Table 7 Attributes, their explanation and frequency in the expert-designed q-matrix

Number

Whole numbers and Integers (1)

Items that asses students’ understanding of place value, meaning of operations, multiples/factors, primes, properties, powers and square roots of perfect squares

25

Fractions, decimals and proportions (2)

Items that asses students’ abilities to compare and order decimals and fractions; recognize and compute decimal place value; recognize of compute equivalence; convert between fractions, percents, and decimals; and compute with fractions, decimals, or percents. Also includes items that require students to either reason about or use ratios or proportions. This includes items requiring the formation of ratios; recognizing or determining equivalent ratios; dividing a quantity in a given ratio; and recognizing and determining proportional relationships

19

Algebra

Patterns (3)

Items that require students to extend numeric, algebraic, or geometric patterns or sequences; find missing terms; generalize pattern relationships in a sequence or between adjacent terms or between the sequence number of the term

12

Expressions, equations and functions (4)

Items that ask students to reason about, solve, or simplify equations of various kinds

21

Geometry

Lines, angles and shapes (5)

Items that require students to understand or apply their understanding of basic geometry in one, two, or three dimensions

10

Measurement (6)

Items that require students to actually measure or calculate measure such as area of perimeter

8

Location and movement (7)

Items related to graphing as well as those that require students to visualize and rotate objects, nets or other representations in space

9

Data and chance

Data organisation, representation and interpretation (8)

Items related to creating, interpreting and predicting form data

21

Probability (9)

Items that reason about simple probability situations like judging the chance of an outcome as certain, more likely, equally likely, less likely, or impossible; use data from experiments or given probabilities to calculate chances or predict future outcomes; and determine chance of particular outcomes

5