Selective school and Opportunity Class test practice

Practice by year

10 sections, each with real questions you can answer now without an account.

Two different tests, and which one your child sits

These are the NSW placement tests. They are computer-based, held in May, and they are not the same test at the two entry points — the sections differ, and so does the weighting.

Opportunity Class Placement Test — sat in Year 4, for Year 5 entry

Three sections, all multiple-choice: Reading (14 questions in 40 minutes), Mathematical Reasoning (35 questions in 40 minutes) and Thinking Skills (30 questions in 30 minutes). Each section is worth a third of the result. There is no writing section. Questions draw on the NSW curriculum up to Year 4 and nothing beyond it.

Selective High School Placement Test — sat in Year 6, for Year 7 entry

Four sections, each worth exactly 25%: Reading (17 questions in 45 minutes), Mathematical Reasoning (35 questions in 40 minutes), Thinking Skills (40 questions in 40 minutes) and Writing (one task in 30 minutes). Questions draw on the NSW curriculum up to Year 6.

Entry in Years 8 to 11 works differently

There is no central placement test for these years. Places that come free after the main Year 7 intake are filled by the schools themselves, and you apply to each school directly — they set their own requirements and their own assessments. The skills tested are the same family; the process is not.

The arithmetic of Thinking Skills, and why it decides so much

Forty questions in forty minutes on the selective test. One minute each, on the section families find hardest to prepare for — and it is worth the same 25% as reading, as maths, as writing.

Thinking Skills does not test content. It gives a short argument or a small puzzle and asks what follows from it, what would weaken it, or which conclusion is the only safe one. There is no syllabus behind it, which is why revision does not work and why so many families feel there is nothing to be done about it.

There is, but it is a different kind of work. The questions reuse a fairly small set of underlying shapes — the flawed generalisation, the necessary versus sufficient condition, the seating or ordering puzzle, the argument that assumes what it is trying to prove. A child who has worked through enough of them stops reading each question cold and starts recognising which kind is in front of them. That recognition is most of the minute they have.

What makes these questions different from schoolwork

NAPLAN checks whether a child has learnt what they were taught. A placement test has a different job: it has to separate a very large field of able children into a rank order. Everything about the questions follows from that.

They are short to read and slow to solve, so speed of reading buys you nothing. Every option stays defensible until you look closely, so the answer that sounds right is usually the trap rather than the answer. And the maths never needs anything beyond the year level — the difficulty is in seeing what the question is actually asking, not in the arithmetic.

This is also why a child can be top of their class and find the test bewildering. It is not measuring the same thing their classroom measures.

How to prepare, and how much is too much

The preparation that works is about recognition and pacing, not volume. Meet enough of each question type that none of them is new; practise deciding fast which questions to leave; and get used to a test that almost nobody finishes comfortably, because it is designed that way.

The single most valuable habit is knowing when to skip. A child who spends four minutes on one Thinking Skills question has spent four of the forty they had and answered one of the forty they needed. Marks are marks regardless of which question they came from, and the easy ones at the end are worth exactly as much as the hard one in the middle.

Beyond a few months of steady, moderate practice the returns fall away sharply. Children who have been drilled for a year often perform worse than children who arrive fresh and familiar, because exhaustion and anxiety cost more on the day than another hundred questions gain.

What the result means, and what it does not

Placement is by rank against everyone who sat, not by a mark you can pass. A score that would have taken a place at one school in one year may not at another school in another year, because the cut-off is simply wherever the last available place falls.

That is worth saying plainly to a child beforehand. Not getting a place is not evidence of falling short of a standard — it means the field was large and the places were few. And NAPLAN results play no part in any of it: the placement tests are entirely separate.

Common questions

What is tested?

Reading, mathematical reasoning and thinking skills in both tests, with a writing task added for selective high school entry. Thinking skills is the section families find hardest to prepare for, because there is nothing to revise — only recognition, built by meeting the shapes of the questions.

How is this different from NAPLAN practice?

NAPLAN checks what a child has been taught. A selective test sorts candidates, so the questions are written to separate them: short to read, several steps to solve, and every option defensible until you look closely.

How long is the selective high school test?

Four sections: reading in 45 minutes, mathematical reasoning in 40, thinking skills in 40, and one writing task in 30. Each section counts for a quarter of the result, so no section can be written off.

Does the Opportunity Class test have a writing section?

No. The OC test has three sections — reading, mathematical reasoning and thinking skills — each worth a third. Writing appears only in the selective high school test.

Is there a placement test for Year 8 or later entry?

Not a central one. Places that open up after the main Year 7 intake are filled by the individual schools, and applications go to them directly. Each school sets its own requirements, so contact the school you are interested in.

Does NAPLAN count towards selective placement?

No. Selective and Opportunity Class placement use their own tests, sat separately, and NAPLAN plays no part in either.

Can we try it first?

Yes. Each section page has real questions to answer with their solutions, no account needed.

For official information, see Official selective school test information.