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 92884 · New set of questions →

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Section 1: Maths reasoning (15 questions)

Question 1
Maths reasoning · Ratio & rates

On a scale drawing, 1 cm represents 2.5 metres. A room measures 8 cm × 6 cm on the drawing. What is the ACTUAL area of the room?

Question 2
Maths reasoning · Percentages

15 is 10% of what number?

Question 3
Maths reasoning · Statistics & probability

A data set of 7 values has a mean of 10 and a median of 9. A new value of 9 is added, making 8 values in total. Which of the following statements is definitely true?

Question 4
Maths reasoning · Area, volume & angles

The four angles inside a quadrilateral are in the ratio 1 : 2 : 3 : 4. What is the size of the largest angle?

Question 5
Maths reasoning · Equations

The solution to the equation 4(x + 3) = 2x + 18 is worked out below. Which step contains the FIRST error? Step 1: 4x + 12 = 2x + 18 Step 2: 4x − 2x = 18 − 12 Step 3: 2x = 6 Step 4: x = 4

Question 6
Maths reasoning · Pythagoras

A right-angled triangle has legs of length x cm and (x + 7) cm. Its hypotenuse is 13 cm. What is the value of x?

Question 7
Maths reasoning · Geometry

Triangle PQR has angle P = (4x − 10)°, angle Q = (2x + 20)°, and angle R = (3x − 5)°. Which statement about triangle PQR is true?

Question 8
Maths reasoning · Indices

A student simplifies (3^a × 9^b) and wants to write it as a single power of 3. Which of the following is the correct simplified form?

Question 9
Maths reasoning · Percentages & rates

A phone plan charges a flat rate of $0.35 per minute for calls and $0.12 per SMS. In one month, Lachlan makes 45 minutes of calls and sends 80 SMS messages. What percentage of his total bill is made up by SMS charges? Round to the nearest whole percent.

Question 10
Maths reasoning · Ratios & rates

Three friends — Kai, Lena and Omar — contribute money to buy a gift in the ratio 2 : 3 : 5. The gift costs $60. Later, the shop gives a $12 refund, and the friends agree to share the refund in the same ratio 2 : 3 : 5. After the refund, how much has Kai paid in total?

Question 11
Maths reasoning · Fraction & decimal operations

A jug contains 3 1/4 litres of juice. It is poured equally into 5 glasses. How much juice is in each glass?

Question 12
Maths reasoning · Probability

Two events A and B are independent. P(A) = 0.5 and P(B) = 0.4. What is P(A or B), the probability that at least one of A or B occurs?

Question 13
Maths reasoning · Percentages

Ella's savings increased by 25% in January, then decreased by 25% in February. She now has $450. How much did Ella have at the start of January?

Question 14
Maths reasoning · Probability

A drawer has 5 black socks and 3 white socks. Two socks are drawn one at a time WITHOUT replacement. What is the probability that both socks are the same colour?

Question 15
Maths reasoning · Integers & operations

Which of the following statements about integer multiplication is TRUE for ALL integer values of a and b?

Section 2: Reading & language (15 questions)

Question 16
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 17
Reading & language · Text response & analysis

Read this passage: 'Lena had always loved the old oak tree in the backyard — the way it stood solid and unchanging through every storm, every season, every year her family had lived in that house. Now, standing at the removal truck, she pressed her hand to its rough bark one last time.' What is the author most likely using the oak tree to represent, and how is this achieved?

Question 18
Reading & language · Writing & grammar

A student writes: 'The reason the experiment failed was because the temperature was not controlled.' A teacher underlines the phrase 'The reason…was because' and asks the student to correct it. The student changes it to: 'The reason the experiment failed was due to the temperature not being controlled.' Has the student fixed the problem? Why or why not?

Question 19
Reading & language · Persuasive & creative writing

A student's short story includes this paragraph: 'The waiting room smelled of old magazines and disinfectant. A child across from Marcus kept kicking the chair leg — thump, thump, thump. The clock above the door had stopped at 3:47.' The teacher says this paragraph 'tells us everything about how Marcus feels without using a single emotion word'. Which explanation BEST accounts for how this effect is achieved?

Question 20
Reading & language · Vocabulary & grammar

A student wants to combine these two sentences into one using a subordinating conjunction WITHOUT changing their meaning: Sentence 1: Lena had left the building. Sentence 2: The fire alarm went off. Which combined sentence is grammatically correct AND preserves the meaning that the fire alarm happened AFTER Lena left?

Question 21
Reading & language · Reading & comprehension

Read this paragraph from a feature article about an Australian mountain rescue: 'The searchers fanned out across the ridge as the temperature dropped another two degrees. By nightfall, twelve volunteers had covered fourteen kilometres of rocky ground, their torches blinking like hesitant stars. The mountain, as always, gave nothing away.' The writer ends the paragraph with 'The mountain, as always, gave nothing away.' What is the most likely reason for this sentence, and how does it work?

Question 22
Reading & language · Persuasive & creative writing

Read this extract from a student's persuasive speech: 'Every scientist on earth agrees that we must act on climate change now. If you are not doing your part, you are personally responsible for every flood, every wildfire, every species lost.' A classmate says this passage is 'actually really persuasive.' Which response best explains why the passage is logically flawed despite feeling convincing?

Question 23
Reading & language · Comprehension

Read this passage, then answer the question. "The coastal town of Harley Bay had resisted development for years. When a resort company announced plans to build a hotel on the beachfront, the local paper ran the headline: 'Progress Finally Arrives for Harley Bay.' A community group's flyer read: 'Harley Bay Is Not for Sale.'" A student says: 'The newspaper headline is more trustworthy than the flyer because it comes from a professional source.' Is this claim accurate? Choose the best evaluation.

Question 24
Reading & language · Vocabulary & grammar

A student writes the following sentence in a persuasive essay: 'Every person in this country, whether young or old, rich or poor, urban or rural, deserves clean water.' Her teacher says the series of paired contrasts does more than add detail — it performs a specific rhetorical and grammatical function. Which explanation BEST identifies both the grammatical feature and its persuasive effect?

Question 25
Reading & language · Writing & grammar

Which is correct?

Question 26
Reading & language · Speaking & listening

During a class presentation, Olivia says: 'Some people think solar panels are too expensive, and that's a fair point — but new data shows the cost has dropped by sixty per cent in ten years.' Which strategy is Olivia using, and why is it more effective than simply ignoring the opposing view?

Question 27
Reading & language · Comprehension

Read this passage, then answer the question. "Every morning, Priya set her alarm for 5:30 a.m. She ran five kilometres before school, tracked every meal, and kept a chart on her wall showing her times. Her friends had stopped asking her to hang out on weekends. She told them — and herself — that she was focused." What does the detail about Priya's friends stopping asking her to hang out most likely suggest about her behaviour?

Question 28
Reading & language · Vocabulary & grammar

A student writes: 'Having finished her homework, the television was turned on by Maya.' A teacher marks this as containing two errors. Which pair of errors is correct?

Question 29
Reading & language · Persuasive & creative writing

A persuasive essay on reducing screen time for teenagers includes this paragraph: 'Of course, technology has brought enormous benefits to education. Interactive apps, online research, and video tutorials have transformed how students learn. Yet when the same screens that educate by day keep teenagers awake until midnight, the cost becomes too high to ignore.' What does the phrase 'Of course' at the start of this paragraph signal to the reader?

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?

Your result

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Maths reasoning0 / 15
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 →