OC-style practice for the Year 4 placement test

What the OC test is

Who sits it

Year 4 students who apply for a Year 5 place in an opportunity class. Your child is in Year 3 when applications open and in Year 4 when they close.

Reading

14 questions, 3 of them with more than one part, in 40 minutes.

Mathematical reasoning

35 questions in 40 minutes, with no calculator.

Thinking skills

30 questions in 30 minutes. The department says no previous knowledge is required.

How it runs

Every section is multiple choice and counts for a third of the result. Children sit the test on computers the department provides.

Coaching

The department says coaching or tutoring for the test is not necessary, and that no credible research shows coaching helps a child gain entry.

Sources: Opportunity class practice tests and Placement test on education.nsw.gov.au, checked 3 October 2026.

When the OC test runs

For entry in 2027, applications were open from 6 November 2025 to 20 February 2026. The test ran on Friday 8 and Saturday 9 May 2026, with a make-up test on Friday 22 May 2026.

The department had not published the dates for the next test when we checked on 3 October 2026.

Sources: Placement test and Applications open (news, 10 November 2025) on education.nsw.gov.au, checked 3 October 2026.

How Learnest helps

• Thinking skills for Years 3 and 4: word analogies, letter codes, odd one out, number series, pattern rules, ordering and matching puzzles, who is right, if-then chains, spatial reasoning and reading a figure.
• A stretch question on maths days: thinking skills on some days and problem solving on the rest. In Settings you can make it thinking skills every day.
• An OC-style thinking skills paper: 20 questions in 30 minutes, set from your parent page. The real section has 30 questions in 30 minutes, so Learnest's paper gives more time for each question.
• Mathematical reasoning: the daily maths follows the NSW syllabus for your child's year, and the AMC-style problem solving papers practise questions that take more than one step.

What Learnest does not do: it has no OC-style reading paper. Its NAPLAN-style reading papers are the nearest practice it offers.

Each year has a page with what your child works on and sample questions: Year 3 and Year 4.

Sample questions

These come from Learnest's own question bank. Try each one, then open the worked answer.

Pick an answer to check it. Try a wrong one too: you see the mistake that usually leads to it.

1. Sample

   1Thinking skills: who is right

   A box holds some badges. Ruby says there are between 8 and 13. Kai says there are between 3 and 6. Zara says there are between 8 and 15. Only one of them is wrong. Who is wrong?

   1. AOption A: You cannot tell.
   2. BOption B: Zara
   3. COption C: Ruby
   4. DOption D: Kai
   See the worked answer

   Answer: D, Kai

   Ruby and Zara can both be right, for example with 9 badges. Kai's guess cannot be right together with either of theirs, so Kai is the one who is wrong.

2. Sample

   2Thinking skills: if-then chains

   Whenever the torch shines, the cave glows. Whenever the cave glows, the bats stir. Whenever the bats stir, the echo returns. The cave glows. What follows?

   1. AOption A: You cannot tell.
   2. BOption B: The walkers turn back.
   3. COption C: The echo returns.
   4. DOption D: The torch shines.
   See the worked answer

   Answer: C, The echo returns.

   The fact is that the cave glows. Following the rules forward from there leads to 'the echo returns', so that must be true. The first rule cannot be read backwards, so 'the torch shines' is not forced.

3. Sample

   3Thinking skills: spatial reasoning

   For an art task Ivy builds a 4 by 4 by 4 cube from wooden blocks, paints its outside, then pulls it apart. How many blocks have paint on exactly two faces?

   Your child types the answer.

   See the worked answer

   Answer: 24

   Cubes with paint on exactly two faces sit only along the 12 edges, away from the corners, so 12 lots of 4 minus 2.

4. Sample

   4Thinking skills: counting pairs

   In a hall 7 delegates each shake hands a single time with every other one. How many handshakes take place?

   1. AOption A: 42
   2. BOption B: 6
   3. COption C: 7
   4. DOption D: 21
   See the worked answer

   Answer: D, 21

   Each of the 7 delegates meets 6 others, which is 7 × 6 = 42 counting each pair from both sides, so halve it.

5. Sample

   5Mathematical reasoning: fractions and decimals

   Put ³⁄₄, 0.8 and 0.72 in order from smallest to largest.

   1. AOption A: ³⁄₄, 0.72, 0.8
   2. BOption B: 0.72, ³⁄₄, 0.8
   3. COption C: 0.8, 0.72, ³⁄₄
   4. DOption D: 0.8, ³⁄₄, 0.72
   See the worked answer

   Answer: B, 0.72, ³⁄₄, 0.8

   Three quarters is 0.75, which sits between 0.72 and 0.80.

Questions parents ask