Preparation

Last-Minute SATs Revision

A practical 2-week emergency plan to maximise your child's marks when time is short.

SATs week starts in 10 days. There is still time to make a real difference.

Skip the panic and start tonight. The free 5-question diagnostic shows exactly where your child stands — no card, no signup wall.

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The Triage Approach

With two weeks to go, you cannot cover everything — and trying to will only create stress. Instead, take a triage approach: focus your limited time on the areas that will gain the most marks with the least effort. Research by the Education Endowment Foundation confirms that spaced practice and retrieval practice are the most effective revision strategies, even over short timeframes.

The key insight is that not all topics are worth equal marks. Arithmetic is worth 40 marks, and many of those questions test skills that can be improved quickly (times tables, column methods, fraction calculations). Meanwhile, advanced reading inference is a skill that develops over months, not days.

Your goal is simple: pick up every “easy” mark first, then use remaining time on medium-difficulty topics. Leave the hardest content alone — the time investment is not worth it this late.

Quick Wins: Highest Impact, Least Time

These are the topics where a few hours of focused practice can translate directly into extra marks:

Maths: Arithmetic Fluency

The arithmetic paper is 40 marks of pure calculation. Drill the four operations using column methods, practise long division, and revise fraction/decimal/percentage conversions. If your child knows their times tables confidently up to 12×12, they can access most of this paper. Use SATs Arcade maths practice for targeted question sets.

GPS: Spelling Patterns

The spelling paper is worth 20 marks. Focus on the most commonly tested spelling patterns: words ending in -tion/-sion/-cian, silent letters, homophones (there/their/they’re, which/witch), and the Year 5–6 statutory spelling list. Even learning 5–10 new spellings per day adds up quickly.

GPS: Word Classes & Punctuation

Learning to identify nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, determiners, and conjunctions is a quick win. Similarly, knowing where to place commas in a list, after a fronted adverbial, and in relative clauses can pick up several marks. These rules can be memorised relatively quickly.

Reading: Test Technique

You cannot dramatically improve reading comprehension in two weeks, but you can improve test technique. Teach your child to: read questions before the passage, skim for key words, underline evidence in the text, and never leave an answer blank. These strategies alone can make a real difference.

The 2-Week Day-by-Day Plan

Each day’s session should be 30–45 minutes maximum. Short, focused sessions are far more effective than marathon cramming. Always include a 5-minute warm-up (quick-fire times tables or spelling) and end on something the child finds easy, so they finish feeling positive.

Week 1: Build the Foundation

Monday: Arithmetic — column addition & subtraction, carrying & borrowing Practise →

Tuesday: GPS — word classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) Practise →

Wednesday: Arithmetic — long multiplication & short division Practise →

Thursday: Reading — retrieval questions using a short passage Practise →

Friday: GPS — punctuation rules (commas, apostrophes, inverted commas) Practise →

Saturday: Arithmetic — fractions (adding, subtracting, simplifying) Practise →

Sunday: REST DAY — no revision. Let your child recharge.

Week 2: Consolidate & Test

Monday: Spelling — Year 5–6 statutory word list, focus on tricky words Open list →

Tuesday: Maths reasoning — word problems, multi-step questions Practise →

Wednesday: Timed arithmetic paper (30 minutes, use a past paper) Take a mock →

Thursday: Timed reading paper (60 minutes, focus on time management) Practise →

Friday: GPS revision — quick-fire questions on mixed topics Practise →

Saturday: Light revision only — go over any topics that felt shaky this week

Sunday: NO REVISION. Fun activity, early bedtime, calm evening.

What NOT to Do

In the panic of last-minute revision, it is easy to make mistakes that do more harm than good. Avoid these common pitfalls:

✗Do not cram late at night. Sleep is more important than revision. A tired child will make careless mistakes, struggle to concentrate, and feel more anxious. Aim for 10 hours of sleep every night.
✗Do not skip school for extra revision. Year 6 teachers are doing targeted revision in class during the run-up to SATs. That expert, structured revision is more effective than anything you can replicate at home.
✗Do not introduce new topics. If your child has never encountered algebra or ratio, two weeks is not enough time to teach these from scratch. Focus on strengthening what they already partially know.
✗Do not show frustration. If your child gets something wrong, stay calm and explain it patiently. Showing frustration or disappointment will make them associate revision with negative emotions.
✗Do not revise on the morning of the test. By SATs week, the revision is done. A calm breakfast and a positive send-off are worth far more than five last-minute questions over toast.

Subject Priority Order

If you have very limited time, here is the priority order based on how quickly marks can be gained:

1.Maths Arithmetic — highest return on investment. Pure calculation skills can be drilled and improved quickly. Worth 40 marks.
2.GPS & Spelling — grammar rules and spelling patterns are memorisable. The GPS paper is worth 50 marks and spelling is worth 20 marks. Many questions test factual knowledge that can be revised quickly.
3.Maths Reasoning — improve test technique (showing working, reading questions carefully) rather than trying to learn new maths concepts. Worth 70 marks across two papers.
4.Reading — focus on test technique and time management rather than trying to improve reading ability. Worth 50 marks. The biggest gains come from not running out of time and not leaving questions blank.

Managing Stress — For You and Your Child

Last-minute revision is stressful for everyone. Here is how to keep things in perspective:

✓Remind yourself of the stakes. The real stakes are low. SATs do not determine which secondary school your child attends, and a score below 100 has no lasting consequences. Read our do SATs matter guide for reassurance.
✓Keep activities fun. Use games, quizzes, and interactive tools rather than worksheets. SATs Arcade turns revision into a game, which can be particularly helpful when motivation is flagging.
✓Praise effort, not results. “You worked really hard on that” is more helpful than “You only got 6 out of 10”.
✓Keep normal life going. Maintain hobbies, playdates, and screen time. Cancelling everything for revision sends the message that SATs are more important than everything else, which they are not.

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