Adults struggle to answer Cluey Learning’s NAPLAN sample questions

Students around Australia will soon be taking the NAPLAN again but when some sample questions were put to adults, one third of them got the answers wrong. Take the test quiz.

Are you as smart as a school kid? Because a third of adults who tried a sample NAPLAN quiz weren’t.

More than 600 adults recently took the quiz, which was shared on social media by online tutoring service Cluey Learning ahead of the nationwide assessment of students’ literacy and numeracy skills, which kicks off on Wednesday.

One third of the participants managed to score just six or less out of 10, while the average score was seven.

Fifteen adults scored zero in the sample quiz, which tested a mix of English and maths, including questions for Years 3, 5, 7 and 9.

Try the quiz for yourself here:

Cluey Learning chief education officer Selina Samuels said it was a great chance for parents and other adults to get an understanding of the kinds of questions posed to students in the upcoming tests — but they shouldn’t be too hard on themselves if they didn’t score well.

“NAPLAN tests particular skills, skills we may be a bit rusty in at a certain age and skills many adults may never have learnt, seeing as NAPLAN has only been around since 2008,” she said.

Much of the online discussion on the sample quiz Cluey posted was not about the questions or results, but whether NAPLAN was necessary at all, with one person commenting: “NAPLAN is nothing but stress for students and teachers. Money could be better spent on education rather than testing.”

However, Dr Samuels said NAPLAN provided teachers and parents with valuable insight into how students were learning, which helped them support and challenge them.

Dr Selina Samuels, chief learning officer at Cluey Learning.

“I think one of the things about NAPLAN that is often forgotten is that if students develop the skills in preparation for NAPLAN, they won’t forget those skills once the tests are over, and these are important skills for life,” she said.

“I agree that the tests shouldn’t be a source of excessive stress, which is why it’s important to reduce that stress by getting kids to do practice tests, and by giving them insights into what they might be asked.

“However it’s good for kids to get used to a little bit of stress as they need to learn the skills to manage their own stress and those situations where they have to work to a deadline.”

In an age where young people communicated mostly via text messages, Dr Samuels said it was vital they understood the importance of grammar and punctuation.

“While it’s perfectly fine to use abbreviations in a text message to a friend for instance, they need to have the flexibility where they can make decisions about how they use language in the right context,” she said.

NAPLAN will run to March 27 and this year the major change is that students’ results will be reported against four levels of achievement instead of the former 10 bands.

The four levels — exceeding, strong, developing and needs additional support — will give parents and carers simpler and clearer information about their child’s skills, the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority said.

There’s been concern from some that the new standards mean results will no longer be able to be compared with previous years’ scores, however Craig Petersen, president of the NSW Secondary Principals’ Council, said now was a good time to make the switch.

“There’s value in following the progress of Australian students over time of course,” he said.

“However in the last couple of years there’s been so much disruption due to Covid — for instance last year’s Year 9 students spent most of Year 7 in lockdown — that if there was ever a time to rest the benchmark, it’s now.

“We need to remember that NAPLAN is one indicator of student achievement, there’s many other measures.”

With the tests moved from May to March this year, teachers and students will also get results back earlier in the school year.

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