Dates and Fees
Click here for dates and fees.
If you have difficulties with these dates, please contact us immediately.Aims of the Assessment
ICAS English aims to:
- Provide an opportunity for all students to gain a measure of their own achievement in an external assessment situation
- Monitor individual progress in a range of subject-related skills
- Recognise and reward achievement at all levels
- Provide students, parents and teachers with a comprehensive analysis of student performance.
How are the assessments structured?
Each assessment covers a wide range of skills in reading, language and spelling across both literary and factual genres and text types. The skills are clearly specified to enable schools to relate student results to curriculum outcomes.
The following is a sample range of ICAS English specifications which indicates the range of skills in the various assessment strands.
Reading: Factual texts
Identifies:
- Temporal sequencing
- Broad textual form (literary/factual)
- Generic textual purpose
- Textual conventions (author, title, etc)
- Classification
- Aspects of description
- Image sequencing
- Single pieces of information
Spelling
Spells accurately:
- High frequency words with simple/common spelling patterns
- Commonly used homonyms
- All digraphs
- Three-letter consonant blends
- Compound words
- Basic sight and function words
- Alphabetical order
Reading: Literary texts
Identifies:
- Main characters
- Setting
- Simple theme
- Point of view
- Audience
- Related information
- Figurative language
- Main idea
- Events
Language: Syntactical
Identifies:
- Tense
- Main clause
- Pronoun
- Functions of clauses
- Correct modality
- Grammatical usage
- Grammatical function
- Punctuation
Language: Textual
Identifies:
- Figures of speech
- Point of view
- Literary devices
- Technical language
- Stylistic elements
- Meaning of words in context
- Varied use of tense
Can the assessments be compared between years?
There are common items in each assessment that enable each year to be compared with the years above and below it. This means that schools can compare the relative performance of students both in and between years.
Can the assessments cater to a wide range of student ability?
The assessments have been developed so that all students will be able to participate successfully in each paper. Papers are ordered from the easiest items to the most difficult items. This means that all students will complete enough of the paper so that diagnostic data can be provided on their performance. However, there will be a sufficient range of more difficult items to discriminate the performances of the very best students.
Conditions of entry
ICAS English is open to all students from Std 2 to Upper 6. Students should sit the paper for the Year in which they are currently enrolled in Malaysian schools. If you are unsure about the appropriate paper for your students, please check out our Paper to year level equivalent or contact us for assistance.
Assessment Structure
| Year Level | Paper | Question Breakdown | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Std 2 | Introductory | 30 multiple choice | 35 minutes |
| Std 3 | A | 35 multiple choice | 45 minutes |
| Std 4 | B | 35 multiple choice | 45 minutes |
| Std 5 | C | 40 multiple choice | 50 minutes |
| Std 6 | D | 40 multiple choice | 50 minutes |
| F1 | E | 45 multiple choice | 55 minutes |
| F2 | F | 45 multiple choice | 55 minutes |
| F3 | G | 50 multiple choice | 1 hour |
| F4 | H | 50 multiple choice | 1 hour |