Guides · Coaching colleges
Fourteen coaching colleges run the state’s biggest NSW Selective Test programs — they’re compared in detail below. Beyond them, our suburb-by-suburb directory tracks every NSW tutoring centre we could verify with a named selective program, over a hundred providers in all. Among those that publish a price, weekly term courses run from about $360 a subject to $770 a term, holiday intensives reach $960 to $1,420, and a full multi-term trial-test course runs close to $3,000 — but several of the best-known colleges don’t publish any price at all, gating it behind an enrolment enquiry.
This page covers the directory in two levels. The table below compares the major colleges — the state-wide and multi-campus names most parents have heard of, verified in full detail. Every other centre in NSW — more than a hundred local operators — lives in the suburb-by-suburb directory that follows. Prices are quoted exactly as published, with the billing period; where a college doesn’t publish a price, the table says so, and rows with unconfirmed details are flagged.
| Provider | Selective courses | Published pricing | Delivery | Locations | Free trial / assessment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alpha One Coaching College | Foundations, Intensive English, WEMT, and a computer-based Selective Trial Test Course (Years 4–6) | Per class, 10-week term, incl. GST: Foundations $84, Intensive English $73, WEMT $84, STTC $95 | In-person small-group (max 8); online homework help | 5 Sydney campuses | Free trial class + free consultation |
| BrainTree Coaching | Self-paced Selective Test Preparation Packs (Super / Ultimate / Premium) + Writing Packs | One-off packs: $99–$399 (Super $399, Ultimate $199, Premium $99) | Online only, self-paced | No campus — online nationwide | Free practice paper, no card |
| Dymocks Tutoring | OC + Selective streams: Thinking Skills, English, Maths (Grades 5–6) | Thinking Skills from $360/term; English & Maths from $495/term (10 lessons/term) | Small-group, in-person + online | 5 Sydney campuses + online | Free first session |
| Global Education Academy | Selective & Scholarship Preparation (Years 5–6) | Not published (sales-gated) | In-person small-group (max 8) + online-only tier | 2 campuses (Kogarah, Turramurra) + online | Free trial class; 50%-off assessment |
| Matrix Education | Year 5 & Year 6 Selective Test Prep — term, holiday intensive, or Matrix+ online | Term $528/term (9 lessons); Holiday $960 (4-day); Matrix+ $369/module | In-person + online, small-group | 7 NSW campuses + online | Free trial; first-lesson money-back guarantee |
| Talent 100 | Years 5/6 Selective — Maths, English, Thinking Skills (per subject) | $495/term per subject (Year 5/6, Chatswood, 10-week term, incl. GST) | In-centre + online, small-group | 5 Sydney campuses + online | Free trial + free diagnostic test |
| Test Academy | Selective Mastery Class (live weekly); self-paced practice-test packs; ACST paid mock | Live class $35/hr ($122.50/week, billed per term); packs $269 (6mo) / $369 (12mo); ACST mock $100 | In-person (Parramatta) + online live via Google Meet | 1 campus (Parramatta) + online | Free first session |
| The Swot Shop | Selective Exam Preparation (weekly) + Selective Condensed (intensive) | $730 weekday / $770 weekend per 10-week term; Condensed $1,420/term; $35 entry test | In-person, ability-streamed groups | 1 campus (Baulkham Hills) | None free — $35 entry test; 7-day money-back guarantee |
| CS Education | Computer-based Selective Trial Test Course (Years 5/7) | Norwest Year 5 brochure: $73/test, $730 per 10-week term; full 41-test course ~$2,993 (franchise, per-campus) | Blended — in-person tests + online review LMS | ~23 NSW suburbs (franchise) | None found — paid trial-test course, no refund |
| James An College | Selective Reading & Maths Reasoning, Thinking Skills, Writing Skills; NST mock | Not published (sales-gated) | In-person classes (10–15); online testing/revision tools; live-online class unconfirmed | ~10+ NSW suburbs (Campsie head office); count unconfirmed | Free assessment test at enrolment |
| North Shore Coaching College | Year 5 & 6 selective/scholarship: Fastrain Extended, High Achiever, SS Exam Prep (mock) | Chatswood, Term 3 2026 (10 wk): Fastrain $920/term, High Achiever $920/term, SS Exam Prep $880/term (campus-specific) | In-person small-group; online option stated but unconfirmed for selective | 22 NSW suburbs | Free Assessment (sitewide) |
| Pre-Uni New College | Selective Trial Test Course (Years 5/6), online variant; ASAT mock | Core STTC price unconfirmed; ASAT mock $100 ($90 enrolled); published OC course $3,123 total | In-person + online (Cyberschool), class-based | ~19–25 NSW branches; count unconfirmed | Free Assessment Test unconfirmed; paid ASAT mock $100 |
| Scholarly | WEMT + Trial Test programs, Years 2–6 (Year 5 Selective, Year 6 Final Sprint) | Year 5 Selective $1,088 / 10-week term; Year 6 Final Sprint $909; trial-test packs separate | Online only — live Zoom (recorded) | Online only (no campus) | Free 30-min diagnostic test |
Also operating: Selective Learning Centre in North Parramatta, which its own (archived) site says has run since 2006 — but as of 9 July 2026 its website is an empty parked placeholder, and no current pricing or course details could be verified, so it isn’t listed above.
Beyond the major colleges above, more than a hundred local tutoring centres across NSW run a named selective program — the single-suburb operators, franchise branches and community institutions that never make the big-name lists. Each region page below lists every one we could verify, grouped by suburb, with published prices and addresses:
Every college on this page teaches content — that's their job. Ours is the other half: the real test is sat on a computer, and screen familiarity is the one advantage every family can control. Our practice papers are full-length, matched to the real question counts and timing, and sat in a player built to mirror the real on-screen test — the timer, the flag button, the question grid.
The arithmetic is hard to argue with: a single coaching class runs $35 to $95. A Day Pass to every one of our papers is $12, and one paper in each subject is free — no card, no account. Pair it with any college in this directory, or use it on its own: it's the piece of preparation a classroom can't cover, at a hundredth of the cost of a term.
The story behind each row of the comparison table — the same fourteen major colleges, with what each publishes about itself, its history and its footprint. Fully verified providers first, then the five where some details remain unconfirmed.
Alpha One runs four selective-prep courses — Foundations, Intensive English, WEMT, and a computer-based Selective Trial Test Course — for Years 4 to 6, in small groups capped at eight students. Its own site gives a founding year of 2015 and states that 81.4% of its students received a selective-school place in 2024 (a first-party figure). Classes run at five Sydney campuses: Bella Vista, North Parramatta, Burwood, Epping, and Tallawong.
BrainTree sells the selective course as self-paced online mock-test packs rather than live tutoring, with writing sections marked within 24 hours through its own platform. Braintree Coaching Pty Ltd shows on the Australian Business Register as active from 4 October 2024, and third-party aggregator Trustindex reports 4.8 out of 5 from 56 reviews (47 Google, 9 Facebook). It has no teaching campus; instruction is online nationwide from a Strathfield head office.
Dymocks Tutoring runs OC and Selective streams as three separate weekly subject classes — Thinking Skills, English, Maths — for Grades 5 and 6. Its Parramatta branch shows 4.9 stars from 469 Google reviews in Google’s knowledge panel; the business launched as Potentia in 2018 and was rebranded Dymocks Tutoring in 2020, part of the Dymocks bookseller group. Classes run at five Sydney campuses (Parramatta, Burwood, Hurstville, Chatswood, Epping) and online at the same price.
GEA’s Selective & Scholarship Preparation course for Years 5–6 runs 1.5 hours per subject per week in classes capped at eight, plus a January intensive. It doesn’t publish fees — families are directed to call or email — though it offers a free trial class and a half-price formal assessment. A third-party directory, OKOS Kids, lists it at 4.8 out of 5 from 44 reviews; the business began as Global Tutoring in 2011. It teaches at two campuses, Kogarah and Turramurra, plus an online-only tier.
Matrix offers Year 5 and Year 6 Selective Test Preparation three ways: a nine-week on-campus term course ($528), a four-day holiday intensive ($960), and a self-paced Matrix+ online module ($369). Its About page gives a founding year of 1999 and states more than 8,000 students study across its programs each term. Classes run at seven NSW campuses — Castle Hill, Chatswood, Epping, Hurstville, Parramatta, Strathfield, and Sydney City — plus online.
Talent 100’s Years 5/6 program splits selective prep into three per-subject modules — Maths, English, Thinking Skills — each $495 a term (Chatswood, 10-week term, GST included). Delivery is small-group, in-centre or online, with a free diagnostic test advertised. Secondary company-data sources (Crunchbase, RocketReach) put its founding at 2008, though we couldn’t confirm that on its own live pages; it lists five Sydney campuses (Chatswood, Epping, Hurstville, Burwood, Parramatta).
Test Academy runs a live Selective Mastery Class billed at $35 an hour ($122.50 a week, per term), alongside self-paced practice-test packages ($269 for six months, $369 for twelve) and a paid computer-based mock, the ACST, at $100. The live class runs in person at its single Parramatta campus (max eight students) or online via Google Meet. Its site gives 2019 for the in-person launch and 2021 for the online platform, and shows a 5.0 Google rating, though no review count is published.
The Swot Shop runs a weekly Selective Exam Preparation program ($730 weekday / $770 weekend a term) and a twice-weekly Selective Condensed intensive ($1,420 a term), both ability-streamed and in person. Placement requires a paid $35 entry test rather than a free assessment, and paid enrolment carries a 7-day money-back guarantee. It operates from a single Baulkham Hills centre and describes itself as running for over 30 years.
CS Education runs a computer-based Selective Trial Test Course for Years 5 and 7 as a blended program — in-person tests and tutorials plus online review through its LMS. It’s a franchise, so pricing is set per campus: the Norwest Year 5 brochure lists $73 a test, $730 per 10-week term, and about $2,993 for the full 41-test course. Its own site gives conflicting founding dates (1992 in one place, 2002 in another) and roughly 23 NSW campuses. No free trial was found — the trial-test course is paid, with a no-refund policy.
James An College offers three selective courses for Years 5–6 — Selective Reading & Mathematical Reasoning, Selective Thinking Skills, and Selective Writing Skills — plus its own NST mock exam. It doesn’t publish fees; the only pricing-adjacent detail is an enrolment-length discount structure (up to 20% off for a full 45-week enrolment). The site gives a founding year of 1986 and offers a free assessment test at enrolment. It lists a Campsie head office and roughly ten-plus NSW suburbs, though the exact campus count is unconfirmed.
North Shore runs Year 5 and 6 selective/scholarship programs, including Fastrain Extended, High Achiever, and a mock-test-based SS Exam Preparation stream. Pricing is campus- and term-specific: at Chatswood for Term 3 2026 (a 10-week term), Fastrain and High Achiever were $920 a term and the mock-test program $880. A free assessment is advertised sitewide. Its footer dates the business to 1991, and it lists 22 NSW campus suburbs within a wider 65-plus-campus network.
Pre-Uni New College markets “OC, Selective School & HSC Coaching” and runs a Selective Trial Test Course for Years 5 and 6, in person and online through its Cyberschool platform, plus its own ASAT mock exam. Its site blocks automated access, so we couldn’t verify a reliable price for the core selective course; the ASAT mock is confirmed at $100 ($90 for enrolled students), and its published Opportunity Class course totals $3,123. “Since 1992” appears on its own letterhead, and it holds a 2.5-star rating from 46 reviews on ProductReview.com.au. Its branch count (roughly 19–25 across NSW) is unconfirmed.
Scholarly runs WEMT-plus-trial-test programs for Years 2–6, delivered online only as live, recorded Zoom classes. Its Year 5 Selective course was listed at $1,088 for a 10-week term and the Year 6 Final Sprint at $909, with trial-test packs sold separately. It publishes no physical campus and no founding year; its Facebook page, “Scholarly Test Prep”, shows 3,579 likes. A free 30-minute diagnostic test is offered to Year 5 and 6 students.
Add it up over a full campaign and the numbers are real. A single subject at $495 a term across four terms is close to $2,000; a full computer-based trial-test course reaches nearly $3,000; multiply by two children or add a holiday intensive and the figure climbs further. For families weighing that outlay, one voice is worth quoting directly.
The NSW Department of Education’s own guidance for students is to look at some practice papers and get familiar with the format — not to be coached. It states plainly that coaching “is not necessary”, and there is no independent research it cites, or that we could find, showing coaching improves a child’s chances of an offer. The test, the Department says, “isn’t testing high school concepts” — it’s testing “ability, thinking and problem-solving.”
Source: Get ready for the Selective High School Placement Test, NSW Department of Education (accessed 9 July 2026).
We take no position on whether coaching helps — reasonable parents land on different sides of that, and the evidence doesn’t settle it either way. This directory exists so that parents who are already considering a college can compare them on price and format without a sales call, not to argue anyone into or out of enrolling.
Frequently asked
Among the colleges that publish a price, weekly term courses run from about $360 a subject to $770 a term, holiday intensives reach $960 to $1,420, and a full multi-term trial-test course runs close to $3,000. Several well-known colleges — James An College, Global Education Academy, and Pre-Uni New College’s core selective course — don’t publish a figure at all, so you have to enquire to find out.
Some gate pricing behind an enrolment enquiry, a phone call, or a placement assessment. We record that plainly because it’s a real, differentiating fact about how a provider operates — not a judgement about the teaching. Where a college publishes a price, we quote it exactly, with its billing period.
The NSW Department of Education states that coaching “is not necessary”, and there’s no independent research showing it improves a child’s chances of a place. This directory is here to help you compare colleges if you choose to enrol — not to persuade you that you should.