Letter #1 · June 2026

Waiting for NSW Selective results: what helps, what doesn't

Hi,

This is the first letter in this newsletter. If you're reading it on the site, thanks for being here. If you've subscribed and it landed in your inbox, thanks for letting me in.

A quick note as we move into the results-waiting period for the 2026 NSW Selective sitting.

My son sat the Selective last year. The four to six weeks between exam and results were, in some ways, harder than the prep that came before. Here is what I wish I had known.

The timeline you actually need

Results are usually released mid-June to early July. The exact day shifts year to year. Reserve list movement starts within a few days after that and can continue into August. Late offers happen, sometimes well into Term 3, as families with multiple offers decline some.

What this means in practice: do not lock in a private school enrolment before mid-July if you can avoid it. I know families who regretted accepting too early.

Three things that helped us

1. Read for fun, not for study. My son and I picked a book to read in parallel during those weeks and talked about it at dinner. No analysis, no quiz. He told me later this was the most relaxing thing of those weeks.
2. Ask your child what they want from high school. Not "which school," but "what do you want school to feel like." Treat it as a 200-word writing exercise, not a survey. It surfaces what they actually care about, and helps you both think clearly when the offer arrives.
3. One contingency conversation. Have one, short, calm, low-stakes, about what happens if they don't get in. Just one. The child who has been told "it's fine either way" handles the result better than the one who hasn't.

Three things that did not help

• Refreshing the portal. Results are not released early. The energy is wasted.
• Asking them to rewrite their exam essay from memory. It creates anxiety, and you cannot mark it accurately anyway.
• Booking six weeks of "results-day prep" tutoring. You do not yet know what they will need.

If you are bracing for a no

There are more paths than most parents realise: appeals, reserve lists, lateral entry into Year 8 to Year 11 (mostly school-by-school, not central), and top private schools with real scholarships still on the table. I wrote a longer post about all of this here:

What to do after the NSW Selective test: results timing, reserve list, appeals, lateral entry.

One thing

If you have a specific question about this stretch, the timeline, your child's headspace, what to make of last year's cut-offs, just drop me a line at eurekawrite@haorix.com. I read every email.

Talk soon,

Hao
Sydney

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Next letter: if the result isn't what you hoped for, ACER scholarship windows that are still open in June and July, and how to read them realistically.