NSW · Year 5 and 6 parents · Updated October 2026

NSW Selective test 2027: format, dates and how to prepare

The Selective High School Placement Test is how children are offered a Year 7 place in one of the NSW selective high schools. Children sit it in Year 6, the year before they start high school. This guide explains what is in the test, when things usually happen, and a calm plan for the months before.

Which year is your child in? The test held in 2027 is for children who are in Year 6 in 2027 (Year 5 now) and want a Year 7 place in 2028. If your child is in Year 6 now, the 2026 test has already been held.

What is the Selective High School Placement Test?

NSW has fully selective and partially selective public high schools for high-achieving students. Places are offered mainly from the result of a placement test run by the NSW Department of Education. Parents apply online, choose up to a few schools in order of preference, and the child sits the test at a test centre.

The test is done on a computer provided at the test centre (students do not bring their own device), with paper for working out. Since the move to a computer-based test, the format has stayed stable: four sections, done on the same day with short breaks.

The four sections

In recent years the test has had these four parts. Three are multiple choice; the writing section is one written task.

Section	Questions	Time	What it checks
Reading	30	40 minutes	Understanding fiction, poetry, factual texts and comparing short passages
Mathematical Reasoning	35	40 minutes	Using maths to solve unfamiliar problems, not only doing sums
Thinking Skills	40	40 minutes	Critical thinking, logic and problem solving
Writing	1 task	30 minutes	Writing a piece in response to a prompt

Thinking Skills gives exactly one minute per question, so speed and a calm method matter as much as being clever. The questions are harder than in the OC test two years earlier: more steps of reasoning, longer arguments to judge, and puzzles with several conditions. Read our guide to Thinking Skills question types for the basic types.

Question numbers and timing come from recent years. The department can change the format, so check the details on its website before the test.

Key dates for the 2027 test

The department publishes the exact dates each year. Going by previous years, the pattern looks like this:

When (usual pattern)	What happens
Early November 2026	Applications open
February 2027	Applications close. Late applications are usually not accepted, so apply early.
Early May 2027	Test days (in recent years the test has been held in the first days of May)
Mid 2027	Results and offers are released, followed by a reserve list

Always check the real dates on the NSW Department of Education website: the application process page for when applications open and close, and the placement test page for test days. The dates above are only a guide based on earlier years.

Four sample Thinking Skills questions at Year 6 level

These are written by us for practice and are not from any real test. They are not in our free check or practice packs, so your child can still do those fresh. Try them with your child: one minute each.

Critical thinking: must be true

All the marshals at the kite festival wore green vests. Some of the people in green vests were handing out maps. Tien was a marshal at the festival.
Which statement must be true?

Tien was handing out maps at the festival.
Tien wore a green vest at the festival.
Everyone in a green vest was a marshal.
Tien has been a marshal at the festival before.

Show the answer

Answer: B. Every marshal wore a green vest, and Tien was a marshal, so Tien wore a green vest. Only some people in vests handed out maps, so we cannot say Tien did, and nothing tells us that everyone in a vest was a marshal.

Critical thinking: weaken an argument

The manager of a gym says: "Since we started opening at 5 am, our membership has grown every month. The early opening is what is bringing in new members."
Which statement, if true, most weakens what the manager says?

The gym now has more treadmills than any other gym in the area.
In the same month the gym began opening at 5 am, the only other gym in town closed down.
Most of the new members come to the gym after work, not early in the morning.
The manager has worked at the gym for more than ten years.

Show the answer

Answer: B. If the only other gym closed at the same time, its members would need somewhere new to go. That alone could explain the growth, so the early opening may not be the reason. The third option also hints at this, but the closed gym is a complete alternative explanation.

Logic: ordering

Four cousins arrive at a family reunion one at a time.
• Dao arrives before Eun.
• Fatima arrives after Eun.
• Gael arrives after Fatima.
Who arrives third?

Dao
Eun
Fatima
Gael

Show the answer

Answer: C. Put the clues in a line: Dao, then Eun, then Fatima, then Gael. The third to arrive is Fatima.

Problem solving: rates

A hose fills a 90-litre paddling pool in 12 minutes. At the same rate, how long would it take to fill a 150-litre pool?

15 minutes
18 minutes
20 minutes
24 minutes

Show the answer

Answer: C. 90 litres in 12 minutes is 90 ÷ 12 = 7.5 litres every minute. 150 ÷ 7.5 = 20, so the larger pool takes 20 minutes.

How to prepare: a month-by-month plan

Short, regular practice works better than long weekend sessions. Aim for 30 minutes, three or four times a week. Year 6 children can take more responsibility: let your child mark their own work and explain the mistakes to you.

October to December 2026: find the starting point. When applications open (usually early November), apply early and choose schools carefully. Do one free Selective Thinking Skills check to see which skills are strong and which need work. Read widely together, including newspaper articles and non-fiction, and talk about what the writer is claiming and why.
January 2027: learn the question types. Practise one type at a time: "must be true", assumptions, weaken and strengthen, ordering puzzles, if-then chains. After each question, ask your child to explain the answer out loud in one or two sentences.
February 2027: check the application and start the clock. Make sure the application is submitted before it closes. Start timed sets of 10 to 20 questions at one minute per question.
March 2027: practise on a computer. The real test is on screen, so do practice on a computer or tablet with a timer. Keep a list of mistakes and redo them a week later. Start short writing tasks to a time limit as well.
April 2027: full timed sections. Do a full section at test length, for example 40 Thinking Skills questions in 40 minutes, once a week. Practise leaving a hard question and coming back to it.
The week before: rest. Light review only, good sleep, and check the test centre, the time and what to bring.

Tips that help most children

Find the speaker's reason first. In "weakens" and "supports" questions, ask: what reason does this person rely on? The right option attacks or supports that reason, not the topic in general.
Draw the puzzle. For ordering and matching puzzles, draw a line or a table and cross out what is impossible. Guessing in your head at this level leads to mistakes.
Read every word. Words like "must", "only", "at least", "exactly one" and "cannot" change the answer.
Keep moving. One minute per question means no question is worth three minutes. Choose the best guess, note the number, and come back if there is time.

Try a free Selective Thinking Skills check

20 questions at Year 6 level with a 20-minute timer, an instant score for each skill and worked answers in English, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean and Thai.

Start the free Selective check

Preparing a younger child for the Year 4 test instead? Read the OC test guide or try the free OC check.