EduTest practice resources: free papers and study materials

EduTest practice resources fall into three groups: free official samples from the test publishers, paid third-party question banks, and the structured weekly materials used inside our EduTest selective and scholarship exam preparation programme. This page sets out what to use at each stage of the year-long preparation plan, where to find verified free resources, and how many practice papers a child typically completes before the real sitting.

Where can we get free EduTest practice papers?

Free, official EduTest sample materials are published by the test publisher and by the state education departments that use the test for selective entry. These are the most reliable starting point because the format, timing and difficulty match the real sitting — third-party samples vary widely in quality.

• Edutest Australia publishes a free sample paper covering each of the five sections. Sit this paper in week one of the preparation year as a baseline diagnostic before any paid practice.
• Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) publishes sample questions and practice papers for its scholarship and selective entry tests, which share format and section structure with the EduTest sitting.
• NSW Department of Education publishes information packs, sample questions and timing guidance for the selective high schools placement test used by state selective schools.

Mark the week-one paper under timed conditions, identify the three weakest sections, and use the result to shape the first three months of practice. A diagnostic that is not reviewed is wasted practice; spend an hour marking and discussing every paper before sitting the next one.

What kinds of practice materials do students actually need?

A complete EduTest preparation kit covers four kinds of material: section-specific drills, full-length mock papers, vocabulary and writing rubrics, and a mistake-tracking log. Each addresses a different gap, and none replaces the others.

Material	Purpose	Frequency
Section-specific drills (verbal, numerical, reading, maths)	Building accuracy on individual question types.	Daily, 20–30 minutes per session.
Full-length timed mock papers	Practising stamina, pacing and section-to-section transitions.	Weekly in months 4–9; twice weekly in months 10–12.
Vocabulary lists with context sentences	Lifting verbal-reasoning and reading-comprehension scores.	20 new words per week throughout the plan.
Writing prompts with rubrics	Improving structure, vocabulary and timing under a 15-minute write.	One timed write per week.
Mistake log	Identifying recurring errors and stopping them recurring.	After every sectional or mock paper.

The single most important entry on this list is the mistake log. A student who reviews every wrong answer — and writes the type of mistake into a running list — improves significantly faster than one who simply sits more papers without review.

How many practice papers should a child sit?

A typical EduTest preparation plan includes ten to fifteen full-length mock papers across nine to twelve months. The number is less important than the pacing: cluster mocks too early and the child plateaus; leave them too late and there is no time to act on the patterns.

1. Months 1–3 (diagnostic and foundation). One full-length paper in week one as a baseline, and one more at the end of month three. The goal is accuracy in untimed practice — not yet pace.
2. Months 4–8 (skill building). One full-length paper every two to three weeks (about three to four papers in this phase), plus two timed sectional papers each week. Review every paper carefully before sitting the next one.
3. Months 9–11 (mastery). One full-length paper per week, sat in real conditions — timed, scored, no calculator, no notes. Most students sit five to eight papers in this phase.
4. Final four weeks (taper). Two full-length papers in the first fortnight, then taper to vocabulary and mental-math review only. No new mock papers in the final week.

A child who sits fifteen mocks with thorough review reliably outperforms one who sits thirty without it. The review is where the marks are made.

What should we look for in a paid question bank?

Paid third-party question banks vary considerably in quality. A useful bank meets four criteria:

• Difficulty matched to the real test. Compare a sample question to the free official sample paper. If the third-party questions are noticeably easier or harder, the bank will not predict real performance.
• Solutions that explain the reasoning, not just the answer. A bank that returns "B" without explanation does not help a student improve — they need to see the relationship name in an analogy, the step in a sequence, the inference in a passage.
• Coverage across all five sections. Question banks that skip the written expression rubric leave a 20% gap in the final score.
• Access until the test date. Some banks expire after thirty days. Confirm access lasts to the sitting.

Free sample papers from official publishers, combined with the weekly materials supplied inside our EduTest preparation strategies plan, are sufficient for most families. A paid bank is a supplement, not a substitute for reviewing every mistake.

How should writing practice fit into the plan?

Written expression is the section that responds fastest to deliberate practice but is the most often neglected. One timed fifteen-minute write per week, marked against a rubric, lifts writing scores faster than any other intervention. We use the four-criterion rubric the marker would use — ideas and content, organisation, language and vocabulary, conventions — and ask the child to score their own piece before reviewing it together.

• Plan first. Two minutes of planning at the top of the fifteen minutes produces a stronger piece than the same time spent writing without a plan.
• Mix forms. Alternate weeks between creative narrative and persuasive writing — the test sets one or the other and neither child nor parent knows which on the day.
• Track structure, not topic. Most marks are won and lost on structure (introduction, body paragraphs, conclusion) rather than on topic. A child writing a polished structure on an unfamiliar topic outperforms a child writing an unstructured piece on a comfortable topic.

What does this mean for preparation?

Start with a free official sample paper, build a weekly routine of sectional drills, vocabulary and one timed write, and add full-length mocks at the pace of the four-phase plan. Pair this page with our EduTest exam format overview to understand what each section measures, and with our EduTest preparation strategies plan to see how practice resources fit into a twelve-month build-up.