PATs: What are they?

The Progressive Achievement Tests (PATs) assess students' Mathematics, Listening Comprehension, Punctuation and Grammar, Reading Comprehension, and Reading Vocabulary. PATs are a series of standardised tests developed specifically for use in New Zealand schools. Understanding PATs - for parents and the community explains what PATs assess and how they are marked. 

PAT: Mathematics

  • designed to assess students in Years 3–10

  • assesses number knowledge, number strategies, algebra, geometry and measurement and statistics

  • test scores allow for formative as well as summative reporting

  • scale scores enable a student's level of achievement to be tracked from year to year

  • diagnostic reports are provided in the teacher manual

  • the tests come as reusable booklets with separate answer sheets

  • Computer adaptive testing for PAT:Mathematics is available 

PAT: Reading Comprehension and Reading Vocabulary

  • designed to assess Years 4–10 students

  • are combined in one booklet but can be used as separate tests

  • test scores allow for formative as well as summative reporting

  • scale scores enable a student's level of achievement to be tracked from year to year

  • diagnostic reports are provided in the teacher manual

  • tests are standarised and easy to mark

  • tests are multiple choice and maps student progress on a scale

Star Reading Test

The STAR reading tests are standardised assessment tools, designed to supplement the assessments that teachers make about their students' progress and achievement in reading. Each test assesses a range of reading skills that correspond closely to the main components of reading skills outlined in The Literacy Learning Progressions (Ministry of Education, 2010).

STAR was originally developed between 1999 and 2003. The NZCER test development team has spent two years on a full revision, which included pilots, two national trials, review of items, and working with external experts. The original author of STAR, Warwick Elley, led the NZCER team for this redevelopment. The edition is known as STAR Reading Test.