A guide for parents
Parents often ask us: "Is my child ready for OC or Selective preparation?" There is no single age, score or checklist that gives the answer.
Some children are ready earlier. Some need more time. Some are academically strong but not ready for the pressure of extra preparation yet. A better question is: "Would preparation be useful for my child right now?" Here are some things to look at.
For Opportunity Class entry, children apply while they are in Year 3 and Year 4 and sit the OC test in Year 4. For Selective High School entry, children apply while they are in Year 5 and Year 6 and sit the Selective test in Year 6.
Applications usually open in November and close in February. The placement tests are held in May. The exact dates change each year, so always check the NSW Department of Education website.
This means you do not need to wait until your child is "test ready" before thinking about preparation. Preparation is meant to build skills over time.
These are not official rules. They are practical things we look for when deciding whether extra preparation is likely to be useful.
Your child does not need to read difficult novels every day. But reading should not feel like a battle every time. For OC and Selective, children need to read questions carefully, understand passages and work out information that is not always stated directly. If reading itself is still very difficult, building reading confidence may be more important than doing test papers.
Ask your child: "How did you work that out?" A child who can explain their thinking, even when the answer is wrong, has something useful to build on. Reasoning matters in Reading, Mathematical Reasoning and Thinking Skills.
A child does not need to love every difficult problem. But it helps if they can stay with a question for a while before giving up. OC and Selective questions are designed to make children think. Getting stuck is normal.
This is a big one. Preparation involves making mistakes. A child needs to be able to get a question wrong, listen to an explanation and try again. If every mistake causes tears or anger, it may be better to work on confidence first rather than adding more test pressure.
The real tests have long sections. OC sections run for 30 to 40 minutes. Selective sections run for 30 to 45 minutes. Your child does not need to sit for hours at home. But they do need to slowly build the ability to stay focused on one task.
Again, these are not rules. They are signs that we would look at before increasing test preparation.
Both tests involve a lot of reading. Even Mathematical Reasoning and Thinking Skills questions need to be read accurately. If your child regularly misunderstands simple questions because reading is still difficult, work on reading first.
Reasoning becomes harder when a child is using most of their attention on basic calculations. For example, if simple multiplication facts still take a long time, it may help to improve number fluency while also building reasoning. This does not mean a child has to know everything perfectly before starting. It means the basics should gradually become easier.
Preparation should challenge a child. It should not make them frightened of school or constantly upset about their results. If every lesson becomes a fight, more work is not always the answer. Sometimes the child needs a break, a different teaching approach or more time to mature.
Parents make many decisions for children, especially at primary school age. A Year 3 child does not need to have a detailed career plan or beg to sit the OC test. But it helps if they understand what they are working towards and are willing to participate.
There is no official NSW Department of Education rule saying children should begin preparation in a particular year.
At SelectiveCoach, our preference is to build skills gradually rather than wait until the last few months and then give a child large amounts of test practice. For OC, Year 3 can be a sensible time to begin building the skills if the child is ready. That does not mean a Year 2 child needs formal OC coaching. Younger children usually benefit more from becoming strong readers, understanding maths properly, solving puzzles and developing confidence.
Again, there is no official starting year. For many families, Year 5 gives enough time to work steadily on Reading, Mathematical Reasoning, Thinking Skills and Writing before the test in Year 6.
A child who has previously prepared for OC may already know the style of Reading, Mathematical Reasoning and Thinking Skills questions. A child who did not sit OC can still prepare for Selective. OC is not a requirement for Selective High School entry.
Do not panic. Starting later does not automatically mean your child has no chance. It does mean there is less time to find and improve weak areas. If there are only a few months left, focus on the things that will help most:
Do not try to squeeze two years of work into three months. More hours do not always mean better preparation.
Good preparation should help your child understand how to approach unfamiliar questions.
Children should become familiar with problems involving logic, patterns, arguments, conclusions, and information that must or cannot be true. The Department's own practice material is useful because these questions may look unfamiliar when children first see them.
Both tests are computer based. Children should be comfortable reading from a screen, selecting answers, watching a timer, moving on from a hard question, and using working paper while looking at the screen. The Department provides free online practice tests that use a similar computer format.
Preparation should not become endless testing. Giving a child test after test tells you what they got wrong. It does not automatically teach them how to improve.
If a child repeatedly gets one type of question wrong, ask why. Are they misunderstanding the question? Do they lack a maths skill? Are they rushing? Are they missing clues? Do they not know how to start? Are they running out of time? Once you know the reason, you can teach the missing skill. That is more useful than simply giving another harder test.
We do not decide whether a child is ready from one practice test score. We look at the whole picture:
Two children with the same score may need completely different help. One child may know the maths but rush. Another may work carefully but have gaps in fractions. Another may be strong in Reading and Maths but have never seen Thinking Skills questions. That is why we prefer to find the skill that is missing rather than simply tell a child to do more questions.
They can give you useful information, but one score should not decide everything. A practice score can change depending on the difficulty of the test, whether the child was tired, whether they understood the format, how much time they spent on difficult questions, whether they guessed, and which areas were tested. Look at the mistakes as well as the score. The mistakes often tell you more.
Use one of the free NSW Department of Education practice tests. Do not only look at the final score. Watch how your child works. Do they read the whole question? Rush? Check their answer? Stay with a difficult problem? Know when to move on? Understand why an answer was wrong afterwards?
Try to find a pattern. Five wrong answers can have five completely different causes.
If your child is preparing for OC, read our guide What is the OC test? If your child is preparing for Selective, read What is the Selective test? Understand the test before deciding how much preparation your child needs.
Tell us your child's year, what they are finding easy, what they are finding difficult, whether they have done OC or Selective preparation before, and what you are hoping for. We will tell you what we think would be useful. Sometimes the answer may be to start preparing. Sometimes it may be to strengthen the basics first.
OC and Selective preparation should not take over childhood. Children still need sleep, school, reading for enjoyment, exercise, friends, family time, and time to do things simply because they enjoy them.
The placement tests are important to many families. They are not the only measure of whether a child is bright or capable. The goal of preparation should be to build useful skills and help your child approach the test with confidence.
Your child may be ready to begin more structured preparation if:
They do not need to be perfect at all of these. The question is whether preparation is helping them grow.
The readiness signs and suggestions about when to begin in this guide are SelectiveCoach's practical guidance. They are not NSW Department of Education rules.
Ask us. Tell us your child's year and what you have noticed, using the form below. We will tell you where they stand and what we would do — including if the answer is to wait.
Checked on 21 September 2026 against the NSW Department of Education: What are selective high schools and opportunity classes, Placement test, Application process and Outcomes, Opportunity class practice tests and Selective high school practice tests, Using the application website and Fair access, Choosing your schools and Years 8 to 12 applications. Dates change every year. Always confirm the current ones with the department before you rely on them.
Free · no obligation
Tell us your child's year and what you are hoping for. We will reply with the next available times.
Plus a software subscription for the tools your child uses in class — we will tell you the current cost when you enquire.
There is a discount when a child takes more than one technology course.
Ask us about our referral discounts.
