Guides for parents

ICAS vs NAPLAN: what each one is for

Parents meet both names in the same school year and wonder whether they compete for the same practice time. They do not: one checks the floor, the other measures the ceiling.

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

Side by side

Who runs it: NAPLAN, the national curriculum authority ACARA; ICAS, a private company, ICAS Assessments.
Who sits it: NAPLAN, every child in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9; ICAS, children whose parents enter them, from Year 2 up.
When: NAPLAN in March; ICAS in August.
Format: NAPLAN, four tests online that adapt to the child, writing on paper in Year 3; ICAS, one multiple-choice paper per subject that gets harder from start to finish.
Result: NAPLAN, one of four proficiency levels against the year's expectations; ICAS, a rank against the year level in Australia, from Participation to High Distinction.
Cost: NAPLAN, none; ICAS, a fee per subject paid by the parent.

What NAPLAN measures

Whether the child holds the literacy and numeracy skills the curriculum expects of the year. Strong is the expected level, and most children reach it. It is not designed to tell top students apart: Exceeding is a ceiling the test does not look above.

What ICAS measures

How a child's reasoning in a subject compares with every other entrant in the year. The paper deliberately runs past the curriculum, so a child can be Strong in NAPLAN and still find the last third of an ICAS paper new. That is the point: ICAS is where a child who finds school easy finds out how far ahead they are.

Which to prepare for

NAPLAN first for every child, because a Developing result in March names a skill the year needs. For a child who is Strong or Exceeding, NAPLAN practice adds little once the format is familiar; ICAS practice, on the hard end of the right paper, is where the time pays. A child can do both in the same year without conflict: the NAPLAN work is finished by March, and the ICAS work belongs to Terms 2 and 3.

And the AMC?

The AMC is the maths-only cousin of ICAS: optional, ranked, sat in August, with a paper that ramps from easy to hard. A child who enjoys the ICAS Mathematics hard end usually enjoys the AMC, and the methods overlap.

Start the free diagnostic More about ICAS

Questions parents ask

Do schools use ICAS results?

Some scholarship and selective-entry panels ask for them as evidence; schools do not use them for class placement. NAPLAN results are reported to the school and the state.

Is ICAS harder than NAPLAN?

The hard end of ICAS is harder than anything in NAPLAN, by design. The opening questions of each ICAS paper are at the year's level.

Can practice for one help the other?

Yes, at the foundation: the number facts, reading and grammar that NAPLAN checks are what the first half of an ICAS paper uses. The ICAS hard end needs its own practice.