Fractions, Nets and Protractors: The Topics Worth Drilling
Because the Selective test draws only on primary-curriculum content, the list of topics is finite, which is genuinely reassuring. You're not preparing for an open-ended exam. You're preparing for a known set of question types. Here's where they cluster, grouped by the three strands the NSW syllabus uses, with a note on which ones tend to cause the most trouble.
Number & algebra
- Multi-step word problems, including the "work backwards" reverse problems.
- Fraction reasoning, operating on parts of a whole, and comparing fractions that don't share a denominator.
- Decimal ordering and number sequences (spotting the rule that generates a pattern).
- Remainders and division patterns, lowest common multiple, and counting combinations.
Measurement & space
- Unit conversion, grams to kilograms, millilitres to litres, and so on.
- Area and perimeter of composite shapes, and matching equal perimeters across shapes that look different.
- 3D nets of cubes and prisms, and picturing a solid from a different viewpoint.
- Reading angles off a protractor (including ones placed at deliberately awkward orientations), compass directions, lines of symmetry, and time / time-zone problems.
Statistics & probability
- Reading information from tables and simple graphs.
- Basic probability, the chance of picking a particular item from a set.
Where the hours pay off most
Spatial reasoning, nets, viewpoints, protractors, and "fraction of a remainder" problems trip up more children than anything else. They reward deliberate, focused practice far more than straight arithmetic does.
How to use this list
Resist the urge to practise everything evenly. The smart move is to find your child's two or three weakest pockets and spend disproportionate time there, a strong child rarely needs more fraction-of-a-whole drills, but may never have really looked hard at the net of a cube. Targeted practice on weak spots lifts a score far more than another lap of the topics they've already mastered.
A good platform does this triage for you, surfacing the topic where the next mark is cheapest. But even a paper-and-pencil approach works if you keep an honest list of what keeps going wrong and aim the next session squarely at it.
Selective Edge is not affiliated with the NSW Department of Education or the Selective High Schools Test administrators. This guide is general information for parents, drawn from publicly available test materials.