What Is ICAS? A Parent's Guide to the Assessments

ICAS stands for International Competitions and Assessments for Schools. Run by ICAS Assessments, it's a set of optional, skills-based assessments sat by students across Australia, New Zealand and Asia. Unlike the OC or Selective tests, ICAS isn't an entry or placement exam — it's a way to benchmark and stretch a capable student against a wide field, with results reported as percentile awards.

Who sits ICAS, and when?

ICAS is open to any student whose school registers for it (most subjects run from about Year 2 up to Year 12). It's sat online, usually around August–September — check the ICAS Assessments website for the current year's dates.

Which subjects does ICAS cover?

• Mathematics — reasoning and problem-solving across the maths curriculum.
• English — reading comprehension and language.
• Science — scientific reasoning and interpretation.
• Writing — a written task assessed against criteria.
• Spelling Bee and Digital Technologies.

What does the assessment look like?

Most ICAS papers are multiple-choice (Writing is the exception) and are grouped by year level. The questions are curriculum-aligned but pitched a little harder than grade level — they reward careful reasoning and applying knowledge in unfamiliar ways, not just recall.

How do the awards work?

ICAS results are reported by percentile: a certificate tier reflecting how a student did relative to others in their year and region — typically High Distinction (roughly the top 1%), Distinction, Credit, Merit and Participation, with Medals for top performers. Because it's norm-referenced, it tells you where a student sits in the field, not just how many questions they answered.

What does an ICAS Maths question look like?

ICAS Maths takes a familiar curriculum skill and wraps it in a situation you have to set up. For example:

Q. A recipe for 4 people uses 200 g of flour. How much flour is needed for 6 people?

Idea: work out the amount for ONE person first (the unit rate), then scale up.
Method: 200 g ÷ 4 = 50 g per person, so 50 g × 6 = 300 g.
Check: 6 people is 1.5 times 4 people, and 200 g × 1.5 = 300 g. ✓

The arithmetic is simple; the skill is the set-up (finding the per-person amount). For more, see ICAS Maths sample questions with worked solutions.

How can my child prepare for ICAS Maths?

Since ICAS Maths is curriculum-aligned but higher-order, the best preparation is plenty of varied practice at a stretch difficulty, with clear explanations — so a child learns to apply what they know to less familiar questions.

PrepPath offers ICAS-style Maths practice for Years 3, 5, 7 and 9: a timed, 30-question multiple-choice mock paper that ramps from easier to harder, drawn from a broad bank across the maths curriculum, with every question fully explained and an estimated award level at the end. The reasoning skills carry across directly to NAPLAN, OC and Selective preparation. If you want a pure problem-solving challenge as well, see our AMC-style practice.

PrepPath also offers ICAS-style English practice — a combined Reading and Language Conventions paper (Years 3, 5 and 7; Year 9 coming soon), in the same timed, fully-explained format, mirroring how ICAS English blends comprehension across text types with grammar, punctuation and vocabulary. Warm up with our ICAS English sample questions, or read how to prepare for ICAS English.

PrepPath now offers ICAS-style Science practice too, for Years 3, 5, 7 and 9 — a timed paper spread across all five strands (Scientific Reasoning & Data, Living World, Material World, Earth & Space and Physical World). Like the real test, it is skills-first and built around stimulus (data tables, experiments and diagrams). Warm up with our ICAS Science sample questions, or read how to prepare for ICAS Science.

PrepPath is an independent educational platform and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or associated with ICAS Assessments. "ICAS" is used here for description only. PrepPath's practice questions are original, ICAS-style material — they are not real ICAS papers. Always check the official ICAS Assessments website for current dates, subjects and registration.