🇦🇺 🎓 Australia · Year 5

Free Year 5 OC and selective practice test

Find out in 12 minutes. Free.

This free Year 5 OC and selective practice check takes about 12 minutes. Your child answers 20 multiple-choice questions in thinking skills and mathematical reasoning that get easier or harder as they go, and you get a report of their strengths and what to build next. It is not an official placement test.

  • Free and no sign-up to start
  • Matched to your curriculum
  • Made by teachers at 70+ Success Tutoring centres in Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada and India

Start the free check

Where do you live?

Questions follow the Australian Curriculum (v9.0).

No sign-up needed. About 12 minutes. Best done with your child, on any phone, tablet or computer.

What Year 5 children learn in maths

In Year 5, children preparing for selective high school build harder reasoning: rules that change, longer chains of clues, codes, rates and working backwards.

What the Year 5 check looks at

Number patterns

Spotting the rule in a sequence and using it to find the next number.

  • Number sequences with a constant or growing step
  • Doubling, alternating and square-number patterns

Try at home: Make up number patterns for each other in the car and challenge your child to explain the rule, not just the answer.

Word relationships

Analogies, synonyms, opposites and spotting the odd one out.

  • Analogies
  • Odd one out, synonyms and opposites

Try at home: Read widely together and play “which word doesn’t belong?” with everyday groups of words.

Codes

Cracking letter and number codes by finding the rule.

  • Letter-shift codes
  • Number codes

Try at home: Write each other secret messages with a letter-shift code, then swap the rule.

Logic

Putting clues in order and reasoning about days and time.

  • Ordering from clues
  • Days and time reasoning

Try at home: Ask your child to draw a quick diagram for each clue. Selective tests reward neat, step-by-step reasoning.

Problem solving

Multi-step word problems, working backwards and rates.

  • Working backwards
  • Money and rates

Try at home: For each word problem, ask your child to say what they know, what they need, and the steps in between before calculating.

Visual reasoning

Spotting how shapes turn and grow, without words or numbers.

  • Rotation sequences
  • Growing patterns

Try at home: Do tangrams, jigsaws and spot-the-pattern puzzles together, and ask your child to say the rule out loud.

Try some Year 5 questions

These are the kind of questions in the check. Every check has fresh numbers, so your child will not have seen them before.

Number patterns

What number comes next?
9, 12, 16, 21, ?

  • 27
  • 25
  • 28
  • 26
Show the answer

27. The gaps grow by 1 each time (3, 4, 5, then 6), so the next number is 27.

Word relationships

Drought is to water as famine is to …

  • food
  • money
  • heat
  • sun
Show the answer

food. A drought is a lack of water; a famine is a lack of food.

Codes

In a code, BREAD is written as ZPCYB. How is STORM written in the same code?

  • PQLOJ
  • QRMPK
  • RSNQL
  • UVQTO
Show the answer

QRMPK. Each letter moves 2 places back in the alphabet, so STORM becomes QRMPK.

How it works

  1. Your child answers 20 multiple-choice questions on number patterns, word relationships, codes, logic, problem solving and visual reasoning. Questions get easier or harder as they go.
  2. See how they’re going. On track, a little behind, or needs support, for their year level.
  3. Get the full report. Strengths and gaps in 6 areas, emailed to you, plus a free assessment at your nearest Success Tutoring centre if you’d like one.

Start the free Year 5 check →

Questions parents ask

What is in the OC and selective tests?

In New South Wales, the Opportunity Class placement test (taken in Year 4) covers reading, mathematical reasoning and thinking skills. The Selective High School placement test (taken in Year 6) covers the same three plus writing. Other states run their own selective entry tests.

What does this practice check cover?

Thinking skills and mathematical reasoning: number patterns, word relationships, codes, logic and multi-step problems. For reading, try our free Reading Check.

Is this an official placement test?

No. It is a free practice check written by Success Tutoring, with original questions. The NSW Department of Education, which runs the placement tests, is not involved.

When should my child start preparing?

Reasoning skills grow over years, not weeks. A year or more before the test, regular puzzles, reading and problem solving matter more than practice papers; practice papers help most in the final months.

Is it free?

Yes. The check and the full report are free, and there is no sign-up to start.

Other year levels

Year 3 · Year 4 · Year 5 · Year 6

· Free Year 5 learning games