A Parents’ Guide to NAPLAN: Help Your Child Ace the Test in Year 5

Quality student assessment is as significant as quality education. The Australian educational system and student curriculum are known as excellent; NAPLAN is one of the most essential performance tests for students, with approximately one million Australian students taking the assessment every year. Regardless of its importance, NAPLAN often seems complex to students and parents, and preparing for it can be overwhelming. If you’re looking for tips on preparing for the test and getting better results, you’ve come to the right place.

What Subjects Are on NAPLAN Grade 5?

The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy, or NAPLAN, is an annual assessment for students in Years 3, 5, 7, and 9 in Australia. Its goal is to assess the literacy skills—reading, writing, spelling, grammar, punctuation—and numeracy, essential for a child’s academic and personal growth. It’s an assessment that compares a student’s progress in literacy and numeracy to national standards rather than being a pass/fail test.

The NAPLAN exam is being given online as of 2023, providing a more customised testing environment that changes based on a student’s performance. The findings provide a thorough picture of a student’s academic performance when compared against four competence levels. For students, parents, teachers, and schools, the testing data generates insightful information that supports individualised learning and instructional initiatives. The NAPLAN in Year 5 is the last test of this nature for your child before they go on to high school, which is one of the most significant school changes for many children. As it can affect your child’s future education, the year 5 test is one of the most important exams.

What Is the Best Way to Prepare for NAPLAN?

How children learn and remember information changes as they grow, and there isn’t a one-size-fits-all learning style solution. The best time to define which style works best for your kid is while they’re in primary school. As they’ve already taken NAPLAN in year 3, they’re familiar with the assessment’s format and time constraints. However, that doesn’t mean they won’t be nervous. Here are the best ways to help them sit the test and reduce anxiety.

Practice with NAPLAN School Books for Year 5

kids studying from naplan books
source: couriermail.com.au

While you can download the official 2008-2011 and 2012-2015 NAPLAN papers available to the public, they come with no solutions. The only way for a child to benefit from these papers is if they do them with a teacher, tutor or parent to pinpoint their weaknesses. Using an engaging year 5 NAPLAN book for each skill is the best and most fun way to prepare your child to ace the test.

The questions in the exam can use different wording from what your child is used to, throwing them off in the exam. By practising with the help of the year 5 NAPLAN books, you can help your kid get familiar with the exam’s wording format. That will also help remove the fear of the unknown and, thus, reduce the kid’s anxiety.

Past papers can help you identify the content areas your child needs to work on before the exam. And that’s the most crucial aspect of learning through practice questions: by identifying the knowledge gaps in your child, you can help them take corrective action to fill those gaps. That indicates they’re learning the material necessary to apply it successfully to other issues.

There’s a year 5 NAPLAN book for different assessment areas, suitable for practising various skills. For example, there are practice books for language conventions, reading, writing and numeracy. Some options mix skills, which are better when the kid becomes confident in each area. Once your child is familiar with the concept, they can do it using a timer.

Practice books are published independently of the Australian government and are not formally endorsed by the NAPLAN programme. However, they’re a valuable tool to help your kid become more confident and less nervous and help them sit the test. You can also use these books separately from the tests as a general way of revising or when tutoring your children.

Help Your Child Get Familiar with the Online Platform

Through a demonstration site, the NAP has made the internet platform accessible to the public. Your child should visit the website and explore its features, as it offers many functionalities like drag and drop, interactive features, and tabs, among others, that can help them manage their time and tasks. Knowing how to use the internet platform well can save your child from wasting ten minutes learning where to click and how to operate it. That implies that they can begin answering the questions straight away. Given that the test is time-based, this is very important.

Help Them Find Their Learning Style

There are seven learning styles: solitary, logical, physical, social, aural, verbal, and visual. You can learn techniques to help your kid understand questions and improve their memory of information if you’ve previously identified their preferred learning style. For example, asking your child to underline the question’s keywords can help if they are a visual learner. Teach your youngster the nine times tables on their fingers if they are a tactile learner.

Your Words Matter: Help Your Child Think Positive

There will inevitably be questions on the exam or practice tests that they’re unfamiliar with. Encourage children to say: “I’ll give it a go” rather than giving up and stating “I can’t answer this, I’m giving up” or “It’s too hard.” Assist them with the question, deconstruct it, and provide a good example. They’ll learn to try every question and improve their problem-solving abilities.

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