NAPLAN Practice Resources for Years 3 & 5

NAPLAN Practice Resources for Australian Primary Students

NAPLAN (National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy) is Australia's annual standardised assessment for students in Years 3, 5, 7, and 9. For primary teachers, preparing students for NAPLAN in Years 3 and 5 means building strong foundational skills in reading, writing, language conventions (spelling, grammar, and punctuation), and numeracy throughout the year.

TeachBuySell offers teacher-created NAPLAN practice resources — including practice tests, targeted skill builders, and revision activities — designed to familiarise students with question formats while genuinely developing the underlying skills assessed.

NAPLAN assesses students across four domains. Understanding what each domain covers helps teachers target their preparation effectively.

Reading

The reading test assesses comprehension of a range of text types — narrative, informative, and persuasive. Students answer multiple-choice and short-response questions that require literal comprehension, inference, interpretation, and critical analysis. Texts increase in complexity from Year 3 to Year 5.

Writing

Students complete a writing task in response to a stimulus (prompt). In recent years, NAPLAN has alternated between narrative and persuasive writing prompts. The task is assessed against criteria including audience, text structure, ideas, persuasive devices or narrative elements, vocabulary, cohesion, paragraphing, sentence structure, punctuation, and spelling.

Language Conventions

This domain tests spelling, grammar, and punctuation through multiple-choice questions. Students identify correct spellings, fix grammatical errors, select appropriate punctuation, and demonstrate understanding of language rules in context.

Numeracy

The numeracy test covers number and algebra, measurement and geometry, and statistics and probability. Questions range from straightforward calculations to multi-step problems requiring reasoning and problem-solving. Some questions use a calculator (from Year 5), while others are non-calculator.

The Move to NAPLAN Online

NAPLAN is now administered online for most Australian schools, using an adaptive testing format that adjusts question difficulty based on student responses. Practice with online-style question formats helps students feel comfortable with the digital interface.

For official information on test dates, formats, and sample questions, visit the NAP website.

Teach the Curriculum, Not the Test

The most effective NAPLAN preparation is strong, consistent teaching of the Australian Curriculum throughout the year. Students who have developed solid reading comprehension, writing skills, language knowledge, and mathematical understanding will perform well on NAPLAN regardless of specific test preparation.

Familiarise Students with Question Formats

While you shouldn't drill students on practice tests for weeks, it is helpful to expose them to NAPLAN-style question formats so they know what to expect. A few focused practice sessions in the weeks before NAPLAN reduce anxiety and help students manage their time.

Target Specific Skill Gaps

Use formative assessment data to identify areas where students need additional support. If a group of students struggles with inference in reading, focus instruction there. If punctuation is a common weakness, build targeted practice into daily routines. This targeted approach is more effective than generic test prep.

Build Writing Stamina and Skills

NAPLAN writing is often the most challenging component for students. Practise both narrative and persuasive writing throughout the year, teach planning strategies (brainstorming, graphic organisers), and give students regular opportunities to write extended texts under timed conditions.

Reduce Test Anxiety

Frame NAPLAN as a chance for students to show what they know, not a high-stakes exam. Practise test-taking strategies — reading questions carefully, managing time, skipping and returning to difficult questions — in a low-pressure environment. Normalise the experience so it feels familiar, not frightening.

Use Practice Tests Strategically

A few well-timed practice tests help students understand the format and build confidence. Avoid weeks of repetitive test drilling, which increases anxiety and reduces engagement. Quality over quantity.

Reading Preparation

• Read a wide range of text types throughout the year — fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and persuasive texts
• Explicitly teach comprehension strategies: predicting, questioning, clarifying, summarising, and inferring
• Practise answering questions that require evidence from the text
• Teach students to read the questions first, then search the text for answers

Writing Preparation

• Teach both narrative and persuasive writing structures explicitly
• Practise planning under timed conditions (5 minutes to plan, 30 minutes to write)
• Focus on paragraph structure, cohesive devices, and vocabulary variety
• Use NAPLAN marking criteria to help students understand what assessors look for
• Practise writing to a prompt students haven't seen before
• For detailed guidance on narrative structure and NAPLAN criteria, see our Narrative Writing page
• For information report structure (useful for NAPLAN reading comprehension), see our Information Report Writing page

Language Conventions Preparation

• Embed spelling, grammar, and punctuation practice into daily routines
• Teach common spelling rules and patterns, not just word lists
• Practise identifying and correcting errors in context
• Focus on areas students commonly struggle with: homophones, subject-verb agreement, apostrophes, and comma use

Numeracy Preparation

• Ensure strong number fact fluency (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division)
• Practise reading and interpreting word problems
• Build familiarity with measurement concepts and units
• Teach students to estimate answers and check their work
• Practise with both calculator and non-calculator questions (Year 5)