Free · Timed · 25 minutes · Years 6–8

Free Selective Entry Practice Test — 30 Questions, 25 Minutes, Instant Results

A free, timed sample of the kind of multiple-choice questions the Victorian Selective Entry exam asks: 30 questions across maths reasoning 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

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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 11096 · New set of questions →

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Section 1: Maths reasoning (15 questions)

Question 1
Maths reasoning · Ratios & rates

A factory produces defective and non-defective items in the ratio 1 : 19. After a machine upgrade, the number of defective items is halved while the number of non-defective items stays the same. Before the upgrade, 400 items were produced in total. What is the new ratio of defective to non-defective items, in simplest form?

Question 2
Maths reasoning · Percentages & rates

A water tank is filled to 80% of its capacity. Water is then added until the tank is 95% full, using 180 litres. What is the full capacity of the tank in litres?

Question 3
Maths reasoning · Pythagoras

A square has a diagonal of 10 cm. What is the side length of the square, correct to one decimal place?

Question 4
Maths reasoning · Ratios & rates

Two quantities P and Q are in the ratio 4 : 9. Q is 63. What is P + Q?

Question 5
Maths reasoning · Fractions, decimals & percentages

Calculate: 3/4 ÷ 1/2.

Question 6
Maths reasoning · Indices

A bacteria culture doubles every hour. At 9 am there are 2⁵ bacteria. How many bacteria are there at 1 pm the same day, expressed as a power of 2?

Question 7
Maths reasoning · Percentages

A school raised money for a charity. In Week 1 they raised $240. In Week 2 they raised 15% more than Week 1. In Week 3 they raised 10% less than Week 2. How much did they raise in Week 3?

Question 8
Maths reasoning · Statistics & probability

A class of 25 students each chose a favourite colour: red, blue, or green. The probability of a randomly chosen student picking red is 0.4 and the probability of picking green is 0.2. The teacher says: 'The number of students who chose blue is more than double the number who chose green.' Is the teacher correct?

Question 9
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 10
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 11
Maths reasoning · Algebraic thinking

The expression 4n + 2 gives the total number of tiles in a shape pattern, where n is the pattern number. Which pattern number first gives a total greater than 50 tiles?

Question 12
Maths reasoning · Integers

Which expression has the greatest value?

Question 13
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 14
Maths reasoning · Integers

On Monday the temperature was −5°C. By Wednesday it had fallen by 3°C, and by Friday it had doubled from Wednesday's temperature. What was Friday's temperature?

Question 15
Maths reasoning · Indices

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

Section 2: Reading & language (15 questions)

Question 16
Reading & language · Speaking & listening

A student is preparing a speech to persuade her class that the school canteen should sell healthier food. She decides to open with a short story about a student who felt sick after eating a greasy meal, then follow with two statistics about student concentration. Which statement best explains why this structure is effective?

Question 17
Reading & language · Writing & grammar

Read this sentence: 'It was the team's performance, not the referee's decisions, that ultimately decided the outcome.' A student says the verb should be 'were' because there are two nouns (performance and decisions). Is the student correct, and why?

Question 18
Reading & language · Vocabulary & grammar

Read these two versions of the same sentence: Version 1: 'The factory released toxic chemicals into the river.' Version 2: 'Toxic chemicals were released into the river.' A student says Version 2 is weaker because passive voice is always a grammatical mistake. Which response BEST evaluates the student's claim using grammatical and rhetorical reasoning?

Question 19
Reading & language · Vocabulary & grammar

A student writes: 'Neither the captain nor the players was ready for the final whistle.' The teacher marks the verb as incorrect. Which explanation correctly identifies the error AND gives the right fix?

Question 20
Reading & language · Writing & grammar

A student writes: 'The committee have made their decision, and everyone on it are pleased.' Which part of the sentence breaks subject-verb agreement, and why?

Question 21
Reading & language · Persuasive & creative writing

A student wants to persuade readers that social media should not be banned for teenagers. She drafts this concession paragraph: 'Of course, some teenagers misuse social media. However, banning it entirely would be like banning cars because some drivers speed.' What does the analogy in the second sentence add to the argument that a simple 'however' clause would not?

Question 22
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 23
Reading & language · Vocabulary & grammar

A student is editing her essay and has this sentence: 'The government's new policy, which critics argue ignores long-term environmental consequences, aims to boost short-term economic growth.' She wants to make the government's aim sound more central and reduce the prominence of the criticism. Which revision BEST achieves this?

Question 24
Reading & language · Vocabulary & grammar

Read this sentence: 'The council's decision to close the park was met with fierce opposition from residents, who argued it was their only green space.' Which grammatical feature most contributes to the persuasive force of the residents' argument?

Question 25
Reading & language · Persuasive & creative writing

A student drafts this body paragraph for a persuasive essay arguing against homework: 'Teachers assign homework to help students learn. But students who do homework late at night are too tired to learn in class the next day. So homework actually stops students from learning.' What type of reasoning error, if any, is present in this argument?

Question 26
Reading & language · Text response & analysis

A student is asked to write a text response about a novel and begins: "In this essay I will talk about the themes of the book and give my opinion about the characters." Which revision BEST improves this opening sentence for a formal text response?

Question 27
Reading & language · Comprehension

Read this passage, then answer the question. "Thomas had always been the fastest swimmer on the team. At last year's carnival he had broken two records. But this season, a new student — quiet, barely noticeable in the corridors — had been edging closer at every training session. Thomas watched her from the corner of his eye and trained an extra hour each evening. He told everyone he was not worried." A student reading this passage claims: 'The text tells us directly that Thomas is worried about the new swimmer.' Is this claim accurate?

Question 28
Reading & language · Reading & comprehension

A novel uses third-person narration throughout. In the final chapter, for one paragraph only, the narration switches to first person: 'I had known all along it would end this way. I just hadn't let myself say it.' Then it switches back to third person. What is the most likely effect of this sudden shift?

Question 29
Reading & language · Phonics & spelling

Four students each add the suffix '-ance' or '-ence' to a base word. Which student has made an error that changes the word to a non-standard spelling? Sam: 'persevere' → 'perseverance' Ava: 'exist' → 'existance' Leo: 'obey' → 'obeyance' Mia: 'correspond' → 'correspondence'

Question 30
Reading & language · Text response & analysis

Read these two paragraphs written by different students about the same scene: a boy named Eli who gives his lunch to a homeless man. Student A: 'Eli gives his lunch away, which shows he is generous and kind.' Student B: 'When Eli silently slides his lunch bag across without making eye contact, the author suggests that true generosity seeks no recognition — Eli's averted gaze becomes the text's quiet argument against performative kindness.' A student says both responses make the same basic point, so they are equally valid for a text analysis essay. What is wrong with this judgement?

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What this Selective Entry 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 7 or 8 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 Selective Entry 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 Selective Entry exam runs for several hours with reasoning sections and two writing tasks. 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 →