Year 8 selective school test practice

The 4 sections, with questions you can try now

Each one explains what it asks of a child at this year level and gives you real questions from our papers with worked answers. No account needed.

The one thing to understand before anything else

Entry after Year 7 does not work like the Year 6 placement test, and families who assume it does waste months preparing for the wrong process.

There is no central placement test

The Selective High School Placement Test covers Year 7 entry only. For Year 8 and above, places are filled by the individual schools. You apply to each school directly, and each one sets its own requirements — so the first step is contacting the schools you are interested in, not booking a test.

Every school does it its own way

Some set an entrance test of their own, some interview, some weigh school reports and evidence of achievement, and most use a combination. Two schools twenty minutes apart can have entirely different processes and entirely different deadlines.

The skills tested are the same family

Where schools do test, they test what the placement test tests: reading that asks about argument, mathematical reasoning in words rather than sums, and the ability to think through an unfamiliar problem under time. That is what the practice on this page is for.

Vacancies are unpredictable

Places open when families move or students leave, so how many exist at a given school in a given year is not knowable in advance. Applying to several schools is normal and sensible rather than a sign of hedging.

Writing usually carries real weight

Where a school assesses writing, it is looking at a student a year into secondary English — an argument that holds together, in controlled sentences, finished inside the time. That is a higher bar than Year 6 and it is worth practising directly.

Where Year 8 applicants lose ground

1. 1Waiting for a central test that is not comingThe most costly mistake at this entry point is procedural, not academic. Families wait to be told a test date, and meanwhile individual school deadlines pass. Contact the schools first; prepare second.
2. 2Applying to only one schoolVacancies depend on who happened to leave. A strong applicant can miss out at one school simply because no place opened, and be offered one at a comparable school down the road.
3. 3Writing an ambitious piece that does not finishThe same trap as Year 6 and it costs more here, because more is expected of the argument. A clear position, two reasons that actually support it, and a conclusion inside the time beats a sophisticated opening that stops halfway.
4. 4Assuming a year of high school is enough preparationClassroom work rewards knowing the method. These questions reward noticing what is being asked when nobody has told you which method applies. Students who have never met that distinction find it disorienting the first time.

How the decision gets made

Because each school runs its own process, there is no single rank order and no published cut-off. A school is filling a specific number of specific vacancies, and it decides using whatever mixture of test, interview and school evidence it has chosen.

Practically, that makes the outcome less predictable than the Year 7 process and worth spreading across several applications. It also means a decision says even less about a student's ability than a placement-test rank does — it says a particular school had a particular number of places and made a judgement on the day.

Test dates, withdrawal and the official reports are ACARA’s to publish — see nap.edu.au for those.

Common questions

Is there a placement test for Year 8 entry?

Not a central one. The Selective High School Placement Test is for Year 7 entry only. For Year 8 and above you apply directly to the schools, and each school sets its own entry requirements and its own assessment.

Who sits it?

Students seeking a place at a selective high school in a year above Year 7, filling vacancies that open after the main intake. The first step is contacting the schools you are interested in to ask about their process and deadlines.

Is it easier than the Year 6 test?

There is less competition for each place, but there are also far fewer places, and the questions are pitched at a student a year further into their schooling. Neither is a softer version of the other.

What should we practise if each school is different?

The same skills the placement test measures, because that is what schools draw on: reading for argument, mathematical reasoning presented in words, unfamiliar problems under time, and a written piece that reaches a conclusion.

How many schools should we apply to?

More than one. Vacancies depend on who happens to leave a particular school in a particular year, so a strong applicant can miss out in one place purely because no seat opened.

Do school reports matter?

More than they do for Year 7 entry. Where a school is deciding without a central test, the evidence it already has — reports, achievements, sometimes an interview — carries real weight.

How should writing be practised?

Under time, and finished. An unfinished piece loses more than a plain one, so the habit worth building is planning quickly and leaving enough time to reach a conclusion.