Do selective schools have cut-off marks?

No. The Department of Education says it plainly on its outcomes page, for both selective high schools and opportunity classes:

That holds for Year 7 entry in 2027, the children who sat the 2026 test, and it is a standing rule rather than a one-year decision. Any number you see called a "cut-off" for a selective school did not come from the Department. This page is part of our selective schools guide.

You can look at three things the Department does publish: your child's result bands, their reserve band at each school, and the number of places each school has. None of them is a mark to aim for, but together they answer most of what parents want a cut-off to tell them.

Because there is no fixed score to publish: the level needed comes out of each year's applications. Under the heading "Why doesn't the department publish minimum entry scores?", the Department says the performance needed at each school depends on how many students apply, how they perform relative to each other, the number of places, and how many reserve offers are declined. The four things it names are:

• Number of students who apply
• Their relative performance
• Number of places available
• Offers declined (for reserve-list offers)

Only the number of places is published in advance. The rest are set by who applies and how the year goes, so nobody can know the level needed in advance.

Because each school has its own applicants and its own number of places. The test performance needed for an offer is different at each school, because it depends on how many students apply, how they perform and how many places the school has.

The same reasoning works across years. If more children list a school this year, or the children who list it do better on the test, the level needed at that school rises. If fewer apply, it falls. A level that was enough for a school last year says little about this year.

It also moves within one year. Reserve offers only come when other families decline. When a family declines an offer at a school, it goes to the next eligible student on that school's reserve list. The bands are based on how parents declined offers at each school last year, and should be treated only as a guide. So the lowest result that ends up with an offer can change between first-round offers and the end of the reserve list.

In a sense, yes: each school has a lowest score among the general applicants it offers a place to in the first round, but it is an outcome of that year's offers, not a mark set in advance, and it is not published. The equity rules show it exists. For equity places, the placement procedures require test performance within 10% of the minimum first-round offer score of general applicants, or as the selection committee decides. That minimum score is used inside the process but not published.

The Department's fair-access page puts it this way:

So "no set minimum entry scores" and "a minimum accepted score" fit together. Nobody sets the number beforehand; it is simply the lowest result that received an offer once the offers were made.

Even if it were published, you could not compare your child against it. The performance report does not give a test score or placement rank, and the Department will not provide them.

Not from the Department, which has said it does not set cut-off scores. A Department of Education spokesman told the Sydney Morning Herald in May 2024 that there are no minimum entry or cut-off scores for selective high schools.

Numbers on forums and coaching-college websites are not Department figures, and the Department has warned against them. The same spokesman said parents should be cautious of relying on coaching colleges' information, which is often inaccurate and not representative of all applicants.

On preparation more generally, the Department's position is clear. The Department says coaching or tutoring for the placement test is not necessary, and that extra paid coaching will not give a child an advantage.

We printed estimated cut-offs ourselves in an old blog post. We have removed them, and the change is recorded on our sources and corrections page.

It cannot tell you whether your child will receive an offer. Practice and sample test results do not show how a student will perform, and selection committees do not consider them.

A trial rank compares your child only with the children who sat that trial, not with everyone who sits the real test. The real result is reported differently too. The bands do not show the percentage of answers your child got right. They show how your child compares with other students who sat the test that year.

A trial is more useful for spotting the question types your child finds hard than as a stand-in for a cut-off. Our guide to how the selective test works describes each section and links to the Department's own practice tests.

List the schools your child would actually want to go to, in the order you want them, because the system gives you the highest choice your child's result allows. You get an initial offer from one school only. If your child's result is enough for several of your choices, the offer comes from the highest of them.

You do not gain anything by placing a school higher to show keenness. Listing a school as your first choice gives no extra consideration.

We do not rank schools or estimate which need a lower result, because the Department publishes nothing that would support it. Compare schools by type, location and places in the selective schools list, and see how to apply for the choice rules.

No. The Department's line covers both tests. The Department says there are no set minimum entry scores to receive an offer to a selective high school or opportunity class. The same reasoning about applicants and places applies to each OC school. Our opportunity class guide covers the OC test and offers.