There is no official answer to how early a child should start preparing, and anyone who gives you a number is guessing. What is fixed are the dates — and working backwards from them shows exactly how much room there actually is.
Read this from the bottom up. Everything above the last row is fixed by the Department; only the last row is yours.
Fixed date — no second attempt except approved illness or misadventure.
The hard deadline. No late applications are accepted.
The decision to apply has to already be made by this point.
Selective high school runs on the same shape two years later: decide before November of Year 5, applications close February of Year 6, test in May of Year 6.
Between the application closing in February and the test in May there are roughly ten weeks. Families often treat the application date as the starting gun. It is closer to the opposite: by then the calendar is set, the test date is fixed, and ten weeks is what remains.
Whatever needs longer than ten weeks — building reading stamina, becoming fluent with an unfamiliar question format, learning to type a writing response under time — has to be underway before the application closes, not after.
You will see “start two years out” and “start in Year 2” asserted confidently in a lot of places. The Department publishes no such guidance, and no evidence is offered for those figures. What is true is narrower and more useful: the decision to apply has to exist before November, and the ten weeks after February are the last uninterrupted stretch before the test. A child who is already reading widely and comfortable with unfamiliar problems needs less of that window than one who is not — which is a question about the individual child, not about a recommended start date.
Before November of Year 3. That is when applications open, and they close in February while your child is in Year 4. Because the Department accepts no late applications and the test is sat once, a decision made after February of Year 4 is a decision not to apply.
Before November of Year 5, on the same calendar two years later. Applications close in February of Year 6 and the test is sat that May.
About ten weeks. In the most recently completed cycle applications closed on 20 February 2026 and the tests were held on 1 or 2 May (Selective) and 8 or 9 May (OC). Anything that needs longer than ten weeks has to be underway before the application closes.
Only in narrow circumstances. A make-up test is available for approved illness or misadventure — 22 May 2026 in the most recent cycle — and requires a request through the application dashboard. It is not an alternative sitting for families who missed the original date.
Check early. For opportunity class entry in 2027 the Department set the birth date range as 1 January 2016 to 31 July 2017, with students typically aged between 9 years and 5 months and 11 years when they start Year 5. If your child started school unusually young or repeated a year, confirm eligibility before planning anything else.
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.
