HAST practice tests
There are no HAST past papers. ACER does not release used papers and schools do not either. What ACER does publish is a Sample Question Booklet for each level, plus a free Student Information Bulletin that contains worked sample questions across every component.
The Bulletin is the most underused free resource in Australian selective prep. Most families never see it because schools bury the link on an enrolment page.
What official HAST material can I actually get?
Two things, and one of them is free. The Student Information Bulletin is a free PDF containing the test timetable, the component descriptions and sample questions with answers. The Sample Question Booklet is a paid downloadable PDF sold through the ACER shop.
Brisbane State High School publishes both links on its Academic Selective Entry page: the HAST Sample Question Booklet via the ACER website and the free Candidate Information Bulletin.
ACER also warn that they are not affiliated with any tutoring or coaching college, and recommend that if you buy sample material you verify it comes directly from ACER, because they do not distribute practice materials through other organisations.
That is a useful filter. Anyone selling "official ACER HAST papers" is not selling official ACER HAST papers.
What is in the free Student Information Bulletin?
More than most parents expect. Both the Primary and Secondary bulletins contain the full test timetable with timings, the number of questions per component, a description of what each component measures, worked sample questions with answers, a list of what to bring, and ACER's own test-taking tips.
The Secondary bulletin's sample reading passage is a nineteenth-century description of a wombat, followed by a Leon Gellert verse about the same animal, with five comprehension questions across both. That pairing tells you something the component description does not: HAST reading sets prose and poetry on the same subject and asks students to move between them.
The Primary bulletin does the same trick with two children's letters to a magazine editor arguing opposite sides of bullfighting. Comparing two short texts with opposed positions is a recurring HAST reading pattern, and it is a specific skill to teach.
When a passage and a poem cover the same subject, the poem is where students lose marks, and they lose them because they read it the same way they read the prose.
A poem has to be read differently. There is overlap with prose, but there are real differences in how meaning is carried, and a student who has not been shown that will skim a poem in twenty seconds and answer from the surface. Because it is short, they assume it is easy. A poem is often the harder of the two texts on the page.
The underlying problem is that most children have not been taught poetry in a way that made them want to read it. They find it strange, they decide it is not for them, and they never pick one up. Almost no child sits down with a book of poems the way people did generations ago. So by the time a poem turns up in a timed reading section, it is genuinely unfamiliar territory, not just a different text type.
That is fixable and it does not take long. Work through a handful of short poems alongside prose on the same subject, out loud, and get your child used to slowing down when the text gets short. The instinct to speed up on a short text is the thing costing the marks.
How should we build timed practice?
Match your school's package first, then build to the exact published timings. There is no point rehearsing a component your child will not sit.
Practise on paper. HAST is a paper test with a separate multiple-choice answer sheet, four ovals per question labelled A to D, filled in HB or B pencil. A child who has only ever practised on a screen has not practised transferring answers, which is the thing that goes wrong under time pressure.
What should we not practise?
Rehearsed writing pieces. ACER state in both bulletins that the stimulus material must be the basis of your writing, and that a student will be penalised for rehearsing a piece not developed from the stimulus.
This is an explicit penalty, not a stylistic preference. So the training goal is not a strong memorised piece, it is speed of invention: reading a stimulus and committing to an angle within the first sixty seconds, then executing cleanly.
Rotate the stimulus type as well. ACER note the stimulus may be a picture, a statement, or a combination, and that it will allow students to tell a real or imagined story, describe a situation, outline or explain something, express a point of view, or make an argument. Five different jobs. Practise all five.
How many marks does the answer sheet cost?
More than any content gap, and it is entirely preventable. Every HAST question is of equal value and no marks are deducted for incorrect answers, which changes the optimal strategy.
ACER's own test-taking tips spell it out: do not rush, do not spend a long time on a difficult question, leave it out but make sure your next answer goes in the right oval, and if you cannot decide between two options, mark the more likely one and move on. There is no penalty for a wrong guess and a large penalty for a blank.
Build a checkpoint habit in practice: every ten questions, confirm the row number matches the question number. It takes two seconds and it is the difference between losing one mark and losing a section.
Does ACER say practice helps?
They say short-term training is unlikely to improve performance, and recommend wide reading and critical thinking instead. That is worth quoting honestly rather than arguing with.
Two things can both be true. HAST is an ability test, and grinding hundreds of papers will not move a child's underlying reasoning much. And a child walking into a paper test with a pencil-marked answer sheet, three unfamiliar abstract reasoning formats and 70 seconds per reading question will lose marks that have nothing to do with ability.
Practise the format until it is boring. Read widely for the rest.
Where to next
formats worked through
- HAST test format: components, levels and official timings
- Abstract reasoning test guide: the three question
- Brisbane State High School selective entry
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FAQ block for schema
Are there HAST past papers? No. ACER does not release used papers. Official material is limited to the free Student Information Bulletin and the paid Sample Question Booklet.
Where can I get free HAST practice questions? ACER's Student Information Bulletin, Primary or Secondary, contains worked sample questions across every component and is free to download.
Is the HAST on paper? Yes. Multiple-choice answers go on a separate answer sheet filled in HB or B pencil, and the written expression task is handwritten in pen.
Can my child prepare a writing piece in advance for the HAST? No. ACER state students will be penalised for rehearsing a piece not developed from the stimulus.
Do wrong answers cost marks in the HAST? No. No marks are deducted for incorrect answers, so a guess is always better than a blank.
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Written by the teaching team at Practice Tests and Exams. We have taught Year 3 to 12 English and Year 3 to 6 maths in small group classes to our own syllabus since 2008, and prepare Queensland students for selective entry and scholarship exams.
Guidance verified against ACER's HAST Student Information Bulletins, Primary and Secondary, on 10 September 2026.