Thinking Skills 3 v2

Selective School Placement Test

Practice Paper 3

Thinking Skills Paper 3

Instructions:

There are 40 questions in this test. For each question there are 4 possible answers, A, B, C orD. Choose one correct answer for each question.

You have 40 minutes to complete this test.

You will not lose marks for incorrect answers, so you should attempt all 40 questions.

Calculators and dictionaries are not allowed in the test.

This paper has been designed to replicate the questions that are asked in the real selective school test.

The purpose of taking a practice test is to familiarise yourself with the types of questions you will be asked. Themore comfortable you can be with the questions, the faster and more accurate you will be in the test!

Every question is unique - even if it looks similar to one you have already attempted there will be something uniqueabout it that requires you to think differently. If you start recognising question types this is a good thing! It will giveyou a huge advantage in the test.

This practice test remains the intellectual property of Alchemy Tuition and should only be used in conjunction withan accredited Alchemy Tutor.

For more details about the test, Alchemy Tuition or our selective school preparation program please visit ourwebsite at www.alchemytuition.com.au or www.selectiveschooltutoring.com.au.

Alchemy Tuition Level 39, 1 Farrer Pl, Sydney NSW 2000 // [email protected] // 1300 914 329 // alchemytuition.com.au

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Q1.The children Vanessa, Joanna, Betty, Mylan and Ella are sisters. Vanessa is 1 yearyounger than Betty. Ella and Betty are twins. Joanna is 7 years older than Vanessa. Ellais 18 years old. Mylan is older than Betty, but younger than Joanna.

Only one of the following is true. Which is it?a. Betty is 17b. Joanna is 24c. Mylan is the youngest of the sistersd. The oldest sister is 21

Q2.A farmer has 238 goats.

This year all but 6 of them have had kids.

None of them had more than one kid.

389 lambs have been born in total.

How many of the goats have had only one kid?

a. 157b. 232c. 76d. 75

Q3.Poppy said that dairy foods are essential for children. Jerome stated that Poppy was incorrect,and said that the vitamins and minerals in dairy products could be found in other food groups,


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because his mother doesn’t eat dairy and is very healthy. Poppy said that even though youcould find specific vitamins and minerals in other foods, dairy products provided the highestconcentration of a combination of important things that are needed for children making dairyfoods essential.

Which of the following, if true, strengthens Poppy’s argument?

a. Elderly people require the Calcium in dairy to prevent bone disease.b. Adults don’t require the same vitamins and minerals as children, as they are in different

stages of health and body development.c. Dairy can help bones strengthen at all ages.d. Adults can suffer from lactose intolerance, so they cannot consume dairy.

Q4.Jodie’s doctor told her that sleep is more important that last minute study for doing well in atest.

Jodie: “I didn’t sleep that much last night because I was studying, that must mean I am going tofail my test.”

Which one of the following sentences shows the mistake Jodie has made?

a. Poor sleep can impact, but does not mean that Jodie will fail her test.b. Sleep is more important than knowledge.c. Jodie sleeps a lot on normal nights so she won’t necessarily fail the test.d. Studying is also beneficial in doing well on tests.

Q5.Shown below are the three small pieces of a puzzle.


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Which of the following pieces can be combined with the three small pieces to make asquare?a. b. c. d.

Q6.

To become a successful driver, you need to have good coordination and be committed totraining.

Tom:“Fred doesn’t like training, but he can juggle tasks efficiently. He handles feedbackwell. Maybe he should get into driving professionally.”

Evie:“Ted can coordinate his hand and eyes well, but doesn’t like it when someone tells himto skip training. He would be an excellent driver.”

If the information in the box is true, whose reasoning is correct?


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A Tom onlyB Evie onlyC Both Tom and EvieD Neither Tom nor Evie

Q7.Five houses stand together in a row. One person lives in each house; each person likes adifferent genre of music.

● Mr Green likes Jazz and lives to the left of the person who likes Rock.● Dr Grey likes Funk.● Mrs White lives in the furthest house on the right and lives next to the person who likes Jazz.● The person who likes Rock lives 2 houses away from the person who likes Funk.

Who lives in the middle house?

A Dr GreyB Miss OrangeC Mrs WhiteD Mr Green

Q8.Twelve students are studying Mathematics. They take three tests, each marked out of 100. Theresults of the first two tests taken are shown below.

Name Test 1 Test 2

Tom 48 53

James 83 87

Alira 61 67

Connor 73 54


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Edward 66 59

Heidi 69 78

Jo 33 98

Kai 88 44

Sarah 100 68

Piper 75 78

Layla 81 79

Isabelle 57 65

A prize is awarded to the student with the highest combined total score from the three tests.

If two students are tied for the highest score, nobody gets the prize.

As the scores currently stand, one student is certain to win this prize as long as a high enoughscore is achieved in the final test.

What is the minimum score in the final test that will guarantee this student the prize?

A 91B 94C 96D 99

Q9.Anh’s mother has written a letter to the school. She has suggested that, for the children’sdevelopment, homework should be banned from schools as it leads to greater stress forchildren.

Which one of these statements, if true, most strengthens Anh’s mother’s argument?

A. Parents usually end up doing the homework for their children.B. Children often do their homework last minute.


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C. Children have been crying due to the difficulty of their homework.D. Children don’t like doing their homework and would rather play games.

_________________________________________________________________________

Q10.

Catherine works at a clothes store. She has access to a database containing the name, addressand mobile number of their loyalty customers.

Catherine: “To confirm if a customer is a loyalty member with us, I always ask the customer fortheir address, and not their mobile number, as this is a more accurate way to identify theirname in the database.”

Which one of the following sentences best shows the mistake Catherine has made?

a. Customers may have changed addresses and not updated it in the database.b. Multiple members of the same household may have each registered as loyalty

customers.c. There are no members that have the same mobile number and address as another.d. None of the above

_________________________________________________________________________.

Q11.

Nick’s school was selecting students for a new acting course. As well as considering theirexisting knowledge of acting, the school set them a performance test and an improvisationchallenge.

If a student had at least some existing knowledge of acting, then they only had to pass theperformance test. If they had none, then they either needed to get an excellent score on theperformance test or do well in both the performance test and the improvisation challenge.

Nick is an experienced actor but failed to get a place on the course. What must have been thereason?


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a. He did badly on the improvisation challenge.b. He did not get an excellent score in performance.c. He failed his performance test.d. He did badly in both performance and improvisation.

Q12.

A blue square covers the centre of 4 identical tiles

Which of the following reveals what is underneath the blue square?

Q13.Kelly, Brendon and Jess have 30 marbles each.


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They take it in turns to draw a playing card from a standard 52 deck of playing cards.

● If the card is red, they are required to give the other 2 players the number of marblesshown on the card (a jack, queen or king count as 10).

● If the card is black, they receive from the other 2 players the number of marbles shownon the card (a jack, queen or king count as 10).

Kelly draws a 2 of hearts.

Brendon draws a queen of spades.

If the friends end up with 19, 55 and 16 marbles respectively, which card did Jess draw?

a. A red 3b. A black 5c. A red queend. A black 9


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Q14.Danielle, Charlotte, Ben and Alex work at the same fast food store, making hamburgers.

If they make more than 50 hamburgers in one day they are paid extra money.

Yesterday Danielle was paid extra money and Ben made 60 hamburgers.

If these statements are true, only ONE of the following sentences below must be true:

a. Danielle made 60 hamburgersb. Charlotte was not paid extra moneyc. Ben was paid extra moneyd. Alex made less than 50 hamburgers

Q15.“Whoever stole the money must have had both pennies and cents”

If this statement is true, which one of these sentences must also be true?

a. If Tom had both pennies and cents, he must have stolen the moneyb. If Tom did not steal the money, he cannot have had the centsc. If Tom did not have the cents, he cannot have stolen the moneyd. If Tom did not steal the money, he cannot have had the pennies

Q16.A digital clock display consists of seven segments which light up in differentcombinations to produce digits to tell the time. For example, to display the time “1:00”the clock lights up as shown:


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The digital clock display is used to tell the time. However, the particular display thatAngela owns is faulty and two of the segments are not working. Due to this, forexample, her clock displays the time: “1:45” as this:

What would the time be in 12 minutes from 1:45, as shown by Angela’s display?

a. b.

c. d.


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Q17.

To succeed in a school subject the student should choose one they genuinely enjoy and areinterested in.

Tom: “My sister said it didn’t matter if I liked the subject or not, so long as the teacher wasgood, I know I will succeed.”

Selena: “Isn’t it easier to just choose subjects you find interesting and will enjoy? I think thatyou can really only do well in a subject that you enjoy, regardless of the teacher.”

If the information in the box is true, whose reasoning is correct?a. Tom onlyb. Selena onlyc. Both Tom and Selenad. Neither Tom nor Selena

Q18.

3 of the 4 shapes below were combined to create the figure above. Which shape was notused?


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Q19.

Colm wanted to see whether playing different instruments affected people’s intelligence. Hemade all the musicians take an IQ test. This is what he found:

- The least intelligent guitarists were less intelligent than the least intelligent pianists- The most intelligent flautists were fitter than the most intelligent pianists or guitarists- Some pianists were not as intelligent as the flautists

Which one of these sentences can be concluded from the above information?

A The average intelligence of the pianists were higher than that of the guitaristsB The most intelligent guitarists could not be as intelligent as the most intelligent pianistsC All pianists had higher intelligence than the least intelligent flautistsD The least intelligent flautists were more intelligent than some pianists and guitarists


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Q20.

Russia is a transcontinental country because it occupies the continents of both Europe andAsia.

Alicia: “If a country is only fully in one continent, it must not be Russia.”

Simon: “And, if a country is a transcontinental country, it must be Russia.”

If the information in the box is true, whose reasoning is correct?

a. Alicia only

b. Simon only

c. Both Alicia and Simon

d. Neither Alicia nor Simon

Q21.

Nareeja wants to buy a ticket to Sola Park. She knows that she will go to Sola Park on the 1st,3rd and 11th over the next three months. What is the least that she can pay?

Pass Price ($)

Weekly 30

Daily 5

Three days 12

A. $45B. $47C. $48D. $50


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Q22.

Christel, aged 11, is trying to convince her parents to give her weekly pocket money. Which ofthese statements does not support Christel’s point of view?

A. In the past, when Christel received money, she would lose most of it.B. Christel promises not to spend money on items her parents think are bad for her health.C. Pocket money can be a valuable way for teaching children how to manage money.D. Pocket money can be a valuable way for teaching children responsibility.

Q23.Four children completed a spelling bee and were each given the same four-letter word

● Daphne was faster than Simon, but got two letters wrong● Eloise got all the letters right, but took the longest● Anthony got more letters right than Daphne, but finished after her● Simon wasn’t as fast as Anthony, but got one letter wrong.

If all the above statements are true, only one of the sentences below cannot be true. Whichone?

A Daphne got the fewest amount of letters correctB Daphne was not first to finishC Simon got the same amount of letters correct as AnthonyD Anthony got all the letters right

Q24.


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Which of the following shapes completes the pattern correctly?

Q25.

Nadia’s parents are always telling her about the importance of going to university andusing that degree to get a stable job.

Nadia: “I don’t know if my parents will like the university degree I’ve selected, it’s notguaranteed that it’ll lead to a good job.”

Guzman: “Don’t worry, your parents will be happy as long as you go to university, simplyhaving a degree is good enough.”

If the information in bold is true, whose reasoning is correct?

A Guzman onlyB Nadia onlyC Both Nadia and GuzmanD Neither Nadia nor Guzman


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Q26.University students that fail in two or more courses in their first year often drop out beforegraduating and proceed to find employment. However, three years ago, an academic tutoringprogram supplementary to specific courses was initiated. Since then, each term’s studentdrop-out rate has been steadily decreasing, suggesting the additional tutoring support hasbeen beneficial to students studying particular courses.

Which one of the following, if true, would most strengthen the above argument?

a. The university’s counselling service has witnessed fewer students requiring assistancerelating to academic performance.

b. Professors and tutors have observed increased numbers of students attending thein-person lecture and tutoring sessions compared to three years ago.

c. Courses offering the supplementary tutoring program have witnessed increases to thegrades of each term’s cohort.

d. Students upon completing courses offering the supplementary tutoring program haveprovided more helpful feedback on surveys.

Q27.A restaurant manager is organizing bread deliveries for the month of January. The monthbegins on a Friday and ends on a Sunday. He estimates a daily delivery of 20kg will berequired each weekday to fulfil customer demands. Additionally, he estimates triple theamount of the daily weekday delivery quantity will be required over each weekend.

How bread will the manager order altogether for the month of January?

a. 720 kgb. 900 kgc. 1020 kgd. 660 kg


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Q28.A survey was taken by students in a science class. Everyone who liked maths liked physics.Everyone who liked physics liked chemistry, but no one who liked physics liked biology.

The students Jane, Jason, Holly and Harrold all took part in the survey.

Based on the above survey information, which one of the following statements must be true?

a. If Jane likes chemistry, she also likes physics.b. If Jason does not like biology, he does not like chemistry.c. If Holly likes maths, she does not like biology.d. If Harrold does not like maths, he does not like physics.

Q29.Miranda received her marks for a maths test and obtained a mark of 75. She is interested inhow well she performed and asks her teacher for the class’s average mark. She informsMiranda she has yet to return half of the students papers but the current average stands at a70.

Miranda: “I’m already five marks higher than the current average mark. That means the class’saverage mark will definitely not surpass my mark.”

Which one of the following sentences does not show the mistake Miranda has made?

a. Miranda believes the class average will not surpass 75.b. Miranda believes her mark of 75 will remain above or equal to the class’s average mark.c. Miranda believes the current class average will continue to grow until all marking is

completed.d. Although the average mark is currently lower than Miranda’s mark, there is still the

possibility of it growing higher than 75.


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Q30.

This is the front view of some trees on a road.

Which of these images below would be the view from directly above the trees?

A) B)

C) D)

Q31.

Miss Greenwood knows that her class’ staging of a play can only go ahead on the day if thefollowing events occur:

None of the main characters are absent.

At least most of the props are brought from home by the students.

The stage is clean.

Which of these events occurred, meaning that the play definitely did not go ahead?

A. The stage was cleaned the night before the play.B. The main character forgot to bring his props.


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C. The stage was cleaned the day after the play.D. The main character was an hour late to the play.

Q32.An advertisement for a natural deodorant claimed:

FLOWER-FRESH guarantees you’ll smell fresh, even after 24 hours.

Four customers were interviewed, and two questions were asked in each case:

customer Was FLOWER-FRESHused?

Did the scent last 24hours?

1 (a) no

2 yes (b)

3 (c) yes

4 no (d)

Which two of the missing answers must be known in order to test the truth of the claim in theadvertisement?

A a and dB b and dC c and dD a and b

Q33.Chandler wants to buy 4 books. There are 4 shops that sell the books that he wants. Theshops, the prices of the books and any special offers are shown in the following table:


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Standard Price of aBook

Special Offer

Shop A $54 Buy 1, get the 2ndone for half price

Shop B $50 None

Shop C $58 Buy 2 get, 3rd one forhalf price

Shop D $56 Buy 3, get the 4th onefor free

Chandler wants to buy all his books from the same shop, using the smallest amount aspossible.

Which shop should Chandler buy from?

A. Shop AB. Shop BC. Shop CD. Shop D

Q34.Blood donors receive a text message when their blood is used to help a patient. "We get a lotof visibility in social media and traditional media thanks to the SMS," Karolina Blom Wilberg, acommunications manager at the Stockholm blood service, told Huffington Post. "But above allwe believe it makes our donors come back to us, and donate again."

Which of the following can be drawn from the above passage as an appropriate conclusion?

A. Blood donors are very well respected within societyB. Social media highly rates individuals who had donated blood to charities.C. It is compulsory for blood donors to return within a few monthsD. Blood banks in Sweden notify donors when blood is used.


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https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/25/sweden-blood-donors-text-message_n_7657156.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Q35.

Jeff and Lachlan were discussing the most popular sports within their class. These included:Football, Netball, Basketball and Volleyball. They conducted a survey of all the studentswithin their class and found the following information:

● Everyone that enjoyed Basketball also enjoyed Netball● No one enjoyed both Basketball and Football● Some people that enjoyed Volleyball also enjoyed Netball● Some people that enjoyed Football also enjoyed Netball

Which sport was the most popular?

A. FootballB. BasketballC. NetballD. Volleyball

Q36.100 people were asked to name their favourite type of book. The results were as follows:

Science Fiction 15

Romance 25

Thriller 25

Horror 35

No other types of books were chosen.


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The information was entered into a computer in order to construct a pie chart, however onetype of book was accidentally left out. The following pie chart was created using only 3 of thevalues.

Which type of book was left out?

A. Science fictionB. RomanceC. ThrillerD. Horror

Q37.

Why do we still need to bring pens and notebooks to school? Nowadays, students use theirlaptops at school to take notes and read textbooks. It is also much quicker to type things on alaptop than hand write things in a book. Instead of carrying around heavy books and having tokeep buying pens when the ink runs out, using just a laptop would be so much moreconvenient and possibly cheaper in the long run. After school, most jobs use laptops only anddon’t require pen or paper, so what is the point of still using them at school?

Which one of these statements, if true, most weakens the above argument?

A Some jobs, like fashion designers, use more pen and paper than laptopsB Hand writing with pen and paper is better for learning than typing in laptopsC Buying many books and pens over time may be more expensive than buying a laptop


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D Some laptops are heavier than books and pens

Q38.

I am hiding in one of three rooms. On the door of each room I have written two statements,some true, some false. However, no more than one statement on each door is false.

Room 1 Room 2 Room 3

My hair is long I am not in Room 2 My hair is short

I am not in this room I am in Room 3 I am not in Room 1

Which one of the following statements must be false?

A My hair is shortB My hair is longC I am in Room 1D I am in Room 2

Q39.Tilly’s mum organised a fundraiser event with the other parents in the class to help raisemoney for the class charity.In total, twenty-two parents attended.Where there was only one parent from a family in attendance, the individual ticket was $10.Where two parents from the same family attended, the joint ticket was $15.From the sale of tickets, $190 was raised. How many parents came individually?

a. 8Alchemy Tuition

Level 39, 1 Farrer Pl, Sydney NSW 2000 // [email protected] // 1300 914 329 // alchemytuition.com.au 24

b. 10c. 11d. 13

Q40.Gemma wants to get her sister Tara plants for her birthday. She knows that Tara has six plantsand has bought them all from the local garden store in the past few months. When Gemmaasked, she found out that the garden store has kept the same plant collection for over a year,and they have eight types of plants.

Because she doesn’t know which plants Tara has, Gemma decides to get her a gift voucherequivalent to two plants so that Tara has all of the plant types on offer at the garden store.

Which of the following statement best evaluates Gemma’s reasoning?

a. Gemma is correct in thinking that Tara has all but two of the plant types offered at theplant shop

b. Tara may have received some of her plants from other places, or grown them herselffrom ones she already had.

c. While Tara has six plants, she may have multiples, meaning that getting additionalplants will not get her all plant types

d. Tara may not want more plants


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AnswersThinking Skills - Practice Paper 3

Question # Correct Answer Question # Correct Answer

1 B 21 A

2 D 22 A

3 B 23 B

4 A 24 C

5 A 25 B

6 B 26 C

7 A 27 C

8 D 28 C

9 C 29 C

10 B 30 D

11 C 31 D

12 C 32 D

13 A 33 A

14 C 34 D

15 C 35 C

16 B 36 D

17 B 37 B

18 C 38 D

19 D 39 B

20 A 40 C

We welcome feedback and corrections! Please email [email protected] with the paper name (ie.Thinking Skills Practice Paper 1) and the question number so we can continue to improve our resources


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Thinking Skills 3 v2