What score do you need for a Selective School in NSW? Cut-offs explained
There is no fixed score that guarantees a place at a NSW selective high school. Whatever the lowest score to receive an offer turns out to be at a school, it is set by that year’s applicants and that school’s places — not by a standard your child has to reach.
A score that earns an offer at one school can mean a reserve list place at another, and last year’s figures do not set this year’s.
This page covers what the department actually says about how the test counts, why cut-off lists mislead, and what is worth tracking in practice instead.
How the test counts
According to the NSW Department of Education, the Selective High School Placement Test has four papers, and each counts for 25%:
| Paper | Weighting |
|---|---|
| Reading | 25% |
| Mathematical Reasoning | 25% |
| Thinking Skills | 25% |
| Writing | 25% |
That is the whole of what the department publishes about weighting. It does not publish a formula for combining the papers into a final score, and this page does not guess at one. If you see a specific points total or scaling method quoted with confidence, ask where it came from.
One consequence of equal weighting is easy to miss: Writing is worth exactly as much as each of the others. It is the paper families most often leave until last.
Why published “cut-off scores” mislead
Parents look for lists of cut-offs for schools like James Ruse, Baulkham Hills or Sydney Boys and Girls. Even where a figure is real, treating it as a target is risky:
- Demand moves every year. The lowest score to get an offer depends on how many children list that school and how they perform. A surge of applications pushes it up; families choosing elsewhere pulls it down.
- Offers keep moving after results day. Families decline offers and reserve lists move, so the first-round picture is not the final one.
- The test has changed. It moved to May and to a computer, so figures from older paper-based years describe a different test.
That is why a number from a forum thread tells you very little about your child’s chances this year.
What to track in practice instead
Cognora’s suggestion — not a department figure, and not a prediction of any school’s outcome — is to stop tracking a single percentage and watch three things across timed practice:
- Accuracy by paper. Four papers at 25% each means a weak one costs as much as a strong one earns. Find the weakest and work on it first.
- Whether the clock runs out. A child who leaves the last questions unanswered is losing marks to pacing, not to knowledge. That is fixed differently from a knowledge gap.
- Why each wrong answer was wrong. Sort mistakes into “didn’t know how” and “knew how, but rushed or misread”. They need different practice.
Different practice papers vary in difficulty, including ours. A percentage on one practice set cannot be converted into a placement at a particular school, and nobody can honestly promise that it can.
Where marks commonly go
- Pacing in Thinking Skills. It is 40 questions in 40 minutes. Children who get stuck on one hard question can run out of time for several easy ones at the end.
- Near-miss options in Reading. Two answers often look plausible. The right one is supported by the text; the wrong one just sounds right.
- Drifting off-topic in Writing. The department says writing that is not about the topic receives lower marks, even if it is well written.
What to do now
- Practise under real conditions: timed, and on a screen, since the test is computer-based.
- Review every wrong answer, not just the total.
- Come back to missed questions a week or two later to check the learning stuck.
The paper weightings on this page were checked against NSW Department of Education published information on 27 September 2026. The department does not publish a score formula or guaranteed entry scores. Anything on this page described as Cognora’s suggestion is our own guidance, not an official threshold. For official placement information, visit education.nsw.gov.au.