Learnest
Start 14-day free trial

Year 8 maths, English and science practice for NSW

Follows Stage 4 of the NSW syllabus.

Learnest gives your Year 8 child fifteen to twenty minutes of maths, English and science a day, pitched at the skill they are on, and tells you that night which skill is slipping.

Start 14-day free trial

A$10 a month for one child, A$5 for each extra child.

Try the free Year 8 check

Ten questions, marked as soon as you finish. No sign-up.

What your child works on in Year 8

Maths
Ratios and rates, percentage increase and discount, expanding brackets and factorising, index laws, two-step equations and equations with brackets, tables of values and the number plane, Pythagoras, circumference and area of circles, volume and surface area of prisms, GST and simple interest, and probability.
English
Greek and Latin roots, metaphor, simile and personification, active and passive voice, modality, semicolons and colons, text structure, a language device and its effect, tone and mood, and choosing the line that best supports a claim.
Science
Variables and data, forces and weight, cells and classification keys, mixtures and how to separate them, density, body systems, ecosystems and populations, atoms and the periodic table, energy, physical and chemical change, and plate tectonics, rocks and fossils.

Years 7 and 8 share Stage 4 of the NSW syllabus, so Learnest works from one list of Stage 4 skills. The first day in each subject is a check, so a Year 8 child who is ready starts on the later skills.

Tests around Year 8

Sample questions

Questions from Learnest's own Stage 4 question bank. Try each one, then open the worked answer.

Or hand the device over: let your child try seven questions on the real screens, about five minutes, no sign-up.

  1. Maths: percentage of a quantity

    A school of 160 students has 25% who catch a bus. Of those, half catch the route 401. How many catch the route 401?

    Your child types the answer.

    See the worked answer

    Answer: 20

    25% of 160 is 40 bus students. Taking half of 40 gives 20 students.

  2. Maths: share in a ratio

    Share $160 in the ratio 3:5. How much more does the larger share get than the smaller share?

    Your child types the answer.

    See the worked answer

    Answer: $40.00

    One part is $20.00, and the shares differ by 2 parts.

  3. English: modality

    In 'By the age of five, Hana could read whole books', what does 'could' show?

    1. Option A: a past ability
    2. Option B: a past possibility
    3. Option C: a polite request
    4. Option D: a past permission
    See the worked answer

    Answer: A, a past ability

    'By the age of five' places the sentence in the past, and 'could read' tells what Hana was able to do then.

  4. Science: balanced forces

    A moving car has an engine force of 2000 N forward. Air resistance and friction together act backward with 2000 N. What happens to the car's speed?

    1. Option A: it keeps the same speed
    2. Option B: it slowly comes to a stop
    3. Option C: it gets faster and faster
    4. Option D: it stops straight away
    See the worked answer

    Answer: A, it keeps the same speed

    2000 N forward minus 2000 N backward is 0 N, so the forces are balanced. A moving car with balanced forces keeps moving at the same speed.

Questions parents ask

How long does Learnest take each day in Year 8?

Fifteen to twenty minutes. Each session starts with reviews, then new work at your child's level. In Settings you can make a child's sessions shorter or longer.

What do I get each night?

An email each school night naming the skill that slipped, at 9:30 pm or a time you pick, and a weekly email with the week and a note for the tutor. Your dashboard shows each child's day, their gaps and whether a fix has held.

Does it follow the NSW syllabus for Year 8?

Yes. Learnest works from the Stage 4 maths, English and science skills of the NSW syllabus. The first day in each subject is a check that finds your child's level, and the app plans each day from their answers.

What does it cost?

A$10 a month for one child and A$5 a month for each extra child. It starts with 14 days free: you add a card on Stripe's page and pay A$0 today. Cancel online before day 14 and you pay nothing.

Who runs Learnest?

Learnest is a small Australian business run by a sole trader, ABN 82 503 370 076. Email hello@learnest.com.au with any question about it.

Fifteen to twenty minutes a day, planned for your child.

Learnest finds the level, teaches the gap and tells you that night which skill is slipping.

Start 14-day free trial

See how Learnest works

See a sample parent email

Learnest is not affiliated with ACARA, NESA, the NSW Department of Education or the Australian Maths Trust. Every question on this page is Learnest's own, written for practice. None comes from a past paper.