How to Transfer into a Selective High School in Year 8 to 11 - HAST Test
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If you plan on transferring into a Selective High School here in NSW in years 8-11, you will likely have to complete a HAST entry exam. As someone who has completed it multiple times and managed to do it really well, I definitely know the ins and outs of what to expect. Let’s get into it.
What is it?
The HAST exam is the Higher Ability Selection Test which is created and assessed by ACER. It has four key sections – mathematical reasoning, reading comprehension, abstract reasoning, and written expressing (writing task). The test is used by schools to determine the academic performance of gifted students. Students want to complete this exam because if you attend a high-ranking Selective High School, it is essentially a cost-effective way to maximise the likelihood of getting a really good ATAR in the HSC exam in year 12. The logic behind this is if everyone in your school is smart and performs well, you will all be pushed up in terms of marks. This is compared to a low-ranking school where if other students don’t perform well, your marks can be dragged down making it harder to get into your ideal course in university. It is also cost-effective as well for students who may not be able to afford private schools like myself which is another motivation for students who want to do this exam.
In saying that though, Selective government secondary schools and some independent schools in Australia and overseas, use the HAST to determine which students will gain entry to the schools. It is not the only selection criteria but it is weighted heavily as that is the number one attribute they are looking for – academic performance. I only have experience with the Selective school side so I will only be focusing on that in this video. For context, I completed the test three times and on my last time, I managed to transfer from Penrith High School to Girraween High School.
The HAST exam may not be the most difficult but it is the most competitive exam. This is because of the limited number of spots available in these schools as there will generally only be a vacancy if someone leaves the school or if additional spots open. For the latter part, only select schools in certain years will have a small number of spots available but in saying that, it is still competitive. Currently, there are 12 Selective high schools that require a HAST exam to be completed.
Note that the number of schools that do HAST can change year to year so keep this in mind. The school list below has been updated in 2024.
They are:
1. Macquarie Fields High School
2. Girraween High School
3. Caringbah High School
4. Fort Street High School (Year 11 Exam)
5. Gosford High School
6. Hornsby Girls High School
7. Hurlstone Agricultural High School
8. Northern Beaches Secondary College Manly Campus
9. North Sydney Girls High School
10. Penrith High School
11. St George Girls High School
12. Sydney Technical High School
13. Carl
The Process to get into a Selective High School
Every school will vary slightly in terms of the process of getting into a Selective High School but the schools listed above, require a HAST exam to be completed. Students cannot automatically transfer between selective high schools. If a student is already enrolled at a selective high school and wants to go to another, the parents must fill out an application form for entry and apply directly with the selective high school they want their child to attend and follow their application procedures. Girraween High School for instance utilises a HAST exam and combines your child’s score with supporting documentation including your last two years of reports, NAPLAN reports, external academic achievements, and participation in extra-curricular activities. You will also be asked as part of your application to show proof of residency and that the student was born here or is a citizen as well as pay an application fee of like $60. This is not refundable either and the more schools you apply to, you have to pay that additional cost as well.
The Difficulty of the HAST Exam
In terms of difficulty, the HAST exam is designed to measure academic ability rather than academic achievement. It is just like the NSW Selective exam in year 6 although there are different content and sections that are being assessed there are still a lot of parallels. In my opinion, the test for the NSW Selective exam in year 6 by Cambridge Assessment is more difficult if you put the depth of content that can be assessed side by side. The multiple-choice tests are machine scored. The written expression test is assessed by two independent markers with a third only stepping in as part of the discrepancy marking. This is where if there is a substantial difference between the two independent markers. This is the same procedure as the HSC and the NSW Selective exam in year 6.
Although for the HAST exam, students and parents don’t get a score. Instead, you are given a general ranking on how you stack up with other candidates who completed that exam in the same year. More specifically, the individual report showcases each student’s performance in terms of percentages of standardised scores. An individual’s score is compared to the scores of other students who sat the test and then ranked within different percentage levels of performance. The report does not give actual test scores or the rank order position of a particular candidate. However, the school has access to the actual test scores and the raw marks although this is never shared with the parent or student.
An interesting piece of information to note is that I personally got a higher score when I did the exam in year 9 compared to year 10 but due to there being more spots available, I was still able to get in. This is very much a point in time exam where your performance on the day is critical but it also depends on a bit of luck as well. You kind of wants to hope there is going to be a lot of movement of students between the top Selective High Schools so you have more of a shot. In the early years in years 7 and 8 especially, the odds are just so low so just think of it as a practice run so you know what to expect in future years.
Preparation
In terms of preparation, there are a few different strategies.
Work closely with your tutor so that if you are going to complete the HAST exam, revise on potential questions and topics that can appear. There are patterns to the questions and the good part about HAST is that they don’t really change a lot of the components regarding the exam making it easier for people like us (great tutors) to predict it. When I was younger, I, unfortunately, had to do trial and error myself as we did not have one on one tutoring with limited resources available then but it exists now. You don’t need to have a tutor who has transferred before or has done the HAST exam necessarily. Although it would be beneficial, I know tutors who have not gone through this system or the selective school process and are still so amazing at breaking the exam down.
Secondly, for each of the assessments in the HAST exam, make sure you look carefully at the time. If you do not have much practice in this type of exam format, it is very easy to lose time working on certain questions. They are not even necessarily that hard but because a question is worded in such a way and it is quite different to what you do at school. The same approach like in all exams, allocate a certain amount of time per question, based on the time you have and if you don’t know, you have to move on. Make sure to do guesses in the final minute as a guess is better than not writing anything at all.
Lastly, learn concepts and then practice after. I hear parents time and time again make the same mistake of just doing questions and practising for the sake of it. This is not the approach you want to do. After you understand a concept that is likely going to be tested, that is when you practice after otherwise, you will just be reinforcing poor habits and mistakes. The writing though is the most predictable for the HAST exam and that is something you can capitalise on in terms of preparation.
In conclusion, the HAST exam by ACER can be a challenge but after you know the process and what to expect, it becomes a lot more manageable.
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