Why Are So Many Students Doing the 'ICAS' UNSW Exams?
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The ‘ICAS’ exams are assessments created by the University of New South Wales that provide an objective ranking of their performance compared to their age group. So depending on your performance, you can get a participation, merit, credit, distinction or high distinction. With 21 countries completing ICAS assessments around the world and it being offered in nearly every school in Australia, excelling in ICAS examinations is a really big deal.
Therefore, today I will be sharing 3 reasons why students need to participate in this if they are not already doing so and how they can benefit from it. Let’s get into it.
The ICAS examinations provide an objective ranking of their performance compared to their age group. This means parents, teachers and even the students themselves will know how they are progressing and whether they do need to change something about their current approach to learning. Considering over 1 million students complete these exams every year, the sample size is very good since you are being compared to people so many people in your age group. An example of a bad sample size would be if there were only 200 people who did the test and nearly half of them are from selective schools and you are a student who is not. So it may appear you are performing a lot lower than expected but this may not be the reality which is why so many people doing ICAS is so good. So for instance, if you get participation or merit, you know that you should be doing more to improve your overall mark as you are in the lower percentile.
The second reasons why ICAS is so good for learning is because it acts as a great building block for the future. It has comprehensive tests in science, digital technologies, English, maths, spelling which provide great benchmarks across the board. Every test is about 16 dollars AUD to complete which in my opinion is very affordable too. I personally like English and Maths in particular because the concepts in the test translate very well into future subjects as you progress through high school. Whereas Digital Technologies is not a necessity to complete in year 12 for instance so the benefits are more minimal in comparison. That is why I recommend having your child do English and math ICAS exams regardless if they do tutoring or not. I personally use a lot of ICAS materials in my lessons where I use past papers and break down each concept especially when I know that the student finds Naplan style questions quite simple and is ready for the next level.
The third reason is fantastic practice especially if you are heading into O.C or Selective or even doing Naplan exams. As these tests are done by the University of New South Wales and they were the university that conducted the online NAPLAN exams for the past two years, it is a no brainer to do these exams. They are done by the same facilitator and will help you get more comfortable with the type of questions they will ask. The achievements will also speak volumes. If you transferring into a selective high school in year 8-11, a distinction or high distinction in these ICAS exams is a huge deal in terms of academic achievements. I am speaking from experience as someone who has transferred from Penrith High school to Girraween high school. If you want me to do a deeper breakdown of this, just let me know and I would love to discuss it.
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