ACER vs Edutest: Which Test for Selective Entry?

You've heard that your child could apply for a selective entry high school. You've started looking into preparation, and then — confusingly — you discover there isn't one test. There are several, run by different organisations, with different formats, different timing, and very different question styles. It's easy to feel like you need a roadmap just to understand where to start.

Here's the reassuring news: once you know which provider runs the exam for your child's target school, the preparation path becomes much clearer. And that's exactly what this guide is here to help you with.

We see this confusion every week at RHZ Tutoring. Families in Melbourne come to us having already bought practice materials — only to discover they've been preparing for the wrong test entirely. That's a fixable problem, but it's far better to get this right from the beginning.

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The Short Answer: It Depends on the School and Year Level

Victoria's selective entry high schools use different test providers depending on which year level your child is entering. For Year 9 entry, all four Victorian selective entry schools — Melbourne High School, Mac.Robertson Girls' High School, Suzanne Cory High School, and Nossal High School — use ACER (the Australian Council for Educational Research). But if your child is aiming for Year 10 or Year 11 entry to Melbourne High, the provider switches to Edutest.

That one fact surprises most parents. It means the "right" preparation for the same school can be completely different depending on which year your child is targeting.

A third provider in the mix too — AAS (Academic Assessment Services) — is used by various independent schools and scholarship programmes across Victoria. We'll cover all three.

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Victoria's Four Selective Entry Schools: What You Need to Know First

Before comparing providers, it helps to understand what schools you're looking at. Victoria has four government selective entry high schools, each state-funded but highly competitive:

School	Location	Gender	Year 9 Entry Provider
Melbourne High School	South Yarra	Boys	ACER
Mac.Robertson Girls' High School	Melbourne CBD	Girls	ACER
Suzanne Cory High School	Werribee	Co-ed	ACER
Nossal High School	Berwick	Co-ed	ACER

For the 2027 intake, the Year 9 entrance exam was held on Saturday 20 June 2026, and applications are now closed according to the Victorian Government. If you're planning ahead for 2028, your child will need to be in Year 8 at the time of application, meet citizenship or visa requirements, and must not have previously sat the exam for Year 9 entry.

That last point is often missed: eligibility isn't just about academic ability. Citizenship status is verified with original documents, and if your child doesn't meet the criteria, exam performance won't change the outcome.

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How ACER, Edutest, and AAS Actually Differ

This is the section that matters most for preparation. Each provider tests different things, in a different order, with different time pressure. Practicing for the wrong format doesn't just waste time — it can build the wrong habits and create false confidence.

ACER

ACER is the most established of the three providers. It's an independent, not-for-profit research organisation, and it administers scholarship tests used by around 250 independent schools nationally, in addition to the Victorian selective entry exam.

The Year 9 Victorian selective entry exam through ACER has four main sections:

Section	Questions	Time
Reasoning – Reading	50 questions	35 minutes
Reasoning – Mathematics	35 questions	30 minutes
General Ability – Verbal	60 questions	30 minutes
General Ability – Quantitative	50 questions	30 minutes

Total venue time is approximately 4 hours, including breaks and administration.

What makes ACER genuinely distinctive is that it's the only provider of the three that tests Humanities as a standalone domain. This includes reading comprehension, interpretation of visual information, and reasoning across different text types — skills that go well beyond pure maths and logic. For students who are strong readers and thinkers but not exclusively maths-focused, this can actually work in their favour.

Edutest

Edutest runs the Year 10 and Year 11 entry exams for Melbourne High, and is also used by a range of independent schools for scholarship testing.

Edutest features five separately timed sections, and its Reasoning and Problem Solving section combines verbal, figural, and numerical reasoning into one extended block. This multi-modal structure means your child needs to shift cognitive gears quickly — a different mental challenge from ACER's more cleanly separated sections.

The key practical difference for preparation: Edutest and ACER reward slightly different skill sets. Edutest leans more heavily on abstract and figural reasoning alongside written and numerical components, with less emphasis on the humanities-style reading that ACER includes.

If your child is targeting Year 10 or 11 entry to Melbourne High specifically, they should be working from Edutest-specific practice materials — not ACER materials, even though it's the same school.

AAS (Academic Assessment Services)

AAS is less commonly discussed but widely used by independent schools offering academic scholarships. The AAS test runs for approximately 170 minutes — making it the longest of the three in sitting time. Rather than separating reasoning into clearly labelled sections, AAS tends to integrate reasoning skills across the assessment in a more holistic way.

For families whose children are applying to independent school scholarships alongside selective entry, it's worth checking which provider each scholarship programme uses — they're not interchangeable.

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Which Test Is "Easier" to Prepare For?

Parents ask this a lot, and the honest answer is: none of them is easy, but some are more predictable in structure.

ACER is generally considered the most well-documented of the three. Because ACER serves so many schools and has been running scholarship tests for decades, there's a stronger body of knowledge about its question styles and formats. Our tutors at RHZ have worked with many students preparing for ACER, and while the organisation doesn't release past papers publicly, the format is consistent enough that good selective test practice materials can genuinely replicate the experience.

Edutest can feel less predictable to students who haven't prepared specifically for it, largely because the five-section structure and the combined reasoning block require a kind of mental flexibility that isn't always tested in school.

For both providers, the single biggest preparation mistake we see is starting with generic reasoning or maths worksheets rather than provider-specific materials. The question formats, timing pressure, and cognitive demands are specific enough that general prep only goes so far.

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When Should Your Child Start Preparing, and How?

For Year 9 entry (ACER), most students who are seriously targeting selective entry begin structured preparation 12 to 18 months before the exam. That's not because the content is impossibly advanced — much of it draws on skills developed through primary and early secondary school — but because the format itself needs to become familiar.

Timed practice is non-negotiable. Students who know the content but haven't practised under time pressure consistently underperform. The Verbal General Ability section alone asks 60 questions in 30 minutes — that's 30 seconds per question. That pace needs to be trained, not just attempted.

A sensible preparation rhythm for most families looks something like this:

• 12+ months out: Identify the correct provider for your target school and year level. Gather provider-specific materials.
• 6–12 months out: Work through practice sections regularly (2–3 times per week). Focus on areas of weakness.
• 3–6 months out: Full timed practice tests. Review errors carefully rather than just completing more papers.
• Final weeks: Light consolidation — maintain confidence, don't cram new content.

If your child is in Melbourne's western suburbs, we offer a free academic assessment to help identify where they're starting from — book through our contact page to find out more.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Does my child need to pick just one selective entry exam to prepare for?

Not necessarily — but preparation should be provider-specific. If your child is applying to multiple schools that use different providers, they'll need to prepare for each format separately. Don't assume that because ACER and Edutest both have a "reasoning" component, the question styles are interchangeable. In our experience, students do best when they spend dedicated time on each format rather than mixing materials.

Are there past papers available to practise with?

Testing organisations don't release past exam papers publicly — this is deliberate policy across ACER, Edutest, and AAS. However, experienced educators have developed practice exams that closely mirror the real test formats. Our selective test practice papers are designed to reflect the structure, timing, and question styles your child will actually encounter.

What if my child is a strong student but hasn't done this kind of test before?

Strong academic ability is a great foundation, but selective entry exams test specific skills — particularly speed and reasoning under timed conditions — that aren't regularly practised in school. Many capable students are genuinely surprised by the pace required. Starting with a diagnostic assessment and building from there is the most effective approach, regardless of how strong your child is in class.

My child is in Year 8 and wants to try for selective entry this year — is it too late?

It depends on when you're reading this. Applications for 2027 Year 9 entry closed earlier in 2026. For 2028 entry, preparation can absolutely begin now. In fact, Year 7 or early Year 8 is an ideal time to start — it gives your child time to build familiarity with the format without feeling rushed. Reach out to us and we can help you plan a realistic timeline.

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Understanding which test your child is sitting — and which provider runs it — is genuinely the most important first step in selective entry preparation. Everything else flows from there: the right materials, the right practice rhythm, and the right focus areas.

If you're not sure where to start, we're here to help. specialist tutoring providers, we work with Melbourne families every day to remove the guesswork from test preparation — reach out to us and we'll point you in the right direction.

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Sources

• Selective entry high schools — vic.gov.au