There are 1,840 Year 5 places available across all OC schools in NSW. Students can list up to four school preferences in their application. The order of those preferences determines which offer they receive.
This guide explains how the preference system works, what makes one school's entry threshold higher than another's, and the five factors that should shape which schools you list and in which order.
How the preference system works
"The preference order determines your offer. Not academic ranking, not distance, not any other factor."
You can list between one and four OC schools. You do not need to use all four. Only list schools your child genuinely wants to attend.
The preference order determines your offer. Not academic ranking, not distance, not any other factor. If your child meets the performance threshold for multiple schools on their list, they receive an offer only from whichever of those schools is listed highest.
The DoE's own example makes this concrete:
A student lists: Kingswood (1st), Penrith (2nd), St Clair (3rd), Colyton (4th).
How placement works: an example
Scenario A
If they meet the threshold for all four: offer from Kingswood only.
Scenario B
If they meet the threshold for Penrith, St Clair and Colyton but not Kingswood: offer from Penrith.
Scenario C
If they only meet the threshold for Colyton: offer from Colyton.
Placement is based solely on test performance. The order of your preferences determines which offer you receive, not which school is ranked higher academically.
Two things most families do not realise until it is too late:
Important
You cannot decline an offer and then receive one from a lower-preference school. If you decline the Kingswood offer, you cannot then take Penrith. Once you decline, those lower preferences are gone.
There is also no advantage to listing a school as your first choice. Your child is assessed on their test performance for all schools on the list equally. Listing a school first does not give them extra consideration for that school.
The implication is straightforward: put the school you most want as your first choice. Not the school you think is easiest to get into. The school you actually want.
What determines each school's threshold
Every OC school has a different performance level required for placement. Three things determine it:
Number of candidates.
More students applying to a particular school means more competition. Schools in areas with high demand from academically prepared families consistently require stronger performances.
Number of places.
A school with 15 Year 5 places is harder to get into than one with 30, all else being equal. The fewer the places, the stronger the performance needs to be.
How the cohort performs.
The threshold is set relative to how all applicants to that school performed that year, not against a fixed benchmark. A year where the cohort is particularly strong lifts the threshold. A quieter year lowers it slightly.
This is why historical performance levels, which circulate through parent communities and tutoring providers each year, are useful as a guide but not a fixed standard. A school that required a top 10% performance last year may require slightly above or below that this year depending on the applicant pool.
What does not change is the relative order between schools. Schools that have historically required the highest performances tend to remain the most competitive. Use the pattern, not the precise figure.
What the results report tells you
Results are not given as scores or ranks. The performance report shows how your child placed in one of four bands for each section:
Your child's report will show which band they placed in for each section. No score or rank is given.
The bands show where your child sat relative to all students who sat the same test that year. They do not show the number of correct answers or a numerical placement.
What you will not be able to find out: individual test scores, specific placement ranks, or which questions were answered incorrectly. These are not available and cannot be provided. Requests for remarks or appeals will not result in a score being given. Multiple-choice questions are computer-marked with manual reliability checks already applied. This is the information you will have to work with.
The bands do give useful direction for what comes next. A student who placed in the lowest 50% for Thinking Skills has a clear signal about where to focus preparation for the Selective exam two years later.
Factor 1: Understanding what each school actually requires
Before deciding which schools to list, it helps to understand the competitive landscape for each one.
Schools in high-demand areas with strong local tutoring culture, typically inner-western and north shore suburbs, tend to require performances in the top 10% consistently. Schools in outer western Sydney tend to have lower thresholds, though this varies significantly by school and changes year to year.
The OC school list in our OC exam guide shows which schools are available and how many places each has. The number of places is a useful proxy for how competitive a school is likely to be. A school with 15 places is significantly harder to get into than one with 30, because fewer spots means a smaller number of students can be accommodated regardless of how many apply.
A well-structured preference list typically looks like this: one school at the upper end of your child's realistic range as the first choice, with progressively more attainable schools as the second, third and fourth. This gives a genuine shot at the most preferred school while ensuring a realistic backup exists.
Factor 2: An honest read of your child's level
The most common preference list mistake is building it around what a family hopes will happen rather than what the child's current performance suggests is realistic.
A student consistently placing in the top 25% in practice tests has a real chance at a school that requires top 10% performance. There is room to improve and the gap is not unreasonable. A student consistently placing in the bottom half of practice tests has a much more difficult path to a school requiring top 10% performance, regardless of how much they want to get in.
Practice tests at home are a useful guide but not perfectly predictive. Students who have only practised in comfortable conditions at home often find the actual exam harder than expected. A different school, an unfamiliar hall, other students around them, real pressure. A student who has sat a formal exam in an unfamiliar environment before, including the OC exam itself if they sat a prior year's practice version, will typically have a more calibrated sense of how they perform under pressure.
Be honest. A preference list built on wishful thinking uses up slots that a more realistic choice could have filled productively.
Factor 3: What the OC result tells you about Selective school
This is the factor most guides do not mention, and it is one of the most useful ways to think about the OC exam.
Both the OC exam and the Selective exam are held in May. OC in Year 4, Selective in Year 6. Three of the four sections in the Selective exam (Reading, Mathematical Reasoning and Thinking Skills) are very similar in structure to the OC exam, with some sections extended and slightly longer overall test times. This means the band placement your child receives in their OC results is a real early indicator of where they sit relative to a competitive tutored cohort.
Why this matters
The band placement your child receives in OC results is a real early indicator of where they sit relative to a competitive tutored cohort, two years before the Selective exam. A student in the top 10% for all three OC sections is likely competitive for strong selective schools if preparation continues. A student in the lower 50% for Mathematical Reasoning has a clear signal about where to focus.
A student who places in the top 10% across all three OC sections is likely to be competitive for strong selective schools two years later, assuming consistent preparation continues. A student who places in the lower 50% for Mathematical Reasoning has a clear signal that this section needs significant work before Year 6.
The OC result, read alongside practice test performance, gives a tutor and a family enough information to make informed decisions about which selective schools are realistic targets, well before applications open in Year 6. This is two years of planning time that families who do not sit the OC exam do not have.
Factor 4: Transport and logistics
"A student travelling over an hour each way, every day, has less time for everything else: homework, rest, tutoring, sport, and preparation for the Selective exam."
This is the factor that is easiest to underestimate when filling in preferences online and hardest to ignore six months into the school year.
Attending an OC class typically means leaving a child's current primary school and travelling to a different one for Years 5 and 6. If the OC school is close to home, this is a minor adjustment. If it requires a journey of more than an hour each way, the daily reality deserves serious thought before it goes on the preference list.
A student travelling over an hour each way, every day, has less time for everything else: homework, rest, tutoring, sport, and preparation for the Selective exam. The academic benefit of a higher-ranked OC class can be entirely offset by fatigue and the time lost to travel over two full years.
For families who drive: is the drive practical every morning and afternoon for two years? For parents with fixed working hours or whose commute does not pass near the school, this is a real constraint. For families relying on public transport, what does that route look like for a ten-year-old travelling alone?
The OC system does not restrict applications by catchment area. Academic merit, not address, determines access. A family willing to travel can apply to any school. But the distance factor is entirely the family's responsibility to weigh up. A nearby OC school that is slightly lower ranked is often the right practical choice over a higher-ranked one that creates significant daily difficulty.
Factor 5: Your child's own view
It is easy to focus entirely on performance levels, logistics and strategy and forget to ask the child where they actually want to go.
Talk to your child about the schools on your list. Visit school websites and social media pages to get a sense of the community, facilities and subjects. Find out if any schools have open days or orientation events before preferences close.
A student who is enthusiastic about the school they are heading to is in a meaningfully better position than one who had no say in the decision. Primary school friendships and social environment matter at this age in ways that are easy to dismiss when optimising a preference list.
After the exam: adjusting preferences
After the OC exam, there is a window during which parents can change school preferences. The date this window closes changes year to year. Check the NSW Department of Education website for the current deadline each year.
This window is worth using if your child's account of the exam suggests they performed significantly differently from their practice test results.
Questions worth asking your child after the exam:
- Which section felt hardest?
- Were there questions they could not attempt at all?
- Did they finish each section or were they rushed?
- How did it feel compared to doing practice tests at home?
A student who guessed on multiple questions, ran out of time in one section, or found the exam significantly harder than expected may have performed below their practice test average. Adjusting preferences to a school with a lower threshold before the window closes can be the difference between receiving an offer and missing out.
For OC, this adjustment is more limited than for the Selective exam because there are fewer schools available to choose from. But it is still worth making if the evidence points clearly in one direction.
Keeping OC in perspective
Getting into an OC class is genuinely worthwhile. The accelerated learning environment, the cohort, and the preparation advantage for the Selective exam are all real. But it is not the ultimate goal for most families. A selective high school place in Year 6 typically is.
A student who gets into OC but does not reach their target selective school has still benefited from two years of the right academic environment. That foundation carries into Year 6 preparation regardless of the OC result.
A student who does not get into OC can still sit the Selective exam through the standard Year 6 process. If that does not go as hoped, transferring into a selective school through a transfer exam in Years 8 to 11 remains a genuine pathway.
Not every student who sits the OC exam will receive an offer. There are simply not enough places. Be supportive of your child regardless of the result, and keep the longer goal in view.
Preparing with Bing's Academy
We have been preparing students for the OC exam since 2014. Every student starts with an assessment so we know exactly where they are before planning anything. We help families think through school preferences based on practice test results and a realistic read of what each school is likely to require.
If you want a second opinion on which schools to list and in which order, get in touch before the preference submission deadline. It is a short conversation that regularly makes a meaningful difference.
For more on what the OC exam covers and how to prepare for each section, see our OC exam preparation page.
John 'Bing' Huang
Founder, Bing's Academy