Selective Test Preparation: Recommendations for Comprehension

The Five Senses Education team has gathered our top recommendations for practice questions and tests for the new Selective Test format. We have generated this list at the request of Year 5 and 6 parents, and we wish students and their families all the best for the next few months. A set of new blogs will be released over the next few weeks, addressing relevant skills and requirements.

Building Comprehension Skills

Understanding Comprehension

Each book contains 40 passages with 8 questions each
Passages organised according to text types
Literature tips that help improve literacy skills

Top Skills

Each book includes 40 units of work.
Includes passages and cloze passages
Passages reflect a wide range of subjects and text types

Reading Conventions

Passages organised according to text type
Creating awareness of the different structures required in writing
Within each unit, questions are grouped by type:
- literal questions
- questions focuing on a specific concept (e.g. text structures)
- inferential questions

Selective-format Comprehension Tests

Cloze Passages

Specifically written for the new Cloze Passage section of the NSW Selective Test
Each books contain 30 units plus answers
Requires students to use a range of higher-order comprehension skills, including identifying the main idea and making connections between ideas

Linked Extracts

Specifically written for the new Linked Extracts section of the NSW Selective Test
20 units of work each containing 10 advanced comprehension questions
Answers include explanations