SATs grammar, punctuation and spelling
Two papers on Monday 10 May 2027, the first day of the SATs: 50 marks of grammar and punctuation questions in 45 minutes, then 20 spellings. Practise both here.
Practise grammar, punctuation and spelling
Choose a paper. Each one is new every time and marked when you finish.
At a glance
- When
- Monday 10 May 2027.
- Paper 1: questions
- 50 marks in 45 minutes, in one booklet for the questions and answers.
- Paper 2: spelling
- 20 words in about 15 minutes. The test administrator reads from a script and children write the words in their answer booklet. It isn’t strictly timed.
- Marks
- 70 in all, for one scaled score.
These timings come from the 2026 guidance. The 2027 guidance is due on GOV.UK in April 2027.
What’s on the practice papers
Paper 1 asks about word classes, conjunctions and clauses, tenses, Standard English, modal verbs, relative clauses, the passive, formal language and the subjunctive, prefixes, and punctuation from apostrophes and inverted commas to colons and semi-colons. Every sentence is ours, and no paper asks about the same one twice.
Paper 2 is 20 words from the Year 3 to 6 spelling rules: prefixes, -tion, -sion and -cian, -cious and -tial, -able and -ible, and verbs ending -ify and -ate. Each comes in a sentence with the word missing, read aloud in your browser’s voice.
How it’s marked
The two papers’ marks are added together, out of 70, and become one scaled score. In 2026, 34 marks gave a score of 100, the expected standard.
Each paper here gives a scaled score estimate, as if the other paper went the same way.
How to get ready
Learn the names
The questions use the terms: determiner, subordinate clause, passive. Know what each one means, with an example.
Punctuate as you write
Inverted commas, apostrophes and the comma after a fronted adverbial stick best in their own writing.
Spell by rule
Learn words in families that share a pattern, then practise the tricky ones.
Little and often
Ten minutes most days does more than an hour the week before.
More on the SATs
Questions about this paper
What is the SPaG test?
The grammar, punctuation and spelling test: Paper 1, questions (50 marks in 45 minutes), and Paper 2, spelling (20 marks in about 15 minutes), both on Monday 10 May 2027.
Is the spelling test timed?
Not strictly. It takes about 15 minutes: the test administrator reads from a script, and children write 20 words in their answer booklet.
Thena makes grammar make sense
She builds sentences on her board with your child, out loud, until the names and the rules click.
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