I often get asked “what do I need to know for LANTITE?”. There are many students who do not know what they need to know, do not know what skills they are expected to have, and do not know how much preparation is needed. .
The media has previously reported that the content in the LANTITE is at Year 9 level. However, this has led to many students buying expensive Year 9 Mathematics textbooks and trying to learn all the topics within them. This is completely unnecessary and would not be very helpful at all. In fact, this task could actually waste a lot of time. It is important to think more broadly and consider that these ‘Year 9 level’ reports are more likely to be referring to the expectation of students having an ‘intellectual level’ of a Year 9 student. It is very unlikely that all of the Year 9 Mathematics topics will be in the test.
It has also been reported that many students source Year 9 practice NAPLAN papers and use their performance on these to determine if they are ready for the LANTITE. Again, this is also not a great strategy as Year 9 NAPLAN is assessing syllabus topics, which is also specific to the Mathematics curriculum.
Preparation for a numeracy test should be different and include a more targeted approach. Although related, numeracy and mathematics should be considered as different entities. Numeracy is defined as the application of mathematical skills and the ability to use mathematics in real-life situations. There are specific topics in mathematics that are more commonly used in real-life situations and these are the topics that most emphasis should be placed on. Improving your numeracy skills will improve your chances of passing the LANTITE.
So, to answer the question of “what do I need to know for LANTITE?”, the answer is numeracy! If you have any other questions, please contact me.