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Selective FAQ

What is it?

NSW Selective high schools are schools providing harder academic learning for high-potential and gifted students. The Selective High School Placement Test is held in year 6 in May. The official Selective High School can be found on the education.nsw.gov.au website. 


is Selective High for the gifted?
Selective schools are targeting high-potential and gifted students. Students that either excel academically or have a natural curiosity to think deeper. However, the tests are demanding and will require some preparation, even for IQ tested gifted students.
The notion that tested gifted will be easily able to get into a Selective School is FALSE! Even for the gifted with a knack for academics, and particularly for the "top 10 Selective Schools", fully selective schools located at Sydney North and inner west.

how about NAPLAN, ACER, and School Awards?

Entry into Selective High School is based wholly on the Selective High Test only. Other achievements are not considered, unlike Private School entry, Scholarship or Gifted programs run by the schools.


What is the Selective Test?
In 2021 a revamp of the selective test to deter coaching and target high potential and gifted students uses tests developed by Cambridge Assessment. As of 2023 the Selective test is paper-based and 100% of the total assessment to determine school allocation.
The test is made up of 4 paper sections, the most important being Thinking Skills making up 35% of the total weighted contribution of the assessment mark (not provided by DOE).
SectionMinutesQuestionsTypeWeighting

Reading

4030Multiple choice25%

Mathematical reasoning

4035Multiple choice25%

Thinking skills

4040Multiple choice35%

Writing

301Open response15%
 
what do Selective Test results look like?













The distribution of the test result is not known, so it can be difficult to determine the topic importance and effect on the overall score, as it will be dependent on the cohort. 
As an example, Student A test results are as follows

  1. Reading 22/30 => 10% band =>  18/25 
  2. Math Reasoning  32/35 => 10%  band => 23/25
  3. Thinking Skills  34/40 => 15% (top 25%) band =>  30/35
    easy test with the majority of students scoring very highly
  4. Writing 6/15 => 15% (top 25%) band  => 6/15
Total = 77/100  
Note despite both Reading and Math are top 10% there is 5 point difference.
And Thinking despite achieving the second top 25% in fact is only 5 points off from perfect.
 


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