NAPLAN testing is part of life for students across Australia in Years 3, 5, 7, and 9. In case you didn't know, NAPLAN is the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy that takes place yearly across the country.
The tests are designed to enable fair comparisons of all the students across the country and basically came about to make it easier to evaluate numeracy and literacy across the various states and territories.
Before their introduction in 2008, different parts of the country would do their own tests, which made judging the academic performance of students more difficult. With NAPLAN being the same across the country, it should be easier to see which parts of the country are performing better than others and where educational funding and resources could be better allocated.
In reality, the effectiveness of these tests is very much up for debate, but if you or your child is about to take NAPLAN tests, some preparation can be useful.
Do You Have to Study for NAPLAN?
The first main question you need to ask is whether or not studying for NAPLAN is worth it. NAPLAN isn't a test considered by universities and is more accurately described as a snapshot of a student's ability in maths and English at a given time for a very specific kind of test.
You could go as far as to argue that it's not even a very representative snapshot as it's a very specific test on a particular day and only really indicates how good a given student is at taking a NAPLAN test.
There's no pass or fail either so students are just placed into different tiers known officially as assessment scales but called bands on a student's results. The bands will indicate whether they're above, below, or at the national minimum standard.
The numbering of these bands differs depending on the student's year with Year 3 students being placed somewhere between Band 1 and Band 6 and Year 9 students being on the assessment scale from Band 5 to Band 10.
To take some of the stress off, it can be useful to prepare, but even ACARA (The Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority) advises against cramming, drilling, and even taking the tests too seriously.
That said, students should know what's on them, the kind of questions they'll face, what the exams will be like, and the kinds of answers that they'll be expected to give. They can find this out through past papers, some light studying, and some other resources that we'll tell you about in just a moment.
What Is on the NAPLAN Tests?
Before you start looking at past papers, it's important to know about the different papers that make up NAPLAN.
While NAPLAN tests literacy and numeracy, 4 main areas make up the testing with 3 areas of literacy and a single numeracy paper.
The 4 areas, domains, or topics are reading, writing, conventions of language, and numeracy. Naturally, these tests differ depending on the age of the student taking them, but they tend to follow a similar structure with the same kinds of question formats.
Reading
The reading tests include multiple-choice, drag-and-drop, and hot-text questions with the latter two officially being referred to as “technology-enhanced” questions. Basically, these tests will have students read short texts and answer questions that test their understanding of the text.
Writing
The NAPLAN writing tests cover 3 different types of writing: imaginative writing, informative writing, and persuasive writing. Students are given a prompt or idea and a particular text type to write. Students won't know the exact text type until the day of the test and teachers will prepare students for all of the possible writing forms.
Conventions of Language
The Conventions of Language tests are pretty much a spelling, grammar and punctuation test. This, and all the other literacy tests in NAPLAN, are aligned with the Australian Curriculum: English. Again, these tests can include multiple-choice, text entry, drag-and-drop, and hot-text style questions.
Numeracy
The maths or numeracy part of NAPLAN is aligned with the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics and tests 3 main areas of mathematics: number and algebra, measurement and geometry, and statistics and probability.
Students in Years 7 and 9 take tests with two sections with a non-calculator section on mental arithmetic. For the rest of the tests, they can use calculators even though not every question will require a calculator.
How to Get Ready for NAPLAN
The best way to get ready for NAPLAN is to not take it too seriously. The tests should be thought of in the same way as a fairly casual progress test and the results are only really important if the results are far off what the student was expected to get.
They test a very narrow range of skills and are more useful for the government and policymakers than they are for most educators and students. Teachers will likely know if a student needs extra help with maths or English way before they take their NAPLAN tests and if not, their NAPLAN results will only indicate that there might be something worth looking at.
Don't overdo it. The main ways to get ready for NAPLAN are to see what's on the tests, look at some past papers to give you a better idea, do some light studying, and relax!
NAPLAN Past Papers
To do well on any test, looking at past papers is an effective study technique. You can see what kind of topics are tested, and the kinds of answers expected, and reduce the likeliness of any surprises on the day of the test.
You can find plenty of NAPLAN past papers on the ACARA website from 2016 and before. Supposedly, the more recent papers are too similar to current papers or they just haven't updated their website yet.
Either way, these should be more than enough to get a good idea of what the papers are like, the questions, and what students are expected to know.
Studying for NAPLAN
To study for NAPLAN, ACARA recommends just the instruction and teaching as part of the Australian Curricula in maths and English. Any competent teacher should be showing students exactly what they need to know and what they can expect.
Other Resources
If you or your child does need extra help preparing for the NAPLAN tests, they can always get help from a private tutor, friends or classmates, or their parents.
There are also extra resources on the NAPLAN website and plenty of other resources and study guides available online.
Local authorities and governments also post resources for parents, carers, and students so keep an eye out for them, too.
How Parents Should Help Their Children with NAPLAN
With NAPLAN, parents find themselves in sort of a tricky situation as they'll naturally want their child to do as well as they can, but they also won't want to put undue pressure on their child and cause them stress for some tests that will have little effect on their academic prospects or their future career.
Here are a few ways that parents and carers can help children with NAPLAN testing.
Take the Stress Off
As we've mentioned, NAPLAN testing really isn't that important for the individual student. Sure, they can indicate if a child is struggling with maths or English and needs extra help, but they're not so important that a child would need to feel any kind of stress over them.
Don't Encourage Cramming
Even ACARA says that students don't need to cram. So just see what's on the tests, look at some sample questions, and remember that pretty much everything they need to know about NAPLAN should be part of the relevant curricula and being taught to them by their teacher.
Speak to Teachers
If you're not sure what to do, you can always chat with your child's teacher or the school. There are pros and cons to taking NAPLAN tests and each student's teacher should be in charge of their preparation for NAPLAN, but they can also offer advice and tips for how your child can prepare for the tests.
Do Students Have to Take NAPLAN?
Finally, don't forget that not every student has to take NAPLAN tests. Students with certain disabilities can be exempted and so can students that don't speak English as their first language and have been in school for less than a year.
Parents, carers, and guardians also have the option to withdraw students from NAPLAN testing on religious or moral grounds so pretty much any child can be withdrawn if needed.
However, most students are encouraged to take the tests as they could provide useful insights into the student's level in English and maths so that appropriate action can be taken by schools, educators, and parents if needed.
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