1. Which spelling completes the sentence?
", the match was called off an hour before the start."
ICAS English Paper E (Year 7)
Paper E is sat by Year 7 students — the first ICAS English paper after the move to high school. It keeps Paper D's 50 questions and adds five minutes: 50 questions in 55 minutes, still mostly multiple choice.
Last updated: 5 October 2026
What high school adds
Persuasive texts. Alongside the recounts, factual pieces, narratives and poems, Paper E brings in writing that is trying to convince you of something — and then asks how it is doing that. Identifying a technique is not enough; the questions ask what effect it has on the reader.
Syntax also gets more formal. Clause structure, the function of punctuation, and how a sentence has been built to put emphasis somewhere — these move from background knowledge to things directly asked about.
The gap that catches Year 7 students
Year 7 English at school spends much of the year settling in and consolidating. ICAS does not wait. Paper E assumes the high school material and stretches past it, so a student doing well in class can still meet a paper that feels a year ahead. That is what the paper is for, not a sign of a problem.
Where marks go
- Effect questions — naming the technique is the easy half; saying what it does to the reader is the half being marked
- Punctuation as meaning, not as correctness: what the dash is doing there
- Long passages at barely more than a minute a question, where rereading is still hard to afford
- Poems, still, and now with more compressed language
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 E
Practise on argument, not just story. Take any opinion piece and ask two questions: what does the writer want me to think, and which sentence is doing the most work to get me there. That is Paper E in miniature.
Then sit full papers against the clock — 50 questions in 55 minutes still punishes anyone who has only practised in short bursts.
Common questions
Which year level sits ICAS Paper E?
Year 7. ICAS names its papers by letter rather than by year — Paper A is Year 3 and Paper F is Year 8 — so a Year 7 student sits Paper E.
How long is English Paper E?
50 questions in 55 minutes.
What does Paper E test that school English often does not?
Argument rather than story: what the writer wants you to think, and which sentence is doing the most work to get you there.
Year 7 also sits: Maths Paper E · Spelling Paper E · Science Paper E
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 fortunate, which keeps its final e before -ly.
Add the prefix un- at the front and the suffix -ly at the end: un + fortunate + ly.
That gives unfortunately.
'Unfortunately' is the correct spelling.
2. A formal report needs to introduce an explanation straight after a complete statement.
Which mark suits that job and that register best?
Answer and worked solution
Correct answer: D
Match the mark to the job, not just to the pause length. Here the second part explains the first.
A semicolon balances two complete statements but does not announce an explanation; a comma is too weak to hold two clauses at all.
A dash would do the job but reads as informal or dramatic, which is wrong for a report. The colon announces the explanation and keeps the register formal.
A colon introduces the explanation and suits the formal register.
3. Which spelling completes the sentence?
"This track is steep near the summit."
Answer and worked solution
Correct answer: C
The base is particular, which ends in -ar.
Adding -ly gives particular + ly, so the l and the y both follow the r.
Nothing is dropped and nothing is added.
'particularly' is the correct spelling.
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Related papers: English Paper D (Year 6) · English Paper F (Year 8)
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