Free SATs Grammar, Punctuation & Spelling Practice
The GPS paper (also called SPaG) is often the highest-scoring paper for children who prepare well. Unlike reading and reasoning, GPS questions have definite right or wrong answers — learn the rules and you pick up marks. Simple as that.
What the GPS Paper Covers
The GPS test has two parts. Paper 1 is a 45-minute written paper with 50 questions covering grammar and punctuation. Paper 2 is a separate spelling test where the teacher reads out 20 sentences and your child writes the missing word in each one.
Paper 1 is worth 50 marks and Paper 2 (spelling) is worth 20 marks, giving a total of 70 marks. The results are combined into a single scaled score. Many schools find that the GPS paper is where children improve most with focused revision, because the content is rule-based rather than interpretive.
Questions come in several formats: multiple choice, tick boxes, rewriting sentences, inserting punctuation, identifying word classes, and short written answers. The variety keeps things interesting and tests understanding from different angles.
Grammar Topics
Here are the key grammar areas your child needs to know:
Word Classes
Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, determiners, and pronouns. Your child must identify these in context. For example: “Underline the adverb in this sentence: The dog barked loudly.” Answer: loudly.
Verb Tenses
Past simple, past progressive, present perfect, past perfect. Children need to recognise and use the correct tense. Common question: “Rewrite this sentence in the past progressive: She eats her lunch.” Answer: She was eating her lunch.
Sentence Types
Statements, questions, exclamations, and commands. Also main clauses, subordinate clauses, relative clauses, and how they combine. Understanding the difference between a phrase and a clause is essential.
Active and Passive Voice
“The cat chased the mouse” (active) vs “The mouse was chased by the cat” (passive). Children need to identify and convert between them. See our passive voice guide for more examples.
Formal and Informal Language
Recognising the difference between formal and informal register. Subjunctive mood (“If I were...” not “If I was...”) often appears in this context.
Punctuation Topics
Commas
In lists, after fronted adverbials (“Cautiously, she opened the door.”), to separate clauses, and around parenthesis. Commas are tested more than any other punctuation mark.
Apostrophes
For contraction (“don’t”, “it’s”) and possession (“the dog’s bone”, “the dogs’ bones”). The difference between “its” and “it’s” trips up many children.
Colons, Semicolons, Dashes & Brackets
Colons introduce lists or explanations. Semicolons join related independent clauses. Dashes and brackets add extra information (parenthesis). Your child needs to use all four correctly and know when each is appropriate.
Inverted Commas
Punctuating direct speech correctly: new speaker, new line; comma before the closing inverted comma; capital letter for the spoken words. “Come here,” said Mum.
Spelling Patterns
The spelling test covers words from the Year 5/6 statutory spelling list and words that follow common spelling patterns. Key areas include:
- Silent letters: knight, gnaw, wreck, pneumonia
- Homophones: their/there/they’re, affect/effect, practice/practise
- Prefixes: dis-, mis-, re-, un-, anti-, auto-, inter-
- Suffixes: -tion, -sion, -cious, -tious, -able, -ible, -ful, -less
- Tricky words: accommodate, conscience, privilege, rhythm, necessary, mischievous
The best way to learn spellings is “look, cover, write, check” combined with understanding the rules behind the patterns. Children who understand why“unnecessary” has a double ‘n’ remember it better than those who simply memorise the word.
5 Example Questions
Example 1: Word Classes
“Underline the subordinating conjunction in the sentence below:
Although it was raining, the children played outside.”
Answer: Although — it introduces the subordinate clause.
Example 2: Passive Voice
“Rewrite this sentence in the passive voice:
The goalkeeper saved the penalty.”
Answer: The penalty was saved by the goalkeeper.
Example 3: Punctuation
“Insert a pair of commas in the correct places:
My brother who is ten years old plays football every Saturday.”
Answer: My brother, who is ten years old, plays football every Saturday.
Example 4: Verb Tenses
“Which sentence uses the present perfect tense?
a) She walked to school. b) She has walked to school. c) She was walking to school.”
Answer: b) She has walked to school.— “has walked” is present perfect.
Example 5: Apostrophes
“Add apostrophes in the correct places:
The childrens coats were left in the teachers staffroom.”
Answer: The children’s coats were left in the teachers’ staffroom.
(“children’s” = irregular plural; “teachers’” = regular plural possession)
Top Tips for the GPS Paper
- Learn the terminology. The paper uses precise grammar terms: “subordinate clause”, “modal verb”, “relative pronoun”. If your child does not know the word, they cannot answer the question. Flashcards work well for this.
- Read the question carefully. “Circle the adjective” and “circle the adverb” look similar but are very different questions. Rushed reading costs easy marks.
- Practise a few spellings daily. Five words a day from the Year 5/6 spelling list, using look-cover-write-check, is more effective than cramming 20 words the night before.
- Know the common tricks. “Its” vs “it’s”, “your” vs “you’re”, “there/their/they’re” appear almost every year.
- Use the full time. With 50 questions in 45 minutes, most children finish with time to spare. Use that time to double-check every answer.
Related Pages
Ready to practise GPS?
Hundreds of grammar, punctuation, and spelling questions with instant marking. Learn the rules, practise the patterns, and pick up easy marks on test day.
Practise GPS →