Twenty-five per cent each. Families preparing for the Selective test often treat English as the part their child will be fine at, and put the hours into maths. The arithmetic of the paper says otherwise — half of it is English, and one of those halves rests on a single 30-minute task.
Every section of the Selective test carries exactly 25%. Two of the four are English. That makes English worth as much as Mathematical Reasoning and Thinking Skills combined.
Reading 25% + Writing 25%
Mathematical Reasoning 25% + Thinking Skills 25%
In the OC test the balance shifts again: there is no writing task, so Reading is the sole English component among three.
Equal weighting only began in 2025. Until then Writing carried 15% of the placement score while Reading held at 25% — so English was 40% of the total, not half. A report prepared for the Department by Professor Jim Tognolini, Director of the Centre for Educational Measurement and Assessment at the University of Sydney, records the change: “In 2025 all 4 components are weighted equally.”
| English component | Until 2024 | 2025 onwards |
|---|---|---|
| Reading | 25% | 25% |
| Writing | 15% | 25% |
| English total | 40% | 50% |
Writing now carries two thirds more weight than it did, and English has gone from 40% of the placement score to half of it. The extra 10 points came out of the maths and reasoning side of the paper.
Preparation advice written before 2025 is calibrated to weightings that no longer exist. A student dividing their time by what each section is worth should be dividing it differently than they would have two years ago.
Accounts of the pre-2025 weightings differ on which of Mathematical Reasoning or Thinking Skills carried the remaining 35%, and the Department does not publish the figures on its current pages. The English side above is not in dispute.
The Department names the text types directly: non-fiction, fiction, poetry, magazine articles and reports.
That list is worth reading twice. Most primary reading practice runs on narrative fiction. Poetry and reports are different reading tasks altogether — one compresses meaning into form, the other buries it in structure and detail. A child who reads widely for pleasure but only ever reads stories has practised one of the five.
| Section | Questions | Time | Per question |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reading | 38 questions | 45 min | about 70 s |
| Mathematical Reasoning | 35 questions | 40 min | about 70 s |
| Thinking Skills | 40 questions | 40 min | about 60 s |
| Writing | 1 question | 30 min | 30 min |
The pace is tighter than it looks. Thirty-eight questions in 45 minutes is a little over a minute each — and that minute has to cover reading the passage, not just answering. Questions 1 to 22 are ordinary four-option multiple choice; questions 23 to 38 switch format, with the correct letter written into a numbered space. The Opportunity Class paper is built the same way at a smaller scale: 33 questions in 40 minutes, multiple choice to question 19, then the same written-letter format to 33.
Thirty minutes, one question, 25% of the placement score. No other item on the paper carries anything close to that weight on its own. A student can recover from two wrong multiple-choice answers. There is no equivalent recovery here.
The task itself is described plainly: students are given “a topic which the student must write about according to the instructions”.
The Department states it without qualification:
“The student’s writing must address the given topic, otherwise it will be marked lower, regardless of their fluency or creativity.”
This is aimed squarely at a common preparation strategy: rehearse two or three strong pieces and bend whichever fits the prompt on the day. The rule says that approach is penalised however well the piece is written. Ability to respond to an unseen topic is the thing being measured — and a memorised piece demonstrates the opposite.
“All questions (multiple-choice and the writing question) are answered using the computer.” The writing response is composed on screen.
This matters more than it first appears. A student who plans in the margin, crosses out, and rewrites by hand is using a process the test does not allow. Thirty minutes on a keyboard, drafting and revising on screen, is a different skill from thirty minutes with a pen — and it is the one being tested.
A report prepared for the Department by Professor Jim Tognolini of the University of Sydney sets out the mechanics. Every version of the test has one writing task, the tasks share a common rubric, and each response is marked by two human markers out of 25. The two scores are added, giving a total out of 50, which is then combined with the other components to produce a final score out of 100.
The contrast with the rest of the paper is worth noting. From 2025 the Reading, Mathematical Reasoning and Thinking Skills sections have been delivered online and marked automatically. Writing is the one component still read and judged by people — which is precisely why “addressing the given topic” is not a box a machine ticks but something two markers form a view about.
The score out of 25 per marker is documented. Beyond that, several sites publish band descriptors from 1 to 6, criteria split into fixed mark sets, and recommended word counts. Those are not in the Department’s public materials, and we have not reproduced them. Treat them as somebody’s reconstruction rather than the rubric itself.
Half. Reading carries 25% of the placement score and Writing carries another 25%. The other half is Mathematical Reasoning and Thinking Skills, at 25% each.
The Department lists non-fiction, fiction, poetry, magazine articles and reports. It is broader than the narrative fiction most primary reading practice focuses on — poetry and reports in particular are text types many students have rarely been tested on.
Thirty-eight, in 45 minutes. The official practice paper states: "You have 45 minutes to complete 38 questions in this question paper." Questions 1 to 22 are standard multiple choice with four options; questions 23 to 38 use a different format where the correct letter is written into a numbered space. A summary page on the Department website describes the section as 17 questions with some multi-part items, which counts question groups rather than answers — the question paper itself is the reliable figure.
One task in 30 minutes. Students are given "a topic which the student must write about according to the instructions". It is a single question carrying 25% of the placement score — the highest-stakes individual item on the paper.
The Department states the assessment covers "the creativity of the student's ideas and their ability to write effectively for a purpose and audience", and that the rubric also considers "text structure, grammar, punctuation, chosen style and the vocabulary you use".
Not answering the question set. The Department is explicit: "The student's writing must address the given topic, otherwise it will be marked lower, regardless of their fluency or creativity." A rehearsed piece adapted to fit the prompt is penalised no matter how well written it is.
Typed. The Department states that "all questions (multiple-choice and the writing question) are answered using the computer". A student who plans and drafts on paper at school is doing something different on the day.
Yes, and recently. Until 2024 Writing carried 15% of the placement score while Reading held at 25%, putting English at 40% of the total. Equal weighting began in 2025: a report prepared for the NSW Department of Education by Professor Jim Tognolini of the University of Sydney records that "in 2025 all 4 components are weighted equally." Writing therefore rose from 15% to 25% — two thirds more weight — and English went from 40% of the placement score to half of it.
People, not software. The same report states that each writing response is marked by two human markers out of a score of 25, with the two scores added to give a total out of 50, which is then combined with the other components into a final score out of 100. From 2025 the Reading, Mathematical Reasoning and Thinking Skills sections have been marked automatically — Writing is the only component still judged by human markers.
No. The Opportunity Class Placement Test has three components — Reading, Mathematical Reasoning and Thinking Skills. Reading is the only English component in it, which makes it proportionally more important there than in the Selective test. OC Reading is 33 questions in 40 minutes, against 38 in 45 minutes for Selective.
Last reviewed 2 August 2026. Where official materials do not state something clearly, this guide says so rather than fill the gap. Rules and dates change — confirm against the source before acting on them.
