Scholarship tests in Australia: which one is your child sitting?

There is no single scholarship exam in Australia. Independent schools do not write their own; they buy one in, and there are three main suppliers whose papers do not look alike.

That is why the first job is not preparation. It is finding out which test your child will actually sit, because preparation bought for the wrong one is largely wasted.

They assess overlapping abilities. They do not assess them in the same shape.

A child who has drilled five short Edutest-style sections and then sits the ACER test has practised the wrong stamina and the wrong pacing, and in places the wrong question types. The reverse is equally true. Both children can do the thinking. Only one of them has rehearsed the paper in front of them.

Worth establishing before a family commits a year to this.

Most academic scholarships are partial, not full. A common range is a reduction of somewhere between 10% and 25% of tuition. Some schools go to 50%, a few offer more, and full remission exists but is uncommon.

Some are means-tested or blended. A number of schools now combine academic merit with financial need in a single award, which changes who is competitive and is not always evident from the name.

The reduction usually applies to tuition only. Levies, uniforms, devices, camps and co-curricular costs typically sit outside it, and they are a real part of a school bill.

None of this argues against trying. It argues for reading the specific school's scholarship terms first, because "scholarship" covers everything from a token award to a genuinely life-changing one, and the preparation you would sensibly do differs accordingly.

Sit one full paper under real conditions, in one go, in the format the real test uses. Some are on paper and some on a computer, and that difference is not cosmetic when a child is writing under time.

Then mark it into three piles: did not know it, knew it but misread the question, or ran out of time. Count them. The largest pile decides where the next month goes, and it is usually not the pile families assume.

Start with whatever the provider itself publishes. Sample questions written by the people who write the real paper are worth more than a third party's approximation, and all three publish something.

The ACER Cooperative test in detail · Written Expression, and how to practise it

Independent practice material. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by ACER, Edutest or Academic Assessment Services. Test structures, fees and scholarship terms were checked against published material at the time of writing and do change; confirm anything you are relying on with the provider and with the school.