ICAS Science Paper C (Year 5)

What the extra length brings

More data, and more of it in graph form. Paper C is where line graphs and multi-row tables become common, and where a single question can require reading a value, comparing it to another, and drawing a conclusion from the difference.

Controlled variables also move from "was this fair" to "which variable was controlled, and why did it need to be". That is a step up from Paper B: not spotting the flaw, but explaining the design.

What Year 5 content provides

Adaptations and survival, solids liquids and gases, light and its behaviour, and the sun-earth-moon system. As always, these are settings rather than subjects — a question about adaptation is usually an inference question in disguise.

Where Year 5 students lose marks

• Graphs where the answer is a trend, not a value. Students read one point accurately and miss what the line is doing.
• Conclusions that go further than the data. The paper reliably offers an option that is scientifically true but not shown by these results.
• Questions about why a variable was controlled, where knowing that it was is not enough.

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 C

Get comfortable with graphs outside science — weather, sport, anything with a line. Ask what the shape means before asking what any single point says. That habit transfers directly.

And sit full papers: 40 questions in 55 minutes with several data sets is a stamina test as well as a reasoning one.

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 Science Paper C?
40 questions in 55 minutes.

How much of Paper C is graphs and data?
Enough that reading a graph's overall shape before reading any single point is the most useful habit to build. The skill transfers from any graph, not only scientific ones.

Year 5 also sits: Maths Paper C · English Paper C · Spelling Paper C

Sample questions

Try each one first, then open the answer and worked solution under it.

1. Four liquids were put in a freezer for two hours and then left on the bench. Water froze solid, then melted back to water. Cooking oil froze solid, then cleared and ran freely again. Vinegar froze solid, then melted back to vinegar. Milk froze solid, then thawed into lumps that stayed lumpy. A student writes that all four liquids froze and all four returned to how they started. How do the results treat that claim?

Question 1 — choose one answer

AThey support it, since all four of the liquids really did freeze solid.BThey support the first half about freezing, though the milk disproves the rest.CThey disprove it, because not one of the four liquids returned to its start.DThey cannot judge it, since nobody measured how cold the freezer was.

Answer and worked solution

Correct answer: B

The claim has two halves, so test each one against the four results in turn.

All four liquids did freeze solid, so the first half stands.

The milk thawed into lumps and stayed lumpy, so it did not return to how it started, and one counter-example is enough to break a claim about all four.

Every liquid froze, so the first half holds, but the milk never returned and breaks the second.

2. Mia predicted that the thick sponge would soak up more water than the thin one. She tested them carefully and the thin sponge soaked up more. What should her conclusion say?

Question 2 — choose one answer

AThat the test must have gone wrong, because the thick sponge should have won.BThat the thin sponge soaked up more, so her prediction was not supported.CThat the thick sponge soaks up more, because that is what sponges usually do.DThat no conclusion can be drawn until the thick sponge wins a test.

Answer and worked solution

Correct answer: B

A conclusion reports what the test showed, whether or not that is what was expected.

The test was run carefully, so there is no reason to set its result aside.

The honest conclusion is the result itself, together with the fact that the prediction was not supported.

Her conclusion should say that the thin sponge soaked up more, so her prediction was not supported.

3. A spider body is joined from two main parts, while an insect body is joined from three. Which of the photographs below shows a spider?

Question 3 — choose one answer

APicture 1BPicture 2CPicture 3DPicture 4

Answer and worked solution

Correct answer: C

The rule turns on how many main parts the body is joined from, so look for the joins rather than at the legs.

Three of these animals have a head, then a middle part carrying the wings, then a long tail-like part behind: that is three.

The flat wide-bodied animal has only a front part and a rear part, which is two, so it is the spider.

The flat wide-bodied animal has a body of two main parts, so it is the spider.

Related papers: Science Paper B (Year 4) · Science Paper D (Year 6)

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