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

Free practice quizzes › Selective Entry practice test · Scholarship 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 30291 · New set of questions →

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Section 1: Maths reasoning (15 questions)

Question 1
Maths reasoning · Algebra & linear equations

A rectangle has a perimeter of 58 cm. Its length is 5 cm more than twice its width. What is the area of the rectangle in cm²?

Question 2
Maths reasoning · Area, volume & angles

The angles inside a quadrilateral are (2x)°, (2x)°, (x + 20)°, and (x + 40)°. What is the value of x?

Question 3
Maths reasoning · Ratios & rates

Share $60 in the ratio 1 : 2 : 3. The largest share is:

Question 4
Maths reasoning · Percentages & rates

A jacket is discounted by 30%, then the sale price is increased by 30%. Compared to the original price, the final price is:

Question 5
Maths reasoning · Algebraic thinking

Jake says: 'If I double my number and add 6, I get the same answer as multiplying my number by 3 and subtracting 4.' Write and solve an equation to find Jake's number.

Question 6
Maths reasoning · Pythagoras

A circle has its centre at the origin (0, 0). Point A is at (5, 0) and point B is at (0, 5). Point C is at (3, 4). A student claims that C lies ON the circle that passes through A and B, because 3 + 4 = 5 + 0 = 0 + 5. Is the student correct, and what is the actual reason?

Question 7
Maths reasoning · Equations

The perimeter of a triangle is 54 cm. The second side is twice as long as the first side. The third side is 6 cm longer than the first side. What is the length of the longest side?

Question 8
Maths reasoning · Percentages

A sports store is having a sale. A basketball originally costs $85. The price is increased by 20%, then later reduced by 20%. What is the final price of the basketball?

Question 9
Maths reasoning · Algebraic expressions

A phone plan charges a $15 monthly fee plus $0.10 per minute of calls. A second plan charges no monthly fee but $0.25 per minute. For how many minutes of calls per month do both plans cost the same amount?

Question 10
Maths reasoning · Integers & operations

A number line shows two integers, P and Q. P is at −8 and Q is 5 units to the right of the midpoint of P and −2. What is the value of Q?

Question 11
Maths reasoning · Percentages & rates

After 20% off, an item costs $48. Original price?

Question 12
Maths reasoning · Equations

A teacher writes this number puzzle: 'I think of a number, add 6, then multiply the result by the number I first thought of. I get 40.' Which equation correctly represents this puzzle, and what positive whole number is the solution?

Question 13
Maths reasoning · Ratio & rates

Share $40 in the ratio 3 : 1. The larger share is?

Question 14
Maths reasoning · Percentages

A shop sells 3 types of pens: blue, red, and black. Blue pens make up 45% of stock, red pens make up 30%, and the rest are black. There are 48 black pens. How many pens are in the shop altogether?

Question 15
Maths reasoning · Area & volume

A rectangular prism has a length of 10 cm, width of 5 cm, and height of 8 cm. Its length and width are each increased by 20%, but its height stays the same. By what percentage does the volume increase?

Section 2: Reading & language (15 questions)

Question 16
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 17
Reading & language · Reading & comprehension

Read these two moments from the same short story. Moment 1 (start of story): 'Priya ran her finger along the shelf of trophies in the hallway — each one she had won herself.' Moment 2 (end of story): 'Priya walked past the shelf without looking up.' What does the change in Priya's behaviour between these two moments most likely signal to the reader?

Question 18
Reading & language · Persuasive & creative writing

A student reads this sentence from a persuasive article about animal testing: 'Surely no compassionate person could look into the eyes of a beagle and approve of what happens to it in a laboratory.' She wants to use it as evidence in her own essay. Her teacher warns her that the sentence is 'rhetorically powerful but evidentially weak.' Which explanation best justifies the teacher's comment?

Question 19
Reading & language · Persuasive & creative writing

A student's persuasive essay on zoo closures includes this sentence: 'Zoos imprison innocent animals for human entertainment.' His teacher says this sentence is persuasive but 'relies entirely on emotional appeal'. Which revision adds a LOGICAL appeal WITHOUT removing the emotional effect?

Question 20
Reading & language · Speaking & listening

A student gives a speech opposing homework. She uses only personal anecdotes and no facts or statistics. Her classmate gives a rebuttal using three published studies. Which explanation best describes why the rebuttal is more persuasive in a formal speaking context?

Question 21
Reading & language · Phonics & spelling

A student knows that 'magic' becomes 'magician' and 'music' becomes 'musician'. She applies the same pattern to write 'electrician' for someone who works with electricity. Her friend says the base word for 'electrician' is NOT 'electric' — it is 'electricity', with the '-ity' removed before adding '-an'. Which statement correctly evaluates BOTH claims?

Question 22
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 23
Reading & language · Persuasive & creative writing

A student is writing a narrative about a character who is nervous before a speech. She writes: 'Maya checked her notes for the third time. She checked them again. Her mouth was a desert.' How do the first two sentences work together with the third sentence to show Maya's anxiety?

Question 24
Reading & language · Persuasive & creative writing

A student writes this persuasive letter opening: 'You probably think teenagers are lazy. You're wrong.' What is the PRIMARY strategic purpose of directly addressing the reader's assumed belief in this way?

Question 25
Reading & language · Persuasive & creative writing

A student writes a short story about a girl named Priya who has just been told she did not get the part in the school play. The student writes this final scene: 'Priya stood outside the noticeboard for a long time. When she finally walked away, she chose the long way home — past the oval, through the park, along the river.' Her teacher calls this ending 'quietly devastating'. A classmate suggests the student add: 'She was heartbroken.' Why would adding 'She was heartbroken' MOST likely weaken the ending?

Question 26
Reading & language · Vocabulary & grammar

Two news headlines report the same event. Headline 1: 'Protesters storm city hall.' Headline 2: 'Activists peacefully occupy civic building.' Which analysis best explains how word choice reveals bias?

Question 27
Reading & language · Vocabulary & grammar

Read this paragraph: 'The match was brutal. The match was unforgiving. The match was everything we had trained for.' A student says the repetition of 'The match was' is a mistake because it sounds repetitive. Is the student correct, and why?

Question 28
Reading & language · Writing & grammar

A writer uses the following two sentences near the end of a suspenseful story: 'She stepped forward. The floor groaned.' Which statement BEST explains why the writer chose two short sentences here instead of one longer sentence?

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 · Persuasive & creative writing

A student revises a persuasive essay conclusion. Original: 'In conclusion, schools should teach cooking.' Revision: 'The question is not whether schools can afford to teach cooking — it is whether we can afford not to.' The revision is more effective because it:

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Reading & language0 / 15
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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 →