Regular readers of this blog will know that I’m not averse to a bit of pedantry now and again and, in contrast to many of my colleagues, I actually find grammar quite interesting. I was however quite shocked to see these questions (shared on Facebook by a concerned parent). They appear on the Standard Attainment Test (SAT) for taken by her son, who is in Year 6.
I think they’re ridiculous. I wonder how many of you could answer these five sample questions correctly without looking things up on the web? I certainly wouldn’t have been able to do them all at age 11! More to the point, who* decided that the names of grammatical structures should be deemed so important?
Far better, in my opinion, to concentrate on cultivating a love of reading.
*It was Michael Gove.
QUESTION 1:
Circle the relative pronoun in the sentence below.
“It’s too rainy for the picnic today, which is a shame.”
QUESTION 2:
Circle all the determiners in the sentence below.
“The man’s hair was very long, so my uncle cut it using a pair of the clippers he owns.”
QUESTION 3:
Underline the subordinate clause in this sentence.
“I don’t need a school dinner today because I have brought sandwiches.”
QUESTION 4:
Circle the modal verb in this sentence:
“If I can leave early, I would like to meet Anna at the park, as she said she might be there.”
QUESTION 5:
Tick one box to show whether the word ‘before’ is used as a preposition or a subordinating conjunction:
“We left the cinema before the film had ended.”
“Simon finished before Paul in the race.”
“Train tickets are often cheaper before 9am.”
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