It was reported that the tests were particularly challenging this year. Especially as there were more inference type questions at the beginning of the paper. However, the pass mark was lowered to reflect this. I do feel the paper was more challenging and this is reflected in the percentage decreasing from 75% in 2022 to 73% in 2023.

If we have a look at the 2023 Question Level Analysis (QLA), it’s no surprise that the inference questions were the most challenging. We had some tricky inference questions at the beginning of the paper, which slowed some children down.

Most of you will be aware that retrieval, inference and vocabulary carry the most weighting on the paper. If we take a forensic look at the test paper, the vocabulary questions carried 18% of the marks, retrieval questions 32% of the marks, and inference questions 46% of the marks. The others, summarising, and identifying how things are put together, 2% respectively. 

In question 26, 51.9% got 3 marks but nearly 79.9% attempted the question. Pupils would benefit from being explicitly taught how to find a point and evidence. 

As well as Question 26 (see the video and my previous blog for details), another particularly challenging inference question was Question 30. You can view question 30 here.

31% of children answered this question correctly, but 95% of children attempted it. Interestingly, it was a multiple-choice question, but it said to tick two things. We know from working with children that very often they might tick one when they’re giving an answer, but ‘tick two’ is important. There are some implications for teaching test technique, circling and/or ticking the correct amount.

Implications for schools

If we look at Scarborough’s Reading Rope from 2001, it talks about the key aspects of being a good strategic reader, so when children are reading, they’re drawing on their background knowledge. They’re thinking about the vocabulary. They might be asking questions about what puzzles them, or they might be doing what we call resolving the pronoun, so if it says ‘he,’ who are they talking about, who’s the character? 

Of course, we have a rich and varied reading curriculum, but it’s also important to teach children explicitly reading test techniques, so things like circling, ticking, reading the question very carefully and just thinking about the question stem and what it’s asking you to do. Those are equally important for pupils.

I think my best advice for preparing pupils for the reading test paper is to practice skimming and scanning under timed conditions. Skimming is just about getting the gist of the text; scanning is looking for key words. I like activities like Find and Search, Where’s Wally, where children are really training their eyes to find the answer before that commitment to a print or a printed text. 

When they are scanning, get them to think about: is it a proper noun? Are you going to be scanning for capital letters? If it asks you a question about a date, are you going to be looking for numbers or days of the week? Be explicit about the strategies you need for good skimming and scanning. 

My other tip would be to really think about the locators within the question, so if it says, ‘look at paragraph x,’ then the children really need to look at that paragraph. If it says, ‘Look at page 8,’ then the children need to look at that page. 

Recommendations for 2024

• Practise skimming and scanning under timed conditions.
• Use locators and read that section carefully. 
• Remember to answer based on the text. 
• Become more familiar with multiple choice questions throughout the year groups
• If we’re thinking about preparing pupils for the 2024 reading test paper, then I would recommend several resources.  

It’s not about teaching to the test, it’s about really supporting children to be confident with answering the questions. When I co-wrote the Achieve Reading, the Higher Standard and the Expected Standard, I thought about breaking down how to answer the questions, so that pupils feel confident when they come to particular questions, like retrieval, inference or summarising, and the strategies they need to answer those questions. 

It’s not just about those techniques, but about making sure we’ve got a rich and varied reading for children, so reading fiction, non-fiction, and poetry – if we don’t have those access to books then joining libraries – and making sure that children have background knowledge and access to a wide range of texts.

Shareen is an experienced education adviser and is a senior leader for a multi-academy trust, with over 20 years' experience in education. In addition, she was previously a Lead Primary Adviser, specialising in English and assessment for a successful local authority in London. She has been writing educational resources and books for the past decade and is the co-author of the popular Rising Stars Achieve Reading books. From time to time, Shareen works with the DfE Standards and Testing Agency, as a KS1 and KS2 reading and grammar quality assurance subject expert proofer and sits on various expert review groups.