General Selective Entrance Highschool Exam Guide/Checklist (MHS, MGHS, SCHS, NHS)
Checklist for Selective Entrance Exams Victoria
Mathematics - all you need to know
- Financial Mathematics – simple interest, compound interest, depreciation
- Algebra – factorising, expanding, simplifying
- Surds & Indices - Index laws, rationalising denominator, negative fractional powers
- Simultaneous Equations & Inequations - substitution, elimination, number lines
- Linear Relationships - gradient formula, distance, midpoint
- Non-linear relationships - quadratics, truncus, hyperbolas, exponentials, circles, ovals; graphing and understanding their equations will be important
- Rates and Proportion - direct proportion, indirect proportion, conversion from percentage to ratio, unit conversion
- Trigonometry - pythagoras, unit circle, exact values
- Mensuration - all 2d & 3d area, surface area and volume equations (only 1-2 questions but it matters)
- Geometry - angles of squares, shapes, parallel lines, perpendicular lines
- Statistics - interquartile range, average, median, mean, mode etc
- Probability – venn diagrams, conditional prob, tree diagrams, dice and card prob.
- Polynomials - graphing, division, {remainder theorem, factor theorem minor}
- Kinematics - time at which 2 objects meet, acceleration, basic physics {mainly on science reasoning but sometimes on maths and numerical}
[Yr9-10 applying for year 10-11]
- Functions and Logarithms - basic questions with log 10
- Circle Geometry – 9 theorem; the formulas and rules
Reading Comprehension
- Grammar
- Nouns
- Verbs
- Adjectives
- Adverbs
- Conjunctions
- Preposition
- Determiners
- Interjections
- Persuasive language techniques
- Alliteration
- Anecdote
- Clichés
- Emotive Language
- Evidence
- Exaggeration
- Expert Opinion
- Generalisation
- Irony
- Metaphor
- Pun
- Rhetorical Question
- Repetition
- Sarcasm
- Slang
- Statistics
- Stereotype
- Tone
- Text inferencing - 50% of the exam
- Understanding the key themes
- Being able to find key pieces of information
- Choosing the most correct answer
- Correct Punctuation
- Choosing the correct sentence/s
- Definition of a word within sentence
Verbal Reasoning
- Vocabulary - VERY IMPORTANT
- Wide vocabulary (synonyms and antonyms are asked a lot)
- Antonyms and synonyms
- Definitions
- Finding the odd word out
- All of the words in the box below are alike in some way.
- Relation between words
- __ is to __ as __ is to __
- Words in a foreign language
- Finding two statements which strongly suggest ___:
Numerical Reasoning
It's a bit of an IQ test, it focuses heavily on identifying patterns and number relation.
- Number patterns (around 4-5 different ways to ask the question)
- An understanding of sequences and series can help
- Worded problems around the amount of objects - provided a paragraph and to choose the option with the correct response.
- Financial Questions
- Interest
- Depreciation
- Tax
- More profitable company - etc
- Time Questions
- Starting late and finding the new end time.
- Visual problems
- Graphs
- Tables
- Shapes - find new area, amount of shapes within shape
- Maths Knowledge
- Factors
- Multiples
- Prime
- Quick Math
- [Minor] Coded Number Questions - I found a lot of these to be on the NSW exams (it hasn't popped up on any VIC exams before)
Writing
There isn't much of a checklist to provide other than knowing the key skills like TEEL for essays and descriptive language for creative pieces. Instead, I have included the previous selective exam writing topics and potential writing topics that you can cover.