If you haven’t yet had a child go through the process of doing Transfer Test practice papers, but are about to, get ready for the most frustrating mistakes!
We’re not talking about wrong answers to difficult questions. We’re talking about questions to which your child clearly knows the answer but commits the cardinal sin of not copying a word correctly, not copying the number correctly from their working-out, ticking one box when the question said to tick two, or giving their answer in centimetres when asked to give it in metres.
Look in the mirror before you react!
Recently, in one of my classes, a student made an error I don’t often see. When performing a calculation using a traditional written method, they wrote the ‘tens’ in the answer line and carried the ‘units’. It was a one-off but I had to point it out. In demonstrating what this child should have done, I proceeded to make the same mistake (I must have been subconsciously mirroring the kid – or at least that’s my excuse).
So, as far as I’m concerned, silly mistakes will be with us for life. We usually laugh at them. Do the same with your kids (I don’t literally mean laugh at your child by the way…).
How do we limit silly mistakes?
Hopefully you’re on board with the idea of not criticising your child for their silly mistakes. Don’t let them overhear you complain about their silly mistakes either.
But that doesn’t mean we don’t address them. They need to be limited. Don’t fall for the delusion that ‘it’ll be alright on the night’ if you haven’t treated the issue seriously in advance.
Copying words/numbers incorrectly
Finding the correct word in a passage but misspelling it runs the risk of getting marked wrong. If your child has done the hard work of locating a word within a passage or poem and now just needs to write it down in the answer space, you don’t want them to lose focus and think that their work is done. Missing a single letter might mean missing a mark; getting more than one letter wrong is almost a guarantee.
Rather than state the obvious and remind your child to check twice (they already know this) tell them to count the letters before copying the word – even if it’s a word they think they know how to spell. This checking mechanism may suit those who are mathematically minded.
My second piece of advice will sound harsh but I do seriously recommend it. It regards consequences. If you spot that your child has lost a mark in a practice paper through careless copying of a word, underline ten more words from anywhere within the test paper. Choose the longest and most difficult words you can find. Get your child to copy each of them onto a separate piece of paper. Don’t set a time limit (you don’t want them to rush). If they make a single mistake in their copying – even just by one letter – repeat the process with ten new words. They’ll soon develop the instinct to be more careful!
Like I say, this might sound harsh and punitive (you can tell I’m a teacher and not a parent) but it’ll work for most kids if you stick to those rules strictly. Just make sure to be extra nice to them for the rest of the day…
The same strategy should be employed if your child has calculated the correct answer to a Maths question but has copied the number incorrectly into the answer space. This time, give them ten long numbers to copy (perhaps even phone numbers if you’re feeling extra-mean).
Fixing the other silly mistakes
Ticking two boxes instead of one, or writing a Maths answer in the wrong unit of measurement can be remedied using one strategy. It may sound an unusual strategy so allow me to illustrate its purpose using a real-life regular ‘problem’ that I’ve had to overcome.
If I need to remember to bring something to my office (a tin of coffee, milk, teaching resources) I will set a reminder on my phone, which is something I’m sure many of you do. However, what transpired was that the reminder often appeared on my phone a good 10 to 15 minutes before I left the house – during which time I forgot again.
Mt first remedy was to set the items out, close to the front door, at the exact time that the reminder came up on my phone. Being who I am (easily distracted by my own thoughts and unaware of my surroundings) I would still miss the items, walk past them and go to work without them.
What I had to do was literally set the items in a position at the front door so that opening the front door would knock them over. In other words, they had to ‘get in the way’ so that I had no choice but to pay attention to them.
There is a parallel between this and the common mistakes in which kids tick the wrong number of boxes or write answers in the wrong unit of measurement.
What your child is likely to face, even in the new form of Transfer Tests, is questions in which key words are written in bold:
· ‘…Look at the statements below. Tick two boxes to show which ones are true…’
· ‘…How long was the race? Give your answer in kilometres…’
You might think that bold words are enough for a child. They are usually not. They are like the phone reminder. They work at the time but then we do something in the interim that causes us to forget. In your child’s case, they must perform a calculation or reread a passage. During that time, the words in bold are easily forgotten. Your child must create an extra reminder.
I have heard it suggested that kids should underline the bold words. This works with only a handful of kids; it’s really just like having two reminders appear on your phone but not at the precise moment that you need the reminder. Bold, underlined words are just as easy to forget about as bold words!
My advice is this: before your child even starts thinking about working out the answer, go to the place where they must write their answer. If they have to tick two boxes, tick any two boxes. If they have to give their answer in kilograms, write kg on the answer line (even if there is a ‘kg’ pre-written for them at the end of the answer line!).
In other words, train your child to write something that ‘gets in the way’ – something that they will have to rub out in a few minutes’ time.
Why does this work? Well, let’s say your child has a word problem in which each measurement is given in grams. Even though they have been asked to give their final answer in kilograms, they will not initially be using kilograms in their calculations. After some serious effort in making sense of the word problem, there is a good chance your child has forgotten the format in which to write the answer. They could end up with a good understanding of the word problem, a correct way to solve it, and a correct measurement… but in grams. Let’s be honest, it would be very easy for any of us to then simply write the ‘grams number’ and forget to convert this into kilograms.
If you think your child should remember to convert their answer because the unit of measurement is clearly written at the end of the answer line, think again! They are not looking at the end of the answer line. Just as I missed my coffee tin because it was beside the door but not in my way, your child could easily pay no attention to those all-important letters.
Let’s say the ‘grams number’ is 4,250g. Just as your child is about to write this on the answer space they come across the large letters ‘kg’ that they have sprawled across the answer line. They have to rub this out but it has served the purpose of ‘getting in the way’ and reminding them to convert their answer. As a result, they change 4,250 into 4.25 and gain the mark that they deserve.
By the same token, if your child has been asked to tick two options but has quickly forgotten this and is about to tick only one correct option, they will come across two ticks that they have already placed in the answer area. They will have to rub out one or both of these ticks but this distraction has served the purpose of reminding your child to go and look for a second answer.
Avoiding other silly Maths mistakes
Other silly Maths mistakes occur for a variety of reasons. Some kids depend completely on written methods and assume that they shouldn’t depend on their mental maths skills (misinterpreting their teacher’s instructions to always show working-out). Other children do the opposite and think that they can do everything in their head.
They should do both! This should not take too long. Children should be taught the skills of estimation. They ought to be well-practised in converting a tricky calculation into an easier one. For example, they could convert 29x8 into 30x10. They then know that their answer will be close to, but less than, 300. It’s only at this stage that they should perform the written calculation. A careless written error might lead them to write an answer that is in the thousands, or an answer that is less than 100, but their mental estimation alerts them to a problem.
I tutor a Key Stage 2 student who is excellent at Maths. All she had to do at the end of a long word problem was add 50 to 15. She wrote it out and got 55 as an answer! I then asked her the answer to 50+15 and she said ‘65’. Do not underestimate your child’s ability to make silly mistakes, even when they think they are doing the responsible thing of writing everything out. Get them to use their head. Heads are good!