Test Format & Practice

How to Practise for the Typed Selective Writing Test

Written by Hao, a Sydney data analyst and parent of a 2025 NSW Selective student. Last updated 14 July 2026.

The NSW Selective writing task has been typed on a computer since 2025, not handwritten. Most families know that by now. The part that is easy to miss is what it changes for practice: type instead of handwrite, build a little typing speed, practise with no spellcheck or autocorrect (the exam has none), and learn to proofread on a screen. The writing skills and the marking are unchanged, so change the delivery, not the whole approach.

Since 2025 the Selective test runs on a computer, on the Janison platform, and the writing response is typed on screen. This is not news to most parents. What I noticed, first with my own son and then in the practice families actually do, is that the habits have not fully caught up. Kids still draft by hand, lean on autocorrect, and proofread on paper. None of that matches the real test. Here is what to change, and, just as importantly, what genuinely does not.

The Format, in One Paragraph

For the record, and for anyone who is newer to this: the writing task is a single response of roughly 30 minutes to one stimulus (an image, a quote or a scenario), which can be narrative, persuasive or discursive. Students may brainstorm and plan on paper or on screen, then type the response in the space the platform provides. The dates, format and process are set out on the NSW Department of Education's placement test page. That is the whole format. Everything below is about the practice that fits it.

What to Change in Your Practice

Five adjustments cover almost all of it.

• Practise typed, not handwritten. This is the big one. A child who only ever drafts by hand can be noticeably slower and clumsier typing under time pressure. If your practice essays are handwritten and then typed up later, you are training the wrong conditions. Move the timed writing itself to a keyboard.
• Build a little typing speed and stamina. Nobody needs professional speed, but a slow, hunt-and-peck typist can run out of time, or finish with no minutes left to check. Typing a few hundred words comfortably in the time, with something left over, is the goal. It builds quickly with regular practice, so start early rather than cramming it.
• Turn off spellcheck and autocorrect. The exam platform provides no spellcheck, autocorrect or grammar tools, and spelling is one of the marked criteria. A child who relies on a phone or laptop quietly fixing their spelling at home gets an unpleasant surprise on the day. Practise in a plain text box, or switch those tools off, so their real spelling shows up while there is still time to work on it.
• Learn to proofread on a screen. People skim screens and read paper more slowly, so errors that would jump out on paper slip past on a monitor. Teach a deliberate, slow re-read at the end, watching for the typed-specific slips: a doubled word, a missing small word, a homophone that autocorrect would once have caught. Practise fixing cleanly with the cursor rather than scribbling.
• Do the official online practice at least once. NSW provides free practice tests on the same Janison platform. Doing one means the interface, the plain typing box and the on-screen timer are familiar rather than new on test day, which is one less thing to be nervous about.

What Does Not Change

It is worth being clear about this, because the word "computer-based" makes some families think everything is different now. It is not. The response is still marked on the same six dimensions (content, structure, style and vocabulary, sentence variety, punctuation and spelling), the genres are the same, and the things that separate a strong piece from an ordinary one, a single moment explored in depth, specific and picturable detail, a satisfying ending, have nothing to do with the keyboard.

So do not overhaul your child's whole preparation because the format changed. If they are learning to write well, that work carries straight over. What changed is the delivery, not the craft. Our guide on what a good score really means and the marking criteria both still apply exactly as before. And handwriting is not wasted, it still matters for ordinary school work, it is simply not what this particular test measures.

A Typed Practice Routine That Fits

The loop I would run now looks like this:

1. Type a response, to time, with autocorrect off. Pick a prompt, plan for two or three minutes on paper or screen, then type for the rest of the time and leave a couple of minutes to check on screen.
2. Get it scored and read the feedback. Look at the dimension-by-dimension comments, not just the total, and note whether spelling or punctuation slipped now that no tool is fixing them.
3. Choose two or three specific fixes. Usually the same high-value moves: make one general line specific, break a run of same-length sentences, give the ending a real close, and correct the spellings the platform would not have caught.
4. Redo one paragraph, typed. You do not need to retype the whole thing. Fixing one paragraph well, on the keyboard, teaches more than redoing all of it.

This is the same write, score and revise loop that drives all writing improvement, just run on a keyboard to match the test. Our writing practice workspace gives you timed prompts to type into, and for why this feedback loop suits writing in the first place, see why writing is the component AI helps with most. For an at-home routine over several weeks, the improve at home guide has the week-by-week version.

The Bottom Line

The test being typed is old news. The practice implications are the part still worth acting on, and a surprising amount of home practice has not made the switch. Change the delivery: type to time, no autocorrect, proofread on screen, and try the real platform once. Keep the writing itself exactly the same, because good writing is good writing whether it is handwritten or typed. Get both halves right and your child walks in on test day with no surprises, which at ten or eleven is worth a great deal on its own.

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