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An IB School Ranked No. 1 in Queensland: Estimated 10% Acceptance with 100s & 100s of Students Competing for Around 25 Spots + Interview Required
Year 10 Entry into Queensland Academies is extremely competitive.
As a wholly selective school in Queensland, it continually tops school rankings which means that it’s gaining popularity… which means the competition gets more intense.
One of our students who sat the exam (within the last 3 years) and received an offer of acceptance into the school, said that it appeared that there were over 250 students sitting the test. And…it is reported that only a few dozen are offered a spot.
And it’s not just an exam you need to sit and pass with flying colours, you then need to go through an interview where the school decides whether the applying student is a good fit.
It’s a nerve-wracking and extremely long process – around 6 months from the time of the application to the exam. Then another 2 months until your interview and then, if you get past the interview stage, you then get an offer which, after all the paperwork is done, is completed around June. Appropriately three-quarters (9 months) of a year from the application until enrolment. That’s if you’re lucky enough to be provided with an offer.
The process involves a lot of hard work and test preparation. Based on our successful student’s response, much of December and January was spent preparing for the exam and honing knowledge and skills to be mentally ready and prepared to sit a 3-hour long test.
The optimal candidates for QA SMT year 10 entrance already have above average grades (B+ to A+), meaning that they would already have the essential foundational knowledge to begin preparing. The student in question was achieving A to A+ across most subjects (including maths, science and English), meaning that test preparation was spent enhancing knowledge rather than trying to learn new content.
Here’s our student’s anecdotal report about the exam based on our questions (please note that the exam can change in the future):
The test is a 5-part exam set by Edutest consisting of Mathematics, Reading Comprehension, Verbal Reasoning, Numerical Reasoning and Writing (typically persuasive or creative, but could be any other style/genre). You get 30 minutes for every exam part except for the writing, which is around 15 minutes long.
Click here to find more details about each of these tested subject areas.
I felt that I didn’t do exceptionally well in the mathematics section (probably around average to above average), but did very well in the writing section as it’s my best subject at school. I felt that my verbal and numerical reasoning skills were probably above average - same with my reading comprehension. However, that is only what I personally felt and I don't know how actually did as they did not provide results.
[Exam Success note: This is a trend that we’ve seen with other students with strong written communication skills. It seems, even for a school that has a strong focus around science, maths and technology, a strong essay in exam conditions can be the difference between an offer and a rejection as it is an area which many students do poorly in.]
I received a narrative writing prompt which I was very happy about as I felt that my persuasive writing wasn’t as strong as my creative writing. The prompt was a text prompt only (not an image prompt). You might like to practice on sample prompts - see our library here and here’s one that you can use for practice: “Watch what you ask for as you just might get it."
As part of the interview, I prepared a piece of academic work that was sent through prior to the interview and a statement of academic journey. However, during the actual interview, the piece wasn’t mentioned and they were more interested in myself as a student. They were also very interested in activities that I did outside of school.
Similar questions to what I was asked in the interview are:
[Exam Success note: Based on this, it seems that the interviewer was trying to understand what kind of student you are, rather than all of your achievements. The test has filtered for academic ability, your academic work sample would be a demonstration of that, so the interview is just to round off and see what kind of a student you are and how motivated you are, and whether you can manage the rigour that is required in an IB school.]
Year 10 is the final chance entry stream for QA SMT (They do have a main entrance stream for Grade 7).
To help your student prepare for this extremely competitive test for Year 10 Entry, Exam Success has a hybrid preparation program that combines:
For the in-person coaching, all tutors hold Blue Cards for your peace of mind, and the tutors that will be running the sessions are:
Every enrolment includes access to our six-subject online course (numerical reasoning, reading comprehension, narrative writing, verbal reasoning, mathematics 9, persuasive writing), activated once the program is confirmed to proceed.
Acceptance into the Exam Success' Test Preparation Program in preparation for QA SMT Grade 10 Entry Exam requires a B+ to A+ grade or equivalent NAPLAN band result in both English and Mathematics. Applicants must provide the most recent school report or NAPLAN results confirming this, submitted alongside the enrolment form.
Ready to enrol? Fill in the enrolment form by clicking on the button below. Once eligibility is confirmed, we’ll send an invoice and deposit payment will secure your place.
In general, there are 5 papers to be completed over 3 hours. 4 of those papers have questions in multiple choice format. The 5th is a paper requiring a writing piece that is not multiple choice.
The 5 parts along with their description (including time limits and number of questions per test*) are shown below:
* The number of questions and time limit have been taken from the Edutest website along with reports from parents and students. Please note that the authoritative body can change the number of questions and time limits from year to year so please refer to their websites for the most up to date information. Time per question is calculated by taking the time limit divided by number of questions.
Measures the ability to think and reason using words and language. This includes vocabulary, word relationships, classification and deduction. Questions like "if all kips are pip, then it must be that..." and "which word does not belong in the group" may be seen in your child's exam.
Past student's comments: You really need a good vocabulary and to understand how sentences are put together, because some of the words and phrases are pretty old-fashioned and they're the kind you'd find in books from ages ago.
Measures the ability to think and reason using numbers. This includes series, matrices, arithmetical reasoning and deduction. Questions that ask you to solve a puzzle with numbers and patterns in matrices may appear.
Past student's comments: You might be working with larger numbers in some questions (e.g. 50 - 100) and irregular patterns might be presented. Make sure to read the question carefully as you may accidentally waste time on certain parts that you don't need to figure out.
Measures the capacity to read and interpret meaning from written passages, as well as correct, complete and punctuate sentences
Past student's comments: There was a mix of short and longer texts covering various genres e.g. non-fiction and fiction. The longer texts may come with more questions and understanding how a piece is structured may help you locate the information that you need to answer your question. I did encounter some metaphors and found that practicing with proverbs assisted.
This test assesses the ability to convey ideas clearly in written form. Often, the higher level skills are tested e.g. thought, organisation and structure. Basic writing skills should already be mastered at this level (e.g. spelling and basic sentence construction). We have found that writing prompts are mainly narrative or persuasive pieces, however, they can take on a broader form e.g. discussion.
Past student's comments: Writing is one of my stronger areas and I naturally like to read a lot. However, writing in an exam situation is different because you have a very strict time limit so you have to get your beginning, middle and end within that time completely. I used the structure provided by Exam Success to complete my story in the time frame.
Measures mathematical knowledge usually, at the level of entry or higher due to the competitive nature of the exam.
Past student's comments: I didn't feel this was my best area due to the challenging concepts that I hadn't learned in school yet. Some of subject areas tested were algebra, surds, trigonometry, fractions, probability, percentages, reasoning and more!
Find out more details e.g. dates & pricing here and start by completing the online enrolment form