Victorian selective entry exam for 2028 entry: dates, sections and how it differs from NSW
Victoria’s four government selective entry high schools take students at Year 9, through one exam sat in Year 8. For Year 9 entry in 2028, that means applications are expected to open in early March 2027 and the exam to run on a Saturday in June 2027. Your child sits it once, in the year they are in Year 8.
The exam is run by ACER for the Victorian Department of Education. It is a paper exam: answers are shaded in an answer booklet, and ACER tells candidates to bring pens.
Key dates for Year 9 entry in 2028
ACER publishes the 2028-entry dates when applications open. Until then, these follow the 2027-entry cycle.
| Milestone | Expected timing | 2027-entry cycle for reference |
|---|---|---|
| Applications open | Early March 2027 | Monday 2 March 2026 |
| Applications close | Late April 2027 | Friday 24 April 2026 |
| Exam advice sent | Early June 2027 | Wednesday 3 June 2026 |
| Exam | June 2027, Saturday | Saturday 20 June 2026 |
| Last preference change | Late June 2027 | Friday 26 June 2026 |
| Results and Round 1 offers | Early August 2027 | Monday 3 August 2026 |
| Start Year 9 | Term 1, 2028 | Term 1, 2027 |
Late applications are not accepted. Students who have sat the exam before are not eligible to sit it again.
The schools
- Melbourne High School (boys, South Yarra)
- The Mac.Robertson Girls’ High School (girls, Melbourne)
- Nossal High School (co-ed, Berwick)
- Suzanne Cory High School (co-ed, Werribee)
Together they offer about 1,000 Year 9 places. About 85% go on exam results. Up to 10% go through equity consideration, and up to 5% are at principals’ discretion. No more than 4% of students from any one school get standard or principal-discretion offers (10% for prep-to-Year 9 schools). A strong result can still miss out if many students from the same school score higher.
Some Year 10 and 11 places come up where students leave, but the central exam is for Year 9 entry only and the schools run those intakes themselves: a different test (Edutest, not ACER), a separate application to each school, and reports, achievements and an interview weighed alongside the result. See Victorian selective entry at Year 10 and 11.
The sections
The exam takes about four hours on the day, including registration and breaks. Actual testing time is 2 hours 35 minutes:
| Section | Time | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Mathematics and Quantitative Reasoning | 60 min | Multiple choice |
| Reading and Verbal Reasoning | 55 min | Multiple choice |
| Writing | 40 min | Two written tasks |
ACER describes each part:
- Mathematics: Year 8 maths knowledge and reasoning, applied to real-world contexts. Nothing goes past the Year 8 curriculum.
- Quantitative Reasoning: reasoning with numbers, patterns and shapes, in abstract and real-world settings.
- Reading: finding information in texts, then interpreting and evaluating it.
- Verbal Reasoning: reasoning with words, concepts and logic.
- Writing: two tasks in 40 minutes. ACER doesn’t publish the task types. The Department’s older practice papers had one creative and one persuasive task, so practise both. Assume they are handwritten.
ACER says plainly that not everyone finishes every question. Pace is part of what the exam measures.
How it compares with the NSW Selective test
Parents moving between states, or reading NSW advice online, should know how the sections line up:
- NSW Thinking Skills splits in two here. The logic side of Thinking Skills (deductions, flaws in an argument, word relationships) is Victoria’s Verbal Reasoning. The pattern and shape side leans towards Quantitative Reasoning.
- NSW Mathematical Reasoning also splits. Curriculum problems belong to Mathematics. Number patterns and “what comes next” puzzles belong to Quantitative Reasoning. In Victoria both share one 60-minute block, so time spent on one is taken from the other.
- Two writing tasks, not one. NSW has one 30-minute task. Victoria has two tasks in 40 minutes, about 20 minutes each, so the plan has to be quick.
- Paper, not screen. NSW has moved to computer-based testing. Victoria is still pen and paper, so practise writing by hand at speed.
- Older students. NSW Selective is sat in Year 6. Victoria’s exam is sat in Year 8, at a much higher level.
Should you prepare?
ACER’s own advice is that children don’t need to revise, and that sleep and low pressure matter more. That’s sensible for the reasoning sections, where cramming does little.
Knowing the format still matters, especially for timing across the two combined blocks and the double writing task. A practical plan for a Year 7 child:
- Put the application window in the calendar now: early March to late April of Year 8.
- Download ACER’s sample questions when they are published. ACER notes they may not match the real exam’s difficulty.
- Time the combined blocks. Practise switching between maths and quantitative questions within one 60-minute limit.
- Write two short pieces back to back by hand, 20 minutes each, one creative and one persuasive.
- Keep reading demanding texts. Reading and Verbal Reasoning reward vocabulary and inference built over years, not weeks.
Dates, sections, timings and offer rules come from vic.gov.au and ACER’s Victorian Selective Entry High Schools site for 2027 entry. 2028-entry dates are expected timings based on that cycle. Check the confirmed dates with ACER when applications open.