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Australia · Teacher education test

LANTITE test: literacy and numeracy for teaching students

The Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education (LANTITE) checks that your personal literacy and numeracy match the top 30% of Australian adults. It has two components, literacy and numeracy, with 65 questions and 2 hours each. The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) runs the LANTITE test on computer in four windows a year, at a test centre or at home with a live online proctor. If you’re in an accredited initial teacher education (ITE) course, ACER expects you to meet the standard in both components before you graduate.

  • 130Questions: 65 literacy and 65 numeracy
  • 2 hoursTime for each component
  • Test centre or onlineWays to sit it
Where to studyHow the test works

Updated October 2026 · Written from the Skills and Content Guide (revised 2023) and the LANTITE Assessment Framework

Key facts

At a glance

Run by
The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER)
Who sits it
Students in accredited ITE courses, and people planning to enrol in one
Standard
Personal literacy and numeracy equal to the top 30% of Australian adults
Test windows
Four a year, each with its own registration period
Attempts
No limit from 2025
Results
Standard met or not met, for each component

How it works

How the LANTITE test works, from registration to results

  1. The test has two components, literacy and numeracy, and you register and pay for each one separately. You can sit them in the same window or in different windows.
  2. Registration only happens during set periods before each test window, through your ACER candidate account. You pick a test centre session or remote proctoring at that point, and the same mode applies to every component you book in that window.
  3. Test centres are in capital cities and some regional centres, and seats go on a first-come, first-served basis. Remote proctoring means sitting at home on your own computer while a ProctorU proctor watches over webcam, at any hour, from the first day of the window until 5 days before it ends.
  4. Every question is either selected response, such as multiple choice, or short answer. There’s no extended writing, and wrong answers don’t cost you marks.
  5. Literacy is one section of 65 questions. Numeracy has two sections, one with an on-screen calculator and a shorter one without.
  6. Results come out on a set date for each window, in your ACER account, as standard met or not met for each component.

Topics

What’s on the test

01

Reading

About two thirds of the literacy questions are about reading texts, from short notices to long articles, set in everyday, school and education contexts.

Key points (4)
  • Reading texts run from around 100 words to around 900 words, and longer texts come with more questions (ACER, Skills and Content Guide).
  • Integrate and interpret is the biggest reading process, at 40 to 50% of reading questions; access and identify is 35 to 40% and evaluate and reflect 10 to 20% (Skills and Content Guide, Table 3).
  • Non-continuous texts put information in lists, tables, infographics, graphs, maps or forms, and mixed texts combine both kinds, such as a report with a graph (Skills and Content Guide).
  • Text types include procedural, regulatory and technical; descriptive, informative and persuasive; and narrative (ACER, Test content page).
02

Technical skills of writing

About one third of the literacy questions test the mechanics of writing. There’s no extended writing anywhere in the test.

Key points (4)
  • The four areas assessed are syntax and grammar, spelling, word usage and text organisation (ACER, Test content page).
  • These questions are either multiple choice or ask you to type a single word (Skills and Content Guide).
  • ACER’s guide says these questions generally come in small groups linked by one scenario or context (Skills and Content Guide).
  • Your results statement reports technical skills of writing as its own sub-domain, alongside reading (ACER, How to interpret the statement of test results, December 2024).
03

Number and algebra

The largest numeracy content area: calculations with whole numbers, fractions, decimals, percentages, ratios and rates in real situations.

Key points (4)
  • ACER calls the test’s maths “non-technical”: substituting values into a given formula is in scope, but working out a formula for a graph is not (Skills and Content Guide).
  • Around the standard, questions use ratios, rates and proportions, such as map scales or mixing ingredients (Skills and Content Guide, Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF) Level 4).
  • Questions can use powers and roots, for example 2³ = 8 or 3.6 × 10³ = 3,600 (Skills and Content Guide, ACSF Level 4).
  • Number and algebra is one of three content sub-domains on your numeracy results statement (How to interpret the statement of test results).
04

Measurement and geometry

Time, timetables, units, shapes, area and volume, and reading maps and plans, all in contexts a teacher might meet.

Key points (4)
  • Timetabling and scheduling, such as parent-teacher interviews, is listed as example content (Skills and Content Guide, Table 9).
  • Around the standard you convert within the metric system and between metric and other common units (Skills and Content Guide, ACSF Level 4).
  • Map and plan questions can involve scales, bearings, travel distances, speeds, times and time zones (Skills and Content Guide, ACSF Level 4).
  • Using Pythagoras’ theorem to find a side of a triangle counts as technical maths and is out of scope (Skills and Content Guide).
05

Statistics and probability

Reading graphs, tables and school data, working with averages, and describing how likely something is.

Key points (4)
  • Around the standard you summarise data in tables, spreadsheets, graphs and plots, using mean, median, mode and simple measures of spread (Skills and Content Guide, ACSF Level 4).
  • Questions above the standard can use percentiles and grouped data, and ask you to judge trends and how reliable data is (Skills and Content Guide, ACSF Level 5).
  • Probability questions ask you to describe chance in words and in numbers (Skills and Content Guide).
  • Further education and professional learning is one of three contexts, at 10 to 20% of questions, and its numeracy questions can use comparative data about education and schooling (Skills and Content Guide, Table 1).

Test day

What to bring to your LANTITE session

  • One valid, unexpired photo ID: a passport, a driver’s licence (learner’s permit, probationary or full) or an Australian Proof of Age Card, with your first name, last name and date of birth matching your Admission Ticket
  • At a test centre, your Admission Ticket, printed or on a device
  • Bottled water if you like, which sits at the front of the test room; the centre gives you a pen and one sheet of scratch paper at a time
  • At home, a clear bottle or glass of water, two blank sheets of scratch paper and a pen, with nothing else on your desk
  • No personal calculator, notes, dictionary or smartwatch: numeracy has its own on-screen calculator

Before you go

  1. Check the registration dates for the window you want. Late registrations aren’t accepted for any reason.
  2. Make sure your ID won’t expire before the window ends. Student cards, expired documents, copies and temporary licences without a photo are refused, and ACER says some IDs take about a month to get.
  3. If you need reasonable adjustments, apply in your account straight after registering, by the registration closing date.
  4. For remote proctoring, upload your portrait photo and ID when you register, then schedule each session with ProctorU straight away.
  5. Download your Admission Ticket from your account about a week before the window starts. It gives a test centre’s address and your reporting time.
  6. At a test centre, allow at least 2½ hours per component and arrive by the reporting time. Latecomers aren’t admitted once the test has started.
ACER: Register for the testYou create an account and register on ACER’s candidate site during a window’s registration period. Booking terms, the fee and the session choices are all set there.

Study options

Where to study

ACER publishes its own practice questions, retired test questions and two full practice tests as PDFs with worked solutions, and registered candidates also get interactive practice tests in their account. ACER doesn’t endorse any commercial course, and says to use only the practice material on its own site.

OptionPriceFree to useLinks
Official
ACER online practice testsOfficial interactive practice tests, literacy and numeracyIn your ACER candidate account once you’ve registered for a window. Each test gives a report of your achievement against the standard, and you can sit them more than once for a new report. ACER says to look at the worked solutions only afterwards.
Included in your test registrationNot available before you register; the PDF copies are on ACER’s site
ACER: Practice material ↗
ACER practice questions and PDF practice testsOfficial PDFs with answers and worked solutionsACER says to use only practice material published on its own site, because its material has been misrepresented elsewhere. Accessible versions are available by email for candidates with a visual impairment.
No price shown; open to anyone on ACER’s Practice material pageSample questions, 2017 and 2023 practice questions, retired test questions and the two full practice tests
ACER: Practice material ↗
ACER Skills and Content Guide and Described Proficiency ScaleOfficial guides to what the test assessesThe Skills and Content Guide (revised 2023) sets out the literacy and numeracy skills tested and the share of questions in each area. The Described Proficiency Scale describes the skills below, at and above the standard, with example questions.
No price shown; PDFs on ACER’s siteBoth documents in full
ACER: Skills and Content Guide (PDF) ↗ACER: Described Proficiency Scales ↗
Apps and websites
Cambridge LANTITE EdgeOnline preparation course from Cambridge University PressAn interactive course with walkthroughs, widgets and a testing area for literacy and numeracy. It’s sold to individual students and to whole faculties. Not endorsed by ACER.
$44.95 for both components or $29.95 for one, AUD with tax included, for a 12-month subscription (its own prices)Not listed on its site
Cambridge University Press: Cambridge LANTITE Edge ↗
Tutoring and courses
Cluey Learning LANTITE tutoringOnline one-to-one tutoringLive one-to-one sessions online for LANTITE literacy and numeracy, with recordings you can watch again. Not endorsed by ACER.
Not published; Cluey asks you to request pricingCluey offers a trial session
Cluey Learning: LANTITE tutoring ↗
Victoria University LANTITE Preparation Course (THAAA)Short course taught live over Zoom; no intakes scheduled12 hours over three days, covering spelling, grammar, reading, number, measurement, statistics and calculator and non-calculator questions. Sessions aren’t recorded. Its page shows applications closed with no intakes scheduled, and you can register interest.
$201 for literacy or numeracy, $353 for both (its own prices, which it says may change)No
Victoria University: LANTITE Preparation Course ↗

Prices and ratings checked October 2026.

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FAQ

Common questions

What is the LANTITE test?

It’s a national test of your own literacy and numeracy, not of how you teach them. It was brought in for students of accredited initial teacher education courses in Australia, so that graduating teachers can show skills in the top 30% of the adult population. Reading and writing questions are set in everyday, school and education contexts, and the maths is the kind used in real life, not technical maths.

Who has to sit the LANTITE?

Students enrolled in an accredited ITE course, undergraduate or postgraduate, are expected to meet the standard before graduating. From 2024, those students need to make an attempt in their first year, though they don’t have to pass then. Some states and territories also want a met result before your final practicum, or to register or work as a teacher, so check with your university and your state or territory’s teacher regulatory authority. From April 2023, people planning to enrol, including Year 11 and 12 students, can sit it first, and that’s optional.

How long is the LANTITE test?

Each component is 2 hours, including a short tutorial at the start. With check-in, ACER says to allow at least 2½ hours per component at a test centre, and 2½ to 3 hours from when you connect to your proctor at home. You don’t have to sit both on the same day. If you sit them one after the other at home, ACER says to leave at least two hours between sessions: for a 10am numeracy session, it suggests starting literacy after 2pm.

How many times can you sit the LANTITE test?

As many times as you need. Education Ministers removed the test limits from 2025, after a trial showed that more candidates sat the test and met the standard without them. Each component can be sat only once in a test window, and you pay the fee each time. Once you meet the standard in a component, you never sit it again: the result is transferable between universities and doesn’t expire.

Is the LANTITE test hard?

It’s built around the standard. ACER’s guide says 80% of questions target levels 3 and 4 of the Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF), around the standard, with the other 20% at levels 2 and 5. You don’t lose marks for a wrong answer, so answer every question, and don’t spend too long on any one.

Can you get extra time or other adjustments?

Yes, if you live with a disability, a mental health or health condition, or are neurodiverse. You apply in your ACER account after you register, with supporting documents, by the registration closing date for that window. Examples ACER lists include extra time, rest breaks, a reader or scribe, text-to-speech, a separate room and permission to bring food or medication. Adjustments from your university don’t carry over, and you need a new application for every window.

Sources: ACER and 12 more. Checked October 2026.

Rules and fees can change, so check the official site before your test.