What is the PAT Reading test?

PAT Reading is a reading comprehension test made by ACER. Many Australian schools give it once a year, often in Term 4, to see how well each child understands what they read and how much they have grown since last year. There is nothing to pass.

How long is the PAT Reading test?

PAT Reading Adaptive takes 45 minutes and has 30 to 36 questions. The older fixed tests (5th Edition) take 40 minutes, except the Year 1 test, which takes about 25.

What does PAT Reading test?

Reading comprehension only. Questions ask a child to find stated information, make sense of what the text says, work out what it suggests, and think about how and why it was written. Vocabulary and spelling are separate PAT tests.

Does my child need to prepare for PAT Reading?

ACER says no special preparation is needed, because the test is there to show the teacher where your child is now. Regular reading and talking about books helps most. A short practice test can help a child meet the question style and the screen before the day.

Will I see my child's PAT Reading results?

ACER does not send results to parents. Schools choose whether to share them, so ask your child's teacher.

Is PAT Reading the same as NAPLAN Reading?

No. PAT is ACER's test and has its own scale. It has no link to NAPLAN, so a PAT result cannot be turned into a NAPLAN level.

Last updated 13 November 2026

PAT Reading Test: What It Is and How to Help Your Child

A note from the parent who built this: I’m prepping my own son for the 2028 Year 7 round across three different boards, and everything on this site gets tested on him before it goes live.

If your child’s school has mentioned “PAT”, it is most likely PAT Maths and PAT Reading. PAT Reading is a reading comprehension test that many Australian schools give once a year to see how each child is going. There is no pass mark. This guide explains what is on it, how it works on the day, and what helps at home.

What PAT Reading is

PAT stands for Progressive Achievement Tests. ACER, the Australian Council for Educational Research, makes them. Schools use them to see what each child can do now and how much they have grown since the last test. Most schools test near the end of the year, in Term 4. Some test in Term 1, and some do both.

PAT Reading tests understanding only. It does not test spelling or vocabulary: those are separate PAT tests, which a school may or may not use.

The four kinds of question

Every text comes with its own questions. ACER sorts them into four groups, and the report from school shows how your child went in each.

Kind of question	What your child has to do
Retrieve	Find a piece of information the text states clearly.
Interpret explicit	Link or sum up what the text says across a paragraph or the whole piece.
Interpret implied	Work out an idea the text suggests but does not say, often by joining clues.
Reflect	Think about how the text is built and why the writer made those choices.

The mix changes as children get older. Younger readers get mostly finding and linking questions. Older readers get far more questions about what a text suggests and how the writer does it.

What the texts look like

Stories appear at every level, and are often the largest share.
Information texts explain facts, such as how an animal lives or how something works.
Opinion pieces argue a point, and become more common in the older years.
Instructions such as recipes or how-to steps, mostly in the middle years.
Words and sentences on their own, for the youngest readers.

Not every text is a block of writing. Some are lists, timetables, diagrams, graphs or ads, and some mix words and pictures. Every test includes at least three kinds of text.

How the test works on the day

Many schools now use PAT Reading Adaptive, done on a computer or tablet.

Three parts. Your child does one short set of questions in each part.
It adapts. The first part is set from your child’s year, or from their last PAT result. How it goes decides whether the next part is easier or harder, and the same for the last part.
Length. 30 to 36 questions in 45 minutes. The teacher keeps time.
Question type. Almost all are multiple choice. Your child can go back and change an answer.

Some schools still use the older fixed tests (PAT Reading 5th Edition). These are numbered Test 1 to Test 10, and the teacher picks one to suit the class. Each takes 40 minutes, except Test 1 for Year 1, which takes about 25.

Getting about half right is normal. PAT is built to find the level where a child gets some right and some wrong. A child who comes home saying it was hard has often been given the right test.

Does my child need to prepare?

ACER says no special preparation is needed, and it is right: the test is there to show the teacher where your child is now, so the teacher can plan. Drilling for it does not help your child, and a result pushed up by coaching gives the teacher the wrong picture.

What does help is the reading your child already does. Some ideas that match the four kinds of question:

Ask “where does it say that?” Pointing to the words builds the finding skill.
Ask for the story in three sentences. Summing up builds the linking skill.
Ask “how do you know?” about a character’s feelings when the book does not say them. This builds the reading between the lines skill.
Ask why the writer did something, such as starting with a question or using a heading. This builds the reflecting skill.
Read more than stories. Recipes, timetables, news for kids and the back of a cereal box all count, and PAT uses them.

If your child has never done a test on a screen, one short practice before the day can take away the surprise of the format and the clock. That is about comfort, not about raising a result.

After the test

ACER does not send results to parents. The school decides whether to share them, so ask the teacher. If you do get a report, it may show a scale score, an achievement band and a percentile. Our guide to PAT scores explains each number in plain words.

PAT has no link to NAPLAN. The two use different scales, so a PAT result cannot be turned into a NAPLAN level. If you have a NAPLAN report too, see NAPLAN results explained.

PAT-style reading practice

Our PAT-style Reading tests for Years 1 to 10 work the same way: three parts that get easier or harder as your child answers, with stories, poems, information and opinion texts. The report shows how each kind of question went, with every answer explained.

To be clear about what these are: PAT is ACER’s, and Scholar Tests is not connected with ACER. Our tests are our own questions in the PAT style. They do not give a PAT scale score or stanine, because those come from ACER’s own tests and national results.

Start with PAT-style Reading practice, or see PAT-style Maths and Reading by year.

Frequently asked questions

What is the PAT Reading test?: PAT Reading is a reading comprehension test made by ACER. Many Australian schools give it once a year, often in Term 4, to see how well each child understands what they read and how much they have grown since last year. There is nothing to pass.
How long is the PAT Reading test?: PAT Reading Adaptive takes 45 minutes and has 30 to 36 questions. The older fixed tests (5th Edition) take 40 minutes, except the Year 1 test, which takes about 25.
What does PAT Reading test?: Reading comprehension only. Questions ask a child to find stated information, make sense of what the text says, work out what it suggests, and think about how and why it was written. Vocabulary and spelling are separate PAT tests.
Does my child need to prepare for PAT Reading?: ACER says no special preparation is needed, because the test is there to show the teacher where your child is now. Regular reading and talking about books helps most. A short practice test can help a child meet the question style and the screen before the day.
Will I see my child's PAT Reading results?: ACER does not send results to parents. Schools choose whether to share them, so ask your child's teacher.
Is PAT Reading the same as NAPLAN Reading?: No. PAT is ACER's test and has its own scale. It has no link to NAPLAN, so a PAT result cannot be turned into a NAPLAN level.