Year 3 is the first NAPLAN, and for most children the first test they have ever sat on a screen. The numeracy test is 45 minutes, no calculator, on the Australian Curriculum Year 3 strand: place value to 10 000, the four operations, simple fractions, money, time, measurement, shapes, maps, graphs and chance. This practice test has 30 questions in the styles NAPLAN uses, with the answer and a one-line reason for each, and a printable PDF at the end. Give your child 40 minutes, no help, and mark it together afterwards; the marking is where the learning happens.
Download the Year 3 NAPLAN numeracy practice test as a PDF (30 questions, answer key with explanations, A4, free). The same 30 questions are below.
The Year 3 NAPLAN numeracy practice test
Time: 40 minutes. No calculator. Choose one answer for each question.
1. Which number has 4 thousands, 0 hundreds, 7 tens and 2 ones?
A. 472 · B. 4 072 · C. 4 702 · D. 40 072
2. 358 + 246 = ?
A. 594 · B. 604 · C. 614 · D. 5 914
3. 702 − 385 = ?
A. 317 · B. 327 · C. 417 · D. 483
4. Which number is closest to 500?
A. 468 · B. 519 · C. 552 · D. 440
5. 7 × 5 = ?
A. 30 · B. 35 · C. 40 · D. 12
6. 24 ÷ 3 = ?
A. 6 · B. 7 · C. 8 · D. 9
7. Mia has 3 packets of 10 stickers and 6 loose stickers. How many stickers does she have?
A. 19 · B. 36 · C. 63 · D. 306
8. A rectangle is cut into 4 equal parts and 3 parts are shaded. What fraction is shaded?
A. 1/4 · B. 3/4 · C. 4/3 · D. 1/3
9. What is half of 48?
A. 22 · B. 24 · C. 26 · D. 96
10. Which number is odd?
A. 14 · B. 27 · C. 30 · D. 48
11. 5, 10, 15, 20, ? What comes next in the pattern?
A. 22 · B. 24 · C. 25 · D. 30
12. A book costs $6.50. Sam pays with a $10 note. How much change does he get?
A. $3.50 · B. $4.50 · C. $3.00 · D. $16.50
13. Which time is a quarter past 4?
A. 3:45 · B. 4:15 · C. 4:45 · D. 4:25
14. A film starts at 2:30 pm and runs for 1 hour 20 minutes. When does it end?
A. 3:30 pm · B. 3:50 pm · C. 4:10 pm · D. 3:20 pm
15. Which length is the longest?
A. 1 m · B. 120 cm · C. 95 cm · D. 1 m 10 cm
16. Which mass is the heaviest?
A. 500 g · B. 2 kg · C. 1 500 g · D. 1 kg 200 g
17. How many 250 mL cups fill a 1 litre jug?
A. 2 · B. 3 · C. 4 · D. 5
18. A flat shape with 6 straight sides is called a
A. pentagon · B. hexagon · C. octagon · D. triangle
19. How many faces does a cube have?
A. 4 · B. 6 · C. 8 · D. 12
20. An angle that is smaller than a right angle is called
A. a right angle · B. an acute angle · C. an obtuse angle · D. a straight angle
21. Which capital letter has a vertical line of symmetry?
A. A · B. F · C. G · D. J
22. On a map the library is in square C2. The park is two squares to the right, in the same row. Where is the park?
A. E2 · B. C4 · C. A2 · D. C0
23. In a picture graph each picture stands for 2 children. Football has 4 pictures. How many children chose football?
A. 4 · B. 6 · C. 8 · D. 16
24. Books borrowed: Monday 12, Tuesday 15, Wednesday 9, Thursday 18. Which day had the most?
A. Monday · B. Tuesday · C. Wednesday · D. Thursday
25. A bag holds 5 blue marbles and 1 red marble. Picking a blue marble without looking is
A. impossible · B. unlikely · C. likely · D. certain
26. There are 4 boxes with 6 muffins in each box. 5 muffins are eaten. How many are left?
A. 19 · B. 24 · C. 15 · D. 29
27. 9 × 3 = ?
A. 24 · B. 27 · C. 12 · D. 30
28. 1 000 − 250 = ?
A. 650 · B. 750 · C. 850 · D. 1 250
29. 40, 36, 32, ? Count back by 4.
A. 24 · B. 26 · C. 28 · D. 30
30. 35 pencils are shared equally among 5 children. How many does each child get?
A. 5 · B. 6 · C. 7 · D. 8
Answers, with the reason
| No. | Answer | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | B 4 072 | Thousands, hundreds, tens, ones: 4, 0, 7, 2. |
| 2 | B 604 | 300 + 200 = 500, 58 + 46 = 104, total 604. |
| 3 | A 317 | 702 − 300 = 402, 402 − 85 = 317. |
| 4 | B 519 | 519 is 19 away; the others are 32, 52 and 60 away. |
| 5 | B 35 | Five 7s: 7, 14, 21, 28, 35. |
| 6 | C 8 | 3 × 8 = 24. |
| 7 | B 36 | 3 tens and 6 ones = 36. |
| 8 | B 3/4 | 3 of the 4 equal parts: three quarters. |
| 9 | B 24 | Half of 40 is 20, half of 8 is 4: 24. |
| 10 | B 27 | Odd numbers end in 1, 3, 5, 7 or 9. |
| 11 | C 25 | Counting by 5s. |
| 12 | A $3.50 | $10.00 − $6.50 = $3.50. |
| 13 | B 4:15 | A quarter past = 15 minutes past the hour. |
| 14 | B 3:50 pm | 2:30 + 1 hour = 3:30, + 20 minutes = 3:50. |
| 15 | B 120 cm | 1 m = 100 cm, 1 m 10 cm = 110 cm, so 120 cm is longest. |
| 16 | B 2 kg | 2 kg = 2 000 g, more than 1 500 g or 1 200 g. |
| 17 | C 4 | 1 L = 1 000 mL, 4 × 250 = 1 000. |
| 18 | B hexagon | Hex = six. |
| 19 | B 6 | A cube has 6 square faces, 12 edges, 8 corners. |
| 20 | B an acute angle | Acute angles are less than 90°. |
| 21 | A A | Fold A down the middle and both halves match. |
| 22 | A E2 | Columns go A, B, C, D, E: two to the right of C is E. |
| 23 | C 8 | 4 × 2 = 8. |
| 24 | D Thursday | 18 is the largest number. |
| 25 | C likely | 5 of the 6 marbles are blue, so blue is likely but not certain. |
| 26 | A 19 | 4 × 6 = 24, 24 − 5 = 19. |
| 27 | B 27 | Three 9s: 9, 18, 27. |
| 28 | B 750 | 1 000 − 200 = 800, 800 − 50 = 750. |
| 29 | C 28 | 32 − 4 = 28. |
| 30 | C 7 | 5 × 7 = 35. |
What the score means for a Year 3 child
| Score out of 30 | What it usually means | What to do before March |
|---|---|---|
| 26 to 30 | Comfortable with the Year 3 strand; the risk is the screen, not the maths | Two or three timed online practices so the format is familiar; nothing else |
| 20 to 25 | Solid, with one or two topics wobbling (usually fractions, time or two-step word problems) | Find the wrong answers, group them by topic, fix the topic, not the question |
| 13 to 19 | Gaps in the strand itself, typically place value or subtraction with regrouping | A term of two classes a week on the Year 3 strand in order; the test looks after itself |
| under 13 | The child is working below Year 3 in numeracy | Start with the Year 2 strand and count up; tell the school so the March report is not a surprise |
Do not read the score as a rank. NAPLAN reports a proficiency level (Exceeding, Strong, Developing, Needs additional support), not a percentage, and the real test is adaptive, so a child who starts well is given harder questions than this one. Our guide to reading the NAPLAN report explains the four levels.
The three mistakes we see most in Year 3
- Reading the question as a sum. "3 packets of 10 and 6 loose" becomes 3 + 10 + 6. The fix is to draw it: three boxes and six dots, then count.
- Subtraction with regrouping. 702 − 385 is the classic; children take the smaller digit from the larger in each column and get 483. We teach it on the number line first (702 − 300, then − 85), and only then in columns.
- Time and money as topics they have not practised at home. A quarter past, change from $10, a film that runs 1 hour 20 minutes. Ten minutes a week with a real clock and real coins fixes it faster than any worksheet.
How we prepare Year 3 children for NAPLAN
One tutor, one child, on a shared whiteboard, twice a week from Term 4 or the start of Term 1, covering the Year 3 numeracy strand in the order the school uses, then the online question formats in February. The first 30-minute class is free; bring this test, marked, and we will tell you which topics to fix first. The full picture of what we do is on the NAPLAN tutoring online page, and the timing of the whole year is in NAPLAN 2027 dates by state.
Questions parents ask
1How many questions are in the Year 3 NAPLAN numeracy test?
2Where are the official NAPLAN past papers?
3Is this the real NAPLAN 2027 test?
4My child scored under 20. Is that bad?
See how we teach this, 1-on-1 online →
Shobha
Founder and lead tutor, Science with Shobha
Teaching maths, science and English to children online since 2018. 500+ students, 20+ tutors, families in nine countries.