. ‘Label the text to show the title of the story’
• Find and copy, e.g. ‘Find and copy one word that suggests what the weather is like in the story’
• Short constructed response, e.g. ‘What does the bear eat?’
• Open-ended response, e.g. ‘Look at the sentence that begins Once upon a time. How does the writer increase the tension throughout this paragraph? Explain fully, referring to the text in your answer.’

Marking:
The papers will be set and marked externally.

Overall Assessment For Reading:

The test score will be combined with a teacher assessment of reading to reach an overall judgement.