The Entrance Assessment specification will assess candidates' knowledge and understanding in English and Mathematics and is based entirely upon the content and syllabus of the statutory Northern Ireland Curriculum for Language and Literacy and the statutory Northern Ireland Curriculum for Mathematics and Numeracy at Key Stage 2.
English
Questions set will be based entirely on the content and syllabus of the Reading and Writing curricular areas of the Northern Ireland Curriculum for Language and Literacy at Key Stage 2.
Pupils will have opportunities to read, explore, understand and make use of a range of texts and to engage in sustained, independent reading to locate, select, evaluate and communicate information relevant for a particular task.
They may be asked to consider, interpret and discuss texts, exploring the ways in which language can be manipulated in order to affect the reader or engage attention, justifying their responses logically, by inference, deduction and/or reference to evidence within the text.
They are expected to use a range of cross-checking strategies to read unfamiliar words in texts and use a variety of reading skills for different reading purposes.
They will be expected to identify and understand various features of layout in texts and be aware that writing may be for a variety of purposes and audiences.
They may be asked to use a variety of skills to spell words correctly and to develop increasing competence in the use of grammar and punctuation to create clarity of meaning.
There will be no requirement for extended written responses and candidates will not be required to write responses of more than one or two sentences. No marks will be awarded for handwriting.
The content to be assessed in Reading and Writing is:
Comprehension
- Locating, selecting and communicating required information from a given source
- Literal and inferential interpretation of passages, chosen to represent a variety of styles (prose, poetry, fiction and non-fiction), authorship and content
- Understanding of rhyme, verse structure, word play and dialect
- Understanding of and response to writing for a variety of purposes and audiences; awareness of appropriate style and form
- Understanding how language can be manipulated in order to affect the reader or engage attention
Spelling and Punctuation
- Proofreading skills in detecting mistakes using short passages or sentences
- Knowledge of the appropriate use of capital letter, full stop, comma, colon and semicolon, brackets, question mark, exclamation mark, hyphen, apostrophe, speech and quotation marks
- Knowledge and use of common spelling rules and irregular spellings; spelling of homonyms and similar sounding words such as there/their/they're, where/were/wear; him/hymn, etc.
- Understanding of index, contents, glossary, bibliography, author, types of written work - prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction
- Understanding of imagery, simile and metaphor, verse and rhyme
Grammar and Syntax
- Identification of noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, conjunction, preposition
- Understanding of tense of verbs; identification of present and past tenses, simple and irregular, such as seek/sought, find/found, etc.; awareness of future and conditional tenses - will and would
- Use of abbreviations in tenses such as they're, could've, etc.
- Plurals beyond use of “s” and “es”, including common collective nouns, such as oxen
- Use of comparative and superlative adjectives / adverbs
- Understanding of phrase, sentence, paragraph and chapter
Vocabulary
- Meaning of selected words chosen from the reading passages
- Synonyms and homonyms in common usage
Candidates will not be required to write responses of more than a few words; there will be no requirement for extended written responses. There will be no questions requiring identification of future perfect or conditional perfect tenses beyond testing awareness of abbreviation such as would've or could've.
Mathematics
Questions will be based entirely upon the content and syllabus of the Northern Ireland Mathematics Curriculum for Key Stage 2.
Pupils will be expected to show knowledge, understanding and skills in processes in Mathematics by demonstrating a range of strategies for problem solving, interpreting situations mathematically using appropriate symbols or diagrams.
In Mathematical Reasoning, pupils will be expected to recognise general patterns and relationships and make predictions about them, responding to open-ended or multiple choice questions.
They will be required to show a knowledge and understanding of Number and Number Notation; Patterns, Relationships and Sequences in Number; Operations and their Applications; Measurement; Shape and Space; Position, Movement and Direction; Data Handling; Money; and Probability.
The content to be assessed in these areas is:
Number
- Whole numbers, digits signifying value
- Decimals up to two decimal places/ability to multiply by 10, 100 and 1000
- Estimates and approximations to nearest 10 or 100
- Addition and subtraction, mentally two two-digit numbers up to 100 and up to two decimal places; multiplications (to 10 x 10) and divisions; and multiplication and division of decimals by whole numbers
- Vulgar and decimal fractions and percentages; relationships and equivalence among these
- Patterns and sequences of whole numbers, including steps, doubling and halving, multiplication patterns and predicting sequential numbers
- Prime, square and cube numbers; understanding indices, square and triangular numbers or series
- Use of simple function machines
- Use of a letter to represent a whole number (as in 6+a = 24)
Measurement
- Length, weight, volume, capacity, time, area and temperature
- Metric terms: metre, gram, litre, and prefixes kilo, centi and milli
- Relationships between units, knowing kilograms and grams are used for food; converting one metric unit to another, such as 175 centimetres equalling 1.75 metres
- Multiplication, division, addition and subtraction up to two decimal places
- Calculating differences between two temperatures and reading from a given scale including negative temperatures (Celsius only)
- Calculating perimeter of simple shapes; finding area by counting squares and volumes by counting cubes; calculating areas and volumes of two and three dimensional shapes
- Calculating and using scale to measure distance
- Recognising time on the analogue clock and knowing relationship between twelve and twenty-four-hour clock, including a.m. and p.m.; timetables involving twenty-fourhour clock
Shape and Space
- Regular and irregular 2-D shapes; classifying these though examination of angles and sides; reflect shapes; name and describe quadrilaterals, circles, triangles, and polygons
- Solid geometry: name and describe common 3-D shapes including cubes, cuboids, cones, cylinders, spheres, triangular prisms and pyramids
- Use of geometrical properties to solve problems
- Investigate ¼, ½, ¾ and whole turns; understand clockwise and anti-clockwise; eight points of the compass; co-ordinates to plot points within the first quadrant and draw shapes
- Language and properties related to line and angle, including vertical, horizontal, perpendicular, parallel, acute, obtuse and reflex
- Investigate angles in triangles, including scalene, right-angled, equilateral and isosceles; quadrilaterals, including square, rectangle, rhombus, kite, parallelogram and trapezium
- Line symmetry
Money
- Problem solving using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
- Estimation and approximation
- Computation of change up to £10
- Interpreting a calculator display
Probability
- Language of probability including certain, uncertain, likely, unlikely, impossible and fair
- Place events in order of likelihood; understand and use the idea of fifty-fifty, and calculation of probability in use of a die
Data Representation
- Record, represent and interpret numerical data using graphs, tables and diagrams, including Venn, block graphs, bar charts, bar-line graphs and line graphs with axis starting at zero
- Interpret range of graphs and diagrams including pie-chart, frequency tables and tallying methods
- Calculate and use mean and range of a set of discrete data
Pupils will not be expected to know Imperial units, will be limited to calculating scale from simple drawings, will not be set questions on meaning of congruence in 2-D shapes, will not need to measure or draw angles and assess only internal angles of triangles and quadrilaterals.