Practising for NAPLAN, OC and Selective on a Phone

Most preparation for NAPLAN, Opportunity Class and Selective School happens at a desk, on a weekend, in a block long enough that everybody dreads it by the third week. That is not the only way to do it, and for a lot of families it is not the best one. Our app puts the same practice on a phone, which changes less about the material than about when it actually gets done.

What is in it

The app is free to download and covers the three exams Australian families are usually preparing for:

• NAPLAN — Years 3, 5, 7 and 9, across reading, writing, language conventions and numeracy.
• Opportunity Class — Year 4 preparation for the NSW OC placement test, with thinking skills, mathematical reasoning and reading.
• Selective School — Years 6 and 8 preparation, including general ability.

Between them there are more than 10,000 questions and over 500 full-length practice tests. Papers run to time the way the real ones do, they are marked the moment they are submitted, and every question comes with a written explanation rather than a bare tick or cross.

Why a phone suits this particular job

Exam practice rewards frequency more than duration. Ten minutes on four evenings teaches more than forty minutes on a Sunday, because the forgetting happens between sessions and four sessions interrupt it four times. The trouble is that a forty-minute block needs planning and a ten-minute one needs a device already in somebody's hand.

That is the whole argument for the app. The waiting room, the ten minutes before dinner, the back seat on the way to swimming — these are not where anyone would choose to study, but they are where the practice that would otherwise be skipped actually happens.

The part that matters is after the question

A score on its own teaches nothing. A child who gets 27% and a child who gets 72% both need to know which questions went wrong and why, and that is the part most practice material leaves out.

Each question in the app is marked with an explanation of the reasoning, not just the correct letter. Results are kept per subject and per attempt, so a second go at the same kind of question weeks later is a real comparison rather than a guess. Over a term that history is more useful than any single score: it shows whether the weak area is moving.

Using it without turning it into a chore

• Little and often beats long and rare. One short set on a school night is a sustainable habit. An hour on Sunday is a negotiation every week.
• Read the explanation on the ones they got right. A lucky guess and solid knowledge look identical on a score sheet, and only one of them survives exam day.
• Do not chase the percentage. Early scores on unfamiliar material are supposed to be low. The number worth watching is the one on the topic that was weakest a month ago.
• Let them drive. A child choosing their own practice set does more of it than a child handed one.

What it does not replace

A phone is a poor place to write an essay, and the NAPLAN writing task deserves a keyboard or a pen and more room than a palm. It will not teach a topic a child has never met, either — practice shows you what you do not know, and then something has to teach it, whether that is a teacher, a parent or a textbook.

It is also not a substitute for sitting at least a few papers under real conditions: a full test, timed, in one sitting, without interruptions. Do that a handful of times before the exam. Do the ten-minute version on all the days in between.

Getting it

The app is free on the App Store for iPhone and iPad, and starter tests in every program can be taken without paying anything, which is the honest way to find out whether it suits your child before committing to anything.

Download NAPLAN OC Selective Exam Hub on the App Store, or go straight to it from aussieeduhub.com.au/naplanallinoneapp.