Grade 5 Scholarship
English-medium language practice for children preparing for the Grade 5 Scholarship Examination — and a clear account of the part of it this site can actually help with.
What this page covers, and what it does not
- The Grade 5 Scholarship Examination is set and conducted by the Department of Examinations. RCF English has no connection with it and does not speak for it.
- The examination is sat in the child's medium of instruction. These pages are for children sitting it in the English medium.
- The examination covers much more than English, including mathematics and general knowledge. This site helps with the English language work only. It is not full scholarship preparation.
- No result and no school place is promised or implied. Confirm the syllabus, the format and the dates for your child's year with the Department of Examinations or your child's school.
The English-medium language work
For a child sitting the paper in English, part of it tests ordinary English language ability: understanding words, using them correctly, and reading a short passage carefully enough to answer a question about it.
That part is what this site can help with, and it is worth practising, because it is the part where careful reading earns marks that guessing does not.
- Vocabulary — knowing what a word means, and which word fits a sentence.
- Grammar in use — choosing the right form without needing to name the rule.
- Short comprehension — reading four or five sentences and answering exactly what was asked.
- Verbal reasoning — opposites, categories, analogies and odd-one-out, in English.
A word about pressure
This examination puts real pressure on nine and ten year olds, and a great deal of it comes from adults rather than from the paper.
A child who is frightened reads worse, not better. Short sessions, ordinary praise and a clear statement that you will not be disappointed in them will do more for the result than an extra hour of past papers.
Whatever happens in this examination, it decides very little. Plenty of children who did not win a place have done extremely well afterwards, and it is worth saying so out loud to your child.
How to practise in the last few months
Read something every day
Ten minutes of anything in English. A story, a newspaper page, the back of a packet. Reading widely does more for vocabulary than any word list.
Practise reading the question
Most lost marks at this age are answers to a question the child did not read properly. Ask them to say what the question wants before they answer it.
Work to time, but only sometimes
Once a week, do a short set against a clock so the feeling is familiar. The rest of the week, work slowly and carefully.
Go back over the wrong ones
Doing a hundred new questions teaches less than understanding ten wrong ones. Keep a page of the mistakes that keep coming back.
Question types, and what each is really testing
- Choose the correct word — tests whether the child knows the shade of meaning, not just the word. big, huge, enormous are not interchangeable.
- Opposites — tests vocabulary breadth. Practise in pairs, always aloud.
- Odd one out — tests categories. Always ask the child why, because the reason is the skill.
- Analogies — hand is to glove as foot is to ___. Tests relationships between words. Say the relationship aloud first: a glove goes on a hand.
- Short comprehension — tests careful reading. The answer is in the passage; the difficulty is noticing it.
- Sentence completion — tests grammar in use. The child should read the whole sentence with their answer in it, to hear whether it sounds right.
Practise the English work
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Related pages
Short Reading Comprehensions
Four passages with questions, getting longer.
Interactive Activities and Games
All the primary activities in one place.
Past Papers
Papers for the later examinations, from Grade 10 upwards.
Looking for scholarship past papers?
This site does not host Grade 5 Scholarship past papers. Those papers belong to the Department of Examinations, and RCF English does not have permission to republish them.
The Past Papers section covers the later examinations, and the Copyright and Resource Policy explains the rule this site works to.