1.
Kiri packed the blank for the excursion.
Press play and listen for the missing word.
The recording plays when your child practises.
ICAS Spelling Paper B (Year 4)
Paper B is sat by Year 4 students. Forty-five questions in 40 minutes — five more than Paper A, in exactly the same time.
Last updated: 5 October 2026
The paper grew; the clock did not
This is worth saying plainly, because it is the thing that changes most between the two levels. Paper A gives a minute a question. Paper B gives about 53 seconds.
ICAS Spelling is the only subject where a longer paper does not come with a longer clock: every Spelling paper has the same 40 minutes, while in the other subjects the time goes up when the paper does. Practising against the clock matters more here than anywhere else.
Five more questions, same four kinds
Paper B asks for spelling in the same four ways as Paper A. ICAS doesn't publish how many questions of each kind there are, so we won't guess where the extra five land. What is certain is the part that matters for practice: five more to answer in the same 40 minutes.
What Year 4 content adds
Doubling rules with -ing and -ed. Homophones start in earnest — their/there, to/too, your/you're. Soft c and soft g. Plurals that change the base word (-ies, -ves). Rules and conventions questions ask about the pattern; correcting questions ask you to apply it under time.
Where Year 4 students lose marks
- Homophones in context, where the spelling is only wrong because of the sentence around it
- Correcting, where a child spots the error and then writes a different wrong version
- The last few questions, reached with the clock nearly gone
A note on dictation
The dictated words reach students through headphones in the real test. In our Paper B practice they come first: play the recording, then type the word, with headphones on or the sound turned up.
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 B
Practise against a timer from the start. Forty minutes for 45 questions is the constraint that defines this paper, and a child who has only ever worked untimed can run out of time.
Common questions
Which year level sits ICAS Paper B?
Year 4. ICAS names its papers by letter rather than by year — Paper A is Year 3 and Paper F is Year 8 — so a Year 4 student sits Paper B.
How long is Spelling Paper B?
45 questions in 40 minutes.
Why does Paper B feel more rushed than Paper A?
The time stays at 40 minutes while the questions go from 40 to 45 — about 53 seconds a question instead of a minute. Spelling is the one ICAS subject where the paper gets longer and the clock does not; in the others, a longer paper comes with more time.
Year 4 also sits: Maths Paper B · English Paper B · Science Paper B
Sample questions
Try each one first, then open the answer and worked solution under it.
Answer and worked solution
Correct answer: camera
The word is 'camera'.
Most people say this word in two beats, but it is written in three: cam-er-a.
The middle e is barely heard, and that is exactly why it gets left out.
'camera' is the correct spelling.
2. Choose the sentence where EVERY word is used correctly.
Answer and worked solution
Correct answer: B
Check each spot: the house belongs to them → Their; the place → there; 'they are very happy' → they're.
Only one sentence gets all three right.
The correct sentence uses their (belonging), there (place) and they're (they are) in the right spots.
3. This sentence has ONE spelling mistake:
"The track was too rugh for the trailer."
Type the correct spelling of the misspelt word.
Answer and worked solution
Correct answer: rough
The "uff" sound at the end is spelt ough, one of the least predictable patterns in English.
The gh is what writes the f sound you hear — in this word it is doing real work, not sitting silent.
The letters are r-o-u-g-h.
'rough' is the correct spelling.
Practise free, no account needed. Every paper is marked the moment your child finishes, with a worked solution on every question.
Free practice draws from a limited set of questions, so some will repeat. Subscribers get the full question bank and fewer repeats.
Related papers: Spelling Paper A (Year 3) · Spelling Paper C (Year 5)
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