"Selective school exam" means a different test in each state, sat in a different year, by a child of a different age, and most pages written about it describe only New South Wales. This page covers every state: what the exam is, what it tests, when it is sat and applied for, how places are offered, and what is not published (cut-offs and rankings), with a 20-question practice set in the two components that are the same everywhere, mathematical reasoning and thinking skills.
Download the selective school exam formats by state and a 20-question practice set with answers (PDF) (every state's exam, year level, components and dates on one page; ten mathematical reasoning and ten thinking skills questions with answers and the reasoning; two pages, free).
New South Wales: the Selective High School Placement Test
The largest selective system in the country: fully selective high schools (James Ruse, North Sydney Boys and Girls, Baulkham Hills, Sydney Boys and Girls, Hornsby Girls, Normanhurst Boys, Fort Street, Girraween, Penrith, Sydney Technical and others), partially selective schools with a selective stream, four agricultural high schools, and Aurora College for rural students online. Entry is to Year 7, and the test is sat in Year 6.
| Selective High School Placement Test | Opportunity Class Placement Test | |
|---|---|---|
| Who sits it | Year 6, for Year 7 entry | Year 4, for Year 5 entry into an Opportunity Class (Years 5 and 6) |
| Format | Computer-based, on the department's devices, one test day | Computer-based, one test day |
| Components | Reading 45 min; mathematical reasoning 40 min; thinking skills 40 min; writing 30 min | Reading 40 min; mathematical reasoning 40 min; thinking skills 30 min; no writing |
| Weighting | The four components weighted equally | The three components weighted equally |
| Calculator | No | No |
| 2026 test (2027 entry) | Friday 1 and Saturday 2 May 2026; make-up test 22 May | Friday 8 and Saturday 9 May 2026; make-up 22 May |
| 2027 test (2028 entry) | Listed by the department for 30 April to 2 May 2027, make-up 17 May 2027 | Early May 2027 (check the department's key dates) |
| Applications | November of Year 5 to February of Year 6 (6 November 2025 to 20 February 2026 for the 2026 test) | The same window, in Year 4 |
| Outcomes | August, by email, with a placement at the highest-preference school that has a place; reserve lists after that | August |
What each component tests. Reading: several texts (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, a cloze passage) with questions on inference, vocabulary in context, the writer's purpose and matching extracts to texts. Mathematical reasoning: multi-step problem solving on number, measurement, patterns, chance and data at and above the Year 6 level, where the difficulty is in the reasoning and not the arithmetic. Thinking skills: formal reasoning, with no syllabus to study: deductions from statements, identifying the assumption or the flaw in an argument, patterns in sequences and grids, spatial and ordering puzzles. Writing: one task in 30 minutes, marked on ideas, structure, vocabulary, sentences and accuracy.
What is not published. The department does not publish minimum entry scores, raw marks or school rankings; families get a placement outcome, not a number. The "cut-off" lists on coaching sites are estimates and vary between sites by tens of points. The mechanism is the thing to understand: students are ranked by their test performance and placed at their highest preference with places left, with some places held under equity provisions, so the standard for the most sought-after schools is set by that year's applicants, not by a published number.
Victoria: the selective entry high schools
Four schools, all for Years 9 to 12: Melbourne High School (boys, South Yarra), The Mac.Robertson Girls' High School (girls, Melbourne), Nossal High School (co-educational, Berwick) and Suzanne Cory High School (co-educational, Werribee). Entry is to Year 9; the exam is sat in Year 8, and a student may sit it only once. A small number of places in Years 10 and 11 are managed by the schools directly.
| Victorian selective entry exam | |
|---|---|
| Who sits it | Year 8, for Year 9 entry |
| Run by | The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) manages applications, the exam and offers for the Department |
| When | A Saturday in June (Saturday 20 June 2026 for 2027 entry; the next sitting is June 2027 for 2028 entry); applications open in March and close in April |
| What it tests | Reading comprehension, mathematics, verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning and two written pieces (a creative and a persuasive or analytical task), at a level not beyond the Year 8 curriculum, with the difficulty in reasoning and interpretation |
| Places | About 1,000 a year across the four schools: 85% on merit by exam rank; up to 10% equity (Health Care Card or Pensioner Concession Card holders, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, by exam performance within the category); up to 5% principal discretion by invitation and interview |
| The school cap | No more than 4% of a source school's Year 8 cohort may receive merit or principal-discretion offers (10% for a prep-to-Year 9 school); equity offers are not capped |
| Fee | A standard application fee, waived for concession-card and First Nations families, reduced for hardship |
| Offers | In rounds from August; most places in the first round |
The 4% cap is the detail Victorian families miss: a child at a school with many strong applicants competes first with them, which is one reason a strong reasoning score in every component matters more than a single excellent one.
SEAL programs (Select Entry Accelerated Learning) are a separate thing: accelerated streams inside ordinary government high schools, entered in Year 7, with each school running its own test (often through a testing provider) between June and August of Year 6, with its own fee and date. There is no central SEAL exam; a family applies to each school.
Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia
| State | Program | Entry | The test | When |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Queensland | The Queensland Academies: the Academy for Science, Mathematics and Technology (Toowong, Brisbane), the Academy for Health Sciences (Southport, Gold Coast) and the Academy for Creative Industries (Kelvin Grove, Brisbane); all teach the IB Diploma in the senior years | Year 7 entry at the science and health academies, Year 10 entry at all three | An entry test run through the academies' admissions office, with reasoning and achievement components, plus the school's own selection criteria | Sittings set each year by the academies for entry the following year; check the academies' admissions pages for the current round |
| Western Australia | Gifted and Talented (GATE) programs: academic, languages and arts programs at selected public schools, Perth Modern School fully selective | Year 7 entry (sat in Year 6); some Year 8 to 10 places | The Academic Selective Entrance Test (ASET): reading, writing, quantitative reasoning and abstract reasoning, in one morning | March of Year 6 for the following year's entry (applications close in early February: 6 February 2026 for 2027 entry); results in June |
| South Australia | Ignite programs for gifted students at Glenunga International, Aberfoyle Park and The Heights | Year 7 entry (sat in Year 6), some later entry | A test administered through ACER's Ignite portal: reading, mathematics, abstract reasoning, writing | A sitting in the first half of Year 6 for the following year; check the ACER Ignite page for the date |
The timeline, from Year 4
| Year | NSW | Victoria | WA |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 4 | The Opportunity Class test in May (for Years 5 and 6 OC) | ||
| Year 5 | Applications for the selective test open in November | NAPLAN Year 5 as the signal | |
| Year 6 | Applications close February; the test in early May; outcomes August | SEAL tests at individual schools, June to August | ASET in March; results June |
| Year 7 | Start at the selective school | Start in the GATE program | |
| Year 8 | Applications March to April; the selective entry exam in June; offers from August | ||
| Year 9 | Start at the selective entry school |
The useful planning fact is the gap between the test and the content: the NSW test is sat in May of Year 6 on reasoning at and above Year 6 level; the Victorian test in June of Year 8 on material not beyond Year 8. A child who is a year ahead in mathematics by the time of the test, and who has done timed reasoning sets for a year, sits the test on familiar ground. The plan and what tutoring does and does not do are in selective school tutoring.
A 20-question practice set: mathematical reasoning and thinking skills
The printable has all twenty with space to work and the answers with the reasoning. Ten of each; no calculator; about 20 minutes per set at the exam's pace.
Mathematical reasoning.
- A box holds 24 apples. How many apples are in three and a half boxes?
- Tickets cost $7 each. Sam pays with $50 and receives $8 change. How many tickets did Sam buy?
- The mean of four numbers is 12. Three of them are 10, 11 and 15. What is the fourth?
- A rectangle's perimeter is 30 cm and its length is twice its width. What is its area?
- In a class of 30, two fifths are boys. How many girls are there?
- A train leaves at 7:45 am and arrives at 10:20 am. How long is the journey?
- What is the next number: 2, 6, 12, 20, 30, …?
- A tank is three quarters full and holds 36 litres. How much does it hold when full?
- 25% of a number is 18. What is the number?
- Four friends share a $92 bill. One pays $20 more than each of the other three. How much does each of the three pay?
Thinking skills.
- All squares are rectangles. Some rectangles are red. Which must be true? (A) All squares are red. (B) Some squares are red. (C) Some red shapes are rectangles. (D) No squares are red.
- What letter comes next: A, C, F, J, O, …?
- If BOOK is written in a code as CPPL, how is PAGE written?
- Five children stand in a line. Ann is somewhere in front of Ben. Cal is somewhere behind Dee. Ben is directly in front of Dee. Eve is last. Who is in the middle?
- "If it rains, the match is cancelled. The match was not cancelled." What follows?
- Which number does not belong: 3, 7, 11, 15, 18, 23?
- Each shape stands for a number. Triangle + triangle = 10. Triangle + square = 13. Square − circle = 4. What is the circle?
- Tom says: "Every student who studied passed. Maya passed, so Maya studied." What is wrong with Tom's reasoning?
- A cube is painted red on the outside and cut into 27 equal small cubes. How many small cubes have exactly two red faces?
- Tuesday is three days after the day before yesterday. What day is it today?
Answers. 1) 84. 2) 6. 3) 12. 4) 50 cm² (width 5, length 10). 5) 18. 6) 2 hours 35 minutes. 7) 42 (the differences grow by 2). 8) 48 litres. 9) 72. 10) $18 each, and the fourth pays $38. 11) C. 12) U (the gaps are 2, 3, 4, 5, 6). 13) QBHF (each letter moves one forward). 14) Dee (the order is Ann, Ben, Dee, Cal, Eve). 15) It did not rain. 16) 18 (the others go up by 4, and 18 is even). 17) 4 (triangle 5, square 8). 18) Passing does not prove studying: the rule says studying leads to passing, not that only those who studied pass. 19) 12 (one on each edge). 20) Monday (the day before yesterday plus three is tomorrow, so tomorrow is Tuesday).
Where to get help
A 1-on-1 online class for the selective school exam with a tutor who holds a master's in mathematics: mathematical reasoning and thinking skills taught as reasoning, with timed sets at the exam's pace from a year out, mathematics a year ahead of school, and reading and writing to the NSW and Victorian criteria with a qualified English teacher, at Australian after-school times, every class recorded, A$14 to A$19 an hour. The free 30-minute first class is a timed ten-question set, marked with the child, that tells you where the preparation should start. For Sydney, Melbourne and Perth families, the city pages have the local timing; NAPLAN as the early signal is on the NAPLAN tutoring page.
Questions parents ask
1What is a selective school?
2What is on the NSW selective school exam?
3When is the selective school exam?
4What score do you need for a selective school?
5Can a tutor from India prepare a child for the selective school exam?
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