Victorian Selective Schools Test Year 9 - Ultimate Test Prep Guide for Parents (ACER update)

Prior to 2023, the Selective Entry Exam was written by Edutest.

Now, it’s written by ACER.

This has resulted in a number of changes to the exam format which all students hoping to get accepted into Selective Schools should be aware of.

Here’s what you can expect from the new ACER exam:

New Format:

The exam comprises of a series of tests including multiple choice questions and written tasks:

• Reasoning – Reading (35 mins)

• Reasoning – Mathematics (30 mins)

• Short break (20 mins)

• General ability – Verbal (30 mins)

• General ability – Quantitative (30 mins)

• Short break (5 mins)

• Writing (40 mins)

“Reasoning tasks in Reading and Mathematics assess a student’s ability to use their life and academic knowledge and skills and apply them to problems and tasks using the information provided in the task.

General ability tasks assess a student’s ability to learn in each of the tested areas by allowing the student to demonstrate their higher order thinking and problem-solving skills.

The writing test will comprise of two tasks.”

Source: https://selectiveentry.acer.org/vic/prepare

What’s changed?

The most obvious difference between the old & new Selective Entry Exam is the naming conventions.

The Reading and Maths papers are now called “reasoning” papers.

The Verbal and Numerical Reasoning papers are now “Verbal and Quantitative general ability” papers.

These are the most noticeable differences, but it isn’t the only thing to be wary of…

Some of the questions within these various exam sections have also changed - and this means that some of the old skills & strategies used by students to get the questions right are no longer effective.

So what strategies are effective?

There’s too many skills & strategies to list them all in this short blog post here, but what’s important is that you are able to provide your child with up-to-date teaching methodologies proven to be effective on the new ACER exam.

This means that you should be extra-wary of older resources and materials…

And ideally, before purchasing any practice questions, resources or tutoring you should check to ensure that the questions & strategies are up-to-date.

Fortunately, here at Select Entry Accelerator we’re in a position where we see hundreds of students go through the Selective Entry Examination process every year…

And this means that despite the ACER exam having only been around for 1 year, we’ve been able to survey the 200+ students that we helped prepare for this exam in 2023 so that all of our resources & tutoring strategies for the following years are relevant and useful.

Within our tutoring programs, we teach strategies and skills that are now effective for the 2024 ACER exam and beyond - and so if you’re interested in learning more about our programs (and seeing whether or not your child could be a good fit), then feel free to book in for a one-on-one call using the link below:

https://www.selectentryaccelerator.com/schedule-call