Scoring Guide

What Is a Good Score in NSW Selective Writing?

Written by Hao, a Sydney data analyst and parent of a 2025 NSW Selective student. Last updated 26 June 2026.

There is no official "good score" or pass mark for NSW selective writing, and families never receive a raw writing mark at all. Writing is one of four test components, and the official result only shows how your child performed relative to other candidates, not a number out of 25. A practice score out of 25 (like EurekaWrite's) is a benchmark for improvement, not a prediction of placement. As a rough practice guide: 18+ is a strong response, 22+ is exceptional.

If you are not yet familiar with how the test is structured (the four papers and where writing fits), start with our complete NSW Selective Writing Guide. This page is about what a "good score" actually means.

How the Writing Test Is Actually Marked

This is the part most "good score" pages get wrong, so it is worth being precise. The NSW Selective High School Placement Test has four components: Reading, Mathematical Reasoning, Thinking Skills, and Writing. The writing task is a single 30-minute response, and each response is marked by two trained examiners, with a third brought in if their marks differ.

The crucial point: NSW does not give families a raw writing mark. The official performance report does not show a score out of 25, a percentage, or a placement rank. It shows only how your child performed relative to the rest of that year's candidates. So your child's writing is never returned to you as "Band 5" or "19 out of 25." That number does not officially exist.

What a Practice Score Out of 25 Means

Because the official result is relative and hidden, a practice score is still useful, as long as you read it as a benchmark for improvement rather than a verdict. EurekaWrite groups the official writing criteria into two sets, Set A (15 marks) for the quality of the writing and Set B (10 marks) for sentences, punctuation and spelling, and splits these into six feedback dimensions so a student can see exactly where practice marks are gained or lost:

• Content & Detail, Structure & Cohesion, Style, Vocabulary & Register (Set A, 15 marks)
• Sentence Variety & Control, Punctuation, Spelling (Set B, 10 marks)

For what each dimension looks for in plain English, see the marking criteria guide.

These ranges, and the "Band 5 / Band 6" labels used elsewhere on this site, are EurekaWrite practice estimates calibrated against 42 human-marked essays (see our accuracy page). They are not official NSW bands, school cut-offs, or placement predictions.

Is 18 Out of 25 a Good Practice Score?

An 18-out-of-25 practice score usually means the response addresses the task clearly, holds a coherent structure, and controls language reasonably well. It is genuinely strong. But it does not mean the student is in the official top band, and it cannot be turned into a percentile, a placement score, or the odds of an offer from a particular school.

The better question is not "is 18 good?" but "where were the seven marks lost?" That is where improvement comes from, whether it is Content 3/5 (ideas need more development), Style 3/5 (vocabulary correct but predictable), or a weak ending costing a Structure mark. To see exactly what separates a strong piece from an exceptional one, line by line, read our Band 5 and Band 6 samples with feedback.

Can a Writing Score Predict a Selective Offer?

No single writing score determines whether a student receives an offer. Writing is one of four test components, and placement is based on a child's overall performance relative to the rest of the cohort, combined with their school preferences, how many students apply, and how many places each school has. NSW does not publish school-specific writing cut-offs or fixed minimum entry scores.

In practice this means a child with a merely competent writing piece but strong Reading, Maths and Thinking Skills can still place at a sought-after school, while a child with an outstanding piece but weaker other components may not. So why focus on writing at all? Because for most students it is the hardest component to improve quickly, and the one they are weakest in, which makes it the part where targeted practice moves the overall result the most.

What Lifts a Practice Piece Into the Strong Range

The difference between a mid-range and a strong practice response is usually not raw ability, it is a handful of deliberate moves: a single event explored in depth rather than a long timeline, evidence made specific instead of general, a deliberate mix of sentence lengths, and an ending that returns to the opening rather than trailing off. These moves differ by genre, so the detailed how-to lives in the genre guides:

• Narrative: show the moment instead of summarising it, and close the loop.
• Persuasive: trade "research shows" for one concrete picture, and answer the other side.
• Informative: run one controlling idea through every paragraph.

For an at-home routine that builds these over six weeks, see how to improve selective writing at home.