The assessments included twenty-three tasks in which students were asked to display their personal movement skills, appropriate to a range of situations and environments. These activities often involved the manipulation of equipment, such as balls, bats, and skipping ropes, in addition to physical co-ordination.

Nineteen tasks were identical for both year 4 and year 8. The remaining four tasks had some overlapping components for year 4 and year 8 students, with additional components for year 8 students. Twenty tasks were administered in open space sessions, two in team sessions, and one in a one-to-one interview session.

Eight of the tasks have been selected as link tasks (to be used again in the year 2002) and therefore are not described in detail here. Seven of the link tasks were attempted by both year 4 and year 8 students, and the eighth had a common component for year 4 and year 8 students. The other fifteen tasks are released tasks for which full details are given. The tasks are presented in the following order: the fifteen released tasks; the eight link tasks.

Twenty-one tasks allowed a fair comparison between the performance of year 4 and year 8 students. On average across these tasks, 25 percent more year 8 students than year 4 students gained high scores. The margin of superiority ranged from 7 percent of students on one task to 55 percent of students on another. The largest margins occurred on tasks involving throwing and catching. Interesting patterns of sub-group differences on these tasks are reported in Performance of Subgroups.