1. Which spelling completes the sentence?
"The track is slippery, after rain."
ICAS English Paper D (Year 6)
Paper D is sat by Year 6 students. Fifty questions in 50 minutes, mostly multiple choice — same size as Paper C, with the difficulty moved up a level.
Last updated: 5 October 2026
What Year 6 adds
Comparison. Two texts on the same subject, and questions about how they differ — in what they claim, in how confident they are, in who they seem to be written for. It is a demanding question type, and it barely exists in primary school English.
The passages also get denser. A Year 6 factual passage will carry several claims in a paragraph, and questions will turn on which one a particular sentence supports.
The distinction that costs marks
What the text says versus what the writer thinks. A passage can report an opinion without holding it. Questions at this level exploit that gap constantly, and students who treat every sentence as the author's own view get them wrong.
Where Year 6 students lose marks
- Comparison questions, per above
- Attribution — who is claiming this, the writer or someone quoted in the text
- Tone questions, where the options are all plausible adjectives and only one is supported by the wording
What the mark will look like
ICAS marks run lower than school tests by design. The paper keeps stretching students well past year level, so a result that looks disappointing on a school scale can be a strong ICAS result — read it against the distribution rather than as a percentage.
How to prepare for Paper D
Read two things about the same event — two news pieces, a review and a blurb — and ask which one is more confident, and how you can tell. That is the Paper D skill, and twenty minutes of it is worth more than a page of comprehension questions.
Also sit full papers. Fifty questions in 50 minutes with several passages is a stamina test as much as a reading test.
Common questions
Which year level sits ICAS Paper D?
Year 6. ICAS names its papers by letter rather than by year — Paper A is Year 3 and Paper F is Year 8 — so a Year 6 student sits Paper D.
How long is English Paper D?
50 questions in 50 minutes.
What is new in Paper D compared with Paper C?
Questions that compare two texts — which writer is more confident, and how you can tell. That comparison is the Paper D skill, and it is rarely set as homework.
Year 6 also sits: Maths Paper D · Spelling Paper D · Science Paper D
Sample questions
Try each one first, then open the answer and worked solution under it.
Answer and worked solution
Correct answer: D
The base is special, which already ends in -al.
Adding -ly keeps both letters, giving -ally.
The opening is es-, not ex-.
'especially' is the correct spelling.
2. "Her arguments were sound, and the committee approved the proposal." In this sentence, 'sound' is:
Answer and worked solution
Correct answer: C
Fit each meaning into the sentence: 'her arguments were a noise' fails; 'were measuring depth' fails.
'Her arguments were well-reasoned' fits perfectly — sound sits after 'were', describing the arguments.
This adjective sense (a sound plan, sound advice) means solid and trustworthy.
Sound is an adjective meaning well-reasoned and reliable.
3. Which sentence is correct, and why?
"Sam and me built the cubby." / "Sam and I built the cubby."
Answer and worked solution
Correct answer: D
Work out what job the pair does in the sentence. Sam and the writer are doing the building, so the pair is the subject.
The subject form is I. The form me is used when the pair receives the action, as in Nan drove Sam and me.
Test it by taking Sam out: I built the cubby is right, me built the cubby is not.
Sam and I built the cubby is correct, because the pair is the subject of the verb.
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Related papers: English Paper C (Year 5) · English Paper E (Year 7)
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