Free · Timed · 25 minutes · Years 6–8

Free Scholarship Practice Test — 30 Questions, 25 Minutes, Instant Results

A free, timed sample in the style of the ACER and Edutest scholarship papers: 30 multiple-choice questions across mathematics and reading and language, drawn from our Year 6, 7 and 8 banks at the stretch and challenge tiers, 25 minutes on the clock, marked instantly with a section breakdown. Part of RHZ Tutoring's 3,261 free practice questions. No sign-up.

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⏱ 25-minute countdown, auto-marked📊 Section breakdown: maths reasoning · reading & language📚 3,261 free practice questions

Free practice quizzes › Scholarship practice test · Selective Entry practice test

The practice test: 30 questions in 25 minutes

Two sections. Press Start the timer, answer every question you can, and press Mark my test before the clock runs out, or it will be marked automatically. Set 82025 · New set of questions →

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Section 1: Maths reasoning (15 questions)

Question 1
Maths reasoning · Probability

A bag contains only red, blue, and green marbles. The probability of drawing a red marble is 1/3 and the probability of drawing a blue marble is 1/4. A marble is drawn at random. What is the probability it is NOT green?

Question 2
Maths reasoning · Integers & operations

Freya says: 'If you subtract a negative integer from a positive integer, the result is always positive.' Is she correct?

Question 3
Maths reasoning · Fraction & decimal operations

Which of the following is exactly halfway between 3/8 and 3/4 on a number line?

Question 4
Maths reasoning · Equations

Two friends each choose a different value of x and substitute it into the expression 6x − 1. Alex gets a result that is exactly 15 more than Billie's result. How much greater is Alex's value of x than Billie's?

Question 5
Maths reasoning · Fraction & decimal operations

A tank holds 12.6 litres of water. Each day, 1.4 litres evaporates. After how many days will the tank have less than 5 litres remaining?

Question 6
Maths reasoning · Area & volume

A square paddock has its side length increased by 50%. By what percentage does its area increase?

Question 7
Maths reasoning · Fraction & decimal operations

A ribbon is 7.2 metres long. It is cut into pieces that are each 0.8 metres long. The pieces are shared equally among 3 friends. How many pieces does each friend get?

Question 8
Maths reasoning · Indices

Which value of n makes this equation true? 4^n × 2^(n+1) = 2^13

Question 9
Maths reasoning · Ratio & rates

A school buys red and blue pens in the ratio 4 : 3. After the teacher gives away 12 red pens, the ratio of red pens to blue pens becomes 1 : 1. How many blue pens did the school buy?

Question 10
Maths reasoning · Area & volume

A circular pizza has a diameter of 28 cm. A chef cuts out a smaller circle of diameter 14 cm from the centre. Using π ≈ 22/7, what is the area of the remaining ring-shaped piece of pizza?

Question 11
Maths reasoning · Fractions, decimals & percentages

Lena saves 3/8 of her weekly pocket money. Her friend Joel saves 37.5% of his weekly pocket money. Joel receives $56 per week and Lena receives $48 per week. Who saves more money each week, and by how much?

Question 12
Maths reasoning · Ratios & rates

A tap leaks at a rate of 3 litres every 4 hours. A plumber says the leak wastes more than 500 litres over 4 weeks (28 days). Is the plumber correct, and how many litres are wasted in 28 days?

Question 13
Maths reasoning · Geometry

A parallelogram has vertices at coordinates A(0, 0), B(6, 0), C(8, 4), and D(2, 4). A student calculates its area by multiplying the base (AB = 6 cm) by the vertical height (4 cm), getting 24 cm². A second student multiplies the side lengths AB × AD, where AD = √(4 + 16) = √20 cm, and gets a different answer. Which statement is correct?

Question 14
Maths reasoning · Percentages & rates

A shopkeeper increases an item's price by 20%, then decreases the new price by 10%, then increases that price by 15%. What is the overall percentage change from the original price? Round to the nearest whole percent.

Question 15
Maths reasoning · Ratio & rates

A farmer plants wheat and canola in the ratio 5 : 3. The wheat paddock covers 40 hectares more than the canola paddock. What is the total area planted?

Section 2: Reading & language (15 questions)

Question 16
Reading & language · Text response & analysis

Read this extract from a short story: 'Every morning, Grandma set two cups on the table — one for herself and one that sat untouched, waiting, as it had for three years now. She hummed while she made the tea, the same song she had always hummed, and smiled at the window the way she used to smile at the door.' A student says the extract is simply about a woman's morning routine. Which statement BEST explains why this reading is insufficient, and what technique supports a deeper interpretation?

Question 17
Reading & language · Reading & comprehension

A student is comparing two texts about drought. Text A is a government water management report. Text B is a poem by a farmer watching a dry creek bed. The student says: 'Text B is useless for research because it is just feelings.' Which response best evaluates this claim?

Question 18
Reading & language · Text response & analysis

Read: "The government's plan will create 10 000 new jobs — a historic achievement. Critics, however, claim the plan ignores environmental costs and relies on projections that experts call 'overly optimistic'." A student says the text is balanced because it includes both the government's view and the critics' view. What does the student overlook?

Question 19
Reading & language · Speaking & listening

During a student debate, Aisha uses a calm, measured tone even while making very strong claims. Her opponent uses an increasingly urgent, passionate tone as the debate continues. Which analysis of their vocal choices is most accurate?

Question 20
Reading & language · Text response & analysis

Read this passage: "Jake slammed his locker shut and walked to class without looking at anyone. 'Fine,' he muttered when his friend asked if he was okay. At lunch he sat alone, staring at his untouched food." Which statement best explains what the word 'Fine' reveals about Jake?

Question 21
Reading & language · Vocabulary & grammar

Which sentence uses the word 'disinterested' correctly according to its precise meaning?

Question 22
Reading & language · Text response & analysis

Read these two short texts about the same school funding policy: Text 1 (newspaper editorial): 'The government's decision to redirect school funding to regional areas is a courageous act of fairness, finally addressing decades of neglect.' Text 2 (parent group newsletter): 'The government's sudden funding cuts have left metropolitan schools scrambling, with programs axed and class sizes ballooning.' A student says: 'Text 2 is more biased than Text 1 because it uses emotional words like scrambling and axed.' What is the most significant flaw in this student's analysis?

Question 23
Reading & language · Phonics & spelling

A student wants to spell the word for 'the quality of being responsible'. She knows the base word is 'responsible'. She removes '-ible' and adds '-ibility', making 'responsibilty'. Which statement correctly identifies her error AND explains the rule she broke?

Question 24
Reading & language · Persuasive & creative writing

A student is writing a persuasive essay arguing that teenagers should be allowed to vote at 16. She writes this body paragraph: 'Sixteen-year-olds can drive, pay taxes, and leave school — yet they cannot vote on the laws that govern all these choices. This is not a privilege we are asking for. It is a right that logic demands.' She then begins her next paragraph with a new argument. What is the most significant structural weakness in this paragraph?

Question 25
Reading & language · Vocabulary & grammar

A student writes: 'The team, exhausted from the long season, were finally given their medals.' The teacher says the verb 'were' is correct here even though 'team' is a single noun. Which explanation BEST justifies the teacher's marking?

Question 26
Reading & language · Phonics & spelling

A student is learning about words derived from the Latin root 'scrib'/'script' (meaning 'to write'). She writes these four sentences and underlines a word in each: 1. The doctor gave her a 'prescription' for the medicine. 2. The journalist wrote a 'manuscript' by hand. 3. The teacher asked them to 'transcribe' the passage. 4. The ancient carvings were an 'inscription' on the stone. She claims: 'Because the root means to write, the silent letters in these words all come from the same Latin root and must always be spelled -scr-.' A classmate challenges her, saying that 'manuscript' is different because its meaning comes from TWO Latin roots, and so the spelling rule she stated does not fully apply. Which option CORRECTLY evaluates both claims?

Question 27
Reading & language · Comprehension

Read this passage, then answer the question. "Declan had told everyone he did not care whether he got the lead role in the play. When the cast list went up, he arrived at the noticeboard last, walking slowly, looking at his phone. He glanced at the list once, nodded, and walked away. At lunch he sat alone and ate nothing." The passage does not directly state how Declan feels about the cast list result. What does the sequence of his actions most strongly imply?

Question 28
Reading & language · Text response & analysis

A student is writing a text response about the novel 'The One and Only Ivan'. She writes this conclusion: "In conclusion, this essay has discussed Ivan's loneliness, his friendship with Ruby, and the theme of freedom. These are all important parts of the book." What is the main weakness of this conclusion?

Question 29
Reading & language · Comprehension

Read this passage. "The government's new transport plan was welcomed by business leaders, who said it would create jobs and reduce freight costs. Environmental groups, however, warned that the new motorway would cut through a protected wetland. The minister said the plan had undergone 'rigorous environmental assessment.' No independent review has been published." A student claims: 'This passage is balanced because it includes both positive and negative views.' Which response best evaluates that claim?

Question 30
Reading & language · Speaking & listening

A group of Year 6 students is discussing whether the school day should start later. Ella says, 'Research shows teenagers need more sleep.' Dev says, 'But most of our parents work early shifts — starting later creates problems at home.' Ella responds, 'That's only some families though.' Dev then goes quiet and looks at the table. Which analysis of the group's communication is most accurate?

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Reading & language0 / 15
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What this scholarship practice test contains

Thirty multiple-choice questions in two timed sections. Section 1, Maths reasoning, has fifteen questions drawn from our Year 6, Year 7 and Year 8 maths banks: number and algebra, ratio and rates, measurement, geometry, statistics and probability, with the stretch and challenge tiers preferred so most items sit above the year level a Year 6 student is used to. Section 2, Reading & language, has fifteen questions from the same three years of our English banks: comprehension of short literary and informative passages, inference, vocabulary in context, spelling, grammar and punctuation. Every set is seeded, so the link you are on shows the same questions each time and a new seed gives a fresh set. The clock is 25 minutes for the lot, which is deliberately tight: roughly fifty seconds a question, which is close to the pace of the real scholarship papers.

The answer key is not in the page. When you press Mark my test, or when the timer reaches zero, the browser asks our server for the key for this exact set, marks every question, shows the correct answer and an explanation with the year level of each item, and breaks the score down by section and by topic. Unanswered questions count as wrong, as they do in the real exam, so it is worth answering everything before the time runs out.

About the Victorian Selective Entry exam

Victoria has four selective-entry high schools: Melbourne High School (boys), Mac.Robertson Girls' High School (girls), Nossal High School in Berwick (co-educational) and Suzanne Cory High School in Werribee (co-educational). Entry is by a single competitive examination sat in Year 8 for Year 9 entry, usually in June, with a smaller number of places sometimes offered for later year levels. Students nominate their preferred schools on one application, and places are offered on the basis of exam results, with a proportion of places set aside under equity provisions. Suzanne Cory, in Werribee, draws heavily from Melbourne's west and is the school most families we work with are aiming for.

For students in Year 8 in 2027, school communications give the exam date as 20 June 2027, with applications typically opening early in the year and closing well before the exam. Dates, fees, eligibility rules and the exact test format are set by the Department of Education and can change from year to year, so confirm every detail on the VSEHS website before you plan around it. What has been consistent is the shape of the test: reading comprehension, mathematics, verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning and two short writing tasks (one creative, one persuasive or analytical), all under strict time limits and pitched above the Year 8 curriculum. The reasoning sections are the ones school programs rarely teach, and the writing tasks are marked for ideas, structure and control of language in a very short time, which is why students who are strong in class can still struggle on the day.

The multiple-choice sections of the real exam reward three things: secure knowledge a year or so ahead of the classroom, the habit of reading a question exactly, and pace. This practice test checks the first and the third. It does not check writing, and it does not include the pattern-based verbal and numerical reasoning puzzles, both of which need their own practice.

ACER and Edutest scholarship tests

Independent and Catholic schools in Melbourne offer academic scholarships through external testing agencies rather than their own papers. The two you will meet most often are ACER and Edutest, and they feel quite different. ACER's Cooperative Scholarship Testing Program (CSTP) is run at set levels: Level 1 for Year 7 entry (sat in Year 6), Level 2 for Year 9 entry and Level 3 for Year 11 entry. The papers are long and demanding: two written expression tasks, a humanities paper of reading comprehension and interpretation that includes poems, cartoons, tables and extracts, and a mathematics paper that leans on reasoning rather than recall. ACER tests are usually held on a single day in February or March, and one sitting can be used for several participating schools.

Edutest papers are shorter and broken into five sections, typically of about thirty minutes each: verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning, reading comprehension, mathematics and written expression. Most sections are multiple choice and the pace is brisk. Schools using Edutest often run the test on their own campus at their own date, so a family may sit two or three across a season. Because the sections are short, a student who loses a minute panicking on a hard question pays for it immediately, which is why timed practice matters so much for Edutest in particular.

This practice test is closer to the multiple-choice mathematics and reading sections of both formats than to the reasoning puzzles or the writing. If your child is preparing for a Year 7 scholarship, treat the Year 7 and Year 8 items here as the stretch they are; a Year 6 student who handles them comfortably is well placed.

A preparation timeline

  1. Twelve to nine months out (for Selective Entry 2027: Term 3 and 4 of Year 7). Diagnose first. Sit this test and the free Skills Check, and find out whether the gaps are knowledge (Year 8 maths not yet met), technique (never seen a reasoning question) or speed. Close the maths gaps with the Year 7 and Year 8 topic quizzes and start reading widely: non-fiction, opinion pieces and short fiction, not just novels.
  2. Nine to six months out (Term 1 of Year 8). Learn the question types. Work through each section of the exam separately with short timed sets, and begin a weekly timed writing task with feedback. Confirm the application window on the VSEHS website and lodge the application early.
  3. Six to three months out (Term 1 to 2). Full-length practice papers under exam conditions every fortnight, marked and reviewed by section. The review is where the marks come from: every error goes into a list and gets re-attempted a week later.
  4. The last eight weeks. Taper. One full paper a week, timed sets on the weakest section between them, and writing practice to a fixed plan. In the final week, sleep, a light set each day and nothing new.

For a Year 6 scholarship, compress the same sequence into the second half of Year 5 and the first term of Year 6, because ACER and most Edutest sittings fall between February and May of Year 6.

How to read your result

We do not report percentiles, because a thirty-question free sample cannot be normed against the real candidate pool and any percentile we invented would mislead you. What we can say is this. Selective-entry and scholarship tests are competitive, and the students who win places are typically answering above-level questions quickly and accurately. A score of 80% or more here, inside the time limit, suggests your child is ready for full-length timed practice papers and should move to those. A score between 50% and 80% usually means the content is mostly there and the work is in the hardest third of the questions and the clock; look at which section is weaker and drill it with timed sets. A score of 50% or less means the Year 6 and Year 7 foundations need attention before exam-style practice will pay off, which is common and fixable: start with the Year 6 and Year 7 topic quizzes, secure the weakest topics and come back to this test in a term.

Watch the time as well as the score. A high score with the clock expired is a pace problem; a low score with minutes to spare is a content problem. They need different fixes, and the results panel shows both.

What to do next

1. Free Skills Check

Fifteen minutes, every Year 7 topic at every tier including stretch and challenge, with a same-day topic-by-topic report and a tutor call to walk through it. It is the diagnostic we use to start every selective and scholarship program.

Start the free Skills Check →

2. Selective Entry 2027 program

Two sessions a week, maths and English with reasoning drills, a full timed practice test every fortnight, at our Truganina centre or online. First session free.

Selective Entry 2027 → Selective entry and scholarship tutoring →

3. Printable practice packs

Full-length selective and scholarship practice papers with worked answers, so a student can practise on paper under the clock the way the real test is sat.

Browse selective and scholarship packs →

Questions? Call 03 9509 3293 or book a free consultation. RHZ Tutoring, 17/47 Apex Drive, Truganina VIC 3029.

Frequently asked questions

When is the 2027 Victorian Selective Entry exam?

School communications give the date as 20 June 2027 for Year 8 students seeking Year 9 entry in 2028. Dates and application windows can move, so confirm on the Victorian Selective Entry High Schools (VSEHS) website before planning around it.

Which schools does the Selective Entry exam cover?

Melbourne High School (boys, South Yarra), Mac.Robertson Girls' High School (girls, Melbourne), Nossal High School (co-educational, Berwick) and Suzanne Cory High School (co-educational, Werribee). Students sit one exam and list the schools in order of preference.

Is this practice test the same as the real exam?

No. It is a 30-question, 25-minute multiple-choice sample drawn from our Year 6, 7 and 8 maths and English banks at the stretch and challenge tiers. The real ACER and Edutest scholarship tests include writing tasks and, for Edutest, separate verbal and numerical reasoning sections. Use this page to check readiness and pace, not to predict a result.

What score should my child be getting?

There is no official pass mark and we do not publish percentiles for a free sample. As a rule of thumb, 80% or more here suggests a student is ready for full-length timed practice; 50% or less suggests starting with the Year 6 and Year 7 topic quizzes to secure the foundations first.

Does the timer matter?

Yes. Both selective-entry and scholarship tests are speed tests as much as knowledge tests, and most students lose more marks to the clock than to the content. If the score is good but the time ran out, practise timed sets; if there was time to spare but the score was low, work on the content.

What is the difference between ACER and Edutest scholarship tests?

Both are used by independent schools for Year 7 entry (sat in Year 6) and some for Year 9 or Year 11 entry. ACER's Cooperative Scholarship Testing Program has longer papers in written expression, humanities (reading and interpretation) and mathematics. Edutest papers are shorter and include five sections: verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning, reading comprehension, mathematics and written expression. Check which test each school uses.

Is this free, and is anything collected?

It is free and there is no sign-up. Marking happens on our server and only an anonymous score event is recorded. The free Skills Check, which produces a full report, asks for a parent email so we can send it.

Build the foundations first

If the result points to a content gap, these free topic quizzes cover the ground the test draws on:

All 3,261 free practice questions, Prep to Year 12 →