KS2 SATs papers explained

There are six KS2 SATs papers. Knowing the shape of each one — how long it lasts and how many marks it carries — takes a lot of the mystery out of the week.

Maths Paper 1: Arithmetic

30 minutes, 40 marks. Pure calculation, no word problems and no context. Roughly 36 questions.

It covers the four operations with whole numbers and decimals, fractions, percentages of amounts, order of operations, and long multiplication and division.

Most questions are worth 1 mark. Long multiplication and long division questions are worth 2, and can earn 1 mark for a correct method even if the final answer is wrong.

This is the most improvable paper of the six. It rewards fluency and nothing else, and fluency comes from short, regular practice rather than long sessions.

Maths Papers 2 and 3: Reasoning

40 minutes each, 35 marks each. Word problems, multi-step questions, and questions asking children to explain or prove something.

The maths is not harder than Paper 1 — the difficulty is in working out which operation the question is asking for, and in reading carefully enough to catch what is actually being asked.

Several marks each year go to questions where a correct method earns credit even with an arithmetic slip, so showing working genuinely pays.

English GPS Paper 1: Questions

45 minutes, 50 marks. Around 50 short questions on grammar, punctuation and vocabulary.

Expect terminology: subordinate clause, subjunctive, modal verb, determiner, relative pronoun, active and passive voice. Children are asked to identify, label and use these terms.

It is the paper where knowing the vocabulary is worth the most marks per minute of revision, because each term maps onto a predictable question type.

English GPS Paper 2: Spelling

About 15 minutes, 20 marks. An administrator reads 20 sentences aloud, each with one word missing, and children write the missing word.

It is untimed in practice — the reader sets the pace — so the pressure is lower than the other papers.

English Reading

60 minutes, 50 marks. One booklet with three texts of increasing difficulty, and a separate answer booklet.

The texts usually mix fiction, non-fiction and sometimes poetry. Question types range from 1-mark retrieval to 3-mark questions asking for inference with evidence from the text.

Time management is the single biggest issue. Children who spend too long reading the first text thoroughly often run out of time on the third, where several marks sit.