Progressive Achievement Tests (PATs) are multi-choice standardised assessments for ākonga in Years 3-10. There are PATs for Pāngarau (mathematics), Pānui (reading comprehension), reading vocabulary, listening comprehension, and punctuation & grammar. Tests can be used in a pen-and-paper format, or an online format through our NZCER Assist platform.
PATs’ primary purpose is to support teaching and learning. They are intended to be formative, low-stakes assessments – one of several tools schools should use to determine how ākonga are progressing, rather than a solitary indicator of progress. PATs should not be used for high stakes assessment, including teacher evaluation at a national level, funding allocations, streaming processes, public reporting of aggregated school by school achievement, evidence of teaching to the test, or gaming the system. Schools’ data is private, confidential and owned by the schools - NZCER does not pass on individual or school level assessment data for 3rd party analysis without prior written consent from participating schools.
For further information, please see understanding PATs - for parents and the community, which explains what PATs assess and how they are marked.
NZCER supports the purposeful use of assessment for focussed inquiry and provides support and advice to schools about using these assessments to support learning. You can phone or email our support specialists, register for an online workshop, or engage our education advisers to discuss the decisions you have to make.
Our PATs:
PATs in 2025: What you need to know
- PATs continue to be one of the options available to schools looking to assess their ākonga.
- Our refreshed PAT Pāngarau and PAT Pānui have now replaced the older PAT: Mathematics and PAT: Reading Comprehension assessments in both online and physical formats.
- If you wish to use paper tests for maths or reading in 2025, you will need to purchase these refreshed items. Alternatively, you can move to our online PATs through NZCER Assist.
- If you wish to use paper tests for PAT: Reading Vocabulary, you can continue purchasing answer sheets and marking keys, but tests booklets are no longer available. Reporting will still be available through NZCER Assist throughout 2025, and PAT: Reading Vocabulary remains available as an adaptive test online.
- Even if using paper tests, PAT Pāngarau and PAT Pānui will still need to be marked through NZCER Assist.
- NZCER is now offering Getting started with PATs, a pair of PLD workshops tailored for schools beginning their use of PATs or looking to refresh their understanding of these assessments.
- Item Reporting is now available for all PATs - click here to learn more.
About our Refreshed PATs
The PAT refresh 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 increased in 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.