Pretest and retest pairs — Years 5/6
Year group: 5/6
Source: DfE, English Appendix 1: Spelling (2013)
Purpose: Pairs of pretests (Monday) and retests (Friday) for the Y5/6 statutory word list.
How to use pretest/retest
The evidence: A pretest-teach-retest cycle is one of the most effective learning routines in spelling research. Pupils who attempt a pretest before instruction show significantly better retention than those who only study and test.
(Source: Kornell, N. et al. (2009). Unsuccessful retrieval attempts enhance subsequent learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.)
The routine:
- Monday pretest — pupils attempt all words without having studied them. Mark together immediately. Each pupil identifies their own errors.
- Tuesday–Thursday teaching — focus on the spelling rules and etymology relevant to that week's words. Use the Y5/6 rule explainers and dictation sentences in this library.
- Friday retest — same words in a different order. Pupils compare Monday and Friday scores.
- The gap — words reappear in a future test 4–6 weeks later to check long-term retention.
A pupil who scores 6/25 on Monday and 22/25 on Friday is experiencing exactly the right kind of learning. The pretest failure is productive — it creates retrieval pathways that make subsequent learning stick.
Set 1: Y5/6 Statutory Words — Batch A (25 words)
Monday pretest: accommodate · accompany · aggressive · amateur · ancient · apparent · appreciate · attached · available · average · awkward · bargain · bruise · category · cemetery · committee · communicate · community · competition · conscience · conscious · controversy · convenience · correspond · criticise
Friday retest: correspond · criticise · apparent · community · aggressive · awkward · cemetery · attached · ancient · committee · accommodate · available · conscience · controversy · bruise · average · appreciate · communicate · category · amateur · accompany · bargain · competition · conscious · convenience
Set 2: Y5/6 Statutory Words — Batch B (25 words)
Monday pretest: curiosity · definite · desperate · determined · develop · dictionary · disastrous · embarrass · environment · equip · especially · exaggerate · excellent · existence · explanation · familiar · foreign · forty · frequently · government · guarantee · harass · hindrance · identity · immediate
Friday retest: immediately · familiar · embarrass · excellent · existence · foreign · guarantee · especially · identity · forty · desperate · hindrance · develop · frequently · dictionary · curiosity · definite · exaggerate · equip · explanation · determined · environment · disastrous · harass · government
Set 3: Y5/6 Statutory Words — Batch C (25 words)
Monday pretest: individual · interfere · interrupt · language · leisure · lightning · marvellous · mischievous · muscle · necessary · neighbour · nuisance · occupy · occur · parliament · physical · prejudice · privilege · profession · programme · pronunciation · queue · recognise · recommend · relevant
Friday retest: relevant · recommend · recognise · queue · pronunciation · programme · profession · privilege · prejudice · physical · parliament · occur · occupy · nuisance · neighbour · necessary · muscle · mischievous · marvellous · lightning · leisure · language · interrupt · interfere · individual
Set 4: Y5/6 Statutory Words — Batch D (25 words)
Monday pretest: restaurant · rhyme · rhythm · sacrifice · secretary · shoulder · signature · sincere · sincerely · soldier · stomach · sufficient · suggest · symbol · system · temperature · thorough · twelfth · variety · vegetable · vehicle · yacht · immediate · especially · conscious
Friday retest: conscious · especially · immediate · yacht · vehicle · vegetable · variety · twelfth · thorough · temperature · system · symbol · suggest · sufficient · stomach · soldier · sincerely · sincere · signature · shoulder · secretary · sacrifice · rhythm · rhyme · restaurant
End-of-Year 6 check — full Y5/6 statutory word list (100 words)
Use at the end of Year 6 to assess full statutory word list retention.
Test words (randomised order): accommodate · accompany · aggressive · amateur · ancient · apparent · appreciate · attached · available · average · awkward · bargain · bruise · category · cemetery · committee · communicate · community · competition · conscience · conscious · controversy · convenience · correspond · criticise · curiosity · definite · desperate · determined · develop · dictionary · disastrous · embarrass · environment · equip · especially · exaggerate · excellent · existence · explanation · familiar · foreign · forty · frequently · government · guarantee · harass · hindrance · identity · immediate · individual · interfere · interrupt · language · leisure · lightning · marvellous · mischievous · muscle · necessary · neighbour · nuisance · occupy · occur · parliament · physical · prejudice · privilege · profession · programme · pronunciation · queue · recognise · recommend · relevant · restaurant · rhyme · rhythm · sacrifice · secretary · shoulder · signature · sincere · sincerely · soldier · stomach · sufficient · suggest · symbol · system · temperature · thorough · twelfth · variety · vegetable · vehicle · yacht
Rule pattern pretest/retest
Set R1: -cious and -tious
Monday pretest: ferocious · cautious · suspicious · ambitious · precious · nutritious · conscious · delicious · spacious · atrocious · conscientious · fictitious
Friday retest: fictitious · conscientious · atrocious · spacious · delicious · conscious · nutritious · precious · ambitious · suspicious · cautious · ferocious
Set R2: -able and -ible
Monday pretest: comfortable · possible · noticeable · terrible · reliable · visible · manageable · responsible · fashionable · accessible · divisible · believable
Friday retest: believable · divisible · accessible · fashionable · responsible · manageable · visible · reliable · terrible · noticeable · possible · comfortable
Set R3: -ant/-ance and -ent/-ence
Monday pretest: observant · innocent · hesitant · different · expectant · frequent · tolerant · confident · evidence · abundance · brilliance · obedience
Friday retest: obedience · brilliance · abundance · evidence · confident · tolerant · frequent · expectant · different · hesitant · innocent · observant
Error analysis record (class level)
After each retest, record which words 3 or more pupils misspelled. These words need reteaching.
| Word | Error pattern | Rule to reteach | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
This table feeds directly into targeting: words that cluster into a common error pattern (e.g. seven pupils writing seperate instead of separate) should be retaught as a rule, not a word.
Long-gap retest (4–6 weeks after initial teaching)
Pick 10 words from any set taught 4–6 weeks ago. Test without warning.
Why: The spacing effect shows that retrieval practice after a delay produces stronger long-term retention than immediate retesting. A test 4 weeks later, even if some words are forgotten, produces better retention outcomes than additional practice in the same week.
(Source: Cepeda, N.J. et al. (2006). Distributed Practice in Verbal Recall Tasks. Psychological Bulletin.)
Source: DfE English Appendix 1: Spelling (2013). Pretest-retest methodology: Kornell et al. (2009); Cepeda et al. (2006). All word lists verified against statutory Appendix 1 document.