NSW OC Test (Opportunity Class): A Parent's Guide

Opportunity classes are Year 5 and Year 6 classes for high-achieving children at some NSW public primary schools. Places are offered mainly on one test, sat in Year 4. This guide explains what the test is, when your child sits it, what is on it, how places are offered, and how to get ready without making it the centre of the year.

Who sets the test and who sits it

The Opportunity Class Placement Test is run by the NSW Department of Education. Children sit it in Year 4 for a place in Year 5 the following year. You apply in Year 3 or early Year 4, the test is in May of Year 4, and outcomes come out around September.

Children at public schools, private schools and home school can all apply, as can children at interstate or overseas schools. The family must be living in NSW by the start of the year of entry. The department’s application pages do not list an application fee.

Key dates for Year 5 entry in 2028

The department says these dates may change, so check its key dates page before each step. A child who misses both the test and the make-up test cannot be placed.

What is on the test

The test is on a computer at a test centre, usually a public high school near your child’s primary school. The three tests come one after another with short breaks, and children stay in the room. Each test counts for one third of the result.

Some reading questions ask for more than one answer and are worth more than one mark. There is no writing test at OC level. Children get two sheets of paper for working out and can ask for more. Pens, rulers, calculators and smart watches are not allowed.

How places are offered

You list between one and four opportunity class schools, in order. The department offers places on test performance and that order. The score needed is different at each school, because it depends on how many places the school has. Putting a school first gives no extra credit, so list only schools your child would really attend.

Each family gets at most one first offer. A child can also be put on a reserve list for a school higher on their list, and may get a later offer from it if places come free.

Two newer rules shape each class. From the 2027 intake, every opportunity class offers equal places to girls and boys. Up to 20% of places are also held for children from low socio-educational backgrounds, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, rural and remote children, and children with disability, who are considered automatically. The department does not publish cut-off scores.

How to prepare

1. Start with the official practice. The department’s online practice test uses the real software and timer. Try it early, on the kind of device your child will use, so the screen is not a surprise.
2. Keep the maths at Year 4, but in more steps. The questions use school maths, but many need two or three steps and careful reading. Five answer options means guessing helps less, so working on paper matters.
3. Give Thinking Skills real attention. It is a third of the result and is unlike most class work: judging whether an argument holds up, logic puzzles and shapes. Talking through why a wrong answer is wrong is the best practice.
4. Read widely and talk about it. Stories, poems and non-fiction all appear. Asking “how do you know?” after reading together builds the same habit the test checks.
5. Practise to time, a little at a time. A minute a question in Thinking Skills is quick for a nine-year-old. Short timed sets help more than long sessions.
6. Keep it in proportion. The department says no extra content is needed and does not recommend paid coaching. Regular school, sleep and a calm week matter on the day.

Practice in the OC style

Our OC practice builds all three tests at the official lengths and times, at Year 4 level. Mathematical Reasoning is 35 questions in 40 minutes, mostly with five options. Thinking Skills is 30 questions in 30 minutes, nearly half of them argument questions such as judging whose reasoning is correct or spotting a mistake, with logic puzzles and shapes making up the rest. Reading follows the real order: a story extract, a poem, a gap-fill text, sentences to put back in a text, and four short texts to compare. Every paper is new when your child starts it, and every question is explained afterwards. You can also practise one question type at a time, at easy, medium or hard.

To be clear about what these are: tests we wrote in the OC style, not real or past OC questions, and we are not connected with the NSW Department of Education. The real reading test uses drop-down lists and drag-and-drop for some parts; ours asks about each gap as its own question, and a few of our maths questions give four options, not five. Our score is the number right, not a placement score or a prediction. A free account includes 3 practice tests, and the OC pack opens unlimited tests with the answers and worked solutions.

What’s next

Start with the OC practice page. The Year 6 test for selective high schools uses the same three test types plus writing, so see the NSW Selective practice page when that time comes. For school-year checks along the way, the NAPLAN practice page covers Years 3, 5, 7 and 9.