The pair are in Year 5 at the Ainslie School, one of 106 ACT schools taking part in the national assessment's online roll-out. But, as Max explains, they're already old hands at navigating technology.

"I find it easier [than writing]," he said, after sitting an online practice test. "It's more intuitive."

Others reported the new test design, which is responsive to students' answers, felt a bit like gaming.

Online testing lands in the capital as debate heats up around Australia on NAPLAN, and the ACT government spearheads a national review into the assessment tool.

Last month, NSW education minister Rob Stokes led calls to scrap the scheme after the Gonski 2.0 report recommended replacing NAPLAN with an online formative assessment tool that would bring Australia more into line with leading countries around the world and allow teachers to track student progress in "real time".

ACT Education Minister Yvette Berry said NAPLAN was not doing the formative assessment work "teachers desperately need to be able to support children" individually.

But federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham said the test still served "a very important purpose for many Australian parents”.

Earlier this month, state and territory ministers asked the ACT to help draft terms of reference for a NAPLAN review, including the reporting of data on the Myschool website.

Ms Berry said formative assessment would form an important part of that conversation.

"In November last year I secured support of [the] Education Council to scope a review aimed at improving the diagnostic usefulness of NAPLAN and moving away from reporting that is high stakes and works against student equity," she said.

Last year, states and territories abandoned a trial of NAPLAN online due to widespread glitches across the system.

Max and Ned recall how their test had crashed "halfway through".

Year 5 teacher Sarah-Jane Brown joked some kids at the school were already preparing hashtags to predict whether this year would be another failure, like the census night debacle.

All public schools in the ACT will take part in NAPLAN online this year. Ten independent schools are waiting to transition after 2018.

An Education Directorate spokesman said ACT students would enjoy the fastest wi-fi speeds in the country when they sat down to their tests on Tuesday.

"Significant local and national testing" of the platform in 2017 had given the directorate confidence in the new system, he said.

"Just as the previous paper writing test is not about handwriting skills, NAPLAN online is not about keyboarding skills and students do not have to be able to touch type to successfully complete the test," the spokesman said.

Ainslie School principal Wendy Cave said the trial had been "seamless" so far. The server held up well on practice day, but some students had raised concerns about how those in more remote parts of the country might be faring.

"We know the role NAPLAN plays nationally, but we also know its limitations and the kids know that, too," she said.

In Ms Brown's classroom, NAPLAN was just another day at school.

"Parents are talking about NAPLAN at home, it's in the media, it's everywhere but it's not a big deal," she said.

The directorate spokesman said the test was a "narrow point in time" assessment.

"The real opportunity presented by NAPLAN online is how it could support a move towards an online, on-demand student learning assessment tool as recommended by David Gonski," he said.

In a decade of NAPLAN testing, the participation rate of ACT schools has fallen, from 95.6 per cent in 2008 to below the national average, at 93.7 per cent, last year. The national participation rate also fell in that time.

Last year, more ACT parents withdrew their children from the test than any other state except Queensland.