Can my child sit the Selective High School test in Year 5?

No. The Selective High School Placement Test is sat in Year 6, for Year 7 entry — the Department says so on its placement test page. The test a Year 4 child sits is the Opportunity Class Placement Test, for Year 5 entry, which is a different test with three sections instead of four. If your child is in Year 5 they have missed the Opportunity Class window and the Selective test is the one ahead of them.

Is there free Selective test practice suitable for Year 5?

Selective test practice Year 5 families can genuinely use is thinner than it first looks, and our own two books are an example of why: they are free and complete, but they are written for Year 6. Our two Selective books are free and complete, but they are pitched at Year 6: the Mathematical Reasoning book opens on percentages, ratio and negative numbers. The checker on this page works out which of their chapters do not depend on something a Year 4 book teaches first, so you can start on those rather than on chapter one.

When should we start preparing for the Selective test?

We are not going to give you a month, because we do not know your child and nobody who does not know your child should. What this page can tell you is what starting early can usefully consist of when the main books are still a year ahead: closing the specific gaps that unlock them. The Department states that it does not recommend or endorse coaching for the placement test and that there is no credible research showing it helps a child gain entry.

What is the difference between the Opportunity Class books and the Selective books?

Level, mostly. The Opportunity Class books are written for Year 4 and stay inside what a Year 4 child has met: fractions of an amount, time, money, perimeter and area, order of operations. The Selective books are written for Year 6 and use percentages, ratio, speed, negative numbers, letters standing in for numbers and the area of triangles. The Thinking Skills pair differ by size rather than kind — ordering five or six things instead of three or four, codes with two steps instead of one.

How is the Selective test weighted?

All four sections are 25% each: Reading, Mathematical Reasoning, Thinking Skills and Writing. That means the single 30-minute writing question is worth as much as the 40-question Thinking Skills section. Nothing on this page helps with the writing, and our books cannot mark it either. We would not trust an automated marker with it: judging ideas, structure and expression is exactly the sort of call our checkers are built not to pretend they can make. That one needs a person to read what your child wrote.

Is the dependency map on this page official?

No. It is ours. We built it by reading our own two books’ chapter lists side by side and asking, for each Year 6 chapter, what the Year 4 book teaches that it stands on. It is not from the NSW Department of Education, it is not the Australian Curriculum, and no qualified teacher has reviewed it. Treat it as a reading order, not an assessment.

NSW Selective High School Placement Test

Year 5, nowYou are here
A year of runway, which is the whole reason to spend it on the Year 4 gaps rather than on the Year 6 book your child cannot open yet.
Year 5, later
The gaps close one at a time. Each one opens more of the Year 6 books, and the checker below tells you which chapter opens the most.
Year 6
The test is sat in Year 6, for Year 7 entry. Check the Department for that cycle’s application window and test dates — we deliberately do not reprint them here, because a stale date is worse than none.
Test day
Four sections, 93 questions, 155 minutes of working time, and all four sections worth 25% each — including the single writing question.

Free Selective test practice in Year 5, a year before the test

Our two Selective practice books are free and complete, and they are written for Year 6. That is the problem a Year 5 family runs into on page one: the Mathematical Reasoning book opens on percentages, then ratio, then negative numbers. Rather than tell you to wait a year, this works out which chapters do not need any of that yet.

Check which chapters are open

The map behind the answer

The whole thing, in one table, so you can disagree with it. Each Year 6 chapter sits next to the Year 4 chapter or chapters it stands on, and the reason we think so. If a row looks wrong to you, trust your own read of your own child over ours.

QuizPaste’s own reading of its own two books’ chapter lists. Not the Australian Curriculum, not the Department, not reviewed by a teacher. Scroll sideways on a narrow screen.
Year 6 chapter	Stands on (Year 4 chapter)	Why
Percentages of an amount	Fractions of an amount	a percentage of an amount is a fraction of an amount in other clothes
Increase and decrease	Fractions of an amount and Money	you have to find the part before you can add or take it off
Sharing in a ratio	Sharing & remainders and Fractions of an amount	a ratio is sharing where the shares are not equal
Speed, distance and time	Time and Changing units	the arithmetic is easy and the units are what catch people out
Negative numbers	Nothing — new ground	nothing in the Year 4 book leads into this one, so it starts cold
Letters standing in for numbers	Working backwards and Order of operations	undoing a calculation is the same move, written with a letter in it
Area of triangles and odd shapes	Perimeter & area	it extends rectangles to shapes you have to cut up first
How likely is it?	Fractions of an amount	chance is written as a fraction, so fractions come first
Two-step word problems	Order of operations and Working backwards	two steps means deciding which one goes first
Harder patterns	Number patterns	same idea, longer rules
Ordering five and six things	Putting things in order	the same puzzle with more things to keep straight
Codes with two steps	Letter codes	a one-step code has to be automatic before two steps is readable
Three overlapping groups	Groups that overlap	two circles before three
Ruling things out	Ruling things out	the Year 4 book has this chapter too, at shorter length
Days a long way out	Days of the week	counting a few days ahead before counting hundreds
Balancing three things	Balancing scales	two-way balances before three-way ones
Machines that do two things	Finding the rule	you have to be able to find one rule before chaining two

Two things the map turned up

One Year 6 chapter stands on nothing in the Year 4 book: Negative numbers. That makes it open to a Year 5 child on day one, which is not at all the same as easy. It is open because there is no run-up, not because there is no climb.
4 Year 4 chapters lead nowhere in the Year 6 book — Averages, Left, right and next to, The odd one out, Counting positions. They are not wasted; they are on the Opportunity Class path rather than this one. Worth knowing if you are working through the Year 4 book with the Selective test as the goal, because those are the ones to leave until last.

The two free books

This is the whole of our free Selective test practice Year 5 families can reach: two complete books, not sample chapters. No account, no email, no watermark. Worked answers for every question and a plain-English explainer at the start of each chapter, which matters more than usual here: a Year 5 child meeting ratio for the first time needs the explainer, not just the answer.

Mathematical Reasoning

75 pages · 300 questions · answers & working for every one · 1.0 MB PDF

See 3 more pages inside

Open the Mathematical Reasoning PDF
2 · Explain it in plain words
Every chapter opens with the same five boxes: the idea in plain words, a worked example, the mistake it invites, something to remember it by, and one question to check yourself. If it cannot be said plainly, it is not understood yet.
Open the Mathematical Reasoning PDF
3 · Then practise it
Page after page on that one skill, four options each, with room beside every question for working. The same skill over and over, not a page of unrelated puzzles.
Open the Mathematical Reasoning PDF
4 · Check, and see why
Every answer has the working, not just a letter. That is what lets a parent who is not a teacher explain where it went wrong.

Percentages of an amount · Increase and decrease · Sharing in a ratio · Speed, distance and time · Negative numbers · Letters standing in for numbers · Area of triangles and odd shapes · How likely is it? · Two-step word problems · Harder patterns

Download Mathematical Reasoning PDF

Free, no account and no email · 10 chapters

Thinking Skills

55 pages · 210 questions · answers & working for every one · 0.7 MB PDF

See 3 more pages inside

Open the Thinking Skills PDF
2 · Explain it in plain words
Every chapter opens with the same five boxes: the idea in plain words, a worked example, the mistake it invites, something to remember it by, and one question to check yourself. If it cannot be said plainly, it is not understood yet.
Open the Thinking Skills PDF
3 · Then practise it
Page after page on that one skill, four options each, with room beside every question for working. The same skill over and over, not a page of unrelated puzzles.
Open the Thinking Skills PDF
4 · Check, and see why
Every answer has the working, not just a letter. That is what lets a parent who is not a teacher explain where it went wrong.

Ordering five and six things · Codes with two steps · Three overlapping groups · Ruling things out · Days a long way out · Balancing three things · Machines that do two things

Download Thinking Skills PDF

Free, no account and no email · 7 chapters

The Year 4 books the checker keeps pointing you back at are on what is actually on the Opportunity Class test, and they are free in the same way. If you would rather work out what fits in a given evening than what fits in a year, the practice session builder does that for the Year 4 books.

Questions parents ask

Can my child sit the Selective High School test in Year 5?: No. The Selective High School Placement Test is sat in Year 6, for Year 7 entry — the Department says so on its placement test page. The test a Year 4 child sits is the Opportunity Class Placement Test, for Year 5 entry, which is a different test with three sections instead of four. If your child is in Year 5 they have missed the Opportunity Class window and the Selective test is the one ahead of them.
Is there free Selective test practice suitable for Year 5?: Selective test practice Year 5 families can genuinely use is thinner than it first looks, and our own two books are an example of why: they are free and complete, but they are written for Year 6. Our two Selective books are free and complete, but they are pitched at Year 6: the Mathematical Reasoning book opens on percentages, ratio and negative numbers. The checker on this page works out which of their chapters do not depend on something a Year 4 book teaches first, so you can start on those rather than on chapter one.
When should we start preparing for the Selective test?: We are not going to give you a month, because we do not know your child and nobody who does not know your child should. What this page can tell you is what starting early can usefully consist of when the main books are still a year ahead: closing the specific gaps that unlock them. The Department states that it does not recommend or endorse coaching for the placement test and that there is no credible research showing it helps a child gain entry.
What is the difference between the Opportunity Class books and the Selective books?: Level, mostly. The Opportunity Class books are written for Year 4 and stay inside what a Year 4 child has met: fractions of an amount, time, money, perimeter and area, order of operations. The Selective books are written for Year 6 and use percentages, ratio, speed, negative numbers, letters standing in for numbers and the area of triangles. The Thinking Skills pair differ by size rather than kind — ordering five or six things instead of three or four, codes with two steps instead of one.
How is the Selective test weighted?: All four sections are 25% each: Reading, Mathematical Reasoning, Thinking Skills and Writing. That means the single 30-minute writing question is worth as much as the 40-question Thinking Skills section. Nothing on this page helps with the writing, and our books cannot mark it either. We would not trust an automated marker with it: judging ideas, structure and expression is exactly the sort of call our checkers are built not to pretend they can make. That one needs a person to read what your child wrote.
Is the dependency map on this page official?: No. It is ours. We built it by reading our own two books’ chapter lists side by side and asking, for each Year 6 chapter, what the Year 4 book teaches that it stands on. It is not from the NSW Department of Education, it is not the Australian Curriculum, and no qualified teacher has reviewed it. Treat it as a reading order, not an assessment.

What to do with a wrong answer

Type up what your child got wrong and turn it into a revision deck: notes to quiz.
Then space the return so the correction survives the week: forgetting curve calculator.
The full four-section breakdown, and the section our books cannot mark, is on the Selective High School test.

Sources

Placement test — that the Selective High School Placement Test is for Year 7 entry and the Opportunity Class Placement Test is for Year 5 entry, which is what puts a Year 5 child on the Selective path.
Selective high school practice tests — the four sections, their question counts and minutes, and the 25% weighting on each.

Both re-checked 6 August 2026. QuizPaste is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or approved by the NSW Department of Education. The test-format facts here are taken from Department web pages, © State of New South Wales (Department of Education), published under CC BY 4.0. That licence does not cover the Department’s sample tests, whose copyright is held by Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Every question in our books, and the chapter map on this page, is ours. How we license our content →