NAPLAN 2025: Complete Guide & Topic Breakdown for Year 7 and 9

NAPLAN matters most for students applying to selective entry or scholarship schools. These schools assess academic performance using both school reports and NAPLAN results, so a strong NAPLAN score can improve your chances of a place at your preferred school.

Key Information

The 2025 NAPLAN runs between March 12th and March 24th. Schools schedule the tests within this window.

Assessment Structure

The NAPLAN consists of five distinct assessments:

Topic Breakdown

Writing

Common writing tasks include:

• Narrative Writing
• Persuasive Writing
• Informative Writing

Note: Informative Writing rarely appears

Reading

The Reading assessment focuses on paragraph questions from various text types:

• Informative texts
• Persuasive texts
• Imaginative texts
• Poems

You receive a "magazine" containing all the passages needed to answer the questions.

Language Conventions

Heavy Emphasis on:

• Correct Spelling Mistakes
  • Correcting circled spelling errors
  
  • Finding and correcting spelling errors
  
• Complete the sentence
• Correct Punctuation
• Identifying correct sentences

Less Emphasis on:

• Synonyms
• Information Deduction
• Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs

Numeracy (Calculator and Non-Calculator)

Key topics include:

• Basics
• Probability
• Statistics
• Linear Equations
• Pythagoras Theorem
• Algebra
• Measurement
• Financial Math
• Rates and Proportions
• Mystery Number
• Time
• Geometry
• Indices

Strong emphasis on:

• Numbers and Algebra
• Measurement and Geometry
• Probability and Statistics
• Financial Math

Most questions are word problems. For example:

Key Techniques

NAPLAN's timing differs from selective entry exams. Selective exams give you 30 seconds per question, so you have more time per question in NAPLAN.

Additional Resources

You can access previous NAPLAN exams from 2012-2016 on the ACARA website.