A calm plan for your child's year, from the handbook to test morning, without overdoing it.
Practice test 1 is free. No card needed.
Read the ASET Handbook together, sit the Department's Practice ASET once, and keep practice light. For children in Year 5 now, apply by 5 February 2027; the test is on 6 March 2027 in Perth, Bunbury and Albany.
Checked by the SelectiveReady team on 12 October 2026 · Updated 3 November 2026 · How we check facts
Independent. Not affiliated with the WA Department of Education.
In WA, selection starts in Year 5, testing in Year 6, placement from Year 7. So a child in Year 5 now applies this cycle. To apply for Year 7 entry in 2028, a child must be in Year 6 at the time of testing in 2027.
Find your child's row in 2026 and do what's in the last column, and no more.
| In 2026, your child is in | When they sit the ASET | What to do now |
|---|---|---|
| Year 4 | In Year 6, two years away | Nothing test-specific. Reading, puzzles and ordinary schoolwork. |
| Year 5 | On 6 March 2027 in Perth, Bunbury and Albany (8–9 March 2027 elsewhere), for Year 7 entry in 2028 | Apply now. Applications opened 13 October 2026 and are online only. They close 5 February 2027, 6 pm Perth time. |
| Year 6 | Year 7 testing happens in Year 6 | Some programs have limited places in Years 9, 10 and 11. |
Probably less than you think. Start with the Department's ASET Handbook, which covers how each test works and is marked, with examples, tips and answers to common questions. The Department recommends you go through the handbook with your child before the test.
The Department says the ASET identifies a student's potential, rather than their acquired knowledge, and it does not endorse coaching or tutoring. The table turns the handbook's advice into what that means at home.
| The handbook says | At home |
|---|---|
| Best preparation: read the handbook carefully and try the Practice ASET | Read it together, then sit the practice once |
| It advises preparation in moderation, because most forms of preparation have limits | Short, calm sessions, not hours a week |
| It warns that over-preparing can have the opposite effect | Stop when practice turns into stress |
| The ASET is not curriculum-based | No need to learn ahead of school |
| It is normal to find the questions difficult | Say so out loud before the day |
| The test won't make or break a child's future | Your child is more than one score |
This plan is our suggestion, not the Department's. It keeps practice light and uses the Department's own materials first.
Now
Apply and go to an information evening
Applications close 5 February 2027, 6 pm Perth time. Parent information evenings run 14 October 2026–23 November 2026.
Over the summer holidays
Read the handbook together
Read a section at a time and talk through the example questions.
After the handbook
Try a full timed test
Practice test 1 follows the real order and times, with every answer explained, so you can see which test needs the most work.
Six weeks before
Sit the practice ASET once, at the real times
The Department's practice ASET comes in 4 parts, with the same answer booklet your child will use on the day. It shows the types of questions to expect and the timing of each test.
Last month
Short writing practice
The handbook suggests your child spend two minutes jotting down ideas from a picture or an interesting line, then do it again with a different prompt and compare the ideas. Later, they write the full piece with the timer set to the real time and no extra time.
Last two weeks
Read the test-day sheet
Look for a Test Day Information Sheet for Parents, posted on the Department's website once applications close.
Test week
Keep life normal
The handbook's advice: keep a healthy balance and carry on with friends and usual activities.
Practise each test on its own at the real time first, then the whole test once in the real order: Reading Comprehension, then writing, then Quantitative Reasoning, then Abstract Reasoning. The handbook suggests about a minute per question in Reading and Quantitative Reasoning, while Abstract Reasoning moves even more quickly than the other tests.
Teach your child these checks for the day.
| When | What to do |
|---|---|
| Halfway check | Be about halfway through the questions when half the time is left |
| A minute left | The handbook says to fill in an answer for every remaining question: there are no marks taken off for wrong answers |
| The writing | Children usually write between one and two pages |
Pencils, a pen if your child prefers, a watch and a snack. The ASET is a paper and pencil test at an assigned testing centre, with no online option, and arrival times are in the Department's test-day sheet. Check this list with your child the night before.
Pencils for the multiple-choice tests
A pen or pencil for the writing, whichever your child prefers
A silent watch that isn't a smart device, if your child likes one
Something to eat in the break after the writing test
In Perth, testing with adjusted conditions runs 16–30 March 2027. If something goes wrong on the day, the rule depends on what happened.
| If… | What to do |
|---|---|
| Nerves hit during a test | The handbook says your child can stop, close their eyes for 60 seconds and calm down before going on |
| Your child is sick on test day | Email the Department within 48 hours to ask for another date |
| Illness or an incident during the test | Ask for a review within 7 days |
These are our own questions in the style of each test, not the Department's. Each shows the answer and the working. Read them with your child and talk through why the tempting option is wrong.
Look at this number pattern: 3, 7, 15, 31, 63, … What is the next number?
Answer: C
Answer: C
Find the rule that turns each number into the next. Each number is doubled and then 1 is added (3 → 7 → 15 → 31 → 63), so the next number is 63 × 2 + 1 = 127. The gaps also double (4, 8, 16, 32, 64). 95 is tempting because it adds the last gap, 32, again instead of doubling it.
Which figure comes next in the sequence?
Answer: C
Answer: C
Find what changes each step. The black circle moves one corner clockwise (the way a clock's hands turn): top left, top right, bottom right, bottom left. One more move takes it back to the top left, so the answer is C. A is the most tempting wrong choice, but it moves the black circle backwards, anticlockwise.
At first glance, the lumpy grey mounds in the shallows of Hamelin Pool, in Western Australia's Shark Bay, look like nothing more than rocks. Visitors who walk out along the boardwalk sometimes wonder what all the fuss is about. Yet these mounds, called stromatolites, are among the most remarkable structures on Earth, because they are alive, or at least their surfaces are.
Each stromatolite is built by communities of microbes, living things too small to see without a microscope. The microbes produce a sticky film. Grains of sand and sediment washed in by the tide become trapped in this film, and the microbes slowly grow up through the new layer to reach the sunlight they need. Layer by layer, a mound forms. The process is extraordinarily slow: a stromatolite may grow less than half a millimetre in a year, so a mound the height of a school ruler may have taken many hundreds of years to build.
Stromatolites were once common in shallow seas around the world. Today they survive in only a few places, and Hamelin Pool holds some of the best examples. The reason is the water. A bank of sand and seagrass at the entrance to the pool slows the flow of water from the open ocean, and the hot sun evaporates the shallows, leaving the pool about twice as salty as ordinary sea water. Few of the snails and other grazing animals that feed on microbes can survive in such conditions, so the builders are left in peace.
Scientists value these mounds for another reason. Fossil stromatolites billions of years old are among the earliest evidence of life on Earth, and the oxygen produced by ancient microbes like these helped make the air breathable for the animals that came later. Standing on the boardwalk, then, a visitor is looking at something very like the first chapter of life's story.
What is the main idea of the passage?
Answer: A
Answer: A
A main idea must cover the whole passage, not one paragraph. Option A links the opening (they look like rocks), the middle (how they live and survive) and the ending (early life). Option B is true, but it is only a detail from the third paragraph explaining why they survive there.
More, with the working: ASET reading sample questions, writing prompts, quantitative reasoning and abstract reasoning. For a full run, try our ASET practice test.
Ask these before you pay anyone, including us, and expect plain written answers. The Department does not endorse coaching or tutoring and advises preparation in moderation, because most forms of preparation have limits.
| Ask | Why it matters for the ASET |
|---|---|
| Is it built for the four ASET tests, in their order? | The order is Reading Comprehension, then writing, then Quantitative Reasoning, then Abstract Reasoning |
| Does it practise on paper, with one answer booklet? | The ASET is a paper and pencil test at an assigned testing centre, with no online option. Online practice, ours included, can't copy that; the Department's practice ASET uses the same answer booklet your child will use on the day |
| Does it train the Abstract Reasoning pace? | That test is 35 questions in 20 minutes |
| Is writing feedback tied to the ASET criteria, and who marks it? | The writing score rests on relevance to the prompt, originality and how well the ideas are communicated |
| Does it promise a score, a band or a place? | Walk away. Practice results do not show how a child will score, and cut-offs are known only when each round is released |
| What's the full price, for what period, and how do you cancel? | Get it in writing before your child starts |
| Can your child try it first, free? | Start with the Department's free practice ASET |
The Department does not endorse coaching or tutoring and has no affiliation with any coaching or tutoring service. A tutor is a family choice; the handbook's own advice is preparation in moderation.
No. Practice results do not show how a child will score, and the Department ignores them when it decides places.
The Total Standard Score is the total of the 4 standardised scores, and all 4 tests are worth the same. The scores are not percentages or percentiles, so a score can't be read as a percentage correct.
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.