Skillo
Log in

Free Year 7 Colons and brackets Practice | Skillo

Skillo provides free Year 7 NAPLAN Colons and brackets practice (AC9E7LA09) for Australian students. No signup, no email, no credit card. Practice questions aligned with the ACARA Australian Curriculum v9.0 strand. Open and start in 10 seconds.

FreeNo signupNo emailNo payment

Year 7 students facing their third NAPLAN need to be confident with colons and brackets. Punctuation including colons and brackets supports meaning (colons before lists/explanations; brackets for non-essential information). Skillo has targeted practice questions for this exact skill, mapped to the Australian Curriculum v9.0, free and ready to go.

No account needed. No email. No credit card.

What does the Year 7 NAPLAN Colons and brackets test cover?

  • Punctuation including colons and brackets supports meaning (colons before lists/explanations; brackets for non-essential information).
  • Questions test identification and correction of errors
  • Both Australian English conventions and sentence structure are assessed

Try a sample Colons and brackets question

Question 1 — Easy

Choose the option that correctly uses a hyphen. The sentences are about a student journalism project at a high school in Adelaide.

A) Zac wrote a well researched article about climate change for the school newspaper.
B) Zac wrote a wellresearched article about climate change for the school newspaper.
C) Zac wrote a well-researched-article about climate-change for the school newspaper.
D) Zac wrote a well-researched article about climate change for the school newspaper.

Answer: Option D is correct — A hyphen is used to join two or more words that function together as a compound modifier before a noun. 'Well-researched' correctly uses a hyphen when it precedes the noun 'article'.

Question 2 — Medium

Select the sentence that correctly uses a dash (em dash) for emphasis or to set off information. The sentences are about a community art project in Fremantle.

A) The mural — painted by over fifty local artists — took three weeks to complete.
B) The mural, — painted by over fifty local artists — took three weeks to complete.
C) The mural – painted by over fifty local artists, took three weeks to complete.
D) The mural painted — by over fifty local artists took — three weeks to complete.

Answer: Em dashes are used in pairs to set off a phrase that interrupts the main clause. In option A, the em dashes correctly enclose the parenthetical phrase 'painted by over fifty local artists' without extra commas.

Question 3 — Hard

Which sentence uses brackets correctly to add non-essential information about a school science fair project?

A) Priya's project on solar energy (which she started in Term 2) won first prize at the fair.
B) Priya's project (on solar energy which she started in Term 2 won first prize at the fair.
C) Priya's project on solar energy which (she started in Term 2 won) first prize at the fair.
D) Priya's project on solar energy which she started in Term 2 won (first prize) at the fair.

Answer: Brackets enclose non-essential information that can be removed without changing the core meaning of the sentence. In option A, the bracketed clause 'which she started in Term 2' is correctly enclosed and the sentence still reads clearly without it. Option B opens a bracket but never closes it, leaving the sentence unbalanced. Option C places the opening bracket mid-clause and the closing bracket at an unrelated point, disrupting the meaning. Option D brackets 'first prize', which is essential information rather than a non-essential aside.

How should my child prepare for Year 7 NAPLAN Colons and brackets?

  1. Select Year 7 and Grammar on the home screen
  2. Use Quick Practice — questions on colons and brackets will appear as part of the session
  3. Check the Skill Breakdown on your profile to track your accuracy on colons and brackets specifically
  4. Review explanations after each question to understand the reasoning behind correct answers

Skillo is free, requires no email or account details, and is built specifically for Australian students. Every question is mapped to the Australian Curriculum v9.0 and filtered by skill so your child practises exactly what they need.

Common questions about NAPLAN Colons and brackets

Read more about how Skillo protects student privacy →

Is Skillo really free?

Yes. Skillo is completely free for all Australian students — no subscription, no credit card, no hidden paywall. No free trial that converts to paid.

Does my child need an account?

No. Skillo doesn't require an account to practise. Open any page and start immediately — no email, no registration.

Does Skillo collect any personal information?

No. Skillo is built to require zero personal information. No name, no email, no date of birth is collected from students.

Is Skillo affiliated with NAPLAN?

Skillo's NAPLAN-style practice is authored independently. NAPLAN® is a registered trademark of ACARA. Skillo is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by ACARA.

No account needed. No email. No credit card.

About this practice

Skillo's NAPLAN-style practice is authored independently. NAPLAN® is a registered trademark of ACARA. Skillo is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by ACARA.