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 62826 · New set of questions →

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Section 1: Maths reasoning (15 questions)

Question 1
Maths reasoning · Ratios & rates

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

Question 2
Maths reasoning · Integers

The temperature in a city changes by the same amount each hour. At 6 am the temperature is −10°C. At 10 am it is 6°C. What is the temperature at noon?

Question 3
Maths reasoning · Fractions, decimals & percentages

A shop sells a pair of jeans for $84 after marking them up by 40% from the wholesale price. What was the wholesale price?

Question 4
Maths reasoning · Geometry

Two straight lines cross at a point. One angle is 5x° and the angle next to it (on a straight line) is (3x + 20)°. What is the value of x?

Question 5
Maths reasoning · Area & volume

A garden path is shaped like a trapezium with parallel sides of 5 m and 11 m. Its area is 64 m². A gardener claims the perpendicular height of the trapezium is 8 m. A second gardener claims it is 6.4 m. Which gardener is correct, and what calculation confirms it?

Question 6
Maths reasoning · Area, volume & angles

A composite shape is made of a rectangle 10 cm wide and 6 cm tall, with a right-angled triangle sitting on top. The triangle has a base of 10 cm and a height of 4 cm. What is the total area of the shape?

Question 7
Maths reasoning · Equations

Marcus and Priya each think of a number. Marcus's number is three times Priya's number. If you subtract 8 from Marcus's number, you get twice Priya's number. What is Priya's number?

Question 8
Maths reasoning · Percentages & rates

A retailer buys a jacket for $200. He marks it up by 50%, then discounts the marked-up price by 30% for a clearance sale. A customer sees the 30% discount sign and says, 'I'm getting a better deal than the original price.' Is the customer correct, and what is the final price as a percentage of the original $200 cost price?

Question 9
Maths reasoning · Fraction & decimal operations

Mia has completed 5/8 of a 4.8 km bush walk. How many kilometres does she still have left to walk?

Question 10
Maths reasoning · Equations

Aisha and Ben each have a collection of cards. Aisha has 3 times as many cards as Ben. If Aisha gives Ben 20 cards, they will have exactly the same number. Which equation correctly represents this situation, and how many cards does Ben start with?

Question 11
Maths reasoning · Pythagoras

Three squares are drawn on the sides of a triangle. The two smaller squares have areas of 20 cm² and 45 cm². A student claims the triangle is right-angled because 20 + 45 = 65. Is the student correct, and why?

Question 12
Maths reasoning · Pythagoras

A square has side length 7 cm. A smaller square is drawn inside it so that each vertex of the smaller square lies on a side of the outer square, exactly 3 cm from one corner. What is the side length of the inner square?

Question 13
Maths reasoning · Ratio & rates

Three friends share a prize in the ratio 2 : 3 : 5. The person with the largest share receives $80 more than the person with the smallest share. How much does the person with the middle share receive?

Question 14
Maths reasoning · Area, volume & angles

A rectangular piece of cardboard is 12 cm by 8 cm. Squares of side length 2 cm are cut from each corner and the sides are folded up to make an open box. What is the volume of the box?

Question 15
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.

Section 2: Reading & language (15 questions)

Question 16
Reading & language · Speaking & listening

At the end of a debate, the judge says both teams used good evidence but Team A was more persuasive because their speakers 'made the audience feel the issue mattered personally'. Team B's speakers presented the same facts but sounded detached. What speaking technique did Team A use more effectively?

Question 17
Reading & language · Text response & analysis

A student argues that the narrator of a story is reliable because 'the story is told in first person, so the narrator knows everything that happens.' What is wrong with this reasoning?

Question 18
Reading & language · Vocabulary & grammar

A writer uses the word 'fine' in these two consecutive sentences: 'Mum said everything was fine. She stacked the dishes, scrubbed the bench, and wiped down every surface twice.' What does the repetition of 'fine' and the detail that follows most likely suggest?

Question 19
Reading & language · Phonics & spelling

How many syllables in 'responsibility'?

Question 20
Reading & language · Comprehension

Read this passage. "Every morning, Lena walked past the empty block on Marsh Street. The council sign said 'Future Community Garden.' Weeds pressed through the chain-link fence. By June, the sign had faded. By August, someone had spray-painted 'STILL WAITING' across it. Lena took a photo and posted it without a caption." What does Lena's decision to post the photo without a caption most likely suggest?

Question 21
Reading & language · Speaking & listening

A Year 6 student is asked to chair a class discussion about whether social media should be banned for under-13s. Three students keep interrupting each other, two students have said nothing, and the discussion has moved away from the topic. What should the chair do first, and why?

Question 22
Reading & language · Comprehension

Read this passage, then answer the question. "The council's media release stated: 'The park upgrade project has been completed on schedule and within budget, delivering new seating, lighting and pathways for the community. A small section near the northern entrance remains temporarily closed for finishing works.'" What is the effect of describing the closed section as 'temporarily closed for finishing works'?

Question 23
Reading & language · Comprehension

Read these two passages. Passage A: "The new stadium will bring thousands of jobs and inject millions of dollars into our local economy. It is exactly what this city needs." Passage B: "Construction of the proposed stadium is projected to create approximately 1,200 permanent positions and generate an estimated $40 million annually in economic activity, according to an independent economic report." Which statement best explains how the two passages differ in the way they present information?

Question 24
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 25
Reading & language · Persuasive & creative writing

A student writes this opening paragraph for a persuasive essay arguing that homework should be abolished: 'Students are drowning in homework. Every night, millions of young Australians sit alone at kitchen tables, exhausted, while their families watch TV without them.' Her teacher says the paragraph is 'vivid but one-sided'. Which revision would make the argument STRONGER without removing the emotional appeal?

Question 26
Reading & language · Reading & comprehension

Read this passage: 'Maya pressed her lips together and stared at the floor when her name was called to receive the trophy. Her hands were perfectly still.' Which statement best explains what Maya is feeling, and how you know?

Question 27
Reading & language · Vocabulary & grammar

Read this sentence: 'The exhausted players, dragging their boots through the mud, collapsed onto the bench.' A student is asked which technique the writer uses to slow the pace of this sentence. Which answer is correct, and why?

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 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 30
Reading & language · Writing & grammar

A student wants to write a persuasive sentence that uses a concession to make the argument STRONGER. They write: 'Some people believe social media is harmful, but it can also connect communities and support mental health.' A classmate says the sentence is weak because admitting the other side makes the argument less convincing. Who is correct, and why?

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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 →