Cross-curricular skills update – Spring term 2015
During the Spring Term, the academy’s skills focus has been on basic exam skills. These have been done with all year groups from 7-11.
All our students take tests regularly, from early in Year 7 and having a good understanding of how to handle exam questions is something that is valuable to all students. It is obviously of critical importance to our older students who are sitting GCSEs and A levels.
Work done with students covered a range of areas including rules for exams, writing extended answers, knowing what the exam question requires, sample questions from two different departments and an acronym (CUSTARD) to help students remember some key exam tips.
CUSTARD stands for: circle, underline, scribble, try, account, read do – and has been taught and explained to all students.
Results were as follows.
Whole Academy
Exam Skills
Identifying Command Words
C.U.S.T.A.R.D
Meaning of Command Word Test
Basic Science Exam Question
6 Golden Rules for Exams
Connective Spelling Test 1
Connective Spelling Test 2
PE Exam Question
TOTAL AVERAGE SCORE
Key Stage 4 only
KS4 Exam Skills
Command Words
C.U.S.T.A.R.D
SCORE %
99.5
84.5
Score %
97.2
79.5
84.7
72.4
78.7
90.5
91.6
89.7
85.5

Meaning of Command Word Test
Basic Science Exam Question
6 Golden Rules for Exams
Connective Spelling Test 1
Connective Spelling Test 2
PE Exam Question
TOTAL KS4 AVERAGE SCORE
Key Stage 3 only
May 2015
KS3 Exam Skills
Command Words
C.U.S.T.A.R.D
Meaning of Command Word Test
Basic Science Exam Question
6 Golden Rules for Exams
Connective Spelling Test 1
Connective Spelling Test 2
PE Exam Question
TOTAL KS3 AVERAGE % SCORE
93.5
69.6
77.9
93.3
97.3
90.5
88.3
SCORE %
95.6
75.8
78.2
74.5
79.3
88.3
87.9
89.0
83.6