HAST test format: what your child sits, and at which level

The Higher Ability Selection Test is a paper-based ability test from ACER, made up of up to four components: Reading Comprehension, Mathematical Reasoning, Abstract Reasoning and Written Expression. Each school chooses a three-component or four-component package and sets its own test date.

The single most useful thing to establish before you buy any practice material is which level and which package your child's school uses. HAST-P and HAST Secondary are different papers with different timings, and a three-test package leaves out an entire section.

What is the HAST?

HAST is ACER's selective and high-ability entrance test, used by schools across several states for selective entry, scholarships and extension programs. In Queensland, Brisbane State High School uses HAST for Academic Selective Entry.

It is not a curriculum test. ACER's own bulletins describe the items as assessing thinking skills such as analysis, comprehension, interpretation and reasoning, drawn from subject areas including English, Maths, Science, Art, History, Geography and Social Studies, while stating clearly that no special knowledge in those areas is required. Everything needed to answer sits on the page.

What is the difference between HAST-P and HAST Secondary?

HAST-P is the Primary level, used for Year 5 and Year 6 entry. HAST Secondary is split into Junior, Middle and Senior levels. Their component timings are different, and confusing them is the most common error in Australian HAST content.

Both sets of timings come from ACER's Student Information Bulletins, Primary and Secondary. Note the direction of the difference: the younger cohort gets more time for writing, not less, and less time for reading. If you have seen a guide giving a Year 5 sitting 45 minutes of reading, it has applied the Secondary numbers to a Primary paper.

At Middle and Senior Secondary levels, the Mathematical Reasoning test also includes science.

Which components will my child actually sit?

Whichever three or four the school has selected, and only the school can tell you. ACER's Secondary bulletin states that students doing three tests will sit Reading Comprehension, Mathematical Reasoning and either Written Expression or Abstract Reasoning.

At Primary level the default three are Reading Comprehension, Mathematical Reasoning and Written Expression, with Abstract Reasoning as the optional fourth.

This is a question worth emailing the school about before you spend money on preparation. Buying abstract reasoning practice for a school that does not use it is a common and avoidable waste.

How long is the HAST in total?

Roughly two to two and a half hours of testing for a four-component package, before breaks. Allow three hours or more on site, particularly at Primary level where breaks run about fifteen minutes between each test.

A four-component HAST Secondary sitting is 140 minutes of timed testing: 45, 40, 30 and 25. A three-component HAST-P sitting as used at Brisbane State High for Year 5 is 100 minutes: 35, 35 and 30.

What does my child need to bring to a HAST sitting?

HAST is paper-based, which surprises families used to computer-delivered tests. ACER's bulletins list exactly what to bring:

• two HB or 2B pencils for the multiple-choice tests
• a good quality eraser
• a pencil sharpener
• two blue or black pens for the Written Expression test
• a snack and a water bottle for the break

And what is not needed: no dictionary, no ruler, no paper, no calculator.

Multiple-choice answers go on a separate answer sheet with four ovals per question, labelled A to D. ACER instruct students not to fold or tear the sheet, not to mark anywhere outside the designated areas, and not to use ink, ball-point or felt pen anywhere on it. Changed answers must be rubbed out cleanly.

Students who arrive late for the first test are admitted only at the supervisor's discretion, and no additional time is given.

How is the HAST writing task marked?

Against three groups of criteria: thought and content, structure and organisation, and expression, style and mechanics. The stimulus is a picture, a statement, or both.

The rule that costs the most marks is this one: ACER state that the stimulus material must be the basis of your writing, and that you will be penalised if you are rehearsing a piece of writing that is not developed from the stimulus.

That is an explicit penalty for pre-learned pieces, written into the official bulletin. Any preparation approach built around memorising a strong story and bending it to fit is working directly against the marking scheme.

A rehearsed piece gives itself away in the vocabulary, usually within two sentences.

The tell is Latinate diction. Long, formal words dropped in to sound impressive, where a shorter word would have done the job better. It reads as precocious rather than capable. It is not language you would hear a child use in conversation, and it is not language you would hear most adults use either.

The closest comparison we can give is the scientist character in a cartoon. A screenwriter gives that character deliberately complicated words and roundabout ways of saying simple things, because to a child that is what intelligence sounds like. The children watching think the character is brilliant. Any adult watching can hear that something is off. That is exactly how a memorised, vocabulary-stuffed piece reads to an experienced marker, and markers assessing high-ability cohorts read hundreds of them.

Which is the practical reason not to build preparation around impressive words. A marker who can hear the rehearsal is a marker who is now looking for it, and ACER have already told you in writing that they penalise it.

What does the Abstract Reasoning section involve?

Thirty non-verbal multiple-choice questions in 30 minutes, in three recognisable formats. ACER's bulletins name them directly: next in sequence, middle of sequence, and complete the pattern.

Next in sequence asks which of four options most logically and simply continues a sequence. Middle of sequence gives five frames to arrange into the simplest logical order, then asks which one sits in the middle. Complete the pattern asks which option fits the gap in a grid.

The word doing the work in all three instructions is "simply". ACER's own worked answers hinge on the simplest consistent rule, not the most elaborate one a clever child can construct. That is a teachable instinct, and it is covered on our abstract reasoning page.

How are HAST results reported?

To the school, in detail. ACER provide individual student reports and a school report ranking students across the testing areas, with results standardised against a high-ability reference cohort rather than the general school population.

What reaches you depends entirely on the school. Some pass on a report; many do not. Brisbane State High, for example, gives no feedback on unsuccessful applications and provides no internal review of the Executive Principal's decision.

Two things ACER says about preparation

Worth knowing, and worth reading carefully rather than dismissing.

ACER state that the skills HAST measures are learned over a lifetime and that short-term training is unlikely to improve performance, recommending wide reading and critical thinking as the best preparation. They also state that they are not affiliated with any tutoring or coaching college.

Both statements are true and neither means practice is pointless. What practice reliably fixes is the layer ACER is not talking about: knowing the paper is on paper, knowing the answer sheet rules, knowing that a rehearsed writing piece is penalised, and knowing that 45 minutes for 35 to 40 reading questions means barely a minute each. None of that is ability. All of it costs marks when it is a surprise.

Where to next

main Queensland school using HAST

• HAST practice tests: what exists and what does not
• Brisbane State High School selective entry: the
• HAST-P and Year 5 conditional entry
• Abstract reasoning test guide

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FAQ block for schema

What does HAST stand for? Higher Ability Selection Test, developed and marked by ACER.

How many components does the HAST have? Up to four: Reading Comprehension, Mathematical Reasoning, Abstract Reasoning and Written Expression. Each school selects a three or four component package.

How long is the HAST? Around 140 minutes of timed testing for a four-component Secondary package, or 100 minutes for a three-component Primary package, plus breaks.

Is the HAST on paper or computer? Paper. Students bring pencils for the multiple-choice answer sheet and pens for the written expression task.

Can you use a calculator in the HAST? No. ACER's bulletins state no dictionary, ruler, paper or calculator is required or permitted.

Is HAST-P the same as HAST? No. HAST-P is the Primary level for Year 5 and Year 6 entry, with different timings from HAST Secondary.

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Written by the teaching team at Practice Tests and Exams. We have taught Year 3 to 12 English and Year 3 to 6 maths in small group classes to our own syllabus since 2008, and prepare Queensland students for selective entry and scholarship exams.

Component timings and question counts verified against ACER's HAST Student Information Bulletins, Primary and Secondary, on 10 September 2026. Confirm your school's package and date directly with the school.