All about Siyavula's baseline assessment

What is a baseline assessment?

The CAPS statement describes a Baseline assessment as a type of assessment alongside Diagnostic assessments, Formative assessments and Summative assessments.

"Mathematics teachers who might want to establish whether their learners meet the basic skills and knowledge levels required to learn a specific Mathematics topic will use baseline assessment. Knowing learners' level of proficiency in a particular Mathematics topic enables the teacher to plan her/his Mathematics lesson appropriately and to pitch it at the appropriate level. Baseline assessment, as the name suggests, should therefore be administered prior to teaching a particular Mathematics topic. The results of the baseline assessment should not be used for promotion purposes."

The Siyavula baseline assessment

Siyavula has created baseline assessments for Grade 8, Grade 9 and Grade 10 Mathematics learners, so that teachers can assess their learners' knowledge and skills at the beginning of high school, or at the start of the FET phase.

Features of Siyavula's baseline assessments:

Comprise 50 questions selected from the Siyavula online question bank
Students' answers will be immediately and automatically marked.
Every student will see a unique but equivalent instance of the questions, making copying meaningless.
Students can complete their assessment on mobile phones or any Internet connected device
The Siyavula platform is zero-rated for data charges on the MTN, Vodacom and Telkom network.
Students' work is saved as they go, allowing them to return and complete it in multiple sessions

Print out of the baseline instrument:

A PDF version of the online baseline instrument can be downloaded using the links below.
Please note that these documents are NOT intended to be printed and administered as a paper assessment.
They are merely to provide teachers with an easy way of seeing the baseline questions.

Download Grade 8 Mathematics baseline PDF
Download Graad 8 Wiskunde basislyn PDF
Download Grade 9 Mathematics baseline PDF
Download Grade 10 Mathematics baseline PDF

Updated on: 16/03/2023