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QTS Professional Skills Tests: Quick Tips & Hacks
On this page you will find some helpful hints and tips on preparing and passing the mandatory QTS Skills tests. We’ve taken these from our popular study guides Passing the Numeracy Skills Test and Passing the Literacy Skills Test. We hope they help you get those pesky tests out of the way so you can secure your place on the teacher training course and enjoy the rest of the summer!
Advice from other students on using our guides and passing the tests!
The Literacy Skills Test – 3 handy grammar hacks!
1. Full stop or comma? If you’re not sure which is needed, use a full stop, and in most cases you will be right.
2. Should have/of, could have/of.
‘Should of’ and ‘could of’ are always wrong. Tell yourself: I should have known that!
3. I or me? Use ‘I’ when the pronoun is acting as the subject of the verb, e.g.
I went to school.
Danny and I went to school.
Ask yourself ‘Who went to school?’ The answer is ‘I went…’ not ‘Me went…’
Use ‘me’ when the pronoun is acting as the object of the verb, e.g.
Danny went to school with me.
Ask yourself, ‘Danny went to school with whom?’ The answer is ‘…with me’ not ‘…with I’
Numeracy skills test – 3 tips to help you pass!
1. [Mental arithmetic questions] Start to work out the answer as soon as you have the information. You may be able to do this while you hear the second reading of the question.
2. [Mental arithmetic questions] If you cannot answer a question don’t worry or panic – enter a likely answer, then forget it. Remember, you don’t need to get every single question right.
3. [On-screen questions] Try not to spend more than two minutes on any one question and keep an eye on the time remaining. Return to any you still need to complete at the end of the test and insert an answer.