Thinking Skills is a new subject in Selective School Test.  Thinking Skills replaces General Ability which was a subject in the previous Selective High School Test before 2020.

According to the assessment issuer, Cambridge Assessment Admissions Testing, the Thinking Skills Assessment (TSA) is to measure students’ ability in critical thinking and problem solving. Click HERE for more details.

With the Thinking Skills questions, students are provided a situation or an argument. They need to find out what is the reasonable answer using their critical thinking skills or problem solving abilities.

Is Thinking Skills an Important Subject?

Thinking Skills is one of subject out of the total four subjects in the Test. There are 40 questions and requires to complete in 40 minutes.

In schools, they do not provide any training on Thinking Skills. Students have no way to learn and get practice from their school. In additional, your school marks, unlike English and Maths, has no contribution to your Test result on this subject.

Under the new structure of Selective School Test, the total calculated placement score of the Test is 120. Thinking Skills has maximum possible score of 35.  It equals to 29% the total score of 120. Without the contribution from your school result, all of the score result bases on your one-time performance in the Selective School Test. This makes the subject becoming more difficult and more important.

What Types of Question in Thinking Skills?

Base on the sample paper provided by Education Department, Dux Tuition finds out there are 4 types of questions in the Thinking Skills paper.

• Mathematical Calculation

These questions are similar to the normal mathematics questions. They are more in problem solving questions

• Logical Reasoning

Logical reasoning questions are the major part the paper. A situation is given in the question with an argument.  Students need to understand the situation, to analysis the argument and to find out the correct answer.

There are two type of logical reasoning.  They are statement reasoning and visual reasoning.  Statement reasoning questions dominant this type of questions

• Visual Pattern Matching

This type of question requires students to match different pattern by visual.  Because of the ability of visualization is different between students, some may find they are easy, but the others find this type of questions are difficult.

Dux Tuition has asked some high school students to do those questions in the sample paper.  About 50% of students cannot finish the question on time.  Their comments is that those questions are confusing and easy to get answers wrong.

• Visual Reasoning

Similar to Logical Reasoning, you need to assess a situation, a pattern, given then find out the most possible answer.  This type of question has the less weighting In the whole paper.  There is only 1 question in the sample paper.

Weighting & Importance of Each Type of Question

Amount of all those 4 types of question explanted above, they are not in equal number of question in each type.

In order to achieve a better score, getting understand the weighting of each type of question in Thinking Skills is very importance.

Amount the 4 types of question, logical reasoning has the most number of question.  There are 25 logical reasoning questions out of the total 40 questions.  It engages 63% of all questions. It is not difficult to understand Logical Reasoning dominant the Thinking Skills paper.

The following pie chart provides you a gleam of the allocation and the importance of each type of question.

Feedback From Our Students

The Introduction of Thinking Skills begins at Selective School Test 2020.

Dux Tuition has collected some feedback from the students sat for the Test on 2022.

1. Similar  to General Ability
2. Too much to read
3. Less question compare to General Ability
4. A lot to read to get understanding the questions
5. Each answer are similar and get confusing

What Dux Tuition can help you?

As a Tutoring centre near you, Dux Tuition provides tutoring for primary and high school students.

Dux Tuition has studied and analysed the sample paper from Education Department. Combining with the feedbacks from the students sat for the Test, Dux Tuition has prepared a new program for Thinking Skills.

Aim of the programs is to help students well prepare for the Thinking Skill test.  The program includes lesson and mock test every week.  The contents are in line with the sample paper questions provided by Education Department.

Through the Thinking Skills training program, each student should achieve the following:

• Family different type of questions which will appear in Thinking Skills test
• Learn how to understand and to analysis the question
• Find out the keywords of a question, which relate to the answer required
• More than enough practice to accelerate the speed of understand, locate the keyword and get the right answer

Dux Tuition provides in-class and on-line tutoring program for English and Maths.  Special program available for O.C. Test, Selective School Test, NAPLAN and HSC examination.

Alternative to improve your chances of success on the NSW Selective School Test? Test Magic has got you covered with their online practice tests,. Featuring a range of comprehensive practice tests for all sections of the test, including the Thinking Skills section, Test Magic’s online practice tests offer students the opportunity to prepare thoroughly and effectively for the real thing. With detailed answer explanations and instant feedback on performance, students can track their progress and work on areas that need improvement. So why wait? Sign up now and take your first step towards achieving your goals with confidence.

More Topics to Read

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• Selective School Test – English Test Paper – Type-1 Questions
• What Are The Changes Coming for The Selective School Test
• How to Get High Score in Selective School Test
• Selective School Test 2022 Key Dates

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