In order to support our Functional Skills Providers and Learners, our Assessment Development team have published a number of new practice resources. Here, our Head of Assessment Development, Rosie Redfern explains what's new.......
We are delighted to launch new practice resources which cover both Level 1 and Level 2 of Maths, English Reading and English Writing. We understand how important practice resources are, so we have created different types of practice resources to support every individual approach to practicing ahead of exams.
* One such resource is full question papers with associated mark schemes, which providers can access and download through our online Portal. These papers can be printed out and used by learners and providers in a traditional paper-based format.
*Additionally, learners and providers can also access the online version of papers by clicking a link within the download. This option allows individuals to ‘play’ the assessment in our online assessment platform and take full advantage of the functionality and adaptability of the technical site. Learners and providers can choose which way to access these practice papers and sit them as many times as they like, giving complete freedom and flexibility.
*Mark schemes are also provided so that individuals can get comprehensive feedback on the answers they gave in the question paper, giving learners and providers maximum opportunity to improve their skills and attain a pass. Taking and retaking full practice papers gives learners and providers as close an experience as possible to a real exam, thoroughly preparing them for the real exam when it comes.
* We have also now introduced practice question banks. We realise that not everyone wants to or has time to sit full practice papers. What if you know there’s a certain topic area you always struggle with? What if you only want to revise a specific question type? Our practice question banks allow learners and providers to do just that!
Our Assessment Development team have created banks of questions that relate to specific Scope of Study statements, giving learners and providers a number of questions to practice with until that topic is completely learned. Our Data Analyst used enhanced results analysis to determine which Scope of Study statements gained the fewest marks, or were found the most difficult by our learners. We used this as a starting point and developed banks of questions against the lowest-performing Scope of Study statements. The beauty of our new practice question banks is that they’re always growing as our developers continue to add to these banks and expand the amount and type of practice resources Open Awards offer both learners and providers