The lull before the storm week – this is the last week BB & GG have before they start their SA1 (Semesteral Assessment 1) exams. Monday onwards they start the non-paper components – listening comprehension, composition for English and Mother Tongue (which they will sit out) and then the next week will be the oral exams after which the written exams start. This year is moving way too fast for me!

Earlier in the week, BB & GG sat for the ICAS test. I was pretty unconcerned about this test until I read some posts on parenting groups I frequent and then realized it’s more important than I thought it was! The children sat for the science test first with the Maths and English ones to come.

The International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS) are independent skills-based assessments with a competition element. Commonly referred to as the UNSW tests, ICAS is unique, being the most comprehensive generally available suite of academic assessments and school tests for primary and secondary school students. Each test is sat at the student’s school and is invigilated by teachers under normal examination conditions. Over one million student entries are accepted from over 6,300 schools in Australia and New Zealand annually. In addition, students from over 20 countries including Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa and the USA participate in ICAS each year.

For the Science test, the children are tested in skills in the key scientific areas of:

• Interpreting data, including observing, measuring and interpreting diagrams, tables and graphs
• Applying data, including inferring, predicting and concluding
• Higher order skills, including investigating, reasoning and problem solving

The papers cover content on:

• Earth and Beyond (incorporating the Earth Sciences and Astronomy).
• Energy and Change (incorporating Physics).
• Life and Living (incorporating Biology and Ecology).
• Natural and Processed Materials (incorporating Chemistry).

BB found the paper quite easy while GG found it hard (typical right?). BB also told me there were Chemistry type questions which he could answer (go figure!) I really don’t know if he actually did the questions after thinking it through or he just picked an answer he thought was correct!

I heard and hope this is correct that we can use these scores as part of our DSA application – let’s see if the result comes through before our applications go in J