NAPLAN practice tests for Years 3, 5, 7 and 9

Practice by year

12 sections, each with real questions you can answer now without an account.

The four domains, and what each one is really testing

NAPLAN is four separate tests reported separately. A child can be well ahead in one and behind in another, and the report will say so — which is the most useful thing about it.

Reading

A set of texts of different kinds — a story, an article, a set of instructions, sometimes a poem — followed by questions about them. In the younger years the questions ask what the text said. By Year 7 and 9 they ask what the writer is doing: why this word, what this paragraph is for, what you are being led to conclude.

Writing

One prompt, either persuasive or narrative, revealed on the day with no choice and no advance notice. It is marked by trained assessors against ten criteria covering structure, ideas, vocabulary, sentence control, punctuation and spelling. Year 3 handwrites it; every other year types it.

Conventions of language

Spelling, then grammar and punctuation, in that order and as two separate halves. Once a student moves into the grammar half, the spelling half locks and cannot be reopened. It is the least known rule in the whole test and it costs marks every year.

Numeracy

Number and algebra, measurement and geometry, and statistics and probability. In Years 7 and 9 it opens with a short non-calculator section before an on-screen calculator becomes available for the rest.

The test decides how hard to be as it goes

NAPLAN online is tailored. Every student at a year level starts with a similar set of questions, and from there the test branches: answer well and the next questions get harder, struggle and they get easier. The point is to find out what a student can do rather than to hand everyone the same middling paper.

This has one consequence worth telling a child before the day, because it feels like bad news and is not. If the test seems to be getting harder partway through, that is the test responding to correct answers. Children who assume the opposite — that it is getting harder because they are failing — lose confidence in the middle of a section they were doing well in.

It also means no two students see quite the same paper, so comparing with a friend afterwards tells you nothing at all.

Practical things nobody tells you until the morning

Headphones are needed

Spelling questions are dictated through them. Every numeracy question also carries audio, so a slow reader is not blocked from mathematics they can do. Practising in silence leaves all of that unfamiliar.

Questions can be flagged and revisited

Within a section, anything can be skipped and returned to. Knowing this is not the same as having practised it, and the students who use it are the ones who have.

The timer can be hidden

It sits on screen and can be switched off, but it reappears for the final five minutes regardless. Some children work better without it in view. It is worth finding out which kind yours is beforehand rather than on the day.

Year 3 writing is still on paper

The only part of NAPLAN not done on a screen. Handwriting legibly, and knowing how much can realistically be written in the time, matter for Year 3 in a way they do not for Year 5 upwards.

How to prepare without turning it into a project

NAPLAN tests literacy and numeracy built over years of school. That is the honest reason cramming does not work, and also the reason a small amount of preparation is genuinely worth doing: what can be improved in a month is not a child's reading age, it is their familiarity with a format they have never seen and their habit of not stalling on a hard question.

The order that works is the opposite of the obvious one. Start with short single-topic sets to find out where the marks are actually going, spend most of the time on the two or three topics that turns up, and only then sit a full-length paper under time. Families who start with a full paper get a score and no idea what to do about it.

Three or four weeks of short sessions does nearly all of the available work. Beyond that the returns fall away quickly, and an exhausted child tests below what they know.

What the results mean

Since 2023, results are reported against four proficiency levels rather than the old ten bands: Exceeding, Strong, Developing, and Needs additional support. There is no pass mark and no cut-off, and each of the four domains gets its own level.

Strong is not a consolation prize — it means meeting an expectation deliberately set to be challenging. Developing or Needs additional support in a single domain is worth raising with the classroom teacher, who sees far more than one March morning does. And a NAPLAN result has no part in Opportunity Class or selective school placement, which use their own tests entirely.

Common questions

Which years sit NAPLAN?

Years 3, 5, 7 and 9. Each year level has its own papers here, because a Year 3 numeracy question and a Year 9 one share almost nothing beyond the name of the section.

Can my child practise without an account?

Yes. Every section page has real questions from our papers that anyone can answer, with the worked solution. A free account opens the full papers.

What is in the full papers?

Single-topic sets of around 18 questions for working on one weakness at a time, and full-length papers for a timed run at a whole section. Answers are marked and every question has a worked solution.

When is NAPLAN held?

In March, over a window of about two weeks, with the exact dates set each year by ACARA and published on the official NAPLAN site. We do not repeat them here because they move, and a stale date on a preparation site is worse than none.

Is NAPLAN done on a computer?

Yes, with one exception: Year 3 writing is still handwritten on paper. Everything else in every year level is done on screen, answered by clicking, typing and dragging.

Does the test get harder as you go?

It can, and that is a good sign. NAPLAN online is tailored — after an opening set of questions it branches to easier or harder ones depending on how the student is answering. Harder questions mean correct answers.

How are NAPLAN results reported?

Against four proficiency levels — Exceeding, Strong, Developing and Needs additional support — separately for each of the four domains. It is not a pass-or-fail test and there is no overall grade.

Does NAPLAN affect selective school or Opportunity Class entry?

No. Both use their own placement tests, sat separately, and NAPLAN results play no part in either.

How much preparation does a child actually need?

Three or four weeks of short sessions covers nearly everything preparation can do. NAPLAN tests skills built over years of school and cannot be crammed; what practice fixes is unfamiliarity with the format and the habit of stalling on a hard question.

For official information, see Official NAPLAN information from ACARA.