The NSW 2021 Selective School Exam

By: Aayam Shrestha | 12/09/2021

The NSW Department of Education offers special opportunities for high potential and gifted students to attend selective schools. Qualifying for the application process requires specific scores in the NSW selective school exam. Students who opt to take this test are considered those with extremely high IQ and academic distinction. For 2022, applications for entry into 2023 will be open in mid-October 2021 and close in November 2021. The test will take place on 10 March 2022. Due to the unique situations in 2021, for the 2022 exam, school assessment scores will not be taken into account.

Besides changes in dates and accessibility, from 2021, the NSW selective high school placement tests changed format and focus. Instead of more general educational topics and facts, the new test replaced the old general ability test with a new thinking a skills test. The entire exam consists of a 40-minute reading multiple-choice portion, a 40-minute mathematical reasoning section, a 40-minute thinking skills segment, and a 30-minute writing paper. The exam is expected to be in paper format.

The one major change – thinking skills and reasoning – are designed to test the students' ability to critically determine reason, logic, and sense from a variety of written passages. The test preparers believe that this type of skill helps so much more in a world full of easily accessible information and data. General knowledge like numerical series, synonyms and antonyms, and pattern identification have been removed from the test.

With the acceptable minimum entry scores to some of the top selective New South Wales high schools ranging from 160 all the way up to 248, consider test preparation classes and practice tests. These can help the student become familiar with the new format and maximize the chance of achieving entry into these competitive schools or local school opportunity classes.