International Benchmark Tests (IBT)

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Contact the test administrator in your country for more details. See list of participating countries.

International Comparisons

The International Benchmark Tests help students and schools benchmark their performance in Mathematics, Science and English against students in their own school, in their country and in a range of other countries around the world.  As well as school and country comparisons, the IBT provides two international comparison groups: the IBT International Sample and comparisons against selected countries participating in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).

IBT International Sample

The IBT International Sample is a sample of student performance drawn from across countries participating each year in the IBT.  Tens of thousands of students from a range of schools in each of the participating countries undertake the IBT in Mathematics, Science and/or English each year and each year ACER's psychometrics team creates a benchmark IBT International Sample which helps students and schools understand how their individual performance compares.

TIMSS Sample

In addition to the IBT International Sample, students and schools are also provided with benchmark comparisons against selected countries that participated in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) in 2007, including selected countries from Asia, UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Africa and Europe.  Find out more about TIMSS at www.timss.acer.edu.au.

Academic term dates, school age and IBT test date

In any survey across countries, comparing student cohorts is a complex issue. School years run across different dates in different countries and typical student age at commencement of the first year of schooling can differ from 5 to 7 years old.  In addition in the case of the IBT, different countries sit the tests at different times of the year. 

The IBT testing is based on the student's grade, rather than on the student's age. This is based on UNESCO's International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED-97) classification of grades. What we call Grade 3 / Class 3 / Year 3 is the third year of ISCED level 1; what we call grade 7 / Class 7 / Year 7 is the seventh year, counting from the beginning of ISCED level 1. 

Typically schools should provide students with the paper that corresponds to the 'named grade' for the assessments: that is, children in the grade called 'three' should do the Grade 3 test, regardless of their age; children in the year or grade called 'five' should do the Grade 5 test. 

Our analyses show that while the age of the students is correlated with performance for the youngest Grade levels, age decreases in relevance as the students become older. What is more important is the number of years at school. By Grade 7 there is negligible difference in terms of the age of students. 

The table below shows the typical school dates, school starting age and IBT test date for countries currently administering the IBT: