1. The pictograph shows how many apples a stall sold on each of four days. Apples sell at 80c each, and the stall pays $15 a day to hire its table. Counting from the first day, how many days does it take for the takings from apples to first pass $100 in total?
ICAS Mathematics Paper C (Year 5)
Paper C is sat by Year 5 students, and it is the last paper in the series before typed answers arrive. From Paper D up, the final five questions ask for a number typed in rather than chosen.
Forty questions, 45 minutes, same five areas.
Last updated: 5 October 2026
Where Year 5 gets harder
This is the level where the numbers stop being friendly. Fractions have to be added and subtracted, not just compared. Decimals get multiplied and divided by powers of ten. Factors, multiples and prime numbers arrive. Area and perimeter become formulas rather than counting exercises, and volume appears.
Timetables and 24-hour time turn up in ICAS more often than their share of the curriculum would suggest. Like unit conversion, they are as much reading problems as maths problems, which is exactly why they suit this paper.
Where Year 5 students lose marks
- Multi-step problems where the arithmetic is easy. The failure is almost never the calculation; it is deciding which two things to do and in what order.
- Unit conversion under time pressure — metres to centimetres is fine in isolation and goes wrong inside a longer question.
- Timetable questions. Reading across a row and down a column while holding a duration in your head is genuinely hard at eleven.
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.
Still no typed answers — use it
Because nearly every question has options to choose from, working backwards is available on Paper C in a way it will not be on the typed questions from Paper D onward. Substituting the options into the question is a legitimate strategy here, and it is worth practising deliberately before it stops working next year.
Common questions
Which year level sits ICAS Paper C?
Year 5. ICAS names its papers by letter rather than by year — Paper A is Year 3 and Paper F is Year 8 — so a Year 5 student sits Paper C.
How long is Maths Paper C?
40 questions in 45 minutes.
Can my child work backwards from the answer options?
On Paper C, yes — every question still has four options, so substituting them back into the question is a legitimate tactic. From Paper D up the last five questions ask for a number to be produced, and it stops working. Worth practising deliberately while it is still available.
Year 5 also sits: English Paper C · Spelling Paper C · Science Paper C
Sample questions
Try each one first, then open the answer and worked solution under it.
Answer and worked solution
Correct answer: B
Strategy: turn the symbols into apples, then into money, then keep a running total until it passes $100. The $15 table hire is not part of the takings.
Each symbol stands for 10 apples, so the sales are 70, 60, 30 and 50 apples.
At 80c each that is $56 on the first day and $48 on the second.
The running total is $56 after one day and $56 + $48 = $104 after two, so it takes 2 days.
The takings first pass $100 after 2 days.
2. A school asked all of its students how they travel. The circle is cut into equal parts, and the shaded parts show the fraction who walk. Of the same students, 35% cycle and 0.25 come by bus. Which list puts the three groups in order, smallest first?
Answer and worked solution
Correct answer: D
Strategy: the three groups are given in three different forms, so rewrite them all as decimals before comparing anything.
The circle is cut into 5 equal parts and 2 are shaded, so the walkers are 2 over 5, which is 0.4.
The cyclists are 35%, which is 0.35, and the bus group is already 0.25.
Lining them up: 0.25, then 0.35, then 0.4 — so bus, then cycle, then walk.
From smallest to largest the order is bus, cycle, walk.
3. Ali worked out 6.9 × 48 on paper and got 3 312. Rounding 6.9 to 7 and 48 to 50, which statement is TRUE?
Answer and worked solution
Correct answer: C
Estimate first: 7 × 50 = 350, so the real product should be somewhere near 350.
Ali wrote 3 312, and 3 312 is close to 3 500, which is ten lots of 350.
So his result is about ten times too big — a sign that a decimal point has slipped one place.
The product should be near 350, so 3 312 is about ten times too big.
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More ICAS maths papers: Paper B (Year 4) · Paper D (Year 6)
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