Selective-style practice for Years 5 and 6

What the selective test is

Who sits it

Year 6 students who apply for a Year 7 place at a selective high school. Your child is in Year 5 when applications open and in Year 6 when they close.

Reading

17 questions, 3 of them with more than one part, in 45 minutes.

Mathematical reasoning

35 questions in 40 minutes.

Thinking skills

40 questions in 40 minutes.

Writing

One task in 30 minutes, answered in the student's own words. The other three sections are multiple choice.

How it runs

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: Selective high school practice tests and Placement test on education.nsw.gov.au, checked 3 October 2026.

When the selective test runs

For entry in 2027, applications were open from 6 November 2025 to 20 February 2026. The test ran on Friday 1 and Saturday 2 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

• A selective-style thinking skills paper: 40 questions in 40 minutes, the same count and time as the real section, set from your parent page.
• A selective-style mathematical reasoning paper: 35 questions in 40 minutes, also the same as the real section.
• Thinking skills for Years 5 and 6: drawing a valid conclusion, spotting the flaw, strengthening or weakening an argument, judging whose reasoning is correct, what must be true, truth and lies, ordering and matching puzzles, number and letter series, calendar and clock puzzles, and spatial and numerical reasoning.
• 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.

What Learnest does not do: it does not set or mark writing tasks, it has no selective-style reading paper, and its thinking skills questions for Years 5 and 6 are all in words, with no picture puzzles. Its NAPLAN-style reading papers are the nearest reading practice it offers.

Each year has a page with what your child works on and sample questions: Year 5 and Year 6.

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: spot the flaw

   Muffins sell out at the canteen on rainy days and on sports days. It did not rain on Friday. Anika says the muffins did not sell out on Friday. Where does Anika's thinking go wrong?

   1. AOption A: Anika reads 'some days' as if it meant every day.
   2. BOption B: Anika forgets that Friday could have been a sports day.
   3. COption C: It might have rained on Friday after all.
   4. DOption D: Anika does not say how much the muffins cost.
   See the worked answer

   Answer: B, Anika forgets that Friday could have been a sports day.

   If Friday was a sports day, the muffins could still have sold out, so no rain does not settle it. Doubting one of the facts is not the flaw, because the question asks you to accept them.

2. Sample

   2Thinking skills: weaken an argument

   Kai says the council should put a crossing supervisor on Park Street, because many children cross there before school. Which statement most hurts the argument?

   1. AOption A: Park Street has a bakery on the corner.
   2. BOption B: Most children use the footbridge rather than crossing Park Street.
   3. COption C: Park Street needs a crossing supervisor.
   4. DOption D: A council count found over a hundred children cross Park Street each morning.
   See the worked answer

   Answer: B, Most children use the footbridge rather than crossing Park Street.

   If it is true, the reason given, that many children cross there before school, does much less to support the claim, so the argument is weaker. The fact that backs the claim cannot weaken it.

3. Sample

   3Thinking skills: truth and lies

   One of Ayse, Lily, Mei and Amir found the lost key to the sports shed. "Mei did not find the key," says Ayse. "Ayse is lying," says Mei. "Neither Mei nor I found the key," says Amir. "Ayse is not telling the truth," says Lily. Just one of these statements is true. Who is telling the truth?

   1. AOption A: Mei
   2. BOption B: Amir
   3. COption C: Ayse
   4. DOption D: Lily
   See the worked answer

   Answer: C, Ayse

   If Ayse is the only one telling the truth, then Amir found the key and every other statement is false. No other choice works, so Ayse is telling the truth.

4. Sample

   4Mathematical reasoning: bar models

   Lina read ¹⁄₅ of a book on Monday and ³⁄₄ of the remaining pages on Tuesday. She still has 30 pages to read. How many pages does the book have?

   1. AOption A: 120
   2. BOption B: 600
   3. COption C: 144
   4. DOption D: 150
   See the worked answer

   Answer: D, 150

   Use two bars. After the first step, ¹⁄₄ of what remained is 30, so what remained was 30 divided by 1 × 4 = 120. That 120 is ⁴⁄₅ of the start, so the start was 120 divided by 4 × 5 = 150.

5. Sample

   5Mathematical reasoning: guess, check and improve

   A farm has 40 ducks and cows. Between them they have 50 more legs than heads. How many cows are on the farm?

   1. AOption A: 25
   2. BOption B: 10
   3. COption C: 5
   4. DOption D: 35
   See the worked answer

   Answer: C, 5

   A duck has 2 legs on 1 head, so 1 extra leg, and a cow has 4 legs on 1 head, so 3 extra legs. Guess 10 cows and 30 ducks: 10 × 3 + 30 × 1 = 60, which is 10 over. Changing one duck into a cow, or back, moves the total by 2, so 5 cows and 35 ducks give 50.

Questions parents ask