While 92 per cent passed the literacy component last year, and 92.3 per cent passed numeracy, federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham says there's room for improvement.

"It's vital teaching graduates have the skills to hit the ground running," he said on Monday.

"Higher education providers need to take responsibility for the teacher graduates they accept into their initial teacher education programs."

More than 23,000 teaching students took the Australian Council for Educational Research tests, which measure whether they're in the top 30 per cent of the country's adult population.

The results were down on 2016 when 95.2 per cent passed the literacy test and 94.2 per cent passed numeracy.

Literacy figures are unchanged from the 2015 federal pilot program, but up on numeracy figures which started at 90 per cent.

SAMPLE QUESTIONS

1 Which version has acceptable punctuation?

A - 'Our community, is not static,' she said. 'It is constantly changing.'

B - 'Our community is not static' she said 'it is constantly changing.'

C - 'Our community is not static,' she said. 'It is constantly changing.'

D - 'Our community is not static, she said, it is constantly changing.'

2 If the sentence contains a spelling error, correct the error by writing the word as it should appear; if there is no error, write N.

"It is no exageration to say that the students' insight into historical processes and social conditions were impressive."

3. The weight of a box of stationery is 3.2 kilograms. What is the weight of 100 such boxes?

4. The Australian Bureau of Statistics conducts a census every five years. In 2011 the population of Australia was 22 million. About 2% of these people lived in remote or very remote areas. About how many lived in remote or very remote areas in Australia in 2011?

A - 11,000

B - 44,000

C - 110,000

D - 440,000

(Answers: C; exaggeration; 320; D)

Australian Associated Press