Guides for parents

ICAS explained for parents

ICAS is an optional competition run by ICAS Assessments, sat at school in August. It ranks a child against every entrant in the same year across Australia, which is why schools and scholarship panels notice it.

Facts checked on 14 October 2026 against the official sites listed at the foot of the page.

Who sits what

A child sits the paper for their own year; there is no choice of level.

Subjects: English, Mathematics and Science from Year 2 to Year 12; Digital Technologies and Spelling Bee from Year 2 to Year 7; Writing from Year 3.
Papers by year: Paper A in Year 3, B in Year 4, C in Year 5, D in Year 6, E in Year 7.

Questions and time

Every paper is multiple choice except Writing, and the questions get harder from start to finish.

Mathematics: Papers A, B and C have 40 questions in 45 minutes; Papers D and E have 40 in 60.
English: Papers A and B 45 questions in 45 minutes; C and D 50 in 50; E 50 in 55.
Science: A and B 30 questions in 45 minutes; C and D 40 in 55. Spelling Bee: 40 to 50 questions in 40 minutes. Digital Technologies: 30 to 40 questions in 30 to 40 minutes. Writing: one task in 35 minutes.

When: August, one subject a week

In 2026 the Australian sitting windows were Digital Technologies and Writing 3 to 7 August, English 10 to 14 August, Science and Spelling Bee 17 to 21 August, and Mathematics 24 to 28 August. The 2027 dates were not published when this page was checked; the pattern has been August for several years.

Awards

Awards are decided by rank, not by a fixed score, so the cut-off moves a little each year. Because the paper ramps from easy to hard, the last third of the questions is where Distinction and High Distinction are decided.

High Distinction: the top 1% of the year level in Australia.
Distinction: the next 10%.
Credit: the next 25%.
Merit: the next 10%.
Participation: everyone else. A medal goes to the top entrant in each state for each subject and year.

How to enter, and what it costs

Entry is through the school. Most schools give parents a Parent Payment System code and the parent pays ICAS Assessments directly online; some schools pay for their students. The listed school-based fee is A$21.95 a subject and A$25.95 for Writing. A child whose school does not take part can sit at an ICAS testing centre at a higher fee.

Preparing

ICAS rewards reasoning more than speed: the opening questions match the year's curriculum, the later ones ask the child to apply it in unfamiliar ways. Practise on questions of the right paper, in order of difficulty, and spend most of the time on the hard end. The practice pages for Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6 show six such questions each; the free diagnostic shows which Paper B, C or D skills are not yet held. This site is independent of ICAS Assessments.

Start the free diagnostic More about ICAS

Questions parents ask

Is ICAS worth doing?

For a child who finds school maths or English easy, yes: it is one of the few ranked measures available in primary school, and a Distinction or High Distinction is evidence a scholarship application can use. For a child still consolidating the year's work, NAPLAN-level practice comes first.

What score is a High Distinction in ICAS?

There is no fixed score. High Distinction is the top 1% of entrants in that year level in Australia, so the mark needed moves each year.

Can my child sit ICAS if the school does not offer it?

Yes, at an ICAS testing centre or an authorised partner, at the testing-centre fee rather than the school fee.