The Opportunity Class Test: what it is and how to prepare

The Opportunity Class Placement Test is sat by Year 4 students in New South Wales for entry to an Opportunity Class in Years 5 and 6. Three sections, all multiple choice, all on a computer, and no writing task.

Most of what decides how this goes for a family is settled before anyone opens a practice paper. This page covers the whole process: what an Opportunity Class actually is, the deadline almost everyone misses, what is in the test, and how placement really works.

Applications open in early November, while your child is in Year 3. They close in late February, while your child is in Year 4.

There are no late applications and the period is never extended. Miss it and there is no second chance the following year, because by then your child is in Year 5 and no longer eligible.

That single fact costs more families a place than any weakness in any section. Most parents first hear about Opportunity Classes when other parents start discussing them, which is usually well into Year 4.

The year then runs roughly like this: test admission ticket around April, the test itself in early May on an allocated day, a make-up test a fortnight later for approved illness and misadventure only, a final deadline in early June to change your school choices, and the outcome in Term 3.

Applying costs nothing and commits you to nothing. School choices can be changed until the June deadline, which falls after the test has been sat. If you are undecided in November of Year 3, apply anyway. The reverse option does not exist.

On test performance and the order of your school choices. Nothing else. Not the school report, not the current teacher's opinion, and not anything written on the application.

You list up to three schools in order of preference, and how that order is used surprises people:

• You get one offer, from the highest choice your child qualifies for
• Every school ranked below that one stops being available, whether you accept or not
• There is no advantage to listing a school first
• You can hold a lower-choice offer and stay on a reserve list for a higher one
• Declining an offer does not improve your reserve position

So list them in the order you genuinely want them. Putting an ambitious school first costs nothing, because missing it simply means being considered for the next one down.

Up to 20% of places at each class are held under the Equity Placement Model, for students from low socio-educational advantage areas, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, students from rural and remote locations, and students with disability. Those places are still offered on test performance within that group.

There are no set entry scores. What each class requires emerges from who applied that year and how many places it has. Published cut-offs are a record of what happened, not a target somebody set.

Reading · Mathematical Reasoning · Thinking Skills · How it compares with selective entry

Independent practice material. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by the NSW Department of Education. Dates and processes were checked against the Department's published material at the time of writing and do change; confirm anything you are relying on at education.nsw.gov.au.