The rehearsal is Friday 23 October. KPSEA runs 26 to 28 October and KJSEA 26 to 30 October, with the first session at 8.30am.
Almost nothing that goes wrong in exam week is academic. It is a blunt pencil, a forgotten assessment number, or a child who left home forty minutes too late. All of it is fixable the night before, and none of it is fixable at 8.25am.
What to pack, the night before
| Item | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Two HB pencils, already sharpened | Points break. A blunt pencil shades slowly and costs time on a multiple choice sheet |
| A clean eraser | A hard or dirty eraser smears rather than lifts, which creates the double-shaded row that reads as no answer |
| A small sharpener | Cheaper than the minutes lost without one |
| Two blue or black pens | For written papers. One will fail at the worst moment |
| A ruler | Doubles as a line guide down the answer sheet |
| Calculator, for KJSEA Mathematics 903 only | Allowed in that paper. Check the batteries |
| The assessment number | Written down, not remembered |
| Water and something small to eat | Two papers in one morning is a long time for a child |
What will be taken at the door
- Phones and smart watches. Leave them at home rather than arguing at the gate.
- Notes of any kind, including on a hand, a ruler or a pencil case.
- Bags in most centres. Carry the equipment loose or in a clear pouch.
Check your own centre's instructions rather than assuming. They vary, and the school will have told you, usually in a message that is easy to miss.
The morning itself
Aim to arrive a clear thirty minutes early. Traffic on a Monday morning in exam week is worse than usual precisely because every other family is doing the same thing.
Eat something. A child who skips breakfast because of nerves loses concentration in the last half hour of a 1 hour 40 paper, which is exactly where the harder questions sit.
Do not test them in the car. Nothing learned in the last ten minutes will be recalled, and a question they get wrong on the way in does real damage to their confidence.
Between the two papers
On Monday and Tuesday of KPSEA, and on several KJSEA days, there is a second paper after a break. That gap is for water, food and quiet. It is not for comparing answers with friends, which reliably convinces a child they have failed a paper they did perfectly well in.
The one thing worth doing this week instead
School Based Assessment is 40 per cent of the KJSEA grade and it was banked months ago. Confirming with the class teacher that every score was submitted is worth more than any amount of last minute revision. See the 40 per cent nobody checks.
For the papers themselves, our paper by paper timetable sets out what each day holds, and the shading guide covers the answer sheet, where earned marks are most often lost.
The KJSEA Complete Revision Course covers the final weeks of preparation across all nine learning areas.
Grade 9 KJSEA Complete Revision Course
All 9 learning areas in one download: notes, worked examples, topical questions and full marking schemes. Rebuilt for the 26 to 30 October assessment.
⏳ Only 25 days to the national assessments on 26 October. Start now.
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