Skill: write-like-james → write-mcqs @ cca3af6 (8 Oct 2026)

Grade 4 end-of-strand tests: built, waiting on Becky

The headache. Grade 4 is text-complete, but nothing yet decides whether a child is ready to leave a strand. The strand tests were placeholders.

What exists now. Four tests (Physics, Matter, Earth and Space, Life), each with three fixed forms of 30 four-option questions, built to the format you proposed to Becky on 30 September: 27 of 30 to pass, untimed, no topic at zero, forms taken A, then B, then C with instruction between attempts. Nothing is live and nothing asks a child a question until Becky has ruled on the format.

Your ruling of this morning is applied. You said (8 Oct, on the Grade 5 architecture page): "fold all the design and build stuff into Physics — even if it's its own topic — same with G4", and for its test, "PP100 — and we'll cover it inside physics." So Design and build is two Physics topics (11 and 12), the Physics test samples Topics 1 to 12, and the three Design and build forms built earlier today are retired. There are four strand tests.

What you need to do now: nothing. One thing is flagged below for when Becky answers; it does not change what a student learns, so it is not a card.

The three calls I made without you

1. Every default is the proposal's recommended answer, recorded as pending Becky, never as a rule.

• Why: you sent her the proposal for validation; her word on the claim, the pitch and the retakes comes first.
• What changes: if she moves an answer (24 items, two Physics gates, no held writing), the forms are re-cut from the same pool; the items themselves stand.

2. The forms are drawn from the topics' PP100 banks, and a drawn item leaves its PP100.

• Why: Becky's rule is that a gate item is never served as practice. 348 items moved from the banks to the forms; every bank keeps at least 40 % of each band.
• Why: the shared export and preview tools now skip a marked item (one line each). The Grade 3 session needs to know, because Grade 3 will do the same.
• What changes: a child who has done a topic's PP100 has not met its strand-test items.

3. Where the banks ran short, I wrote the items fresh (12 of 360 on the live forms), and a non-author reviewer read them before the blind bundles were cut.

• Why: the banks' hard questions are typed. The 52 items written for the retired Design and build forms stay as a reserve for Topics 11 and 12.
• What changes: the new items carry the same inventory as a bank item (move, scene, nearest earlier item) and the same checks (key tells 0; strand checker 0 FAIL).

One thing for when Becky answers

• Earth and Space has 16 topics and 69 atoms, more than the Grade 3 Physics case the proposal offered to split. Four topics carry one item a form, so one slip fails the no-topic-at-zero rule there. I built one gate as recommended.

The forms, one line each

• Physics A: 12 topics, 2 easy / 21 medium / 7 hard, 30 from the banks, 0 fresh, 2 with a drawing, key letters A 7 B 8 C 8 D 7.
• Physics B: 12 topics, 2 easy / 21 medium / 7 hard, 30 from the banks, 0 fresh, 2 with a drawing, key letters A 8 B 7 C 7 D 8.
• Physics C: 12 topics, 2 easy / 21 medium / 7 hard, 30 from the banks, 0 fresh, 1 with a drawing, key letters A 7 B 7 C 8 D 8.
• Matter A: 4 topics, 3 easy / 21 medium / 6 hard, 30 from the banks, 0 fresh, 1 with a drawing, key letters A 7 B 7 C 8 D 8.
• Matter B: 4 topics, 3 easy / 20 medium / 7 hard, 27 from the banks, 3 fresh, 2 with a drawing, key letters A 8 B 7 C 7 D 8.
• Matter C: 4 topics, 3 easy / 20 medium / 7 hard, 21 from the banks, 9 fresh, 0 with a drawing, key letters A 8 B 8 C 7 D 7.
• Earth and Space A: 16 topics, 2 easy / 21 medium / 7 hard, 30 from the banks, 0 fresh, 0 with a drawing, key letters A 8 B 8 C 7 D 7.
• Earth and Space B: 16 topics, 2 easy / 21 medium / 7 hard, 30 from the banks, 0 fresh, 0 with a drawing, key letters A 7 B 8 C 7 D 8.
• Earth and Space C: 16 topics, 2 easy / 21 medium / 7 hard, 30 from the banks, 0 fresh, 0 with a drawing, key letters A 8 B 7 C 7 D 8.
• Life A: 6 topics, 2 easy / 21 medium / 7 hard, 30 from the banks, 0 fresh, 1 with a drawing, key letters A 7 B 8 C 8 D 7.
• Life B: 6 topics, 2 easy / 21 medium / 7 hard, 30 from the banks, 0 fresh, 1 with a drawing, key letters A 8 B 7 C 8 D 7.
• Life C: 6 topics, 3 easy / 20 medium / 7 hard, 30 from the banks, 0 fresh, 1 with a drawing, key letters A 7 B 9 C 6 D 8.

Each form also carries two one-sentence written questions, held back until the platform's marking has been checked against yours or Olivia's on 50 children's answers (the proposal's question 6).

What happens next

• Becky's verdict on the format; then the forms are re-cut if an answer moves, and blind readers take the bundles.
• The Scroll team's answers on serving a fixed form and a protected bank.
• Grade 3 builds its forms the same way once Becky has ruled.