Use only what the statements say, and ask of every option: must this be true?
Practice test 1 is free. No card needed.
Deduction questions ask what must follow from a few statements, so your child sorts each option into must, could or can't. Children in Year 7 now sit Verbal Reasoning in Year 8, in June 2027 Expected.
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.
It gives a few plain statements and asks what must follow from them. ACER says Verbal Reasoning tests thinking and reasoning with words, concepts and logic, and deduction is the logic part. The statements may be about a rowing crew or a chess club, but real-life knowledge doesn't help: only what is written counts.
These are our own questions, from easier to harder. Each one shows the answer and the working; read them with your child, sketching as you go if it helps.
Every member of the Kestrels rowing crew owns a life jacket. Priya is a member of the Kestrels. Which of these must be true?
Answer: D
Answer: D
Use only what the statements say. Every Kestrel owns a life jacket and Priya is a Kestrel, so she owns one. B is the trap: it turns the first statement around. People outside the crew may own life jackets too; we are not told.
Noah is taller than Sienna. Sienna is taller than Kai. Zara is shorter than Noah. No two of them are the same height. Which of these must be true?
Answer: A
Answer: A
Line them up: Noah, then Sienna, then Kai. Zara is shorter than Noah, so everyone is shorter than Noah and he must be the tallest. B is tempting, but we only know Zara is shorter than Noah. She could be shorter than Kai, so Kai may not be the shortest.
At a school, all members of the chess club are in Year 8. Some members of the chess club play the violin. No one who plays the violin is in the soccer team. Which of these must be true?
Answer: C
Answer: C
Follow the chess players who play the violin: they exist, and as chess members they are in Year 8, so some Year 8 students play the violin. A is the trap: only the violin-playing chess members are kept out of soccer. Other chess members could still be in the team.
For each wrong option, ask your child to point to the words that prove it. When no words do, the option is only "could be true". Name that slip together, then look for the option the words really prove.
Use only what is stated, sketch it, then sort every option. This works because each option lands in a box (must, could or can't) and only "must" earns the mark. It's our method, not ACER's, and it slows your child down at the small words where marks slip away.
Ignore what is likely in real life. Ask which words in the question prove each point.
A quick line for heights or order, or overlapping circles for groups, shows what is fixed and what isn't.
All, some, no, only. Each one changes what follows, so read them twice.
For each one, ask: must it be true, could it be true, or can it not be true? Choose the one that must.
Verbal Reasoning shares 55 minutes with Reading, so a sketch should take seconds, not minutes. If a puzzle won't settle, ACER suggests your child make an informed guess and come back to it at the end if there is time.
The wrong options in our questions catch a reader who goes a step beyond the words. Go through these together after the worked questions, and ask which one would have caught your child. The check is the same each time: which sentence in the question proves it?
Deduction grows from everyday talk about what follows and what doesn't. The habit to build is asking "How do you know?"
ACER says these skills grow over time, through a culture of learning, varied engaging material and talking freely about ideas, and that question is a good habit for it. Our worked questions show the method; a full practice test shows whether your child can keep using it when Reading shares the clock.
More worked questions are on our selective entry verbal reasoning sample questions page. Our selective entry practice tests keep the real timing, and Practice test 1 is free. The results by skill then show whether logic costs the most marks.
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.