Familiarisation materials

Modified on Thu, 29 Aug at 10:32 AM

Please note that familiarisation materials are not available as part of the demo account. This article provides information on the format of the familiarisation materials and how to use them for the launched NEFR Online Assessments.

The familiarisation materials provide support for learners in how to navigate through the assessments and how to answer different types of questions, to help learners build confidence before taking a test.

The familiarisation materials consist of a familiarisation video for each subject.

We recommend that the familiarisation materials are completed in a separate session to the main test.

In addition, learners will see a small number of practice questions at the beginning of Test 1 in each assessment.

Familiarisation videos

Familiarisation videos are accessible from both the establishment portal for school staff and the learner portal for learners.

We recommend that the teacher shares the video with the whole class. There are separate videos for reading and maths, each with subject specific guidance, so if taking tests in both subjects, learners will benefit from watching each video. Each video is approximately 8 minutes long.

If a learner takes the test at a different time to the rest of the class and misses the video being shared, they can view it in the learner portal.

Each video will cover:

How to answer different question types.
How to use the Next question and Back buttons.
Using the progress bar indicator to understand progress through the test.
Where to see how many marks each question is worth.
The tools menu.
How to use the review page to check work.

Accessing the Familiarisation videos via the Establishment portal

Go to NFER Online Assessments on the left-hand side menu.
Select Familiarisation materials.
Select the relevant year group and subject and select ‘Familiarisation materials’

Access to the Familiarisation videos via the learner portal

Once a learner has logged in using their passcode and confirmed their identity, they will be taken to the learner home page.
On the learner home page, the learner will be able to access the familiarisation videos by selecting 'Get ready for your Maths test' or 'Get ready for your Reading test'.

Captions and accessibility

As a default, the audio from the video displays as captions beneath the video image.
Select the caption icon to hide captions if preferred.
Select the hare for the audio to go faster.
Select the tortoise for the audio to go slower.
Select the arrows for the video to play in full screen.
Select the speaker icon to adjust the volume

A screenshot of a computer
Description automatically generated

Pre-test practice questions section

Directly prior to Test 1 on each assessment, learners will see a small number of practice questions. These will take approximately 5-10 minutes. The practice questions will not be marked and will not be timed.
This short practice section appears automatically directly before the start of the assessment. The timed test does not start until the practice question section is complete.
The purpose of the practice question section is to familiarise learners with some of the different types of questions they will come across in the test.
Learners can work through the practice questions independently but can also work through them as a class with teacher support if it is felt to be beneficial.
At the end of the practice section, learners will see a screen instructing them to wait for their teacher to tell them to move onto the main test section. They will not be able to go back to the practice section once they have pressed the Next question button.