This article provides information on how to choose and assign suitable ACER General Ability Test (AGAT) test levels to your students.
Choosing the right test
Choosing the right test is necessary to ensure that students’ results provide useful information about their current ability in the learning domain. The difficulty of a test and the teacher’s knowledge of a student should be taken into consideration in selecting an appropriate test.
For an assessment to produce valuable information about students’ abilities, it needs to be appropriately targeted to uncover what students can do and understand, as well as what they cannot yet do and understand.
So, when a student responds correctly to approximately 50% of questions, the test is well targeted and provides the maximum information about the skills a student is demonstrating, and those they are still developing.
There is often a wide range of ability within the classroom and reasoning skills exist on a continuum, so it is not necessary to provide all students in a class with the same test. Instead the focus should always be each student’s ability at the time of the assessment, not where they are expected to be.
To make decisions about which test is most appropriate for a particular student or group of students, it is essential that the teacher previews and becomes familiar with the content of the tests.
| Test level | Generally suitable for | No. of items* | Time allowed** |
| Test 1 | Years 2 or 3 | 35 (7 items per strand) | 50 minutes |
| Test 2 | Years 2, 3 or 4 | ||
| Test 3 | Years 3, 4 or 5 | 40 (8 items per strand) | |
| Test 4 | Years 4, 5 or 6 | ||
| Test 5 | Years 5, 6 or 7 | ||
| Test 6 | Years 6, 7 or 8 | ||
| Test 7 | Years 7, 8 or 9 | ||
| Test 8 | Years 8, 9 or 10 | ||
| Test 9 | Years 9, 10 or 11 | ||
| *All tests contain an equal number of items from each of the 5 strands – abstract reasoning, kinetic reasoning, numerical reasoning, spatial reasoning and verbal reasoning. **The recommended time allocated for the test is 50 minutes, though some students may require additional time. In this case, an extra ten minutes can be given at the school’s discretion. | |||