Who sits the Year 8 test?

Students seeking entry to a selective high school for Year 9, filling places that become available after the main Year 7 intake. Application details are published by the education authority.

Is it easier than the Year 6 test?

There is less competition for each place, but the questions are pitched at a student a year further into their schooling. Neither test is a softer version of the other.

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.

Year 8 · Selective School and Opportunity Class

Year 8 selective school test practice

Year 8 entry fills the places that come free after Year 7, so the field is smaller but the standard is not lower. The questions expect a student who has had a year of high school: more abstract reasoning, more comfort with algebra, and reading passages that argue rather than describe. Students coming to this test having already sat the Year 6 one usually find the format familiar and the pace unforgiving.

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.

Mathematical reasoning

Eight Year 8 papers, 271 questions.

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Thinking skills

Nine Year 8 thinking skills papers, 450 questions.

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Reading reasoning

Five Year 8 papers, 250 questions.

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Quantitative reasoning

Eight Year 8 papers, 374 questions.

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Worth knowing at this level

The written section carries real weight here. A clear argument in plain sentences scores better than an ambitious one that runs out of time half-made.

Common questions

Who sits the Year 8 test?: Students seeking entry to a selective high school for Year 9, filling places that become available after the main Year 7 intake. Application details are published by the education authority.
Is it easier than the Year 6 test?: There is less competition for each place, but the questions are pitched at a student a year further into their schooling. Neither test is a softer version of the other.
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.

Practise the whole thing

A free account opens the full Year 8 papers — single-topic sets for working on one weakness at a time, and full-length papers for a timed run. Everything is marked, and every question has a worked solution.

Create a free account All Selective School and Opportunity Class years

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