Free HAST Practice Test with Answers, Years 8 to 11
This free HAST practice test, written by Selective Success Academy, has 9 multiple choice questions and a Written Expression prompt at ACER's Middle Secondary level, for Year 9 and 10 entry, marked on the spot with worked answers. No sign-up. We teach the HAST in live online small groups on Microsoft Teams for NSW Year 8 to 11 selective entry.
The HAST at a glance
Item
Detail
Source
Who runs it
ACER, the Australian Council for Educational Research, develops and marks the test. Each school registers with ACER, sets its own date and runs the sitting
Reading Comprehension 45 minutes (35 to 40 questions), Mathematical Reasoning 40 minutes (28 to 35), Abstract Reasoning 30 minutes (30), Written Expression 25 minutes (one task), with a short break after the second test
Junior Secondary for Year 8 entry, Middle Secondary for Years 9 and 10, Senior Secondary for Year 11. Middle and Senior add science to Mathematical Reasoning
Not yet published for 2028 entry (exams in August 2027). Each school sets its own date; last cycle, the coordinating schools tested on Saturday 8 August 2026
1 October 2026, and 3 October 2026 for some schools' pages
The sources in each row
Which year is your child entering?
Choose a year to start. It sets the right level and the right next steps.
HAST Middle Secondary practice test (Years 9 and 10 entry)
9 multiple choice questions (3 Reading Comprehension, 3 Mathematical Reasoning, 3 Abstract Reasoning) and 1 Written Expression prompt, at ACER's Middle Secondary level.
Free, with no sign-up. Your answers stay on this page and are marked as soon as you finish. Every question was written by Selective Success Academy in the style of the real test. None is a past paper or an official question.
Reading ComprehensionQuestions 1 to 3
The following information relates to Questions 1 to 3.
THE CLOCK
Grandfather's clock had stopped at twenty past four on the afternoon of the funeral, and nobody had wound it since. My mother said it was because no one could find the key. I had seen the key myself, hanging on its nail inside the pantry door, but I did not mention it.
In the weeks that followed, the house filled with other noises. Aunt Ruth rattled through the cupboards, deciding what should be kept. My uncles argued in low voices on the verandah about the price of the farm. My mother washed the same plates twice. Only the hallway stayed quiet, and I found myself walking more slowly there, as though I might wake someone.
On the last morning, when the trucks had taken the furniture and the clock stood alone against the bare wall, my mother sent me to check the pantry one final time. The key was still on its nail. I put it in my pocket, and on the drive to the city I held it so tightly that it left a mark across my palm.
Mathematical ReasoningQuestions 4 to 6
The following information relates to Questions 4 and 5.
SWIM CENTRE PASSES
A swim centre offers three ways to pay for a term:
Casual: $8 per visit
Silver pass: $40 per term, plus $3 per visit
Gold pass: $90 per term, with unlimited visits
The following information relates to Question 6.
BEAN SEEDLINGS
A student grew bean seedlings in six identical trays, each kept at a different temperature. After 10 days she measured the average height in each tray.
Temperature (°C)
10
15
20
25
30
35
Average height after 10 days (cm)
4
9
15
18
12
3
Abstract ReasoningQuestions 7 to 9
Written Expression (not marked)
Some people say the most important things we learn happen outside the classroom.
Do you agree? Write in any style you like: a story, an opinion piece, a letter or a speech. Allow 25 minutes.
ACER says HAST writing is assessed on thought and content, structure and organisation, and expression, style and mechanics (HAST Student Information Bulletin, read 1 October 2026).
What markers look for
Thought and content: a clear, thoughtful response to the statement, not a rehearsed essay.
Structure and organisation: an opening that sets up the position, paragraphs that build, and an ending that weighs things up.
Expression, style and mechanics: precise vocabulary, varied sentences, and accurate spelling and punctuation.
Self-check
Did you answer the statement directly?
Did you consider more than one view?
Did you use a specific example, not a general one?
HAST Junior Secondary practice test (Year 8 entry)
ACER sets the Junior Secondary level for Year 8 entry, and at that level the Mathematical Reasoning test is maths only. Our Junior Secondary questions are not ready yet. Until they are, the Middle Secondary test above is good general practice.
HAST Senior Secondary practice test (Year 11 entry)
ACER sets the Senior Secondary level for Year 11 entry, and its Mathematical Reasoning test includes science. Our Senior Secondary questions are not ready yet. Until they are, the Middle Secondary test above is good general practice.
Are there HAST past papers?
No. ACER, the Australian Council for Educational Research, which develops the HAST, says: "Past papers are not available" (HAST student support page, read 1 October 2026). Here is what it does offer.
Two sample question booklets, sold as PDF downloads in ACER's online shop. The 2023 edition has 100 questions and the 2019 edition has 49, and each also has two writing tasks.
A free Student Information Bulletin, with a small number of sample questions and their answers, and two sample writing prompts.
ACER's shop lists the 2023 booklet as suitable for the Junior and Middle Secondary levels, and the 2019 booklet for Junior Secondary, with an indication of the Middle level. Neither is listed for the Senior level, which students sit for Year 11 entry. ACER recommends buying its practice material directly from ACER, because it does not distribute it through other organisations or companies.
The questions below come from our Middle level material, for students in Year 8 or Year 9 applying for Year 9 or Year 10 entry. Each has four options, A to D. The answer and a worked answer come straight after each question, so let your child try it before reading on.
Reading Comprehension is the first HAST test: 45 minutes for 35 to 40 multiple-choice questions. ACER says the texts may include fiction, poetry, drama and non-fiction prose, together with diagrams, tables, charts or maps. Both questions here are on one short poem written by Selective Success Academy. Read the whole poem first.
The Anchor
They pity the thing for its plainness of form, / a knuckle of iron let down from the deck, / too blunt for the harbour, too dull for the storm, / a weight with no purpose, a burden, a wreck.
It sinks to the silt where no sunlight has been / and offers the sailor no splendour to keep; / its labour is stillness, unthanked and unseen, / a virtue of holding, ten fathoms deep.
Yet do not dismiss it. The vessel that rides, / that leans to the surge and runs slack in the swell, / is free for one reason: the iron that hides / and fastens the deep, and has fastened it well.
So some serve by motion, and some by their stay, / and boldness at sea has a debt to the deep: / the freedom to wander is purchased, they say, / by something below that has vowed not to leap.
Question 1: what a phrase means
In the second stanza, the phrase "its labour is stillness" most nearly conveys that
A. the anchor is worn out and can no longer perform its intended task
B. the anchor lies idle while the crew perform the truly difficult work
C. the anchor fulfils its whole purpose precisely by holding perfectly still below
D. the anchor fights without pause against the pull of the tide
Answer: C
Worked answer. The phrase joins two ideas that seem to clash. Labour is work, and stillness looks like doing nothing. The next line settles it: "a virtue of holding". The anchor's work is to stay still, because staying still is what holds the ship. That is C.
B reads "stillness" as laziness and ignores the word "labour". D goes the other way and turns the work into a struggle, but the line says stillness, not fighting. A borrows "a wreck" from the first stanza, but that is how other people wrongly see the anchor ("They pity the thing"), not what the poem says it is. In HAST reading, a phrase that sounds like a contradiction is often the key idea, so read the lines around it to see how the poem resolves it.
Question 2: where the poem ends up
By its close, the poem arrives at the view that the anchor is
A. a tragic figure whose great sacrifice goes forever unrewarded and unseen
B. an obstacle that the truly adventurous sailor must learn to discard
C. proof that stillness is always preferable to motion in every life
D. a quiet source of the very freedom the moving ship enjoys
Answer: D
Worked answer. The question asks where the poem ends up, so the last two stanzas matter most. The third stanza says the ship "is free for one reason: the iron that hides". The last lines say "the freedom to wander is purchased, they say, / by something below that has vowed not to leap." The anchor, out of sight and still, is what makes the ship's freedom possible. That is D.
A picks up "unthanked and unseen" from the second stanza, but by the end the poem is giving the anchor credit, not grieving for it. B turns the poem's point upside down. C goes too far. The poem says "some serve by motion, and some by their stay", which values both, so "always" and "every life" are not supported. Be wary of options with absolute words such as always and never. Poems rarely go that far.
Mathematical Reasoning practice questions
Mathematical Reasoning is the second HAST test: 40 minutes for 28 to 35 multiple-choice questions. ACER says it measures mathematical ability, in contrast to a test of school achievement in mathematics, and students will not need a calculator. From Year 9 entry the test also includes science. Both questions here are maths, from our revision material for Year 9 and Year 10 entry.
Question 1: a logic puzzle
Four friends, P, Q, R and S, each chose a different colour (Red, Green, Blue, Yellow) and a different number (1, 2, 3, 4). The following facts are known:
P's number is exactly twice R's number.
The friend who chose Blue chose the number 3.
R chose Green.
S chose the number 1.
The friend who chose Red chose an even number greater than 2.
Which friend chose Blue?
A. P
B. R
C. Q
D. S
Answer: C. Q
Worked answer. Start with the facts that fix a number, then follow the chain.
S chose 1.
P's number is twice R's. The numbers only go up to 4, so R is 1 or 2, and P is 2 or 4.
R cannot be 1, because S has 1. So R is 2 and P is 4.
That leaves 3 for Q. The friend who chose Blue chose 3, so Q chose Blue.
A quick check of the rest: Red goes with an even number greater than 2, which is 4, so P chose Red. R chose Green, which leaves Yellow for S. Every fact holds, and no other arrangement does. In logic puzzles, draw a small grid of friends against numbers and colours rather than holding everything in your head.
Question 2: a two-way table
A group of 80 students was surveyed on whether they own a pet and whether they play a sport. The results are shown in the two-way table.
Plays sport
No sport
Total
Owns a pet
24
16
40
No pet
30
10
40
Total
54
26
80
A student who owns a pet is chosen at random. What is the probability that this student also plays a sport?
A. 3/10
B. 27/40
C. 3/5
D. 24/54
Answer: C. 3/5
Worked answer. First decide which group the student is chosen from. The student is chosen from those who own a pet, so the group is the "Owns a pet" row: 40 students, not all 80. Of those 40, 24 play sport. The probability is 24/40, which simplifies to 3/5.
Each wrong option uses the wrong group.
3/10 is 24/80: the chance that a student picked from all 80 both owns a pet and plays sport.
24/54 picks from the 54 sport players, which answers a different question: what share of sport players own a pet.
27/40 is 54/80: the chance that any student plays sport.
Before calculating, say in words which group the student comes from. That one step removes most of the traps in table questions.
Abstract Reasoning practice questions
Abstract Reasoning is the third HAST test: 30 multiple-choice questions in 30 minutes. Your child finds the pattern in a sequence of diagrams, then continues or completes it. ACER says the test contains no language. In our booklet both questions here are drawings, so below each frame and each option is described in words.
Question 1: a circle that fills
Which option comes next in the sequence?
The four frames. Each frame shows a circle cut into six equal slices, like a pie, with a small black bead just outside the circle.
Frame 1: one slice is shaded grey, the slice from 12 o'clock to 2 o'clock. The bead is on the left of the circle (9 o'clock).
Frame 2: two slices are grey, from 12 o'clock round to 4 o'clock. The bead is on the right (3 o'clock).
Frame 3: three slices are grey, from 12 o'clock round to 6 o'clock. The bead is on the left.
Frame 4: four slices are grey, from 12 o'clock round to 8 o'clock. The bead is on the right.
The options.
A. Five slices grey (12 o'clock round to 10 o'clock), bead on the left.
B. Four slices grey (12 o'clock round to 8 o'clock), bead on the left.
C. Five slices grey (12 o'clock round to 10 o'clock), bead on the right.
D. All six slices grey, bead on the left.
Answer: A
Worked answer. Track one thing at a time.
The grey slices: one more slice fills each frame, moving clockwise: 1, 2, 3, 4. The next frame has 5.
The bead: it swaps sides every frame: left, right, left, right. The next frame has it on the left.
Only A has both five grey slices and the bead on the left. B stops filling, C gets the slices right but the bead wrong, and D adds two slices instead of one. Checking each rule against every option is how students avoid options that are half right.
Question 2: dots on a shrinking ring
Which option comes next in the sequence?
The four frames. Each frame shows black dots spaced evenly around a faint grey ring, with the first dot always at the top.
Frame 1: 1 dot on a large ring.
Frame 2: 3 dots on a slightly smaller ring.
Frame 3: 5 dots on a smaller ring again.
Frame 4: 7 dots on a smaller ring again.
The options.
A. 9 dots on a ring smaller than the ring in frame 4.
B. 7 dots on a ring smaller than the ring in frame 4.
C. 9 dots on a ring the same size as the ring in frame 4.
D. 11 dots on a ring smaller than the ring in frame 4.
Answer: A
Worked answer. Again, two things change.
The number of dots goes up by 2 each time: 1, 3, 5, 7. The next frame has 9.
The ring gets smaller each time. The next ring must be smaller than the ring in frame 4.
A is the only option with 9 dots on a smaller ring. B shrinks the ring but keeps 7 dots, C has 9 dots but does not shrink the ring, and D adds 4 dots instead of 2.
Written Expression: what markers look for
Written Expression is the fourth HAST test: one task in 25 minutes, written in pen. Each school chooses either a discursive task or a creative task that asks for narrative writing. The stimulus may be a picture, a statement or both. ACER says a student will be penalised for rehearsing a piece of writing that is not developed from the stimulus.
ACER says its markers consider thought and content, structure and organisation, and expression, style and mechanics. When we mark practice writing, we use Selective Success Academy's own criteria, in three areas, each out of 10. These criteria and that scale are ours, not ACER's marking guide.
Thought and content. A clear main idea or story line, carried through with real thought. In our marking, an original angle on the stimulus scores higher than a safe, predictable one. Anchor the writing in one concrete example, moment or object rather than general statements.
Structure and organisation. Paragraphs that each do one job, and an ending the writing has earned. In a discursive response: an introduction that names the two views you will weigh, body paragraphs that each make a point, give an example, explain what it shows and lead into the next view, and a conclusion that weighs both sides rather than flipping to one.
Expression, style and mechanics. Precise words, varied sentences, correct grammar, punctuation and Australian spelling, in a register that suits the task.
In 25 minutes, aim for a shaped and finished response, not a longer one that sprawls. For a prompt to practise with, use one of the two sample writing prompts in ACER's free Student Information Bulletin. Set a timer for 25 minutes and write by hand, in pen.
ACER says a student's best preparation is to read widely and think critically, and that working through sample questions builds confidence with multiple-choice questions. These habits get the most from each practice question.
Try first, then check. Let your child answer before reading the worked answer, and read the working even when the answer was right. A right answer reached the wrong way will not hold up next time.
Explain every wrong option. Most worked answers here say why the other options are wrong. Ask your child to do the same in their own words. That is how they learn to see an option that is only half right.
Reuse the tips in the worked answers. In Abstract Reasoning, track one change at a time and test each option against every rule. In a table question, name the group before calculating.
Work without a calculator. ACER's bulletin says students will not need one, so do every practice question by hand.
Answer every question. ACER deducts no marks for wrong answers, and every question is worth the same, so a blank never helps.
Know the pace. ACER's published times work out at roughly 60 to 86 seconds a question in the multiple-choice tests, including reading time. Time a set of questions together, not one at a time.
Match the level. From Year 9 entry, Mathematical Reasoning includes science, so practise reading scientific data as well as pure maths.
Write to a fresh stimulus. ACER penalises a rehearsed piece that is not developed from the stimulus, so practise planning quickly on a stimulus your child has not seen, rather than memorising essays.
Keep a list of mistakes. Note each wrong answer by type, such as a misread question, a missed rule or the wrong group, and look for the pattern.
The full free pack
Our free pack includes our Year 8 to 11 Selective Entry Information Package and sample mock exams for the EduTest, the HAST, and the Normanhurst Boys High School and Sydney Boys High School tests. Request it through the form on our free resources page.
For a full sitting at home, our HAST mock exam papers are full-length exams written in the style of the HAST, in ACER's order and timings, with complete solutions. You can choose marking by our tutors, with a results report that includes writing feedback and a recording of the review session, or the paper with solutions only.
Start with the free pack, or go straight to a full HAST mock exam.
Want your child taught, not only practising? A term of our HAST tutoring is ten weekly two-hour lessons, live on Microsoft Teams, with a full-length mock exam and its review. See HAST tutoring and preparation for how it works and what it costs.
Questions parents ask about HAST practice
Are the questions on this page real HAST questions?
No. Selective Success Academy wrote every question on this page in the style of the HAST. They are not ACER material and not past papers. We are an independent tutoring provider and are not affiliated with ACER.
Which HAST level are these questions for?
ACER's Middle level. ACER sets the secondary HAST at three levels, by your child's current year: Junior for Year 8 entry, Middle for Year 9 and Year 10 entry, and Senior for Year 11 entry. These questions come from our Middle level material, for students in Year 8 or Year 9. From the Middle level up, the maths test also includes science.
How many questions are in the HAST, and how long is it?
When a school uses all four tests, there are 93 to 105 multiple-choice questions and one writing task: Reading Comprehension, 35 to 40 questions in 45 minutes; Mathematical Reasoning, 28 to 35 questions in 40 minutes; Abstract Reasoning, 30 questions in 30 minutes; and Written Expression, one task in 25 minutes. That is 2 hours 20 minutes of testing, with a short break after the second test. Some schools use three of the tests, which is shorter.
Do wrong answers lose marks in the HAST?
No. ACER says no marks are deducted for incorrect answers, and each question is of equal value. Your child should answer every question.
Can my child use a calculator in the HAST?
No calculator is needed. ACER's bulletin says students will not need a calculator, ruler, dictionary or paper. Practise the maths questions without one.
Where can my child sit a full-length HAST practice exam?
ACER sells sample question booklets but no past papers. Our HAST mock exam papers are full-length exams written in the style of the HAST, in ACER's order and timings, with complete solutions and optional marking by our tutors. Our free pack, on our free resources page, also includes a sample HAST mock exam.
Sources
Every official source on this page was read on 1 October 2026.
