Selective Test Scoring: How the Placement Score Works

What changed, and when

The four-component format itself — Reading, Mathematical Reasoning, Thinking Skills and a scored Writing task — is not new. What changed for the 2025 sitting is how the four are weighted when they are combined into a placement score. The clearest statement of it is in the independent methodology review commissioned as part of the Department's 2025 placement-testing review, written by Professor John Tognolini of the Centre for Educational Measurement and Assessment at the University of Sydney. It states, plainly:

"In 2025 all 4 components are weighted equally, whereas in 2024 the weighting of the components for the SHS were 35%, 25%, 25% and 15% for the Mathematical Reasoning, Reading, Thinking skills and Writing respectively." — Prof. John Tognolini, high-level review of the 2025 methodology, NSW Department of Education, July 2025 (accessed 27 July 2026)

The current policy confirms the destination: the selective placement procedures (PD-2002-0006), version V02.1.0, updated 5 November 2025, list the Selective High School test as Reading, Mathematical Reasoning, Thinking Skills and Writing at 25% each (accessed 27 July 2026). The review also notes the change "had been disseminated to students well in advance of the testing date" — so every child who sat the test in May 2025, and everyone sitting from now on, is scored on the equal-weight model.

A note on years: the review uses the year a test is sat. The 2024 test was for 2025 Year 7 entry; the 2025 test (sat May 2025) was for 2026 entry; the May 2026 test is for 2027 entry. Every one of those from May 2025 onward uses the equal 25% weighting.

Then vs now: the component weightings

Here is the whole change in one table — the 2024 weightings the Department's review records, against the equal weighting used from the 2025 sitting.

Source: 2024 weightings and the equal-weighting change from Prof. John Tognolini's high-level review of the 2025 methodology (NSW Department of Education, July 2025); current 25% each confirmed by placement procedures PD-2002-0006 (V02.1.0, 5 November 2025). Accessed 27 July 2026.

What the change means for preparation

Equal weighting changes the arithmetic, not the test. Two things genuinely follow from it, and it is worth being honest about what does not.

Writing now counts as much as anything else. When Writing was 15% and Mathematical Reasoning 35%, it was defensible — if joyless — to treat the writing task as a rounding error and pour time into maths. At 25% each, that trade no longer balances. A strong maths section can no longer quietly carry a neglected one, because no section is heavy enough to do the carrying.

The sensible emphasis is "all four, evenly." That is close to how most families would spread their attention anyway, so for many it changes little. If your child's practice has been lopsided — heavy on the sections that feel most like schoolwork, light on Writing or Thinking Skills — the weighting change is a reason to even it out.

What the change does not mean: no section became easier, no section stopped mattering, and no particular way of preparing is now "the answer." A weighting is just how the marks are combined. It tells you where the marks are, not how to earn them. We make no claims about what raises a score — the honest levers are familiarity with the format and practice under realistic conditions, which is true whatever the weightings are.

How the placement score is assembled, end to end

1. Four sections, sat on a computer

Reading, Mathematical Reasoning and Thinking Skills are multiple-choice and, since 2025, are delivered online and automatically marked. Writing is one open task, completed online but scored by human markers. The Department's review notes each writing task is "marked by two human markers out of a score of 25," added to a total out of 50, before being brought onto a common scale (Tognolini review, accessed 27 July 2026).

2. Raw marks are scaled, not used directly

Because different children sit different versions of the test on different days, a raw mark "can only be interpreted in terms of the test that they received." The versions are linked using shared "common items" and Rasch measurement, so scores from different papers can be compared fairly — the same technique used for NAPLAN and international tests like PISA. This is why your child's band "does not show the percentage of correct answers": it is a statewide comparison, not a mark out of the questions they saw.

3. The sections are combined with the 25% weights

The scaled Reading, Mathematical Reasoning and Thinking Skills scores and the Writing score are combined using the equal weights. Per the 2025 review, the combining produces "an overall score out of 120 for each student, which was then weighted to produce a final score out of 100." That is the internal machinery — families are never shown either number. You may see cut-off tables online quoting scores "out of 120"; that is an internal working figure, not a mark the Department publishes.

4. A single rank, filled against your preferences

The final scores produce one statewide rank. Schools are filled down that rank in the order of each family's listed preferences. The first 80% of every school's places go on rank alone; up to 20% is reserved across four equity groups for students within 10% of a school's cut-off — the mechanics of which we cover on the cut-off scores guide.

5. What actually lands in your inbox

Not a score. You receive a comparative Performance Report (accessed 27 July 2026) placing your child in one of four bands per component — top 10%, next 15%, next 25%, or lowest 50% of that year's candidates — plus an outcome: an offer, a place on a reserve band, or unsuccessful. The report is a comparison against the state, never a mark out of anything.

And the Opportunity Class test?

The Opportunity Class placement test (Year 5 entry) has three components — Reading, Mathematical Reasoning and Thinking Skills — and no Writing task. Under the current placement procedures each is weighted 33.3% (accessed 27 July 2026). The Department's documented weighting change was specifically to the Selective High School test; we have not seen an official statement of a change to the OC weighting, so we make none — if you see a "then vs now" OC weighting quoted, treat it as unsourced until the Department says otherwise.

What the Department still doesn't publish

One thing the equal-weighting clarity does not give you is a target number. There is no set minimum entry score, and no official per-school cut-off under the current test — a school's effective cut-off only exists after a round closes, and the Department withdrew the last per-school figures (2021 entry, on a retired scale) years ago. If you have seen a confident "you need X to get into school Y" table, our cut-off scores guide explains why none of them trace to a Department source.

Scoring questions, answered honestly

Preparing across all four, evenly

With every section now worth 25%, the practical move is even attention across all four rather than doubling down on one. Each has its own shape, and it is worth knowing what each looks like before test day: the Mathematical Reasoning question types, the Thinking Skills reasoning styles, the Reading question formats, and what the Writing task actually asks for. For the wider plan, our selective test preparation guide walks through a sensible, calm timetable.