ACER STAT Test

What You Should Know About The Australian STAT (Special Tertiary Admission Test) Test

Bombshell #1: this is not a knowledge based test.

That’s right. You are not being tested on your knowledge of mathematics or English. So you don’t need to know anything before hand.

What?! Can this be true?

Yes, ACER says it themselves in the handbook. The verbal units aim to test your “interpretation and understand of ideas in language.” This means that they want to test your ability to understand what a piece of writing is about.

The quantitative units focus on “comprehension and application of information present in scientific and mathematical context.” This means that they use graphs, numbers and symbols to test your thinking ability.

They want people who can use their mind by manipulating the information given in the stimulus - not people who can remember large chunks of useless knowledge.

So if you want to pass the STAT you need to train your thinking skills as is required to answer the units. The next question is what are these thinking skills? And how do we develop them? Well I’m glad you asked because that’s why we’re here. All will be revealed as you go on.

Who Cares If It's Standardised?

Breaking It Down – Standardisation is our friend

Now that we know all this about the STAT, what use is it to us?

Well if we break down the meaning of the standardization of the test, it is quiet revealing as to what we can expect from it. The fact that it’s standardised means, not only that it can be compared to tests from previous years and so can results, but that it MUST be comparable. This means that it has to be similar from year to year. This makes it predictable, thus conquerable.

It gives us a clue as to what will be in it. There have to be similar topics covered, with similar difficulty and comparable styles of questioning as in previous years.

This validates it but also makes it vulnerable.

The essay writing section is standardized through the use of a rubric and 2 markers. This means that for each essay there is a set of criteria which the candidates essay has to fulfill to earn top marks. This is the same from year to year. I hope you read and heard that right – criteria is the same from year to year. Also, there are two markers. This means that the rubric is applied stringently and your essays are graded fairly.