For 2027 entry, the OC Test will take place on 8-9 May 2026 and the Selective Test will take place on 1-2 May 2026.
In term 4 2025, the Department of Education announced two major changes:
1) Gender parity model - There will be an equal number of selective places made available for girls and boys at all co-educational Selective schools and OC classes.
2) Reading section - An additional question-type added to the Selective and OC exams
From the 2027 intake onwards, there will be an equal number of selective places made available for girls and boys at all coeducational selective and partially selective high schools, as well as opportunity classes in public primary schools.
The Department of Education has said "this change aims to address a decline in girls accepting, as well as applying for, places in opportunity classes and coeducational selective schools."
This will have a direct impact on co-educational Selective schools, as it will make it easier for girls to gain entry. Although this does not directly impact single-sex Selective schools, there may be a higher demand for single-sex boys schools and lower demand for single-sex girls schools, as it will likely make it easier for girls to be accepted in co-educational schools.
For OC classes, it will generally make it harder for boys to gain entry and easier for girls to gain entry.
However, all students will still need to score competitively to receive an offer. The impact of the gender parity model will be marginal on an individual basis.
The OC Reading exam has been extended to effectively 33 marks in 40 minutes (previously 25 marks in 30 minutes).
Similarly, The Selective Reading exam has been extended to effectively 38 marks in 45 minutes (previously 30 marks in 40 minutes).
This is the result of a new question-type being added to the Reading section of each exam. This question-type is a cloze style question that requires students to choose the best word or phrase from a drop-down list to fill a missing gap in a passage. There are 8 gaps in each passage.
What skills does it test?
This new question-type tests students' ability to pay attention to details, understanding of vocabulary in a holistic way and familiarity with commonly-used phrases.
Students who read voraciously from a wide variety of sources will benefit from the addition of this new question-type, as they will be able to quickly score marks, leaving more time for the remaining questions.
Historically, our training program places a strong focus on vocabulary, including distinguishing between commonly confused words and phrases, and students are continually exposed to a variety of different text types and themes. Thus our students are well-placed to tackle these new-style questions.
Our mock exams will be updated to include this new question-type to help students hone these skills.
As with the previous year:
Is there any else we haven't covered? Contact us to enquire more.
