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 45863 · New set of questions →

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Section 1: Maths reasoning (15 questions)

Question 1
Maths reasoning · Integers

Which of these statements about integers is TRUE for every possible pair of negative integers?

Question 2
Maths reasoning · Geometry

An isosceles triangle has a perimeter of 44 cm. The two equal sides are each 4 cm longer than the base. What is the length of each equal side?

Question 3
Maths reasoning · Ratio & rates

Mia cycles at 12 km/h and Jaylen cycles at 15 km/h. They both start cycling at the same time from the same place. After 40 minutes, how far apart are they?

Question 4
Maths reasoning · Pythagoras

A 10 m ladder rests 6 m from a wall. It reaches how high?

Question 5
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 6
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 7
Maths reasoning · Pythagoras

A right-angled triangle has legs of length a cm and b cm and hypotenuse c cm. A student doubles all three sides to get a new triangle with legs 2a and 2b and hypotenuse 2c. The student claims: 'The new triangle is still right-angled, and its area is exactly double the original area.' Which statement is correct?

Question 8
Maths reasoning · Fraction & decimal operations

Lena is filling small bottles from a large container. Each bottle holds 3/8 of a litre. The container holds 4 1/2 litres. How many full bottles can Lena fill?

Question 9
Maths reasoning · Fractions, decimals & percentages

After a 25% increase, a pair of shoes costs $90. What was the original price?

Question 10
Maths reasoning · Statistics & probability

A school records the number of absences per student for 10 students: 3, 0, 5, 2, 8, 1, 4, 6, 2, 9 The school then realises it missed one student who had 2 absences and adds that score to the data set. Which of the following statements about the effect on the measures of centre is correct?

Question 11
Maths reasoning · Algebra & linear equations

A school is planning a trip. A bus costs $240 to hire plus $3 per student. A minivan costs $90 to hire plus $8 per student. For what number of students is the bus the CHEAPER option?

Question 12
Maths reasoning · Ratio & rates

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

Question 13
Maths reasoning · Indices

A student writes: 3⁻² + 3⁻² = 3⁻⁴. Which statement is correct?

Question 14
Maths reasoning · Algebra & linear equations

A tank contains 200 litres of water. Pipe A drains water out at 8 litres per minute. Pipe B fills water in at 3 litres per minute. Both pipes are opened at the same time. A second tank starts empty and is filled by Pipe C at 5 litres per minute. After how many minutes will both tanks contain the same amount of water?

Question 15
Maths reasoning · Equations

A rectangle's length is 5 cm more than twice its width. The perimeter is 52 cm. What is the width of the rectangle?

Section 2: Reading & language (15 questions)

Question 16
Reading & language · Comprehension

Read this passage. "In the 1850s, thousands of people travelled to Victoria to search for gold. Many came from China, walking hundreds of kilometres from ports in South Australia to avoid a tax imposed at Victorian ports. The routes they walked became known as the Chinese immigration trails. Some communities along these routes grew rapidly; others were left behind as the gold rush moved on." Which inference is best supported by the passage?

Question 17
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 18
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 19
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?

Question 20
Reading & language · Phonics & spelling

A student reads these four words: 'sign', 'signal', 'signature', 'insignificant'. She notices they all share the same root. She then claims: 'Because "sign" has a silent g, the g must also be silent in all four words.' Which option correctly evaluates her claim using evidence from the word set?

Question 21
Reading & language · Persuasive & creative writing

Two newspaper editorials cover the same climate protest. Editorial 1 says protesters 'gathered peacefully to raise their concerns.' Editorial 2 says protesters 'swarmed the streets, bringing the city to a standstill.' Which statement best explains how Editorial 2's word choice reveals bias?

Question 22
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 23
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 24
Reading & language · Reading & comprehension

A story narrator says: 'I told Jess it was a great idea.' Later the narrator thinks: 'I had said what she needed to hear.' What does the second sentence reveal about the narrator that the first sentence hides?

Question 25
Reading & language · Reading & comprehension

A student reading a novel writes: 'The theme of this book is loyalty because a character called Loyalty appears.' What is wrong with the student's reasoning?

Question 26
Reading & language · Vocabulary & grammar

Read the following two sentences: Sentence A: 'The coach told the players that they needed to improve.' Sentence B: 'The coach told the players, "You need to improve."' A student says both sentences mean exactly the same thing and have no grammatical differences. Which statement best explains why the student is wrong?

Question 27
Reading & language · Phonics & spelling

Look at these four words: 'ceiling', 'deceive', 'species', 'caffeine'. A student claims: 'In every one of these words, the letters i and e appear together, and in every case they follow the rule: i before e except after c.' Is the student correct?

Question 28
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 29
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 30
Reading & language · Persuasive & creative writing

Read this paragraph from a student's persuasive letter: 'Scientists agree that screen time harms children. Parents should therefore ban all devices. Clearly, anyone who disagrees is not thinking about children's wellbeing.' Which TWO logical flaws appear in this paragraph? Choose the answer that correctly identifies both.

Your result

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Maths reasoning0 / 15
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 →