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Drumcondra Primary Reading Test 
(Online)

The New Drumcondra Primary Reading Test is a set of curriculum-based standardised assessments of reading achievement for primary school pupils in Ireland. Online versions of the test are available for pupils in Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth classes. Test content has been newly developed and standardised, meaning that the norms accurately reflect current achievement levels in Irish schools. 

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At each grade level, the online test has three parallel Forms. Each Form comprises vocabulary items and reading comprehension items. The comprehension items are based on a broad variety of texts, and assess a broad range of cognitive process skills. All content, including the commissioned illustrations, has been selected specifically to engage and appeal to children in Ireland in the target age groups, and to reflect the diversity of our primary schools today.

Schools administering the online tests can generate automated reports immediately after testing, at no extra cost. As well as overall scores, reports provide separate scores for Vocabulary and Comprehension. The Comprehension scores are also broken down to show how pupils performed on different text types (Literary vs Informational), and on different kinds of comprehension processes (Retrieve & Infer vs Interpret & Evaluate).

Sample Reading test reports

1. Class/Group reports summarising each pupil's performance including subscales (PDF)

2. Spreadsheet of all student data including subscales (CSV)

3. Individual Pupil Reports designed for parents/guardians (PDF)

Test Features​

  • Standardised on a nationally representative sample in spring 2018

  • Duration: 70 minutes (two sections of 35 minutes each). Allow an extra ~ 10 minutes for login and practice sections, and an extra ~ 10 minutes for the break between sections.

  • Target groups: pupils nearing the end of Third class, Fourth class, Fifth class, and Sixth class

  • Designed for easy group administration

  • Automated scoring and reporting

  • 80 multiple-choice questions

  • Test is divided into two sections, each with 40 questions (20 vocabulary, 20 comprehension)

  • A broad variety of literary and informational text types has been selected

  • Each comprehension item requires a particular cognitive process (retrieval, inference, interpretation, or evaluation)

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