Preparing a test
Writing and marking NAPLAN-style practice tests on paper
A practice test is only as useful as what you do with the results. Write it around the skills you want to check, keep the answers definite where you can, and the marking becomes a list of questions to revisit rather than a pile to get through.
A note before we start: AutoMark is not affiliated with NAPLAN or ACARA, and it supplies no papers or test content of any kind. Everything below is about practice tests you write yourself, in your own words.
What a practice test can and can't tell you
NAPLAN is sat by students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9, and covers reading, writing, conventions of language (spelling, grammar and punctuation) and numeracy. Most of it is now sat on screen. A practice test you write on paper won't rehearse that format, so don't treat it as a dress rehearsal for the day.
What it can do is show which skills your class has secure and which it hasn't, early enough to teach them. That is a classroom question, and an ordinary class test answers it well. The skills are the point, not the test's look.
Choose the skills before you write the questions
List the handful of skills you want evidence on: place value, fraction equivalence, reading a timetable, apostrophes of possession, commonly misspelt words from this term. Write two or three questions for each, so one slip doesn't read as a gap.
Keep the test short enough to mark and act on in the same week. A long paper that comes back a fortnight later tells you what the class could do a fortnight ago.
Write questions with definite answers
A practice paper in this style is mostly made of answers you can state in advance, which is the kind of question that marks cleanly by hand or by software:
| Area | Question shape | Decision for the key |
|---|---|---|
| Numeracy | A worded problem with a number to write | Is a unit required? Would a fraction and its decimal both count? |
| Numeracy | Multiple choice with four options | Does each wrong option reflect a mistake worth knowing about? |
| Spelling | A dictated word, or a misspelt word to correct | The exact spelling you are assessing, with no near misses allowed. |
| Grammar and punctuation | A sentence with a word missing from each gap | Which single word fits each gap? Expect to accept fair alternatives while marking. |
| Reading | A marked word in a sentence, with lettered options to replace it | Which option is the best replacement, and is only one defensible? |
Keep extended writing separate. A persuasive or narrative piece needs your judgement against criteria, and no answer key captures that. Set it as its own task, or as a question on the paper that you mark yourself.
Write the key while you write the paper
Answer every question yourself, in the printed form, before the class sees it. That is when you find the question with two defensible answers, or the worded problem that doesn't say what unit it wants. Decide which alternatives count and write them down. How to write an answer key for automatic marking goes through these decisions in more detail.
Marking the class set
In AutoMark, a paper like this is built in the test editor and printed from it. Each area has a format that suits it:
- Numeracy: a numeric question marks the value, so 3/4 and 0.75 agree and a unit is checked when your key has one. More on marking maths tests.
- Spelling: the word is read letter by letter, exactly as written, so a near miss stays a near miss. More on marking spelling tests.
- Grammar and punctuation: a fill-the-blanks sentence, each gap marked on its own against your key. When a student writes another fair answer, Also correct adds it while you review.
- Reading: a selection question, where students write the letter of the option that best replaces a marked word, alongside multiple choice.
The completed papers go through the staffroom copier as one PDF, and AutoMark splits the file into one paper per student by the name written on each. Every reading is checked back against the scan; the ones that don't pass come to you with the handwriting beside them. You confirm every mark before it's recorded.
On cost: one credit marks one scanned page, and spelling pages cost three because each word is read again on its own. A practice paper with a spelling section is worth costing before you print. The sums are on the pricing page.
Use the results question by question
A total out of forty says little about what to teach on Monday. Once a run is committed, the class view shows which questions lost the most marks and who missed each. Group the questions by the skill you wrote them for, and the pattern is usually clear: the fraction questions held up, the ones about elapsed time didn't, four students missed every apostrophe.
Before naming a misconception, look at the answers themselves. A wrong answer might be a misunderstanding, a skipped unit or a question that read differently from what you meant. Using question-level results to plan reteaching covers that step.
A checklist for the next practice paper
- The skills to check, listed before any question is written.
- Two or three questions per skill.
- Your own questions, in your own words, not copied from published papers.
- A key written as you write, with every accepted alternative listed.
- Extended writing set aside for your own marking.
- A paper short enough to mark and reteach from in the same week.
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