Free NAPLAN Reading & Language Practice: Reading & comprehension — Year 3 (10 Questions, Instant Results)

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How NAPLAN tests reading and comprehension in Year 3

NAPLAN Reading and Conventions of Language in Year 3 is adaptive, so a student who answers the early questions correctly is routed to harder ones. Reading & comprehension questions appear throughout, usually in a worded or diagram-based form that asks the student to choose the right idea before applying it. This page gives that idea a workout on its own so the student can see whether it holds up without the cover of easier questions around it.

Reading & comprehension in Year 3 NAPLAN Reading & Language

Here is the ground the questions cover. Year 3 comprehension covers literal and inferential questions, identifying the main idea and supporting details, understanding text structures such as narrative and information report and using context to work out unfamiliar words.

The items are tagged to the Victorian Curriculum for Year 3, so a score here reflects the standard a Year 3 class is working to, not a generic online level.

Mistakes we see most often in reading and comprehension

A wrong answer is more useful than a right one if you know why it happened. In sessions with Year 3 students, these are the patterns our tutors see most:

• Inference questions are answered with something the child already believes rather than what the text implies.
• The main idea is confused with the first sentence or the most interesting detail.
• Questions are answered from memory without going back to the text.

Each of these is fixable in a session or two once it has been named, which is why the results panel below shows the correct answer and an explanation rather than just a score.

Ways to build reading and comprehension at Year 3

If the quiz shows a gap, more of the same worksheets rarely fixes it. Try these instead:

1. Read a short passage together and ask one literal, one inferential and one why question.
2. Ask your child to point to the words that prove their answer.
3. Summarise each chapter in one sentence.

Middle primary readers need volume and variety: fiction, non-fiction, magazines and instructions. Talk about what was read and ask for evidence when they answer a question.

About the questions on this page

Every set on this page is a seeded selection of 10 from the 12 reading and comprehension questions that pass our quality gate. A different seed gives a different set, and there are many more combinations than any one student will need. The correct answers never appear in the page source; the browser asks our server for them after you press Mark my answers.

A single-topic quiz is more precise than a mixed one: if the score here is low, the gap is in reading and comprehension, not somewhere in Year 3 NAPLAN Reading & Language generally. It is still short, though, and it cannot show how a student copes with the stretch and challenge questions that decide a top result. That is what the free Skills Check adds.

The quiz: 10 questions

Choose one answer for each question, then press Mark my answers. Set 10381 · New set of questions →

Question 1

Reading & comprehension

A text that tells you how to plant a seed is mainly meant to?

tell a scary story instruct make you laugh sell a toy

Question 2

Reading & comprehension

Ravi packed sunscreen, a towel and goggles. He is probably going to the?

pool or beach cinema dentist library

Question 3

Reading & comprehension

Read this paragraph: 'Penguins cannot fly. They use their wings as flippers to swim. They can dive deep underwater to catch fish. On land, they walk slowly, but in the water they move very fast.' What is the main idea of this paragraph?

Penguins are better suited to life in the water than in the air. Penguins eat fish and are good at diving. Penguins walk slowly on land. Penguins cannot fly like other birds.

Question 4

Reading & comprehension

In 'the enormous whale', 'enormous' means?

very big very old very small very fast

Question 5

Reading & comprehension

The plant died because no one watered it. Why did it die?

it grew tall it was not watered too much sun only it was picked

Question 6

Reading & comprehension

She mixed the batter, then baked the cake. What came second?

baked the cake ate the cake mixed the batter washed up

Question 7

Reading & comprehension

A cheetah is faster than a horse. A horse is faster than a person. The fastest is?

the person the horse the same the cheetah

Question 8

Reading & comprehension

Read this sentence from a story: 'The cake had three layers, two kinds of icing, and a ring of candles on top.' What kind of sentence is this, and what does it help the reader to do?

It is an opinion sentence that shows the writer thinks the cake is delicious. It is a question sentence that asks the reader to think about the cake. It is a command sentence that tells the reader how to make a cake. It is a describing sentence that helps the reader picture the cake clearly.

Question 9

Reading & comprehension

The hike took four hours. How long was the hike?

four hours one hour four days two hours

Question 10

Reading & comprehension

Grandpa planted the roses. Who planted them?

the rain the garden Grandpa the roses

Mark my answers →

Your result

0 / 10

Take the free full Skills Check →   Try another set

How to read a score out of 10

9 or 10 out of 10

The easy and at-level content is secure. The useful question now is how far above the year level the student can go, which a ten-item quiz cannot show. The free Skills Check adds stretch and challenge questions on every topic so you can see the ceiling as well as the floor.

7 or 8 out of 10

Solid, with one or two specific gaps. Look at which topic the incorrect answers came from (the results panel names the weakest topic) and spend a week on that topic before re-testing with a different seed.

5 or 6 out of 10

Some core ideas are shaky. The pattern matters more than the score: two misses in the same topic is a gap; misses scattered across topics usually means reading the question too fast. Either way, the Skills Check will tell you which.

4 or fewer out of 10

Foundations from an earlier year are probably missing, which is common and fixable. Try the quiz one year level down to confirm, then talk to a tutor about a short catch-up plan rather than more of the same practice.

What to do with the result

Questions? Call 03 9509 3293 or book a free consultation. RHZ Tutoring, 17/47 Apex Drive, Truganina VIC 3029.

Frequently asked questions

Other NAPLAN Reading & Language topics for Year 3

Mixed NAPLAN Reading & Language Year 3 quiz (all topics) →

Reading & comprehension in other year levels

Prep Reading & comprehension · Year 1 Reading & comprehension · Year 2 Reading & comprehension · Year 4 Reading & comprehension · Year 5 Reading & comprehension · Year 6 Reading & comprehension

All 3,261 free practice questions, Prep to Year 12 →