Functional Skills for Adults

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PFS Team February 20, 2024
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Introduction

Here at Pass Functional Skills, we specialise in courses and exams in maths and English functional skills for adults. With employers and universities putting a stronger emphasis on those applying having a level 2 qualification in maths and English, there has been an increase in the number of adults sitting functional skills exam. Crucially, a level 2 functional skills qualification is equivalent to a grade C/4 at GCSE. Unlike a GCSE, functional skills exams can be sat year round, making them more accessible. We run our functional skills exams Monday to Saturday at a range of different times, so we will be able to find a time to suit you and your busy schedule.

To find out more about functional skills for adults, fill out the form below and one of our support team will be in touch.

Our Courses and Exams

Maths

Our maths course is designed to prepare you for anything you could be asked on the exam. The maths course is split up into 3 broad sections: using numbers, common measures, shape & space and handling information and data. These sections are broken up further into more specific topics, within the topics there are 3 tasks to work through.

  • Revision – Videos walking you through the content in the topic
  • Practice Questions – Once you have watched the revision videos, have a go at the practice questions in easy, medium or hard mode.
  • Topic Test – Like the practice questions, these are another set of exam-style questions to help you test what you have learnt.

Working through the course is the first thing we recommend you do. After that, have a go at some of the mock exams. You will find a range of different mock exams with some general ones that are cover the overall government specification. In addition, there are more specific exam board mock exams for Open Awards, Edexcel, City & Guilds and NCFE. These mock exams mark themselves, for each question there are written and video solutions. These go over how to answer each question in detail.

Once you are consistently getting 60% on mock exams, you are ready to sit your exam. The exam is two hours long and consists of one paper split into 2 sections: 30 minute non-calculator & 90 minute calculator. The exam is sat at home with one of our online invigilators over a zoom call.

Find out more about our maths functional skills for adults using the links below.

Maths Course

Maths Exam

 

English

The English course has the content split up into each exam, so you know exactly what you will need to know for each component. Similarly to the maths, the exam sections are split up into more specific topics. All with revision, practice questions and topic tests to help you get to grips with the key concepts. Working through all these will help you prepare as best you can for your exam.

Additionally, we have recently incorporated AI marking into our mock exams. This then means that your answers are automatically marked for you, this is especially useful for long-answer questions that can be hard to mark. When you do this you will be told which marking criteria you have hit to help you see gaps.

Once you are confident with the material and consistently getting above 60% in the mocks, you are ready to sit your exam. There are 3 exams that make up the English qualification: reading, writing and SLC (speaking, listening and communicating). The reading and writing exams are an hour each, typically sat back to back in a two hour slot. The SLC is then sat on a separate day, to find out more about the SLC watch the video below.

SLC Walkthrough

You must pass all 3 exam components in order to receive your certificate. Once you have passed everything you will receive an e-certificate which is accepted by universities, the physical certificate will follow in the post.

Use the links below to find out about English functional skills for adults.

English Course

English Exam

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Pass Functional Skills Team

We help thousands of students each year with revision, courses and online exams.