Free NSW OC & Selective Practice Resources (2027 Entry)

Every official OC and Selective High School placement-test paper from the NSW Department of Education — Reading comprehension, Mathematical Reasoning, Thinking Skills and Writing — mirrored here so the download links never break.

Recommended starting point

Try the NSW DoE online simulators

Computer-based, mirrors the real test format, with immediate feedback. The best free thing the Department of Education publishes.

Opportunity Class online practice test

Free, timed, computer-based practice for the Year 5 OC placement test.

Open OC simulator

Selective High School online practice test

Free, timed, computer-based practice for the Year 7 Selective placement test, including Writing.

Open Selective simulator
Year 5 entry

Opportunity Class — PDF Practice Tests

Three full practice tests. Each one covers Reading, Mathematical Reasoning, and Thinking Skills, with a question paper, an answer key, and explained answers.

© State of New South Wales (Department of Education) — View OC practice tests on NSW DoE

Year 7 entry

Selective High School — PDF Practice Tests

Three full practice tests covering Reading, Mathematical Reasoning, Thinking Skills, and Writing.

© State of New South Wales (Department of Education) — View Selective practice tests on NSW DoE

What the free resources don't cover

Three practice tests are a strong start — but most serious candidates finish them in a couple of weekends. The PDFs also pre-date the move to computer-based testing.

Free resources stop here

  • Only 3 practice tests per exam
  • PDFs use older paper layout
  • No feedback on weak topics
  • No revisiting of mistakes
  • No progress tracking over months

AcePath adds

  • 10,000+ questions in computer-based format
  • Per-topic weakness reports
  • Mistake notebook + spaced repetition
  • Progress tracking across months
  • Detailed solutions for every question

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Over 10,000 AcePath questions in the new computer-based format, with per-topic weakness reports and a mistake notebook.

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Frequently asked questions

They are a strong starting point but rarely enough on their own. Most students exhaust the three OC or Selective PDFs in a few sessions, and the papers do not adapt to the topics you struggle with. Use them as a benchmark, then move to a broader question bank.

No. The PDFs use the older paper layout. The current OC and Selective tests are delivered on a computer. The free NSW DoE online simulator linked above is the closest free experience of the real interface.

Every practice test on this page includes a downloadable answer key and a separate "Explained Answers" PDF that walks through each question. The Writing section is an exception — Writing is marked on a rubric, so only the prompt PDF is published.

It is run on the same platform (Janison) and mirrors the timing, navigation, and question types. It is not the actual exam content, but it is the most accurate free preview of the test environment.

NSW DoE only publishes the three official practice tests linked here. Older "sample" papers were superseded when the test moved to a computer-based format, and they are no longer hosted by the Department.

PDFs hosted under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0). Original source: NSW Department of Education. Last synced 28 May 2026.