Read the title and both axes out loud before reading a single point.
Practice test 1 is free. No card needed.
Graphs questions are solved by reading both axes and their units first, then the change or the rule of the line. Children in Year 7 now sit the exam in Year 8 , expected in June 2027.
Checked by the SelectiveReady team on 12 October 2026 · Updated 27 October 2026 · How we check facts
Independent. Not affiliated with the Victorian Department of Education or ACER.
A graphs question gives a line on two axes and asks what it shows: a value, a change, a stop or a rule. It sits in the Mathematics part, which shares a 60-minute sitting with Quantitative Reasoning.
ACER says the Maths part tests year-level maths knowledge and reasoning, and using maths in real-world contexts. A graph of the weather, a bike ride or a hire price puts the maths in that kind of setting.
These three are our own questions, from easier to harder. Each one shows the answer and the working. Read each graph with your child, with a finger on the axes.
For each wrong option, ask your child to point to the part of the graph it uses. A wrong answer here can be a right reading of the wrong section of the line.
The graph shows the temperature in Ballarat at different times on one day. Between which two times did the temperature rise the most?
Answer: B
Answer: B
Find the change for each part of the graph: 8 to 13 is up 5, 13 to 21 is up 8, 21 to 23 is up 2, and 23 to 13 is down 10. The biggest rise is 8 degrees, from 9 am to 12 pm. The tempting 3 pm to 6 pm is the biggest change, but the temperature fell, so it is not a rise.
The travel graph shows Mark's bike ride from home to a lake and back again. Which statement is true?
Answer: D
Answer: D
Read each part of the graph. Going out he rode 18 km in 1.5 hours (12 km/h); coming home he rode 18 km in 1 hour (18 km/h), so he was faster coming home. The flat part, where his distance does not change, lasts from 9:30 to 10:30, a full hour, not 30 minutes. The lake is 18 km away; 36 km is the whole ride.
The graph shows the cost of hiring one bike from Company P or Company Q for 1 to 6 hours. For each company, every extra hour adds the same amount, and the pattern continues after 6 hours. Kai has $50 and wants to ride for as long as possible. He hires one bike from whichever company gives him more time. What is the greatest whole number of hours he can hire it for?
Answer: C
Answer: C
Find each rule from the graph. P rises $4 an hour and 1 hour costs $14, so P is a $10 fee plus $4 an hour. Q is $6 an hour. With $50, P gives (50 − 10) ÷ 4 = 10 hours, while Q gives only 8 hours ($48). The tempting 9 is (50 − 14) ÷ 4, which forgets the first hour; 12 forgets the fee.
Slow down at the start: the axes and units decide what every point means. These steps are ours, drawn from the working in the answers above.
Say what each axis measures and in what units. On a travel graph, up means further from home, not uphill.
Take the start value from the end value for each section of the line. Note whether it goes up or down.
On a travel graph, a flat line means the distance is not changing. Read how long it lasts from the time axis.
Note where the line starts and how much it rises for each step. A cost line can be a fixed fee plus an amount per hour.
Use the rule beyond the graph if the question asks. Then check the answer against a point you can read.
Each wrong option below reads the graph correctly but answers a different question. The check is to reread the question's key word, such as rise, true or hours, before choosing.
Use the graphs already in your day. Open the weather app's temperature graph for your suburb, and ask your child when it rose fastest and when it fell.
After a walk or a ride, sketch a distance-time graph of it together, with any stops as flat lines. For costs, compare two phone plans or hire prices, draw both lines, and find where they cross.
These three graphs show the method; a full sitting shows whether your child still reads the axes first when time is short. Practice test 1 in our selective entry practice tests is free and follows the real exam's parts and times.
For more worked items, see our maths sample questions. For the whole part, see VIC selective entry mathematics.
Practice test 1 marks every answer and shows results by skill: what your child already does well and the three skills to work on next.
Practise for the real test
Practice test 1 is free. Then packs from A$109 for 12 months, or A$9 a week, per exam.