KJSEA English 901/1: Fifty Multiple Choice Questions in 100 Minutes

English Language is paper 901/1: fifty multiple choice questions in 1 hour 40, sat on Monday 26 October. It is the first paper of the entire KJSEA week, and it is followed the same day by 901/2, Composition and Literary Analysis.

Two hours of English in one morning is heavy going, and how the first paper is paced decides how much is left for the second.

The arithmetic of the paper

Two minutes a question sounds generous until a comprehension passage arrives and swallows fifteen minutes on its own. The average is not the plan.

Three passes, never one

1. First pass, about 40 minutes. Answer everything you know on sight. Grammar, vocabulary, punctuation. Do not pause on anything that needs thought.
2. Second pass, about 45 minutes. Comprehension and anything skipped. This is where the reading time goes, and it is why the first pass has to be quick.
3. Third pass, the last 15 minutes. Fill every blank. There is no negative marking, so an unanswered question is simply a mark given away.

Comprehension: read the questions first

For any passage, read the questions before the passage itself. It turns reading into a search rather than a general absorption, and on a timed paper that difference is worth several minutes.

Where two options both look possible, the correct one can almost always be traced to a specific line. Teach your child to point at the line before choosing. If they cannot find it, it is a guess, and a guess should be made quickly and moved on from.

Where marks leak in a language paper

• Reading the question carelessly. "Which is NOT correct" costs more marks than any grammar gap. Underline the negative word.
• Changing a first instinct without a reason. On vocabulary and grammar, first instinct is usually right. Change it only if you can say why.
• Vocabulary in context. The question asks what the word means in that sentence, which is often not its commonest meaning.
• Losing the row on the answer sheet. Skipping a question on the paper but not on the sheet puts every later answer one row out.

Practise both English papers together

901/1 and 901/2 are sat on the same day. A child who has only ever practised one at a time will find the composition much harder than expected, because the concentration is already spent.

Sit them back to back at least twice before the exam, with the real gap between. Our guide to how the 50 marks in 901/2 are split covers the second paper, where composition alone is worth 15.

For the wider plan, the six week countdown puts English in week 2, and marking at home covers scoring a practice paper without being a teacher.

The KJSEA Complete Revision Course includes predictive papers for both English papers with a separate answer booklet.