ICAS English

The competition covers Year 2 to Year 12. Students in the equivalent of Year 2 sit the Introductory paper; Years 3 to 12 sit Papers A to J, with Paper A for Year 3, Papers B and C for Years 4 and 5, Paper D for Year 6, Papers E and F for Years 7 and 8, and Papers G to J for Years 9 to 12.

ICAS publishes a duration of 30 to 60 minutes depending on the subject and year level. A separate time limit for each English paper is not published, so treat the 30 to 60 minute band as a planning guide and confirm your sitting's arrangements with the school hosting you.

The published window is Monday 3 August to Friday 28 August. Entries for 2026 have closed, and the provider is directing interested families to register for 2027 updates. Exact 2027 dates, fees and entry arrangements had not been published at the time of writing.

Questions are built around five language aspects: Vocabulary, Comprehension, Structure, Syntax and Voice. Students read texts that narrate, describe, explain, argue, persuade and review, and answer questions on meaning, inference, text features and the writer's craft. Later papers add abstract concepts and higher-order thinking such as irony and perspective.

Papers are graded to stimulate a wide range of abilities, including gifted and talented students. Difficulty rises within each paper and again between papers, from parts of speech and rhyme in the Introductory paper to evaluating a writer's relationship with the audience in the senior papers. You sit the paper matched to your year level, not your ability.

The published entry fee is from $21.95 AUD per student. No USD fee or fee schedule by paper is published, and any local handling charges are arranged by the host school or testing centre, so check the final amount with whoever registers you.

No pass mark, question count or result validity period is published. ICAS states that all participants receive certificates and the highest achievers receive medals, with clearly defined, consistently applied and nationally standardised achievement levels. Results break performance down by skill area rather than only reporting an overall score.

No retake policy is published by the provider. Because the competition is run inside a fixed annual window, a second attempt is not something you can assume. Ask your school coordinator about options before the entry deadline rather than after results are released.

Start with a full past paper under timed conditions to find your weakest of the five aspects. Then work aspect by aspect - vocabulary in context, inference from short texts, then syntax and structure questions - and finish with a second timed paper to check the improvement. Past papers are the preparation route the provider itself recommends.

The usual causes are reading the question stem too quickly, choosing an answer supported by the text but not asked for, and running out of time on the longer final texts. Practise restating a writer's idea in your own words, inferring feeling from dialogue, and judging the effect of a technique rather than just naming it.