Hello guys,
I'm currently a year 8 SEAL student at my school. I want to write the JMSS exam next year for a 2026 entry as I am really passionate about science and want to get a science-based career. I wrote the Victorian Selective Entry Exam this year but sadly didn't get in 🙁. Does anyone who has written the exam have any tips or information about the exam especially? I have seen many tips about the interview but not so much about the questions and topics in the exam. I have heard that the exam is pretty easy but I would like to know what topics were covered. Also, what were the topics for the writing part of the exam this year and in past years?
Thanks for the help! 🙂

Maths and Science will cover it. The main place where people don't perform well is the Science and writing tests. I think going to tutoring or buying practice exams for these tests could be useful since you wouldn't have done these kinds of tests elsewhere.
Numerical Reasoning and Maths were pretty standard tests, if you did the selective entry exam, they were easier than those (at least in my year, I know the selective test changed this year). The numerical reasoning test is actually very similar to the practice version for select entry on the victorian government website (one of the questions from this year's test was literally on that practice test). I wouldn't stress too much about these, just go through a maths textbook and do some time practice test and you should be good.
Science Reasoning is a mixture of general science knowledge questions and data analysis questions. To practice the data analysis questions, I would suggest the ICAS Science tests as those are as close as you're going to get to the questions on the test. With the general knowledge, like with Maths, knowing your Year 9 content should cover it. I honestly am bad with Science general knowledge since my old school didn't teach it very well but I still ended up with an above average (I think my data analysis carried though).
There are 2 writing components, a science report and a science essay (forgot their actual names). Going to tutoring for these tests would be beneficial although you don't need it. For the science report, we had the information and method for a random experiment and we had to write a hypothesis, discussion and conclusion I think. Really knowing the in depth rules and components of a report is crucial for this. My school covered this heavily earlier this year and I ended up getting a superior for this test. Your discussion should be about 2 paragraphs (include improvements, accuracy, reliability, repeatability, etc.) and is probably the part that most people mess up on. I can go more in depth on this if you would like.
For the Science Essay, you get this page of information on a random topic (I got black soldier flies and its impact on greenhouse emissions, it was an absolutely awful prompt). It's just your regular essay format (2 - 3 body paragraphs), and you basically use the information given and some of your own if you can to take a stance and sort list the effects and such.
As far as tips, bring an analog watch (not digital) since I don't think there were any clocks and they only gave time stamps like once maybe. Set the minute hand to start at the very top so its easier to read since all the test were half an hour. I don't really have any other tips, as long as you study the content

  • .. likes this.

Thank you so much! I was also wondering what kind of topics came up in the maths and science part?

Also, do you guys have any materials that could help me revise? I am going to use the maths and science textbooks for years 8 and 9 but are there any other materials that could help?

    JMSS Hey!! I notice that you need some help with the JMSS entrance exam! Please don't hesitate to contact me on discord (kjlt) if you would like some help, especially with numerical reasoning!

        i don't have discord 🙁

        • Tas likes this.
        • .. replied to this.

          .. bruh so petulant, thats like saying, 'i dont have tik tok', 'get it then'.

          • Tas likes this.
          • JMSS replied to this.

              Aadi46 hi there! my discord is "kjlt". BTW I don't actually go to the school, I sat the entrance exam this year, but I could try helping!!

              • DV78 replied to this.