Ten and 11-year-old children around the UK will be doing Key Stage 2 SATs tests this week, being examined on their knowledge of such things as determiners, relative clauses, modal verbs and subordinating conjunctions.  Just so they don’t miss out, here’s a special test for David Cameron, Education Secretary, Nicky Morgan, and her predecessor Michael Gove.

Complete the sentence below so that it uses the subjunctive form

If I ____ to have an ounce of sense, I would understand that good writing does not require the writer to know what a subjunctive is.

Circle the determiners in the sentence below

I can drive my car without knowing the difference between a camshaft and a crankshaft. In the same way I can write an email, a report or a best-selling novel without ever having to know the difference between a preposition and a subordinating conjunction.

Which sentence uses the hyphen correctly?  

If I understood the true meaning of education, I would not set tests that make six year olds cry. Also, if I thought for a moment about the qualities tomorrow’s workforce will actually need, I would not make 11-year-olds feel like failures for not knowing what a passive voice is.

Complete the following sentence using a preposition phrase

I ought to take my preposition phrases, relative clauses, modal verbs, past progressives, determiners and subordinating conjunctions and shove them __________

Learn the following quotations off by heart

“When I was at school there was a huge focus on copying and testing and it put me off words and stories for years.” Michael Morpurgo, Author of War Horse, Private Peaceful and other novels

“I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.” Richard Feynman, Nobel prize winning physicist