NSW Selective Thinking Skills: what it tests and how to prepare

Thinking Skills is the largest multiple-choice section of the Selective test: 40 questions in 40 minutes, four options each, no calculator. It is also the section least like anything taught directly at school, which is why it feels unfamiliar to almost every candidate at first. The questions split into two broad families: critical thinking and problem solving.

Critical-thinking questions present a short argument or scenario and ask students to reason about it: identify the conclusion, spot the unstated assumption an argument relies on, judge which new fact would most weaken or strengthen a claim, or decide whose reasoning contains a mistake. No outside knowledge is needed — in fact, bringing in outside knowledge is a common way to get these wrong. Everything required is on the screen.

Problem-solving questions are logic puzzles dressed in everyday situations: seating and ordering deductions, schedules and calendars, truth-tellers and mistaken witnesses, counting arrangements, and spatial questions about folded paper, dice or maps. They reward systematic working — drawing a quick table or diagram — over intuition.

One minute per question is the tightest ratio in the whole test, so pacing strategy matters as much as accuracy. Strong candidates answer the quick verbal items promptly, flag the heavier puzzles, and return with the remaining time. Preparation that works: little-and-often practice across every question type, always followed by reading the worked reasoning for both right and wrong answers. The aim is to recognise the pattern of an assumption question or an ordering puzzle instantly, so the mind spends its time on the content rather than decoding what is being asked.