Do Year 7 and 8 exams matter, and how should you revise for them?

What are Year 7 and 8 exams for?

There has been no national test in Years 7 to 9 since the tests at 14 were scrapped in 2008, so these exams are your school's own. Many schools hold them at the end of the year, often in the first half of June, and some add a round in January or February. What they are used for varies, but usually it is some mix of deciding classes or sets for next year, writing the summer report, and showing teachers which topics need going over again.

They are also practice at something you will need for GCSEs: revising a whole year's work, then sitting a timed paper in a quiet room. Doing that once or twice with nothing much riding on it makes Year 10 and 11 far less daunting.

What are they usually like?

Schools differ, but the common pattern is a week of papers in the main subjects, sometimes sat in the hall under exam conditions, covering what you have been taught that year. Many schools send out a revision list a few weeks before, naming the topics in each subject. If you have not had one, ask your teacher: it is the single most useful thing to revise from.

How should you revise for them?

The methods that work at GCSE work here too, and there is less to cover. A plan for three or four weeks:

• Start from the revision list. Tick off each topic once you can answer a question on it without your notes.
• Keep sessions short: twenty or thirty minutes, then a break, a few times a week per subject.
• Test yourself rather than rereading. Write down everything you remember about a topic, answer practice questions, or use flashcards, then check what you missed.
• Come back to topics after a few days. A topic you revise three times, spread out, sticks far better than one you revise once for an hour.
• Sleep properly the week of the exams. It does more for your marks than a late night of cramming.

What if an exam goes badly?

A poor result in Year 7 or 8 is a snapshot of one week, not a verdict on you. The useful part is the paper itself: the questions you lost marks on tell you exactly what to go over, which is more than any report grade can. Sets are usually reviewed during the year, and a teacher will tell you what would help if you ask.

For parents: how to help without raising the stakes

The most useful things are small. Help your child turn the revision list into a simple plan, offer to test them with questions or flashcards, and keep the evenings before an exam calm. Treat the results as information about what to practise next, not as something to reward or punish: at this age, the habit of revising is worth more than the marks.

If a school's report puts a GCSE-style grade on the results, it is worth knowing what that number means before reading too much into it; there is a guide to Years 7 to 9 grades linked below.