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Higher Ability
Selection Test

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Ensure your students are appropriately challenged

HAST provides a reliable assessment to help schools effectively identify high-ability students for selective entry and for extension throughout their schooling in gifted and talented programs.

An assessment tool for measuring higher-order reasoning ability and academic aptitude

HAST is trusted by schools across Australia to assist in measuring and finely distinguishing between high-ability students to further their learning progress.

Participating schools

For more than 50 years, schools around Australia have been using ACER academic reasoning tests to identify academically gifted students for the award of a scholarship or selection into a high-ability class or program

Designed and standardised in Australia

Tests skills and aptitude, not retrieved knowledge

Finely distinguishes between high-ability students

Reliable testing to identify academically gifted students

Free guide to identifying high-ability students

When identifying high-ability students, it is important that your processes are rigorous and defensible. Read our free guide to identifying these students – based on more than 50 years of developing academic selection tests.

The guides covers:

  • Assessing higher order, cross-curricular reasoning skills that are characteristic of gifted students.
  • The importance of data triangulation for obtaining a comprehensive picture of student ability.
  • General population tests vs evidence-based reasoning assessments.
Download guide

HAST tests skills, not retrieved knowledge

Aptitude testing is designed to measure ability and academic potential, unlike curriculum-based tests which typically identify what a student has already learned.

Using HAST results to identify top performers

Students of high ability deserve to be appropriately challenged and too often are not identified because of ineffective assessment tools.

While some population testing instruments claim to identify the full range of student ability, they often are unable to distinguish high-ability students from other test takers. A test that has few appropriately difficult test items can create what is known as a ’test ceiling effect’ where a significant proportion of students will achieve near-perfect scores. This can result in an inability to distinguish among the highest performers and make accurate selection decisions where it is most required. HAST is designed to finely differentiate these top performers to make entrance screening and classroom planning easier for teachers and school leaders.

The typical testing cycle

Ready to register your school?

Use our simple online registration portal.

School registration

Need help getting started?
Our expert support team is ready to assist.

Parents of students, please contact your school for more information.

+61 3 9277 5625