As students gear up for the 2025 Selective High School Placement Test, it’s essential to stay informed about recent changes that could impact their preparation. This year, the NSW Government has announced adjustments to the test’s subject weightings, leveling the playing field by giving each section equal importance. This shift will require students and parents to rethink their approach and balance their efforts across all subjects. In this post, Alpha One will explain what these changes mean, discuss their potential impact on student performance, and offer steps to ensure success in this new testing landscape.

What are the changes to the subject weightings in the Selective Test?

Heading into 2025, the NSW Government announced weighting changes within the Selective High School Placement Test. In previous years, the exam’s four sections - Reading, Mathematical reasoning, Thinking skills, and Writing - were weighted 25%, 25%, 35%, and 15%, respectively. Now however, according to the update, the four sections will be weighted 25% equally.

What are the impacts of these changes?

In the past, many test-takers spent a disproportionately high amount of time on developing their proficiency in Thinking Skills questions. Many also neglected spending time on the Writing section, as it only accounted for only 15% of the total score. 

With the new changes in place however, it is now imperative to treat all subjects as equally important. A strong performance in any subject can now positively affect your overall result and inversely, a poor performance in any subject can also drag down your overall score.

What should students and parents do?

Parents & students should strive for balance in their study and allocate study time accordingly across the 4 subjects to try and achieve strong performances for all subjects. As students are naturally better at some subjects compared to others, it does not mean a student must spend an equal amount of time across all subjects. They should be allocating more time to their weaker subjects to improve and increase those scores so that they are in line with the marks of their stronger subjects.

This is especially true for writing, which often is neglected by many parents & students. When working on writing, it is important to focus on both the fundamentals of good writing as well as how to structure the different writing types that might be assessed. 

The fundamentals of good writing revolve around clarity, conciseness, and accurate use of language, which ensure that the intended message is communicated effectively and efficiently. Engaging the marker is achieved through a coherent flow of ideas, precise language, and a compelling narrative or argument. Additionally, attention to grammar, punctuation, and style is crucial, as it enhances readability and impact.

Students also need to learn how to structure their writing based on what text type they are required to produce. This can be a persuasive argument, speech, letter, etc. and students must know how to lay out their response for each of these.

What course does Alpha One offer specifically for writing?

For parents looking to enrol in a program which will focus on Writing, a course that may be of interest is our Intensive English Course. The course is aimed at students looking to improve their Writing and Reading Comprehension skills, targeting how to score high marks within the Writing and Reading sections.

Although Alpha One’s popular WEMT classes go through the tools and techniques needed to do well across Reading, Mathematical Reasoning, Thinking Skills, and Writing, the Intensive English Course provides extra focus and depth for Reading & Writing. This course will strengthen your child’s core skills of vocabulary, grammar, and sentence building. Within each lesson of the course, targeted writing exercises and short assessments conducted under exam conditions are designed to develop each child’s writing ability and creativity, which are necessary for the Selective Exam.