How To Support And Assist Your Child With NAPLAN Test Preparation?

NAPLAN – “The National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy”, is a standardized national-level assessment tool, used to assess the reading, writing, language conventions, and numeracy skills of students. It is conducted for the students in grades 3, 5, 7 & 9 respectively. A series of exams are taken over several days that give an overview of your child’s literacy and numeracy levels. 

The NAPLAN test has been designed to be used as a diagnostic tool for teachers and parents to identify strengths and areas of improvement of a student in the classroom. It provides information about how well students are progressing with their numeracy and literacy skills. 

 What aspects are covered/ tested in NAPLAN exams? 

NAPLAN mainly focuses on making a child future-ready in terms of basic numerical skills and language skills. Four sections of the NAPLAN exam format are: 

• Reading
• Writing 
• Language conversations 
• Numeracy 

Where, first three are Literacy test practices for students that cover language proficiency – including Spelling, Grammar, and Punctuation. And fourth is the numeracy test practice, which covers mathematical aspects – aptitude, reasoning, and problem-solving strategies. 

How student performance is gauged in NAPLAN tests? 

NAPLAN measures the reports in terms of Bands (Grades). There are 10 bands in the grading system, with band 1 being the lowest and band 10 being the highest. 

Every child (as per age) is evaluated for a distinct band range and has a varied minimum band score requirement since each band indicates a different level of difficulty. 

Child’s Grade	Band range gauged against	National Minimal Standard
Grade 3	Band 1 to 6	Band 2
Grade 5	Band 3 to 8	Band 4
Grade 7	Band 4 to 9	Band 5
Grade 9	Band 5 to 10	Band 6

As a parent, how is the NAPLAN test beneficial for your child? 

Basic numeracy and literacy skills are an essential part of everyday life, such as: 

• Be able to understand and communicate with others 
• Work out daily expenses, how much something costs, etc. 
• Employ logical reasoning and thinking processes in their daily tasks 
• To make sense of the world around them and 

Overall, it helps a child in making more informed decisions regarding the course of action to pursue in life. That will be made possible by their ability to quantify and measure their environment in different ways.

How to support and assist your child with NAPLAN Test Preparation? 

Some practice papers and study materials are available on their official website and other online sources as well. Though the National Assessment Program may not have any approved review materials, you can still use other information sources to help your child study for the exam. 

Most parents focus their entire preparation time on practice papers only. But is that all required? The only real benefit of practice exams is to become familiar with the format and structure of the NAPLAN test. But the fundamental assessment point of NAPLAN is knowledge and self-confidence, and practice exams are not known to develop that entire knowledge in any way. 

Then how to prepare my child for NAPLAN? Well, below are some NAPLAN tips and tricks for you. 

Not just technically, but preparing your child mentally is also very important for any exam. Because, most children get into stress and anxiety situations, as the exams appear nearer. 

Preparing your child technically: 

Download the practice papers from the NAPLAN site, understand the question pattern, and subject it to yourself first. Use practice papers to understand the layout, and then create your distinct test-specific strategies for NAPLAN Test Preparation. 

1. NAPLAN Literacy test practice and preparation: 

Literacy practice covers 3 topics, reading, writing, and language conversations. 

Reading Preparation: Reading skill is strongly correlated to all other tests, if your child is good at reading, they will be able to comprehend the question more clearly. Parents should take time to read with their children every day and talk about what they read. This will help their children develop reading skills that will be tested on the NAPLAN test. 

Not just the textbooks but make them read newspapers, magazines, and different novels so that they start developing good vocabulary from the beginning. Expose them to different styles of writing, such as narrative/story, information text, etc. So that they learn where to focus while reading, according to the style, for example, characters in narration style. 

Writing Preparation: Writing tests require patience and accurate vocabulary and language knowledge. Instruct your children in proper sentence construction and phrase usage. Give them writing assignments from the sample papers to increase their patience level. Make them develop the habit of writing on daily basis, maybe about their routines and about the topics they like. The more they practice writing, helps they to perform well in the NAPLAN writing test. 

Language conversations: The primary emphasis should be on improving their grammar. Teach your children how to use tenses and punctuation properly to help them prepare for the language norms test. 

Allow them to write essays, stories, or articles on some topics of their choice. Once finished, sit with them and review their writings. Mark the areas they need to improve – word usage, tenses, and punctuation. And provide positive feedback so that your child feels motivated and committed to studying and will grow as a result. 

2. NAPLAN Numeracy test practice and preparation: 

As a parent, understand the concepts first and then break them down into smaller topics to teach your child in a better way. The best method to get ready for the numeracy test is to practice a lot. 

Give your children a variety of math questions to solve, some from the practice exams and others from the textbooks, and some from their own basic daily activities that involve basic mathematics practically. The children will receive extensive practice to refine their arithmetic abilities and get ready to take the numeracy test. 

Preparing your child mentally: 

Make sure to provide your child with an added sense of security and help to ensure that they are able to focus and concentrate on preparation. Additionally, supporting children during the test may help to relieve any fears or anxiety they may have about the testing process and potentially improve their performance as a result. 

• Encourage your child to develop good study habits so that they will feel at ease and confident on exam day. 
• Make a creative study plan that is not monotonous. Set achievable goals and follow them, be open-minded, and ask for help when needed. 
• Talk to your child’s teacher frequently; understand your child’s performance and where to focus. Develop a positive relationship between your child’s school and home. 
• The night before an exam, make sure your child gets a decent night’s sleep. 

Follow the above NAPLAN tips and tricks in preparing your child to perform better in the NAPLAN test. It’s your journey too, along with your child’s.