EduTest preparation: a four-phase, twelve-month plan

Braintree Coaching Australia runs EduTest preparation as a four-phase plan across six to twelve months, and the children who handle the exam well are usually the ones who prepared steadily rather than intensively. See our EduTest selective and scholarship exam programme for the full course outline. This page sets out the four phases, the weekly hours we recommend, and the techniques we teach in each section. It assumes a child already meeting year-level expectations at school.

What does Edutest actually publish about the test?

Less than most preparation pages imply, which is worth knowing before you plan around anything you read. The Edutest parents page and the Edutest FAQ, both read on 15 August 2026, publish the five section names and their timings (Verbal Reasoning, Numerical Reasoning, Reading Comprehension and Mathematics at 30 minutes each, Written Expression at 15 minutes), the list of items your child may not bring, and the six modes of writing that may be assessed.

Edutest does not publish question counts, section weightings, a Written Expression marking rubric, a target vocabulary level, or whether your child's sitting is on paper or on screen. The receiving school confirms the format in its application pack, so ask the school rather than guessing. Every number on this page that Edutest has not published is a Braintree teaching benchmark from our own classes, and it is labelled that way where it appears.

When should we start preparing for the EduTest?

Plan to start six to twelve months before your child's first sitting. The right lead time depends on how comfortably your child is performing at school now. The hours below are the weekly maximums our academic panel recommends, class time included; they are our caps, not an Edutest requirement.

Current school performance	Recommended lead time	Braintree weekly cap	Focus
Consistently top 10%	6–9 months	Up to 4–5 hours	Refining technique and pace across all five sections.
Consistently top 20–30%	12 months	Up to 5–6 hours	Building vocabulary, reasoning patterns and writing sophistication.
Middle of the year group	18–24 months	Up to 6–7 hours	Foundational skill-building, extended practice and gradual difficulty progression.

Treat those figures as ceilings rather than targets. If sleep, mood or family time starts to suffer, cut the study hours first. Our preparation philosophy sets out the same caps alongside the sleep guardrail we schedule around.

Spread practice across the week. A child who studies for six hours on a Saturday will retain less than one who studies for an hour on six days. Aim for 30–60 minutes most weeknights and a longer block on the weekend for a timed sectional or mock paper.

What does each preparation phase cover?

The plan moves through four phases. Each phase ends when the child reaches the success markers below, not when the calendar runs out, so a child who is ahead can move on and a child who is behind can hold position and consolidate.

Diagnostic and foundation (months 1–3)

Sit a full-length, timed diagnostic paper in week one. Mark it carefully and identify the three weakest areas; design the term around closing those gaps. Build the daily routine we set in our own classes: 20 new vocabulary words, ten minutes of mental arithmetic, one timed reading passage, and one short writing task each week. By the end of month three we look for 60–70% accuracy across the multiple-choice sections in our classes, and for the child to be working comfortably to the published section timings. Ask the school whether the sitting is on paper or on screen, then practise in that format.

Skill development and speed building (months 4–8)

Increase the difficulty of practice and start tracking time per question. The targets we set at this stage in our classes are a working vocabulary of 1,500–2,500 words (our own benchmark, since Edutest publishes no vocabulary level or year-level band); mastery of analogy types (synonym, antonym, part–whole, degree, category) and of the major number patterns (arithmetic, geometric, alternating, two-step); confident handling of multi-step word problems and coordinate-geometry questions; and a polished 15-minute write.

Practise across all six modes Edutest lists as assessable: creative, descriptive, narrative, persuasive, expository and informative. Edutest does not state that the candidate chooses the mode or picks between prompts, so preparing for only two of the six leaves your child exposed to the other four. Complete six to eight full-length mock papers in this phase. The value sits in the review, not the score.

Mastery and test simulation (months 9–12)

Move into weekly full-length mock papers under real test conditions: timed, scored, no calculator, no notes. The bar we hold in our classes is 80–85% accuracy across the multiple-choice sections. Writing is marked against the Braintree class guide, because Edutest publishes no Written Expression rubric and no criterion weightings; any percentage bar quoted for EduTest writing, including ours, is a coaching benchmark rather than a test standard. By the end of this phase the child should be finishing each section with two to five minutes to review, recognising analogy and sequence types on sight, and confident enough to leave a question and move on.

Final-month tapering and test-day readiness

In the last four weeks, taper rather than cram. Sit one or two full-length papers in the first fortnight, then taper down to light vocabulary and mental-math review. In test week, no new material: focus on sleep, nutrition and test-day logistics. Calculators, dictionaries, rulers, working-out paper, mobile phones and smart watches are all on the Edutest prohibited list. Our EduTest test day guide covers the morning itself.

How should the week be structured?

A productive week balances skill work, timed practice and review. This is the phase-two schedule we run in our own EduTest classes:

• Monday — verbal and numerical reasoning, 45 minutes each, with mistake review.
• Tuesday — reading comprehension and vocabulary, three passages and 20 new words.
• Wednesday — mathematics problem-solving, focused on the weakest strand.
• Thursday — timed speed drills on verbal and numerical reasoning.
• Friday — a 15-minute timed write, followed by self-assessment against our class guide.
• Saturday — one full-length mock paper, sat in real conditions.
• Sunday — review of the week's mistakes and patterns; light vocabulary refresh.

Adjust the volume to suit the phase: we run 60-minute sessions in phase one and 90-minute sessions in phase three. Keep one day each week genuinely off. Fatigue accumulates over a year, and a tired child loses marks they would otherwise hold.

What strategies work best in each section?

Verbal reasoning. Learn vocabulary in context, not from lists. For analogies, identify the relationship type before looking at the answer choices, then test the same relationship against each option. Build word families through prefixes and roots ("bene-", "mal-", "trans-") so unfamiliar words can be decoded rather than guessed.

Numerical reasoning. Apply the difference method to every sequence: find the differences between consecutive numbers, then the differences of those differences. Most patterns reveal themselves at one of those two levels. Try alternating-rule patterns when the simple difference does not resolve, and check grid questions across rows, columns and diagonals before settling on a rule.

Reading comprehension. Read the questions before the passage, then read the passage with the questions in mind. Return to the text to verify every answer: in our mock reviews, a remembered answer is the one that most often turns out to be wrong. Eliminate answer options containing absolute words ("always", "never", "only") that the passage does not support. Practise sentence correction and punctuation as well, because Edutest states this section also measures the capacity to correct, complete and punctuate sentences.

Mathematics. Draw a diagram for every geometry and word problem. Sanity-check the answer against the question (perimeter vs. area, minutes vs. hours, units). Working backwards from the answer choices is often faster than algebra for two- and three-step problems.

Written expression. Use a 2-2-8-3 split inside the 15 minutes: two minutes planning, two on the introduction, eight on the body, three on the conclusion and proofread. That split is our own class routine rather than an Edutest instruction. An unplanned 15-minute write almost always loses marks for structure and conclusion. Vary sentence structures and avoid stock openings ("My name is…", "Once upon a time…").

What are the most common mistakes to avoid?

These are the error patterns we teach against in our EduTest classes. Unlike our OC and NSW Selective cohorts, we do not hold a documented EduTest mistake bank drawn from marking records, so treat this as coaching guidance rather than a measured finding:

• Choosing analogy answers without naming the relationship first. A child who reads the stem, names the relationship out loud ("part to whole", "cause to effect"), and only then looks at the options makes fewer careless errors than one who scans the options and picks whichever one feels right.
• Verifying a sequence on only two numbers. A pattern that fits the first two differences may break on the third, so check three before committing.
• Answering reading questions from memory. Returning to the passage costs a few seconds and settles the answer; recall on its own rarely does.
• Misreading what the maths question asks. Underlining the units and the requested quantity (area, perimeter, hours, minutes) takes five seconds and prevents a whole-question loss.
• Writing without a plan. A weak conclusion is almost always a sign that the planning minutes were skipped.

Build mistake review into the routine. After every sectional or mock paper, write the type of mistake (not just the question) into a running list. Patterns become visible quickly and the same mistake stops recurring.

What does this mean for preparation?

A twelve-month plan rewards consistency over intensity: hold the weekly schedule, review every mock paper, and protect sleep in the final fortnight. Start with a timed baseline. Sit one of our free mock tests this weekend and use the result to set the phase-one targets above. Pair the plan with our EduTest exam format overview to understand what each section measures, and with our EduTest practice resources for the materials we use in class.