Progressive Achievement Tests (PATs) are standardised multi-choice tests developed specifically for use in New Zealand Schools. There are PATs to assess students' Mathematics, Listening Comprehension, Punctuation and Grammar, Reading Comprehension, and Reading Vocabulary, including the recently refreshed PAT Pānui and PAT Pāngarau.
NZCER supports the purposeful use of assessment for focussed inquiry and provides support and advice to schools about using these assessments to support learning. Parents, whānau and those generally interested in learning more about the PATs can read Understanding PATs - for parents and the community, which explains what PATs assess and how they are marked.
Our PATs:
2024 changes for schools using PATs
- You will need to replace your older paper tests for PAT Mathematics for 2024 or move to online assessment. Our refreshed offering, PAT Pāngarau, has now replaced older PAT: Mathematics assessments in digital and physical formats.
- If you wish to use paper tests for maths in 2024, you will need to purchase these refreshed items. Alternatively, you can move to our online PATs through NZCER Assist.
- Additionally, refreshed assessment PAT Pānui | PAT Reading Comprehension is available for the beginning of Term 1, 2024 online-only. This is a separate test from PAT: Reading Vocabulary.
- Schools can continue using the current PAT: Reading Comprehension paper tests throughout 2024, and expect a shift to refreshed PAT Pānui paper tests in late 2024.
- Even if using paper tests, PAT Pāngarau and PAT Pānui will still need to be marked through NZCER Assist.
About our Refreshed PATs
Throughout 2024, NZCER is continuing its refresh of the PATs. This is an equity-focused refresh of design and content of our assessments, with improved system-level reporting, new tests suitable from Year 3 to Year 10, and improved accessibility (including audio support). This began with the introduction of the refreshed PAT Pāngarau | PAT Mathematics in 2023 (now available online and on paper), and continues in 2024 with PAT Pānui | PAT Reading Comprehension (digital-only for Term 1, 2024).
You find out more about this refresh, including plenty of supporting resources and videos, at our PATs: Equity-focused resources hub.
How to purchase PATs
To use PATs online or to enter data from PAT papers, you will need an account on our NZCER Assist platform. Please contact our Assessment Services team to get started.
To use paper PATs, you can place an order here, otherwise please call us on (04) 802-1450 or email sales@nzcer.org.nz
Assessments can only be sold to schools or parents/caregivers of homeschooled children with a current exemption certificate.
Due to increased printing and shipping costs, the prices of our online assessment items are increasing from 1 August 2024, from $2.30 per student to $2.40 per student. Paper test costs remain the same, but paper tests for PAT Pānui and PAT Pāngarau will still require an NZCER Assist account for marking.
The new prices are included in the web pricing. Prices last increased in 2022 and we have tried to keep the increases to a minimum.
The use of photocopied test material (including answer sheets) is a breach of copyright.
PATs: What is available?
- recently refreshed design and content with an equity focus
- increased accessibility options, including audio support
- 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 is available
- designed to assess Years 4–10 students
- older PAT: Reading Comprehension tests remain available for 2024
- includes materials from contemporary New Zealand, Māori and Pacific authors
- focuses on equity, social and cultural diversity, to better reflect communities and environments from across Aotearoa and the wider Pacific
- improved accessibility options for ākonga
- questions have been recategorised to test a broader range of reading comprehension attributes – including retrieval, local and complex inferencing, integrating and interpreting information, and critiquing and evluating texts.
- 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
- designed to assess Years 4–10 students
- questions fall into three categories: punctuation, grammar use and grammar knowledge
- questions are aligned with the Literacy Learning Progressions
- multiple-choice for easy, accurate marking
- able to be reported using scale scores or stanines
- able to be hand-marked or marked in NZCER Assist
- includes recommendations about using results for further teaching and learning.
- designed to assess students in Years 3–10
- there are 8 tests; one for each year level
- multiple-choice for easy and accurate marking
- professional sound recordings of texts, questions and each multiple-choice answer on CD
- user-friendly layout of teacher and student booklets
- able to be marked in NZCER Assist
- progress over time can be tracked on a scale
- starter kits are available
For more support, contact our team at assessmentservices@nzcer.org.nz or check out our solutions and knowledge centre.