Thinking Skills: 5 Strategies for the OC and Selective Tests

Why Thinking Skills Often Decides the Outcome

Most NSW students have years of school practice in reading and maths. Thinking Skills is different. It tests how a child reasons, not what they have been taught, so it is the section that most often catches unprepared students off guard.

That is also why targeted practice pays off here. The question types repeat from test to test, and a child who knows how each one works stops losing time working out what is being asked.

What the Thinking Skills Test Actually Assesses

The NSW Department of Education describes the section as testing critical thinking and problem-solving, with no previous knowledge required. It is multiple choice, and the timing is tight in both tests:

Since the move to the Cambridge-style test, most questions fall into a handful of families:

• Arguments — a person makes a claim; which statement strengthens it, weakens it, or shows the mistake in their reasoning?
• Logic — "if… then" rules, "only" rules, and "which of these must be true?"
• Ordering and arrangement puzzles — who sits where, who finished third, which day something happened
• Number puzzles in words — ages, times, counting and "how many must you take to be sure?"
• Tables, timetables and charts — reading data to reach a conclusion
• Codes — letters or symbols that stand for other letters or numbers

A smaller number of questions are spatial, such as paper folding, nets of 3D shapes or views from above. The old style of abstract pattern matrices and odd-one-out shapes is not what this test is built on, so do not spend most of your practice time there.

Strategy 1: Find the Conclusion Before Reading the Options

Argument questions are the biggest family, especially in the Selective test, and the most common trap is reading the options before understanding the argument.

Teach your child to do three things first:

1. Name the conclusion — what is the person trying to prove?
2. Name the reason — what evidence are they using?
3. Spot the gap — what would have to be true for that reason to prove that conclusion?

Then the options become easier. A statement that strengthens the argument fills the gap. A statement that weakens it offers another explanation or breaks the link. For "which shows the mistake?" questions, look for the usual flaws: judging from too small a group, assuming one thing caused another because they happened together, or ignoring another possible reason.

Example: "Class 1 had 47 detentions this term and Class 2 had 18, so Class 1 is worse behaved." The gap: the comparison is only fair if the classes are the same size and the same number of students got the detentions. An option saying Class 1 has twice as many students, or that one student received most of the detentions, shows the mistake.

Strategy 2: Treat "If" as a One-Way Street

Logic questions reward children who read rules exactly. The rule "If it rains, the match is cancelled" tells you what happens when it rains. It says nothing about why a match might be cancelled on a dry day.

How to practise:

• Rewrite each rule as an arrow: rain → cancelled
• Only follow the arrow forwards. "The match was cancelled, so it rained" follows it backwards and is the classic error
• For "only" rules, flip the arrow: "Only students who attend the meeting may go on the excursion" means going → attended. Attending is needed, but it does not guarantee a place
• For "must be true" questions, test each option against the rules and reject anything that is only possibly true

Strategy 3: Draw the Puzzle

Ordering puzzles and table questions are where careful children win and rushed children guess. Nobody holds six clues in their head at once.

• Draw it — a row of seats, a number line or a small grid, using the working-out paper given in the test
• Start with the fixed clue — "Ava sits at the left end" before "Ben is next to Chloe"
• Use the most restrictive clues next — they cut the possibilities fastest
• Check every clue at the end — one clue you forgot is the usual reason a confident answer is wrong

For tables and timetables, read the headings and units before the numbers, and underline exactly what the question asks for.

Strategy 4: Pace at About a Minute a Question

Both tests allow about one minute per question, but the questions are not equally hard. Some take 20 seconds, and some would take four minutes if your child refused to let go.

• Set a mental limit — if there is no clear way in after about a minute, pick the best option, flag it and move on
• Bank the quicker questions — return to flagged ones only with time left over
• Never leave a blank — there is no penalty for a wrong answer
• Practise at real pace — 30 questions in 30 minutes for OC, 40 in 40 for Selective

A child who first feels this time pressure on test day rarely adjusts in time. Build it in during practice.

Strategy 5: Review Mistakes by Question Type

This is where most families waste the most time. Doing test after test without learning from the mistakes builds speed, not skill. A child who does 300 questions and reviews each mistake properly will usually improve more than one who rushes through 1,000.

1. Sort each mistake — misread the question, wrong method, ran out of time, or did not know how to start?
2. Find the family — is it always argument questions, or always "must be true"?
3. Practise that family on its own — ten questions of one type in a row before going back to mixed sets
4. Come back a week later — if the same type still trips your child up, it needs more work

AcePath practice packs include detailed explanations for every question that show the reasoning, not just the answer — which is exactly what Thinking Skills review needs.

A Sample Weekly Routine

For a child three to six months from the test:

• Monday: 20 minutes of argument questions
• Wednesday: 20 minutes of logic rules and ordering puzzles
• Friday: 20 minutes of number puzzles, tables and codes
• Saturday: one timed section at real pace — 30 questions in 30 minutes for OC, or 40 in 40 for Selective
• Sunday: 30 minutes reviewing the week's mistakes by type

That is around two hours a week. Short, regular sessions beat a single long weekend session.

Start With a Diagnostic

Before changing strategy, find out where your child is starting from. Try the free OC Thinking Skills sample or Selective Thinking Skills sample, and read our walkthrough of sample OC Thinking Skills questions to see each question type solved step by step.

Once you know the weak spots, our practice packs give structured, timed practice with full explanations, so every session targets something specific.

Treat Thinking Skills as a skill that can be trained, not a talent your child either has or lacks. That is the fastest route to a stronger placement result.