Get ready for the personalised assessments

Helping teachers and learners to get ready for the assessments, including quick reference checklists.

11 November 2026

To help reduce any anxiety learners may feel about their personalised assessments, it is important that teachers remind them that the assessments are intended to help identify how best to support their learning and progression.

Ensuring learners use the familiarisation assessments first will help them understand how to navigate the system and the types of questions they might see (for example, dragging, dropping, selecting or typing).

Checklists for learners and teachers

Practical information on scheduling and delivering the assessments, including checklists for learners and teachers, is available in the user guide on the assessment website. The teacher checklist allows you to see the actions to take before and during the assessments, this includes ensuring that you run through the learner checklist with your learners before they do their assessments.

The learner checklist provides an overview of what learners can expect in their assessments, including how the assessment adapts in response to their answers. There’s also a reminder that it is not possible to go back and check your answers.

Numeracy

For both Numeracy (Procedural) and Numeracy (Reasoning) personalised assessments, all learners should have paper and pens or pencils and should be encouraged to use them for their working out.

For the Numeracy (Procedural) personalised assessment:

Calculators and other tools, including those which are computer-based or online are not allowed to be used.

For the Numeracy (Reasoning) personalised assessment:

Year 2 and Year 3 learners may use a calculator and other tools which can include manipulatives if they would normally use them in class.
Learners in Year 4 and above may use a calculator. They may also use other tools, which can include manipulatives (if deemed appropriate by the teacher).

Use of AI

Both the teacher and learner checklists have been updated to make it clear that the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools is not permitted in any personalised assessment. Schools are advised to supervise learners as closely as possible during assessments. The user guide has been updated to include general advice for schools on the use of AI in the assessments.

You can find a reminder of the above points in the personalised assessments user guide when you log in to the personalised assessments system.