For teachers

NAPLAN-style numeracy practice tests for a whole class

A lot of NAPLAN practice material is written for one child at a kitchen table. A teacher has a different job: one paper for twenty-five students, marked by the end of the week, with a clear view of which skills the class has and which it doesn't. This page sets out, for Years 3, 5, 7 and 9, the kinds of numeracy question that work on paper, example questions to adapt, and how each one is set up and marked in AutoMark.

• What NAPLAN numeracy looks like now
• What paper practice covers, and what it doesn't
• Year 3 · Year 5 · Year 7 · Year 9
• Marking the class set

What NAPLAN numeracy looks like now

A few facts from the official NAPLAN site, worth having straight before you plan practice (checked October 2026):

• NAPLAN is sat by students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9, and since 2023 it has been held in March. It covers reading, writing, conventions of language and numeracy.
• Year 3 students sit the writing test on paper and all other tests, numeracy included, online.
• The numeracy test covers number, algebra, measurement, space, statistics and probability.
• Online questions are multiple choice, typed answers, and interactive items such as drag-and-drop and hot-spot. The tests are adaptive: depending on how a student answers, the next set of questions may be easier or harder.
• In Years 7 and 9 the numeracy test has two sections: a short non-calculator section, and an online calculator is available for the rest.

Sources: NAPLAN overview, numeracy, online assessment and the writing test FAQ, all on nap.edu.au. Your state or territory's test authority publishes the exact dates and arrangements each year.

What paper practice covers, and what it doesn't

A paper test can't rehearse the online format, and shouldn't pretend to. There is no drag-and-drop on paper, no on-screen ruler or protractor, no online calculator, and no adaptive branching to easier or harder questions. For familiarity with the screen, students can try the free NAPLAN public demonstration tests.

What paper does well is the maths underneath. A question that asks for a number, a choice between options, a missing value in a table or the order of a set of numbers tests the same skill whether it is typed or handwritten. These are the shapes AutoMark marks against your key:

• A written number. Marked by value, so 3/4 and 0.75 agree, and a unit is checked when your key has one.
• Multiple choice. Students write the letter of their choice in the box beside the question. No bubble sheet.
• A table to complete. Each answer cell is marked on its own.
• An ordering question. Students number the items in sequence.
• Working, or an expression. Set as a long answer you mark yourself, with the student's handwriting on screen beside your marking notes.

It won't mark drawings, a shape to sketch or a graph to plot, and it doesn't check whether two algebraic expressions are equal. Those are questions you mark yourself.

Year 3 numeracy practice

Year 3 maths sits mostly in whole numbers: place value into the thousands, adding and subtracting two-digit numbers, early multiplication facts, simple fractions, reading time, naming shapes and reading a simple graph. A paper with an answer box for every question may be new to some of the class, so the paper itself is worth a practice run.

Setting up a Year 3 paper

• Put the unit in the question, not the key. "How many minutes long is it?" with a key of 45 marks the number. A key of 45 minutes asks students to write the unit too, and an answer without one comes to you to check.
• Graphs and shapes go on as pictures. Upload the graph or shape as a picture on the paper, then ask the question underneath it.
• Give young handwriting room. Read the print preview and leave space between questions. Big digits in a cramped box are hard to read, for anyone.
• A number written as a word can be accepted. A Year 3 student who writes twenty on a numeric question may be marked correct. If writing the numeral is the skill, check those crops before you commit.

Year 5 numeracy practice

By Year 5 the paper moves into decimals and equivalent fractions, multiplying larger numbers, area and perimeter, 24-hour time, angles and the language of chance. Fractions and decimals are where marking by value earns its keep: a student who writes 3/4 where your key says 0.75 has the right answer.

Setting up a Year 5 paper

• Decide on tolerance before you add questions. A numeric question accepts answers within a tolerance, and a new account starts at 0.5. On a key of 0.75, that would also accept 0.5 and 1. For a paper like this, set the default to zero in Settings first; questions keep the tolerance they were created with.
• If the form is the skill, use a short answer. "Write 6/10 in simplest form" wants 3/5, and a numeric key would accept 6/10. A short answer with 3/5 as the key accepts only what you list.
• Make every wrong option a known mistake. In the fraction question, (b) flips the fraction, (c) doubles the bottom number only, and (d) doubles the top number only. A class that picks (c) tells you something specific.

Year 7 numeracy practice

Year 7 brings integers, ratio, percentages, the first algebra with a letter for an unknown, area of triangles, volume of prisms and the mean of a data set. NAPLAN at this level has a short section without a calculator, and a practice paper can do the same: split it into two parts and hand out calculators only for the second.

Setting up a Year 7 paper

• Two parts, two section titles. Add a section title such as Part A: no calculator before the first questions and Part B: calculator allowed before the rest, with instructions for each. The printed paper shows the split.
• "x =" is notation. On a numeric key of 8, a student who writes x = 8 is marked on the 8. It is the answer, not the layout, being tested.
• Ordering decimals is its own question type. Students number the items 1, 2, 3, 4 in place. A partly right order comes to you with a part mark suggested, and you decide.
• A ratio is a short answer. The form 2:3 is the skill, so key the form you want and add any other fair way of writing it with Also correct while you review.

Year 9 numeracy practice

Year 9 practice covers linear equations, gradient, Pythagoras' theorem, numbers in scientific notation, surface area, two-step chance and the median of a data set. It is also where more of the marks sit in working and in algebraic answers, which a teacher has always had to read.

Setting up a Year 9 paper

• Tolerance matters on the median. At the default tolerance of 0.5, a key of 7.5 would also accept 7 and 8, the two answers a student gets by not averaging the middle pair. The probability question is the same: at 0.5, a key of 1/4 would also accept 1/2. Set tolerance to zero for questions like these.
• Algebraic answers are yours to mark. AutoMark doesn't decide whether 3x + 12 and 12 + 3x are the same expression. Set expansions and factorising as long answers with your marking notes. They come to you in review, crop beside the notes, and you type the mark.
• A table of values is one question with many answers. Each cell is marked separately, with its own mark, so one slip costs one mark. Keep tables small: every cell that needs a look is a separate card in review.
• Working is a separate question. Where the method earns marks, add a long answer for it alongside the final answer. The answer marks against your key; the working comes to you.

Marking the class set

Build the paper in the test editor, print it from there with its answer key, and run it in class. Afterwards, 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. Answers that pass and match your key are marked; anything AutoMark couldn't verify, or would rather not mark without you, comes to you as a card with the crop of the student's handwriting beside what was read and what your key expects. You confirm or override each one, and you confirm every mark before anything is recorded.

Once the run is committed, the item analysis lists each question with how many students got it right, most missed first. Note which area each question covers and the list becomes a reteaching plan: the place value questions held up, elapsed time didn't, the decimal ordering needs another lesson. Using question-level results to plan reteaching covers what to do next.

Questions you write once can be kept. Save them to your question bank, labelled with a level such as Year 5, and insert them into next term's paper or next year's.

On cost: one credit marks one scanned page, so a two-page practice paper for a class of 25 is 50 credits. The run is checked against your balance before anything is read. Prices are on the pricing page, and the detail on numeric answers is on marking maths tests.

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