Selective School Test Preparation: A Calm Plan for Year 5 and 6

29 October 2026 · 7 min read

If your child is in Year 5 or 6 in NSW and you are thinking about the selective school test, you have probably felt a little wobble in your stomach. Other parents are talking about tutors. Someone's cousin is doing three papers a week. It is easy to feel behind before you have even started.

Take a breath. Good preparation is mostly steady, small and boring in the best way. This article gives you a calm plan you can start tonight, whether your child sits the test or not.

Start with what the test actually asks

Before you buy anything or book anything, find out what your child will face. Check the NSW Department of Education website for the current details: which sections there are, how long each takes, and how it is marked. Rules and formats can change, so always trust that source over a friend or a forum.

In general, selective-style tests are about thinking, not just remembering. Children are usually asked to read carefully, reason through problems, and work quickly without rushing into mistakes. That means the best preparation builds habits, not just knowledge:

• Reading a question twice before answering
• Checking whether an answer makes sense
• Moving on from a hard question and coming back to it
• Keeping going when the work feels tricky

These are skills your child can grow in 15 to 20 minutes a day.

Do a gentle first check

Before building a plan, find out where your child is right now. Sit with them for one short, relaxed session. Give them a small set of reading questions and a small set of maths and reasoning questions at about their year level. Do not time it the first time. Just watch.

Ask yourself:

• Do they read the whole passage, or skim and guess?
• Do they get stuck on vocabulary?
• In maths, do they know the method but make slips, or is the method itself shaky?
• How do they react when they do not know? Freeze, rush, or have a go?

Write down two or three things you notice. That is your starting map. A child who rushes needs a different plan from a child who freezes.

Build a weekly rhythm, not a cram

The biggest mistake we see is leaving it all until the last term. A longer, lighter runway works far better than a frantic sprint. If you have six months or more, even better. If you have less, the same ideas apply, just a bit more focused.

Here is a simple weekly shape for a Year 5 or Year 6 child:

1. Two or three short reading sessions. Read a passage together or alone, then talk about it. What is the main idea? Why did the character do that? What does this word mean in this sentence?
2. Two short maths sessions. Mix revision of core skills (fractions, times tables, place value, simple problem solving) with a few harder questions.
3. One thinking-skills session. Patterns, sequences, logic puzzles and word problems. Make it feel like a game.
4. One slower review session. Go back over mistakes from the week and ask, "What would you do differently next time?"

Keep most sessions to 15 to 25 minutes. Stop while your child still has some energy. Two or three rest days a week are not laziness. They are part of the plan.

Practise reading like a detective

Strong reading is the quiet engine behind almost every part of a selective-style test, including maths word problems. You can build it without any worksheets.

• Read widely. Novels, news for kids, science articles, even the back of a cereal box. Variety builds vocabulary.
• Talk about words. When your child meets an unfamiliar word, guess the meaning from the sentence first, then check.
• Ask "how do you know?" If they say a character was nervous, ask which words told them that. This trains them to find evidence in the text.
• Practise inference. Read a short passage and ask what the writer did not say outright but clearly meant.

For extra practice at the right level, our reading and thinking practice gives you short sets you can use in a few minutes at the kitchen table.

Make maths feel solvable

Selective-style maths often hides a simple idea inside a wordy question. For example, a question might say: "A shop sells pencils in packs of 6 and rubbers in packs of 4. Mia buys the same number of pencils and rubbers. What is the smallest number of each she could buy?" That is really a question about common multiples, dressed up in a story.

Help your child by teaching them to:

• Underline the numbers and the question being asked
• Draw a quick picture or table
• Estimate first, so they can tell if their answer is sensible
• Check units, like cm, minutes or dollars

If their basics wobble, fix those first. Quick recall of times tables and fractions frees up thinking space for harder problems. Our times tables practice is a good low-pressure place to build that speed.

Practise under test conditions, but not too early

Timed practice matters, because pacing is a real skill. But do not start there. Build understanding first, then introduce a timer.

A gentle way to ease in:

• Start with untimed questions and talk through them
• Move to a generous time limit
• Gradually tighten it as your child gets more comfortable
• In the final weeks, try one or two full-length practice papers in a quiet room

After each paper, spend more time on the mistakes than on the score. A wrong answer is useful information. Ask, "Was it a knowledge gap, a careless slip, or did we run out of time?" Each needs a different fix.

Look after the child, not just the result

This part matters most. A tired, anxious child performs worse than a rested, curious one.

• Protect sleep, play and family time. Sport, friends and boredom are not distractions. They are what keeps a child healthy.
• Watch your language. Say "I like how you kept trying" instead of "You need to get this right."
• Be honest about outcomes. Places are limited, and many wonderful children do not get in. Your child's worth and future are not decided by one test. Talk about it as one try, not a verdict.
• Have a plan B that you feel good about. Your local high school, an opportunity class, or enrichment programs may suit your child very well.

If your child starts having trouble sleeping, stomach aches or tears around practice, ease off. Pushing harder will not help.

The week before and the day itself

In the last week, do light revision only. Skim past mistakes, do a few easy questions to build confidence, and stop any heavy new learning.

On the day, keep it simple: a good breakfast, any items the test centre requires (check the official instructions), and a calm drive. Tell your child you are proud of them no matter what. Then do something nice together afterwards.

If you would like structure and tracking along the way, StudyHop has short lessons, practice that marks itself and progress reports so you can see what your child has covered without hovering. You can see how it works on our what it does page. It is just one option. The plan above works on paper, too.

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