Hi
Our daughter is taking the Parkstone Grammar year in September and there is a lot of confusion as to whether she is allowed to do her workings on the 3 question papers. A tutor has told us she cannot write on the question paper and that if she does mark the question paper that she will score 0 marks for the question with the workings on the question paper !!! Does anyone know if she can do all her workings on the question paper or if it has to be done on blank paper ? The front of the practice papers only say “you may do workings on a blank piece of paper”. Surely if they were not allowed to write in the question paper it would categorically say in the front “Do not write on this question paper” ?
Any help would be appreciated as our daughter suffers with anxiety and we do not want any sudden stress or worry on the day if she’s told something different to what she’s been practicing. It’s actually a lot more time consuming doing the workings on blank paper.
Thanks for any help.

I honestly don't know about that school's exam but TBH it is much better to teach children to listen to the instructions on the day as things can change in any exam.

Following the instructions they are given at the time is most important and they will make it clear - if you get an answer now and tell her that she can do X or Y and that changes, then she will be far more anxious and distressed about it.

Probably best to tell her to use the blank paper and then if they are able to do it on the question paper then that will be a bonus.

My daughter has told me that everyone was given a good amount of blank paper to work things out on, for all of the tests. So perhaps your daughter could practice using blank paper and then she won’t have to worry? If it’s close to her, it won’t take up any more time and she will get used to it. Hope that helps x

Does the exam involve writing answers in the same place as the questions, or is it a multiple choice format where the answers are marked on a separate sheet? If the latter, it will be the answer sheet that they will be told not to do their working out on. Zero marks would be given if, say, the instruction was to mark answers on the separate answer sheet, but the candidate just wrote them on the question paper instead.

Does the tutor reuse the question papers they use, perhaps?

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You tutor is correct, get her to work out on plain paper. My husband is an invigilator at PGS. They are give a lot of paper. Sounds like she has a good tutor

My daughter took the test for Parkstone last year and got a place, she is due to start on Wednesday - she did mark her question paper, in fact was tutored to circle any questions that she doesn't know so she can find them easily when she goes back to check through - so I'm not sure this information is correct, it certainly didn't apply in her case! Good luck! just about to go through it all again with my son

having double checked this, writing on the question paper is completely fine. Not too many marks (other than answers) on the answer paper or it can confuse the marking machines! Hope this helps