ICAS Digital Technologies Practice: Papers by Year Level

In short

ICAS Digital Technologies is a school-based assessment for Australian students in Years 2 to 7. Year 2 sits the Introductory paper and Years 3 to 7 sit Papers A to E. Papers run from 30 questions in 30 minutes up to 40 questions in 40 minutes, across six areas from digital systems to programming. In 2026 the sitting window was 3 to 7 August, as published by ICAS Assessments.

Where to start

Three courses that build ICAS Digital Technologies skills

Real use of real software, plus the logic behind a program, matter more than memorised terms.

Microsoft Office for Kids course thumbnail

IDT / 01

Office skills for kids

Word, PowerPoint and Excel used for real tasks, including the spreadsheet formulas ICAS likes to probe.

Open the syllabus →

Scratch Coding for Kids course thumbnail

IDT / 02

Scratch for kids

Sequence, loops and conditions made visible, which is where the programming questions begin.

Open the syllabus →

IDT / 03

Computational thinking

Reading instructions carefully, spotting patterns and tracing steps, before any software at all.

Open the syllabus →

The papers

Which paper each year level sits, and how long it runs

ICAS publishes one paper per year level for Digital Technologies in Australia. The figures below were read on the ICAS year levels page on 7 October 2026.

ICAS Digital Technologies papers for Australian year levels
Australian year level	Paper	Questions	Time allowed
Year 2	Introductory	30	30 minutes
Year 3	Paper A	30	30 minutes
Year 4	Paper B	30	30 minutes
Year 5	Paper C	35	35 minutes
Year 6	Paper D	35	35 minutes
Year 7	Paper E	40	40 minutes

Every paper allows roughly one minute per question. That pace matters more than it first appears: a student who spends four minutes on one hard spreadsheet item has quietly given away three other questions. Practising at that rhythm, with a timer on the table, is part of good preparation.

Digital Technologies stops at Year 7 in Australia. Other ICAS subjects such as Mathematics and English run to Year 12, but the Digital Technologies papers are aimed at primary and the first year of secondary school.

The 2026 sitting window for Digital Technologies was 3 to 7 August. ICAS extended school entries for English, Digital Technologies and Writing to Sunday 2 August at 11:59pm AEST, and its site showed entries closed for 2026 when we checked.

Most students sit ICAS through their school. ICAS also lists testing centres for families whose school does not take part; its parents section explains how that works.

Sources: ICAS year levels and exam papers; ICAS 2026 dates. Both read on 7 October 2026. Entry fees are set by ICAS and are not shown here.

What is tested

The six areas, from Introductory to Paper E

ICAS describes Digital Technologies as more than a computing quiz. Its subject page names six areas, and the assessment framework lists what questions in each may require.

The six ICAS Digital Technologies areas and how the demand grows
Area	Early papers may ask a student to	Paper E may ask a student to
Digital Systems	Tell software from hardware and name parts of a menu bar	Interpret operating system performance indicators
Word Processing	Create a document, cut, copy, paste and save	Work with longer documents and layout conventions
Graphics and Multimedia	Resize, rotate and flip a picture; make a simple slideshow	Use concept mapping and brainstorming software
Internet and Email	Find a web address and apply simple search terms	Use an HTML editor
Spreadsheets and Databases	Read a simple chart; search a simple database	Conduct complex data sorts
Programming	Recognise sequence in a set of instructions	Conduct desk checking using test data

Papers C and D, for Years 5 and 6, carry what ICAS calls harder questions on the same six topics. Its examples include defining file management conventions, explaining what a peripheral is for, making responsible decisions about online data and recognising sequence and loops in pseudocode.

Paper E, for Year 7, adds information systems, integrated multimedia, online collaborative projects, data visualisation and basic programming principles, according to the ICAS description.

The pattern across papers is useful for parents to see. The early papers reward careful reading and familiarity with ordinary software. The later papers reward reasoning: predicting what a program will do, or what a formula will return, before running it.

That second skill is the one most often missing. Students who use software every day can still be unsure what happens when a formula is copied or a loop repeats. The lesson below targets exactly that gap.

Sources: ICAS Digital Technologies subject page; Reach and ICAS Digital Technologies assessment framework. Read on 7 October 2026. Wording in the table is paraphrased from those pages and kept close to their own terms.

Worked lesson

The spreadsheet formula that breaks when it is filled down

Spreadsheets and Databases is one of the six areas, and one idea in it trips up confident students: what happens to a cell reference when a formula is copied. The example below is ours, written for this page.

The set-up

A class records house points. Cell B1 holds the points for one event win: 5. Column C, rows 3 to 7, holds how many events each house won. Column D should show each house's points.

The first try

In D3 a student types =C3*B1 and gets 20 for a house with 4 wins. Correct. Then they fill the formula down to D7, expecting every row to work the same way.

The surprise

Filling down shifts every reference one row at a time. D4 becomes =C4*B2, D5 becomes =C5*B3, and so on. B2 is empty, so D4 shows 0. The rest go wrong too.

What each copied formula becomes, with and without the dollar signs (B1 holds 5)
Row	Wins in column C	Filled down from =C3*B1	Result	Filled down from =C3*$B$1	Result
3	4	=C3*B1	20	=C3*$B$1	20
4	6	=C4*B2	0 (B2 is empty)	=C4*$B$1	30
5	3	=C5*B3	12 (B3 holds the 4 above)	=C5*$B$1	15
6	5	=C6*B4	30 (B4 holds 6)	=C6*$B$1	25
7	2	=C7*B5	6 (B5 holds 3)	=C7*$B$1	10

In our set-up, column B under the heading repeats the win counts as a helper column, which is why the broken formulas return believable numbers rather than errors. That is the dangerous case: 12, 30 and 6 look like real answers. The dollar signs in $B$1 tell the spreadsheet to keep pointing at exactly B1 however far the formula travels, which is called an absolute reference. A reference without them, like C3, is relative: it moves with the formula, which is exactly what you want for the wins column and exactly what you do not want for the points value.

How to check without a computer

Before filling down, say aloud what the formula should look like two rows lower. If the answer is "C5 times B1", then B1 must not move, so it needs to be absolute. This habit is the spreadsheet version of desk checking, and it is the same reasoning a question on a paper will ask for.

A quick sense check also helps. If every house earns 5 points per win, every result must be a multiple of 5. The broken column contains 12 and 6, which cannot be right.

Why it matters beyond the test

The same idea, that some values are fixed and others move with each row, appears later in programming as the difference between a constant and a loop variable. Students who understand it in a spreadsheet usually meet it in code with less confusion.

It is also a real-world skill. Budgets, marking sheets and science results are all built by filling formulas down, and a single missing dollar sign can quietly corrupt a whole column.

Preparing well

How we prepare students, and what we leave out

The aim is digital confidence that lasts after August, not a memory of last year's questions.

Lessons use real software for real tasks: a short report with a picture and a caption, a slideshow with a consistent layout, a spreadsheet of class data that has to be sorted and charted. Students then explain what they did and why, because explaining is how the reasoning questions are won.

For the Programming area, students build small projects in Scratch first and later read short pseudocode, predicting each step before it runs. Desk checking with test data is introduced from around Year 6, when Paper E is on the horizon.

ICAS sells past papers on its own site. We do not reproduce them or any ICAS questions; every practice item we use is written by us in a similar spirit.

We do not promise a High Distinction, a medal or any particular result. ICAS sets its own achievement levels, and a single sitting is a narrow sample of what a child can do.

A six-week build-up before an August sitting
Week	Focus	Evidence it is working
1	Everyday software: files, folders, menus, saving	Finds and renames a file without help
2	Documents and slides with consistent formatting	Explains why one layout is clearer than another
3	Spreadsheets: sorting, simple formulas, references	Predicts a filled-down formula before running it
4	Searching and safe online habits	Chooses search terms that narrow results sensibly
5	Sequence, loops and pseudocode	Traces a short program step by step on paper
6	Mixed timed practice at about a minute a question	Finishes a set without rushing the last few items

Growing digital skill

Four rungs from Year 2 to Year 7

Year levels are a guide; the rung a child stands on matters more.

From first clicks to reasoning about programs
Around	Rung	The sign it is secure
Years 2 and 3	1. Confident with everyday software	Opens, edits and saves work without being shown
Years 3 and 4	2. Organising information	Sorts a list or table and explains the order chosen
Years 5 and 6	3. Following and fixing instructions	Spots the step that makes a sequence or loop go wrong
Year 7	4. Predicting before running	States what a formula or program will output, then checks

If a result disappoints

Look at which areas lost marks. A weak score in Spreadsheets and Databases with strong Programming tells a very different story from the reverse.

Most gaps close with regular use of real software, not with more test papers.

Nine courses for the six ICAS areas

Grouped by the kind of skill they build. Every card opens a full syllabus.

I

Everyday digital skill

Documents, slides and spreadsheets

IDT / DS / 01

Office skills for kids

Word, PowerPoint and Excel with purpose.

Open the syllabus

IDT / DS / 02

Web development for kids

How web pages are built, from the inside.

Open the syllabus

IDT / DS / 03

HTML and CSS

The editor skills Paper E hints at.

Open the syllabus

II

First programming

Sequence, loops and conditions

IDT / PR / 01

Scratch for kids

Programs you can see run.

Open the syllabus

IDT / PR / 02

Coding for kids

Blocks to games, apps and simple AI.

Open the syllabus

IDT / PR / 03

Python and AI for kids

A first text-based language from about age 9.

Open the syllabus

III

Reasoning

Thinking before clicking

IDT / TH / 01

Computational thinking

Patterns, logic and careful reading.

Open the syllabus

IDT / TH / 02

Maths through coding

Formulas and variables that make sense.

Open the syllabus

IDT / TH / 03

Mental maths for kids

Quick sense checks on any answer.

Open the syllabus

How lessons run

Live classes after school, from India

Our teachers work from India, which sits behind Australia on the clock: Sydney is four and a half hours ahead of India time in winter and five and a half in summer, while Perth is two and a half hours ahead all year. An Australian after-school class therefore lands in the Indian working afternoon, which makes weekday lessons straightforward to arrange.

After school on a weekday

Short, regular practice with real software.

Saturday morning

A longer project session, such as a full spreadsheet task.

June and July

Mixed timed practice ahead of an August sitting.

Real tasks

Every skill is practised on something a child actually wants to make.

Our own practice

Questions written by us, never copied from ICAS papers.

Predict, then run

Students say what will happen before they click.

Groups of fifteen to twenty

Children at a similar level comparing answers and methods.

One-to-one option

For a child who needs a particular area rebuilt.

No result promised

We teach the skills; ICAS sets and marks the assessment.

Student work

Things our students have built

Projects made for their own sake, not for any test. More in the student labs.

AI and ML

NutriLife

An AI nutrition coach that reads what you eat and works you toward a target.

by Bhavya · Open it

AI and ML

Misti

A chatbot that answers mathematics and programming questions, built and deployed by a student.

by Harshit · Open it

AI and ML

GuardianX

An assistant that helps a young person recognise unsafe situations online.

by Vivaan · Open it

Web app

SkyCast

A weather forecasting site with live conditions for any location.

by Krish

Fees

Lessons are billed monthly in US dollars at our international rate. There is no joining fee and no long contract. The ICAS entry fee, if a family pays one, goes to ICAS and has nothing to do with us.

Free first class

USD 0

no card required

A real first lesson with a teacher
A short look at which areas need work
No card details asked

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Group batch

USD 100

a month, billed in US dollars

Fifteen to twenty children at one level
One teacher across the term
Spreadsheet and coding tasks reviewed together
A certificate at the end

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One to one

USD 150

a month, billed in US dollars

A teacher working with one child
A plan built around the weaker areas
Weekly times chosen with you

Enquire

What families say

Rated 4.9 across 547 Google reviews

Reviews copied without edits from our Google listing.

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"Modern Age Coders has been a game-changer for me. I struggled to grasp IT concepts and coding before joining, but their classes transformed everything. I can now confidently write complex programs with ease."

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Student

★★★★★

"One of the most wonderful education centres out there. Education is not limited to school syllabus but focuses on skill development."

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"My child Dhairya is really enjoying the Modern Age Coders classes. This is his first online class and he eagerly looks forward to it. I can already see his improvement, and the teachers are very cooperative."

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"Modern Age Coders have wonderful teachers who teach in a clear, easy and practical way. The teacher boosts students' confidence and inspires them to learn without hesitation."

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"I highly recommend this computer coding class! The teachers are incredibly knowledgeable and passionate about coding."

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Questions about ICAS Digital Technologies

What parents ask us

What is ICAS Digital Technologies?

An assessment run by ICAS Assessments that tests digital literacy and early programming. In Australia it is offered for Years 2 to 7, with one paper per year level.

Which paper does my child sit?

Year 2 sits the Introductory paper, Year 3 Paper A, Year 4 Paper B, Year 5 Paper C, Year 6 Paper D and Year 7 Paper E, according to ICAS.

How long is each paper?

The Introductory paper and Papers A and B have 30 questions in 30 minutes, Papers C and D have 35 questions in 35 minutes, and Paper E has 40 in 40 minutes.

When is ICAS Digital Technologies held?

In 2026 the sitting window was 3 to 7 August. ICAS publishes each year's dates on its own calendar page, which is the place to check for 2027.

Does it involve coding?

Yes, as one of six areas. Younger papers ask students to recognise sequence in instructions; older papers include loops in pseudocode and, in Paper E, desk checking with test data.

What is an absolute cell reference?

A spreadsheet reference written with dollar signs, such as $B$1, that keeps pointing at the same cell when a formula is copied. A reference without them moves with the formula.

Can my child sit ICAS if their school does not run it?

ICAS lists testing centres for families in that situation. Its parents section explains how entry works outside school.

Do you use ICAS past papers?

No. ICAS sells its own past papers. We write our own practice questions and never reproduce ICAS material.

Will lessons guarantee a High Distinction?

No. ICAS decides its achievement levels. We teach the skills the papers test and help children work calmly at about a minute a question.

What happens in the free first lesson?

Your child tries a short spreadsheet and a short coding task with a teacher, and you get an honest view of which areas are strong and which need practice.

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Book a free digital skills class

Tell us your child's year level and whether ICAS is planned this year. The free class tries one spreadsheet task and one coding task and ends with a short, honest plan.

Prefer to read first? Every course outline sits on the course atlas, and how we teach describes a typical lesson.

WhatsApp us · +91 91233 66161 · connect@modernagecoders.com

A WhatsApp message usually gets the quickest answer. The number is Indian because our team is based in India; we have no Australian office.

Want a class sooner? Book a priority demo

A priority demo is a full class of about 45 to 60 minutes. After the class the mentor sends a written skill report and a personal learning roadmap on WhatsApp. If you enrol, the demo fee is adjusted against your first month's fee. Share your demo Order ID with us on WhatsApp and we take it off.

Book a priority demo

Three courses that build ICAS Digital Technologies skills

Office skills for kids

Scratch for kids

Computational thinking

Which paper each year level sits, and how long it runs

The six areas, from Introductory to Paper E

The spreadsheet formula that breaks when it is filled down

The set-up

The first try

The surprise

How to check without a computer

Why it matters beyond the test

How we prepare students, and what we leave out

Four rungs from Year 2 to Year 7

If a result disappoints

Related reading

Nine courses for the six ICAS areas

Everyday digital skill

Office skills for kids

Web development for kids

HTML and CSS

First programming

Scratch for kids

Coding for kids

Python and AI for kids

Reasoning

Computational thinking

Maths through coding

Mental maths for kids

Live classes after school, from India

Real tasks

Our own practice

Predict, then run

Groups of fifteen to twenty

One-to-one option

No result promised

Things our students have built

NutriLife

Misti

GuardianX

SkyCast

Fees

Rated 4.9 across 547 Google reviews

What parents ask us

What is ICAS Digital Technologies?

Which paper does my child sit?

How long is each paper?

When is ICAS Digital Technologies held?

Does it involve coding?

What is an absolute cell reference?

Can my child sit ICAS if their school does not run it?

Do you use ICAS past papers?

Will lessons guarantee a High Distinction?

What happens in the free first lesson?

More for Australian families

Competitions calendar

Coding classes for kids

Kids coding languages

NAPLAN numeracy

Coding classes in Australia

AMT competitions

Book a free digital skills class

Want a class sooner? Book a priority demo

Keep exploring Modern Age Coders

Related courses and guides

Learn more

Free resources

From the blog

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