What is Selective School Test?
Selective School Test for Year 7 is a placement test for Selective High School. Students sit for the test when they are still studying in Year 6. Most parents get their kids to have lessons in tutoring centre nearby when they are still in Year 5.
The Selective School Placement Test for Year 7 has changed. The first group of genuine pigs was the students sitting for the placement test in 2021. Unfortunately, they did not have too much time to prepare for the changes. It was because the sample paper prepared by The Department of Education was not ready until mid-December 2020. There were only three (3) months before the Test.
Because of the short notification, school and tutoring centre may not be fully responded on the their English tutoring or math tutoring program. They may still be working on the original Selective School Test practicing paper.
What Are the Selective School Test Changes?
Before going through the details of the changes, we have a quick review on what was Selective School Test before the changes.
There were four (4) sections which were English (Reading), Math, General Ability and Writing (refer to table below). The original test structure has been used for many years.
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The new test structure emphasis on problem-solving and the skills of thinking. There are still four (4) subjects
Sections – English (Reading), Math, Thinking Skills and Writing. Thinking Skills is a new section to replace General Ability (G.A.). Most parents would enrol their kid in a tutoring centre for all those subjects. Click here for details of our program.
Except for Writing section, all of the others are in multiple question format. Some questions are 4-option multiple choose and some are 5-option multiple choose questions Table 2 below summaries the details of each test section.
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Although the number of sections and testing time are about the same, we find out there are great different in the content by compare the old sample test paper with the new one.
When Will The Test Changes be Implemented?
The new structure has been introduced in the Selective School Test this year on 2021. There was no visual details or sample paper available until three months before the Test on March 2021
As usual, the Education Department emphasis no extra work or tutoring is required to prepare for the test. However, most parents are still eager to get their kid to have some sort of practice or lessons for the new structure.
What are the Students’ Feedback?
Dux Tuition has collected the students’ feedback on the new test structure after they sat for the test this year 2021.
English / Reading:
There are four different question type. Some are required to find the answers from two article extractions that are similar in content.
One of the question types is to find out a missing phrase/ sentence for an article provided. A phase bank will be provided.
Probably the most difficult one of the question types is that you are provided with five (5) articles. A series of question is set out for those articles. The students require to find out from which article out of the five the answer is getting from.
Mathematics Reasoning:
All mathematics questions are 5-option multiple choose. It makes less chance to get the right answer by guessing. However, according to the students of Dux Tuition, the questions is easy and they do not need to guess any questions to find the answers.
We find the new Math paper tends to be easier than it was. Our assumption was confirmed by finding that there are more question in figure pattern and number pattern. These two types of questions are comparative easier for the students. Those types of question were in limited number in the past tests.
Thinking Skills:
This section replaces the existing section ‘General Ability’. Number of questions is reduced to 30 from original 60 with the same test duration of 40 minutes. It looks the section becoming easier. In fact, we find there is another way round.
As mentioned in the website of Education Department, Thinking Skills test measures the ability of students in critical thinking skills, reasoning and problem solving.
According to the feedbacks of Dux Tuition’s students who sitting the placement test on 2021.The thinking Skills test is pretty difficult for them. The cause they found difficulty maybe they have no idea of the content before or there no practices they do at school or in a tutoring centre. Dux Tuition finds out the most possible cause is that the questions are way harder than those in General Ability.
Our tutor went through the sample paper from The Education Department. They found themselves struggling to complete the paper on time. The questions are not straightforward or just a kind of knowledge. They suggest that some sort of training and practice is required in order to win it. However, The Education Department denote in their website that no previous knowledge is required. For that, we are not fully agreed.
More Changes For The Test
From the Website of the Education Department, computer answering method will be introduced. Dux Tuition has contacted the Department and try to get a confirmation of the exact date of the change. The answer was not sure and there may be an answer by November this year.
We predict it still be the paper answer for the Test 2022. Computer answering may be introduced in the 2023 test.
Key Dates For Selective School Test
- Application for the Test in 2022 will be between mid-October and mid-November 2021.
- The Year 7 Selective School Placement Test has been set on 10 March 2022.
More Topics:
You may also like to read:
- Selective School Test – English Test Practice Paper (Type-1 Questions)
- Selective School Test 2022 Key Dates
There will be more topics related to the Selective School Test including the strategy of getting higher marks, how to prepare for the Test, how your school helps you to get placement and more.
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