School Term-Test Papers

These are the papers schools and zones set for the first, second and third terms. They differ from examination papers in one way that makes them valuable: a term test only covers what has been taught by that point in the year.

That makes them the right practice for the middle of a school year, when a full examination paper would mostly ask about material a class has not reached yet - which discourages students for no good reason.

Expect variation. Different schools and zones write to different levels of difficulty and set out their papers differently, and that variation is itself worth meeting before the real examination.

• Match the term, not just the grade. A third-term paper used in the first term will look impossible; the same paper in November is a fair test.
• Use them to find gaps early. A term test that exposes a weakness in September can still be fixed. The same weakness found in a past paper in December cannot.
• Do not compare marks between schools. Two papers marked in two schools are not the same measurement. Compare your own performance across two papers from the same source instead.
• Keep the papers your own school sets. Your teachers' papers tell you how your teachers ask questions, which no downloaded paper can.