Scholarship Test Guide
ACER Scholarship Writing Test: Complete Guide for NSW Parents
If your kid is sitting NSW Selective in Year 6, there's a decent chance you're also looking at scholarship tests for independent schools as a backup. A partial scholarship at a top Sydney private can be worth $20k–$40k a year, and writing is often the deciding factor. ACER doesn't publish a rubric, so most parents prep blind. (As of 2026, SCEGGS still uses ACER; Knox, Cranbrook, Newington, Pymble, Ravenswood have moved to AAS, the writing skills transfer between the two.)
My eldest sat both in 2024. We were guessing at half this stuff. Below: the test structure, the four criteria assessors look at, a 12-week prep plan, and where Year 6 kids leak marks. If you're reading this because Selective didn't go your way, ACER scholarship is one path, the other paths (appeals, reserve list, Year 8–11 lateral entry) are in our guide on what to do after the NSW Selective test.
Why ACER scholarship writing matters for NSW families
Top Sydney private school fees now run roughly $42k–$50k a year. A 25% remission on a $44k school is $11k a year, $66k across six years, often with sibling discounts or bursaries on top.
Top-end candidates almost all clear the maths and non-verbal reasoning bar, so admissions committees use writing to rank. Writing is also one of the few components a child can genuinely improve in 8–12 weeks of practice.
What is the ACER scholarship test?
ACER is the same organisation behind NAPLAN. Your child sits the paper once, and ACER forwards results to schools you've nominated.
The provider landscape shifts. As of 2026 entry, SCEGGS Darlinghurst still uses ACER's CSTP. Several Sydney names that historically used ACER (Knox, Cranbrook, Newington, Pymble, Ravenswood) have moved to Academic Assessment Services (AAS). Always check the school's current scholarship page before booking, because providers change without much fanfare.
Other major routes: Sydney Grammar runs its own entry exam. Several NSW and VIC independents use Edutest. Many Catholic systemic schools use CSSA. Don't assume "scholarship test" means CSTP.
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Provider | ACER (Australian Council for Educational Research) |
| Programme | Cooperative Scholarship Testing Program (CSTP) |
| Schools accepting it | More than 100 independent schools across Australia and NZ |
| Typical scholarship value | 10–50% fee remission (full scholarships rare) |
| Cost per sitting | Around $140–$160 (check ACER for current year) |
| Total test duration | About 3 hours including breaks |
Who takes ACER and when?
The level numbering trips up almost every parent on first read.
Level 1: Year 6 to Year 7 entry (the main NSW audience)
If you're reading this for an NSW Selective kid, this is the level you want. Year 6 students sit it for Year 7 entry. The main cooperative sitting is one Saturday in late February (28 February 2026 for 2027 entry, registrations close 8 February). A handful of schools run alternative dates, early to mid February, late March, or August–October. February is the safest single sitting if you're targeting multiple schools.
Most NSW migrant families I know prep this on a continuous track that started long before Year 6. OC test in Year 4 for Year 5 entry into an Opportunity Class. Selective coaching from Year 5. ACER added on top from late Year 5. Sit ACER in February of Year 6, Selective in early-to-mid May. If Selective comes through, brilliant. If not, ACER is the safety net.
Level 2: Year 8 to Year 9 entry
For families who didn't go down the Year 7 route. Candidates write two shorter pieces back-to-back. Endurance matters here.
Level 3: Year 10 to Year 11 entry
Mainly senior-school scholarship entries. Two-task format like Level 2. Less common in NSW than Level 1, but meaningful at schools that admit at Year 11.
A pathway often confused: some private schools admit at Year 5 using their own entrance exam (sometimes Edutest), not ACER Level 1. ACER's scholarship test has no Year 5-to-Year 6 level.
This dual or triple track is the default in Hornsby, Epping, Strathfield, and Eastwood. How families find out which tutor is taking enrolments: WeChat parent groups, KakaoTalk and Naver cafes, WhatsApp and Telegram groups. If you're not in those channels, ask at school drop-off.
If you're weighing the two main tracks, see our Scholarship vs Selective Writing comparison.
Writing test structure
This is the single biggest piece of misinformation floating around in tutor circles, so read this carefully.
Level 1: one task, around 25 minutes. Your Year 6 child opens the booklet, finds a single prompt, and has roughly 25 minutes to plan, write, and proofread one piece. The genre might be narrative, persuasive, reflective, or descriptive. You don't know until the day.
Levels 2 and 3: two tasks back-to-back. The two-piece format applies at Years 8 and 10 entry, not Year 6. These candidates need to train for endurance and for switching genre with no break.
If you've been told your Year 6 will sit two tasks back-to-back, the source has confused Level 1 with Level 2, or is describing Edutest. Verify on ACER's current candidate guide.
Sample Level 1 prompt (synthetic): "Write a story that begins with the line: The lights flickered once, then went out completely."
With one task and 25 minutes, there's no second chance. Teach your kid to wear a watch. Not a smartwatch. A cheap analogue one. Schools don't always have visible clocks, and the supervisor's "5 minutes left" call comes at the worst possible moment.
The 4 ACER writing criteria
Ideas
Did the writing actually answer the prompt? Are the ideas specific enough to create a picture? A "scary haunted house" loses Ideas marks the moment it becomes the same haunted-house story every other Year 6 kid wrote. Last year a Year 6 boy I tutored set his haunted-place story in his school's music room, the small one tucked behind the staff carpark, with a piano key that played itself at 3:07 every afternoon. Specific place, specific time, specific instrument. He got the Ideas mark.
Maps to EurekaWrite's Content & Detail dimension (0–5).
Structure
How the paragraphs sit. Whether the opening grabs you. Whether the ending earns itself. The most common structural failure at Year 6 is the runaway first paragraph: two hundred words of setup, then the story has to wrap in a hundred. Plan the ending before you start writing.
Maps to EurekaWrite's Structure & Cohesion (0–5).
Vocabulary
Right word, right register. Assessors aren't looking for thesaurus dumps. "The dog ran" is fine if the dog's just running. "The dog tore across the oval" earns the Vocabulary mark because tore does work ran can't.
Common drains: very, really, good, bad, big. I call them the filler five. Replace them deliberately and the mark moves.
Maps to EurekaWrite's Style, Vocabulary & Register (0–5).
Grammar and spelling
ACER bundles into one box what NSW Selective splits into three. Same skills, fewer compartments. A child who writes only simple sentences won't crack the top band even if every spelling is correct. You need a mix: short punchy sentences, longer ones with subordinate clauses, the occasional well-placed semicolon used because it's right, not because it looks clever.
Maps to EurekaWrite's Sentence Variety (0–4) + Punctuation (0–3) + Spelling (0–3).
For band-level detail, see our NSW Selective writing guide and what counts as a good score.
ACER scholarship writing examples: what a strong response looks like
Take the prompt: Write a story that begins with: "The lights flickered once, then went out completely."
Weak opening (Year 6 default):
"The lights flickered once, then went out completely. It was very dark and I was very scared. I didn't know what to do. My heart was beating fast."
Generic feeling words. No place. No specifics. The writer is telling the reader they're scared.
Stronger opening:
"The lights flickered once, then went out completely. From the kitchen I could hear the fridge motor cut out, then start again, then cut out for good. Mum had said the storm wouldn't reach us. I'd believed her until the kettle stopped boiling halfway through its whistle."
Same prompt, similar length. Specific room, specific sound, a previously-trusted assertion that just got falsified. The reader feels the fear because the writing earns it.
How ACER scoring maps to EurekaWrite's 6 dimensions
| ACER Dimension | EurekaWrite Dimension | NSW Selective Section |
|---|---|---|
| Ideas | Content & Detail | Set A |
| Structure | Structure & Cohesion | Set A |
| Vocabulary | Style, Vocabulary & Register | Set A |
| Grammar / Spelling | Sentence Variety + Punctuation + Spelling | Set B |
A piece that scores well on Selective scores well on ACER. A piece that bombs Set B will bomb Grammar/Spelling. One solid plan covers both, with Level 2/3 candidates needing extra endurance work for the back-to-back format.
Schools and scholarship test providers (NSW)
| School | Location | Current provider (2026 entry) |
|---|---|---|
| SCEGGS Darlinghurst | Darlinghurst (Inner Sydney) | ACER (CSTP) |
| Knox Grammar | Wahroonga (North Shore) | AAS (was ACER historically) |
| Cranbrook | Bellevue Hill (Eastern Suburbs) | AAS (was ACER historically) |
| Newington College | Stanmore (Inner West) | AAS (was ACER historically) |
| Pymble Ladies' College | Pymble (Upper North Shore) | AAS (was ACER historically) |
| Ravenswood | Gordon (Upper North Shore) | AAS (was ACER historically) |
| MLC School | Burwood (Inner West) | Verify with school (likely AAS) |
| Sydney Grammar | Darlinghurst (Inner Sydney) | Own internal exam (not ACER) |
The shift from ACER to AAS at top Sydney boys' and girls' schools has happened over the last few years. The good news for prep: AAS and ACER test similar writing skills, so the prep work in this guide transfers. Several Catholic systemic schools use CSSA. Always verify on each school's site each year.
12-week ACER scholarship writing prep schedule
Built for Level 1 candidates targeting February. For Level 2/3, add a second piece per session and double the timing drills.
Weeks 1–2: Diagnostic. One narrative and one persuasive piece, around 25 minutes each, no help. Score them and identify the two weakest dimensions. Don't try to fix everything at once.
If you want to see where your child stands today, score one of their essays free. The dimension breakdown tells you what to focus on.
Weeks 3–4: Creative writing. Two narrative pieces per week. Focus on opening hooks, sensory detail, showing rather than telling. Twenty minutes a day of strong age-appropriate fiction (Roald Dahl, Andy Griffiths, Morris Gleitzman) builds vocabulary passively.
Weeks 5–6: Persuasive writing. Two persuasive pieces per week. Teach the TEEL paragraph (Topic, Evidence, Explanation, Link). NSW primary teachers usually use TEEL; high schools shift to PEEL. Let your kid practise on real arguments they care about. Why bedtime should be later. Why they need a phone.
Weeks 7–8: Time management. For Level 1, 25-minute drills with a 5-minute plan, 18-minute write, 2-minute proofread. For Level 2/3, back-to-back sittings. Most kids fall apart the first time they try the full simulation, which is why you run it now and not on test day.
Weeks 9–10: Vocabulary upgrade. Build a personal list of 50 upgrade words: alternatives for said, good, bad, very, big, small, nice, happy, sad. Make it a rule that every practice piece uses at least three.
Week 11: Mock test. Full simulation under exam conditions. Score against the baseline from week 1. The Tuesday after the mock, sit down and read it through with your child, not to mark it, just to see what they remember writing. The piece you remember least usually needed more planning.
Week 12: Consolidation. Don't write anything new. Review previous weeks' best work. Re-read the upgrade-words list. Sleep. Eat properly.
For private school scholarship writing prep generally, this twelve-week shape works whether you're targeting CSTP, Edutest, or a school's own exam.
Common pitfalls that cost marks
- Starting before reading the whole prompt. Kids see the first line, panic, start writing. Then they realise the prompt asked for a specific element they've ignored. Costs 1–2 Ideas marks instantly.
- A bloated first paragraph. Setup, setup, setup, then no time to tell the story.
- The filler five. Very, really, good, bad, big. Each is a small Vocabulary deduction. They add up.
- Connectives stuck on Then and Also. Cohesion needs however, meanwhile, despite this, in contrast. Picture the assessor on paper number 147. Anything that isn't Then... Then... Also... gets noticed.
- Endings that just stop. "And then we went home. The end." Plan the ending in the 5-minute prep window.
We've covered the broader version in our common writing mistakes guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does the ACER scholarship test cost?
Around $140–$160 per sitting in 2026. Check ACER's current fee on the CSTP page. One sitting, with results forwarded to multiple schools you nominate.
Does EurekaWrite score against the official ACER rubric?
No, because ACER doesn't publish one. EurekaWrite uses a 6-dimension rubric built from NSW Selective criteria. The underlying skills are the same, so the feedback transfers well to ACER preparation.
How early should we start ACER scholarship writing prep?
Twelve weeks at 3–4 hours per week is the standard for serious candidates. You can start earlier with lighter weekly volume if your child is working from a low base.
Is ACER writing harder than NSW Selective writing?
Different rather than harder. Level 1 ACER is one task in around 25 minutes; Selective is one task in 30 minutes. Level 2 and Level 3 ACER add the back-to-back demand of two pieces, which is tougher.
Which Sydney schools accept ACER scholarship results?
As of 2026 entry, SCEGGS Darlinghurst still uses ACER's CSTP. Several Sydney names that historically used ACER (Knox, Cranbrook, Newington, Pymble, Ravenswood) have moved to Academic Assessment Services (AAS). Sydney Grammar runs its own exam. Always verify on each school's current scholarship page before applying; providers change without much fanfare.
Can my child prepare for ACER and Selective at the same time?
Yes, and most do. The skill overlap is heavy. See our Scholarship vs Selective Writing comparison.
What happens if my child does poorly on the ACER test?
There's no pass or fail. Each school sets its own threshold. A score that won't earn a scholarship at one school might still secure partial remission at another.
Score your child's writing
The practical next step is to find out where your child currently sits. Score one of their essays free on EurekaWrite and look at the dimension-level breakdown.
Free first essay. Set A / Set B breakdown in 30 seconds.