The Thinking Skills section of the NSW Selective test is 40 multiple-choice questions in 40 minutes, with four options per question. That is an average of one minute per question. It does not test curriculum knowledge — you will not be asked to recall a formula or a fact. Instead it tests logic, evaluating arguments, and spotting patterns.
Because there is nothing to "revise" in the usual sense, most marks are lost not to gaps in knowledge but to a handful of thinking traps that appear again and again. Below are the ten that cost students the most marks, each with a fix a Year 5 or 6 student can actually apply under time pressure.
1. Confusing "all" with "some"
The passage says some dogs at the park are labradors. A tempting answer says all dogs at the park are labradors. These are not the same claim, and the test loves the gap between them.
Beat it: Circle every "all", "some", "most", "none" and "only" as you read — treat them as the most important words in the question.
2. Assuming the conclusion is already proven
A trap answer often restates the very thing the argument is trying to prove, as if it were a given fact. If the argument's whole job is to show that the new library is worthwhile, an answer that simply asserts "the library is worthwhile" adds nothing.
Beat it: Ask "does this answer give a reason, or does it just repeat the point?" Repetition is not evidence.
3. Picking what is true in real life
You may know from your own life that exercise is healthy. But if the passage never says so, "exercise is healthy" is not supported by this text — and that is what the question asks.
Beat it: Answer only from the box in front of you. Add a silent "according to the passage" before every option.
4. Reversing a conditional
"If it is raining, then the match is cancelled" does not mean "if the match is cancelled, then it is raining." The match could be cancelled for many other reasons. Swapping the two halves of an "if... then..." is one of the most common traps of all.
Beat it: "If A then B" only tells you about A leading to B — never assume B leads back to A.
Here is a quick worked example:
Every student in the choir can read music. Jia can read music. Can we conclude Jia is in the choir?
No. The rule runs one way: choir → reads music. Plenty of people who are not in the choir can also read music, so knowing Jia reads music does not put her in the choir. The correct answer is "we cannot tell."
5. Over-inferring beyond the evidence
The passage says the café was busy on Saturday. An over-inference concludes it is "the most popular café in town". One busy day does not prove that. The safest answer usually says a little less, not more.
Beat it: If an answer claims more than the passage actually shows, reject it — small, cautious conclusions win.
6. Falling for the plausible distractor
Test writers deliberately include an option that sounds clever and reasonable but is not what the passage supports. It feels right, so students grab it without checking.
Beat it: Never pick an answer because it sounds smart — check that a specific line in the passage backs it up.
7. Misreading "not", "except" and "only"
Questions like "which of these is not true?" or "all of the following except..." flip the whole task. Students who skim read choose the answer that is true and lose an easy mark.
Beat it: When you see "not", "except" or "only", underline it and say to yourself "I'm looking for the odd one out."
8. Spending too long on one question
With one minute per question, a single puzzle you refuse to abandon can quietly swallow the time you needed for five easier ones later in the paper.
Beat it: If a question has beaten you after about 90 seconds, mark your best guess, flag it, and move on — come back if there is time.
9. Ignoring a definition the question gives you
Some questions invent their own rule: "In this code, a blip is any number that is both even and greater than 10." Students answer using the everyday meaning of a word, or forget the made-up rule, and get a perfectly logical question wrong.
Beat it: When the question defines a word or rule, use that definition only — even if it feels strange.
10. Confusing correlation with cause
"Ice-cream sales and sunburn both rise in summer, so ice-cream causes sunburn." Two things happening together does not mean one caused the other — here, hot weather drives both. This trap appears constantly in the "evaluating arguments" questions.
Beat it: When an argument says one thing caused another, ask "could something else explain both?" — if yes, the argument is weak.
Putting it together
Notice that almost every trap on this list is a reading trap as much as a logic trap. The words "all", "some", "not", "except", "only", "if", "caused" and "most" are where marks are won and lost. Slowing down for those words costs a few seconds and saves whole questions.
The other half of the battle is exposure. These patterns become obvious once you have seen them thirty times, and invisible on a cold reading. The most efficient way to build that recognition is timed practice against real question styles, then reviewing every question you got wrong to name the trap that caught you.
You can work through full timed sets on our Selective practice tests, and drill the question types one at a time on the Thinking Skills page. After each attempt, do one thing: for every wrong answer, write down which of the ten traps above got you. Within a few weeks the same traps stop working — and that, far more than any last-minute cramming, is what lifts a Thinking Skills score.
Last verified: July 2026.