See the question styles before you download
Four worked examples, one per HAST section — written in the style your child will meet, with the reasoning laid out underneath. Read the question first and try it yourself before you look at the answer.
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Reading Comprehension — inference
By the third week the seedlings in the north tray had outgrown the others, though Mira had given every tray the same water and the same soil. She checked her notes twice. The only difference she could find was the window: the north tray sat closest to it, and she had not thought that worth recording.
What does the passage most strongly suggest about Mira's experiment?
- A — It failed because she used the wrong soil.
- B — She successfully controlled every variable.
- C — She overlooked a variable that may explain the result.
- D — The north tray held a different species of seedling.
Why C. The answer sits in the last clause: she had not thought the window worth recording. That is the definition of an uncontrolled variable — light — and it plausibly explains the growth. A and B are contradicted by the passage itself (same soil; a variable clearly escaped her). D is never suggested. HAST reading questions rarely restate the text; they ask what the text implies, so the marks are in the sentence the writer almost throws away.
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Reading Comprehension — interpreting a quotation
A second reading type, and a deceptively hard one: there is no passage to search, only a single sentence to be read exactly.
“A map is only useful to someone who already knows where they are standing.”
The quotation suggests that
- A — maps are unreliable and should be treated with caution.
- B — guidance is of little use without self-knowledge.
- C — travellers should learn routes rather than depend on maps.
- D — knowing your destination matters more than knowing your route.
Why B. The whole sentence turns on one word: only. It sets a condition on when the map works — you must already know your own position. That is a statement about the reader, not about the map.
A and C misread the condition as criticism. Nothing here says maps are unreliable or that they should be avoided; the map is granted to be useful, just not on its own. Students pick these because "only" sounds negative.
D is the tempting one, and it is wrong for a precise reason: it swaps where they are standing for where they are going. Starting point and destination are not the same idea, and the quotation never mentions the second one. It gets chosen because it sounds like wise advice — which is exactly the trap.
The technique: find the word carrying the logic — usually only, not, or but — and look for the option that restates the sentence. Do not look for the option that sounds most like good advice. In a quotation question the correct answer is a paraphrase, never a moral you happen to agree with.
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Mathematical Reasoning — multi-step
A tank holds 240 litres and is currently five-eighths full. Water is drawn off at 6 litres per minute for 12 minutes, then 45 litres are added. How many litres are in the tank?
- A — 105 litres
- B — 123 litres
- C — 168 litres
- D — 195 litres
Why B. Five-eighths of 240 is 150. Drawing off 6 litres a minute for 12 minutes removes 72, leaving 78. Adding 45 gives 123. Nothing here is beyond primary arithmetic — the difficulty is holding three steps in order without losing one. Under time pressure the common slip is to answer 78 (stopping a step early) or 105 (subtracting 45 instead of adding). Write each step down; do not try to carry it in your head.
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Mathematical Reasoning — deduction from a table
A different type from the one above: nothing here is hard to calculate, but the numbers have to be unlocked in the right order. Every student chose exactly one elective.
| | Art | Music | Drama | Total |
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| Year 7 | ? | ? | 9 | 34 |
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| Year 8 | 12 | 15 | 11 | 38 |
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| Year 9 | 10 | 8 | 13 | 31 |
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| Total | — | 36 | — | 103 |
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How many Year 7 students chose Art?
- A — 11
- B — 12
- C — 13
- D — 14
Why B. The Year 7 row has two gaps, so it cannot be solved on its own — and that is the whole point of the question. Look for the line with only one gap instead.
Step 1 — go down the Music column. It totals 36, and Years 8 and 9 account for 15 and 8. So Year 7 Music is 36 − 23 = 13.
Step 2 — now go across the Year 7 row. It totals 34, and you now know Music is 13 and Drama is 9. So Art is 34 − 22 = 12.
Option C is the trap, and it is the most common wrong answer: 13 is a real number in this table, but it is the answer to step 1, not to the question asked. Under time pressure students solve the first gap they unlock and stop. The habit worth building is to scan for the row or column with a single missing value, solve that, and then re-read what was actually asked before writing anything down.
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Abstract Reasoning — sequence
Which figure completes the sequence?
- A — arrow pointing left, four dots
- B — arrow pointing left, three dots
- C — arrow pointing up, four dots
- D — arrow pointing right, four dots
Why A. Two rules run at once. The arrow turns 90 degrees clockwise each step (up, right, down, so next is left), and the dots increase by one each step (1, 2, 3, so next is 4). Each wrong option gets exactly one rule right and the other wrong — that is how abstract reasoning distractors are built. The technique is to name each rule out loud before looking at the options, rather than hunting for the figure that "looks right".
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Abstract Reasoning — 3 × 3 matrix
A harder variant. Which tile belongs in the empty square?
Why A — a triangle with three dots. Two rules run at the same time, and only one of them can be read straight across.
The dots are easy: every tile in the first column has one dot, the second column two, the third column three. That fixes the count at three.
The shapes are the real test. Reading across row 1 gives circle, triangle, square; row 2 gives triangle, square, circle; row 3 gives square, circle, and then the gap. It looks like a simple shift, but the rule only becomes certain when you also read down: each shape appears exactly once in every row and exactly once in every column. Column 3 already holds a square and a circle, so the missing tile can only be a triangle.
Each wrong option fails exactly one rule — B is the right shape with the wrong count, E likewise; C and D have the right count but repeat a shape that is already in column 3. That is the standard construction, and it is why guessing the tile that "looks right" is unreliable: every distractor is designed to look right in one dimension. Name both rules out loud before you look at the options.
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Written Expression — planning a discursive response
"The best way to understand something is to have to teach it." Discuss.
A four-line plan, written in two minutes. Line 1, the position: teaching exposes the gaps that reading over notes hides. Line 2, evidence: explaining fractions to a younger sibling and stalling at "but why do you flip the second one". Line 3, the counter-case, which is what lifts a discursive piece out of the middle band: teaching can also harden a wrong understanding, and a confident explanation is not the same as a correct one. Line 4, the resolution: teaching is the best test of understanding, not always the best way to build it.
Markers are looking for whether the response answers the stimulus it was given, how the ideas are selected and organised, and the control of grammar, punctuation, spelling and vocabulary. A piece that never engages the quotation scores low marks however elegant the sentences are — which is why the two minutes spent planning are worth more than the two hundred extra words they cost.
HAST Test Preparation 2027/2028 — Free Samples, Past Papers & Practice Tests
The HAST test — the Higher Ability Selection Test (HAST) — is the ACER HAST test used by leading Australian secondary schools to identify high-ability students for selective entry, scholarship places and gifted-and-talented programs. Whether you are sitting the HAST exam for Year 7, Year 8, Year 9/10 or Year 11 entry, Selective Trial gives your child genuine HAST exam preparation with exam-style HAST practice test papers, free HAST test sample questions and full-length HAST test papers that mirror the real HAST test format.
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