Selective High Schools Tests

The Selective High School Placement Test will be conducted on the morning of Thursday 13 March 2008. It will be administered statewide in designated test centres, usually established in government high schools. All applicants in NSW at the time are required to sit for the test, unless there are extenuating circumstances. The test is conducted only on this day and only in designated test centres.

The Selective High Schools Test measures ability and is set to discriminate at a very high level. It is very rare for even the highest scoring candidates to score full marks on all components of the Selective High School Placement Test.

Selective high school entry does not depend entirely on a student's performance in the Selective High School Placement Test as school assessment scores in English and mathematics are provided by the primary schools

Students who miss the test through illness or other unavoidable mishap may be considered through the illness/misadventure process. Students unable to take the test because they are interstate or overseas at the time should contact the Unit to determine whether they should apply to be considered under the illness/misadventure or the interstate/overseas procedures.

The Selective High School Placement Test is written by the Australian Council for Educational Research. It is a secure test and papers are unavailable for scrutiny before or after the test session. The test does not contain any questions used in previous tests. Students' final scores include a school-based assessment component.

School assessment scores

The school assessment scores will be moderated according to the performance of the candidates from your child's primary school in the reading, writing and mathematics tests. Moderating the school assessment scores makes them comparable statewide and gives school assessment scores and test scores in English and mathematics equal weighting.

Test centre

All candidates will be advised of their designated test centre.

Parents will be required to make appropriate transport arrangements.

Note: Parents must not remain on the school premises during the test unless special permission has been granted for student welfare reasons.

If you have not been advised by Tuesday, 4 March 2008 about the test centre your child has been allocated to, contact the Unit.

A full listing of the test centres will also be available from this website.

All candidates from the same primary school are usually sent to the same test centre.

Test answer sheets will be identified by numbers and not by name to ensure anonymity in the marking process.

If you do not meet the criteria for entry you should not assume that your application has been approved because your child has been assigned to a test centre.

Test components

There are four tests. Three of the tests consist of multiple-choice questions with answers recorded on computer-marked answer sheets. These three tests are reading, mathematics and general ability and each lasts at least 40 minutes.

The fourth is a writing test. A stimulus may be an image, a statement or a question to which students are to respond in writing. Students have 20 minutes to complete this test.

The test is marked by trained markers using pre-determined criteria. The writing will be judged on the quality of the thinking about a topic, the organisation of ideas and the control of language demonstrated in developing the piece of writing.

It is expected that students will produce writing that is their own original work in response to the stimulus in the test. Marks will not be awarded for writing that does not specifically address the stimulus. Marks will also not be awarded where the writing of students is discovered to have elements in common with writing of other students or published works. Selection committees have the discretion to deduct marks if they believe students have produced work memorised beforehand and adapted to respond to the stimulus.

Students must be careful not to look at the work of others during the test. Students found to be cheating risk disqualification from the test.

Some applicants request special test provisions for their children because of a sensory or physical disability. If applicable, parents or school principals should request special test provisions the application form.

When a parent or school makes a request for special test provisions the Unit evaluates the feasibility of the request and writes to both the applicant and the student's current government primary school principal explaining whether or not the special test provisions can be granted.

These publications assist applicants for Year 7 entry to selective high schools to become more familiar with the Selective High School Placement Test.

Some of the items have not been included for copyright reasons. Items that assess reading will be available as copyright permission is obtained.

In the actual Selective High School Placement Test there are 45 questions in reading, 40 in mathematics and 60 in general ability.

Sample test: Reading, mathematics and general ability test papers (pdf 753kb)

Sample answer sheet

In the multiple-choice sections of the test (Reading, Mathematics and General ability) the students must show their answers on answer pages that will be marked by computer.

The answer pages are specific to each year's test. The "bubbles" to be coloured in are grouped according to the pages from the question booklet. This is intended to assist students to avoid answering in the wrong place.

Students are encouraged to view the answer pages so that they are familiar with the way they are required to show their answers in the test.

View sample answer pages. (pdf.50kb)

It is important to note that selection committees and appeals panels will not accept students' performance in the sample or past papers as evidence of academic merit for the purposes of entry into a selective high school in any future year.

Past test papers

2001 Test

• Reading (pdf 647kb)  (Answers available)
• Mathematics  (pdf 418kb) (Answers available)
• General ability  (pdf 317kb) (Answers available)

2002 Test

• Mathematics (pdf 562kb)  (Answers available)
• General ability  (pdf 334kb) (Answers available)

2003 Test

• Mathematics (pdf 258kb)   (Answers available)
• General ability (pdf 236kb) (Answers available)