National Literacy & Numeracy Test

The Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education Students (LANTITE) was introduced by The Australian Government in 2016 and is used to assess those aspects of initial teacher education students’ personal literacy and numeracy skills that can be measured through an online assessment tool.

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) makes all the arrangements for the tests. UNSW will not organise them for you, you'll need to obtain the details from the ACER website.

The UNSW School of Education strongly encourages you to arrange to sit the National Literacy and Numeracy Test as early as practical to allow time for academic support and re-sits in the event of failing a module. You'll be given an initial attempt at both components. If you're unsuccessful in one or both components, you'll be able to take the test(s) an additional time (two attempts) before you will be asked to take program leave and meet with a School of Education staff member.

During your program leave, you'll be required to undertake an additional course and rigorous study in the component(s) of the LANTITE test you are yet to meet the standard, you must have a tutor to support you during this period. During your program leave, you're required to create an extensive record of annotated evidence of your preparation. Before you register for your next test, a statement from your tutor must be obtained saying that you have been assessed against the ACER Described Proficiency Scale and that they believe you will achieve the test standard in the LANTITE test.

This statement will be presented to a School of Education staff member in a meeting, where your annotated evidence and letter from your tutor will be reviewed. When approved you may register for the next sitting of the test. If you are not approved, you will meet with a School of Education staff member to reassess your study plan.

If you do not achieve the test standard in your 3rd attempt a submission will need to be made to an external board to determine if you will be given approval to take the test a 4th time. The approval may be considered if there are extenuating circumstances in the application.

From 2018, all BEd students must provide evidence of having achieved the test standard in both components of the LANTITE tests prior to enrolling in EDST2002 Professional Engagement and any subsequent placements. All MTeach students must provide evidence of having registered for and sat the test prior to the commencement of their placement in EDST 6760 Professional Experience 1.

Please see the following links for prerequisite information on EDST2002, EDST6760, EDST6765.

ACER runs the LANTITE and has outlined things you may need to know to ensure you have a seamless experience completing the test. Find more information regarding what is required:

Test Registration & Completion
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There are four test windows scheduled annually. Refer to the ACER Registration page to check official registration dates. 

Register

Test Cost
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Students will be required to pay to sit the LANTITE test. Each literacy and numeracy test costs $92.50 per attempt. Total cost for both tests is $185.00.

Costs are subject to change, see ACER for more information.

Special Testing Conditions
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Initial Teacher Education students with a disability or other health-related need, which might interfere with your ability to sit the test in the standard manner, can apply for special testing conditions via the candidate account on ACER. It is important this is completed as soon as possible after registration for the relevant test window.

Supporting documents must be submitted directly to ACER for special test conditions via email, mail or fax.

See Reasonable Adjustments for more information.

Preparing for the Test
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It's strongly advised that you familiarise yourself with the Literacy and Numeracy preparation resources before attending the test. The following resources may help you to prepare for the tests. While some of these resources are targeted at school students, they might still give you a sense of the look and feel of the sort of questions you might encounter.

  • LANTITE sample questions: These are available to download from the LANTITE (PDF) and Australian Government (PDF) website.
  • Cambridge LANTITE Edge. Highly recommended. A program developed specifically for students of Educational courses to give them the guidance they need to pass the Literacy and Numeracy Test for initial Teacher Education students. $24.95 for one component, $34.95 for both literacy and numeracy.
  • LANTITE numeracy training for teachers. Highly recommended. This course prepares you for the Australian national LANTITE test in numeracy. It provides an interactive and hands-on training that will give you the skills and experience to handle a wide range of numerical problems in a test situation.
  • Create Test: English literacy and Create Test: Mathematics. Use these links to create and mark multiple-choice tests that consist of a number of questions from past School Certificate exams.
  • NAPLAN Example Tests. NAPLAN is administered Australia-wide to test all students for skills in literacy and numeracy. The example tests can be used to help you understand if there are any gaps in your knowledge. There is no equivalent to the writing task in the test for prospective teachers.
  • EngageNY: Annotated 3–8 ELA and Mathematics state test questions. These questions were used in the Common Core state tests in the US. The annotated tests include information that indicates levels of student understanding based on the answers they provide.
  • Numerical Reasoning Test. The University of Kent provides this free test (and others) through their Careers and Employability Service.
  • The Described Proficiency Scale (PDF) outlines the skills assessed by the national Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education Students (‘the test’) and how candidates’ achievement of the standard required by the test is determined.

If you find that you do not have the up-to-date level of skills required to complete the tests, the following resources can help you improve these skills

Numeracy Skills

Literacy Skills

Have More Questions?

Frequently asked questions and information about eligibility can be found on the NESA website.

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