What changed
Reading and Verbal Reasoning became one paper
Before
Reading Comprehension
35 questions, 35 minutes
Verbal Reasoning
60 questions, 30 minutes
Now
Reading and Verbal Reasoning
75 questions, 55 minutes
Two separately timed papers are now one paper the student has to time themselves.
Quantitative Reasoning kept its time, not its questions
Before
Quantitative Reasoning
45 questions, 30 minutes
Now
Quantitative Reasoning
35 questions, 30 minutes
Same 30 minutes, fewer questions to spend them on.
Total multiple choice questions
175falls to145
The current format in full, section by section and including the two writing tasks, is set out in what the Victorian selective entry exam is.
Why it matters
The merged paper tests time allocation
Reading and Verbal Reasoning now tests a skill nothing in the old format trained: how a student splits their own time. No bell marks the halfway point between the reading passages and the verbal reasoning questions, so a student who sinks 35 minutes into the reading passages has wrecked their Verbal Reasoning.
Quantitative Reasoning is no longer a sprint
Quantitative Reasoning went from 45 questions in 30 minutes to 35 questions in 30 minutes: 40 seconds per question became 51.
Old raw scores do not translate
Total multiple choice questions dropped from 175 to 145. A reassuring percentage from an old paper is not comparable to one from the current exam.
Old papers remain useful for question style and content, but not for timing or scoring.