How the ACER Select verbal test works
ACER Select comes in two levels. General Select is for roles after Year 10, such as clerical, technical and administrative jobs; Professional Select is harder and is meant for candidates with at least Year 12, for graduate and managerial roles.
The verbal section is 15 minutes. General has 34 questions: 8 verbal reasoning, 9 synonyms, 9 vocabulary and 8 analogies. Professional has 29: 6 verbal reasoning, 6 synonyms, 6 vocabulary, 7 analogies and 4 antonyms. You may skip a question and come back to it.
Some questions need two answers. In “odd two out”, four of six words are alike and you give the other two. In a two-statement proof, you pick the two statements from a list that together prove a claim. Order does not matter, but giving two answers to a one-answer question marks it wrong.
Your number correct is turned into a percentile rank and a stanine from ACER’s norm tables. The norm group is Year 11 students from New South Wales schools tested in 2002. Employers use the result to rank candidates or set a cut-off.
How to answer each question type
- Analogies: say the link between the first pair as a sentence, such as “a car travels on land”, then find the option that completes the same sentence.
- Synonyms and antonyms: decide what the word means before you read the options, then pick the closest match or opposite.
- Odd two out: find what four of the words share, then the two left over are your answer.
- Two-statement proofs: you want the two statements that make the claim certain. Others may be true but are not needed.
- Vocabulary questions are quick marks. Bank them fast and spend the time saved on proofs and analogies.
Worked examples
Odd two out: oak, rose, birch, pine, tulip, elm. Oak, birch, pine and elm are trees, so the two odd ones are rose and tulip.
Two-statement proof: “Find the two statements which together prove that Ana is older than Ben.” A. Ana is older than Carla. B. Ben has a sister. C. Carla is older than Ben. D. Ana is taller than Ben. E. Carla and Ana work together. A and C together give Ana older than Carla, and Carla older than Ben, so the answer is A and C. D is about height, not age.
Tips for the real ACER Select verbal test
- Check which level you are sitting. General gives about 26 seconds a question; Professional gives about 31, but its questions are harder.
- On a two-answer question, always give two. One answer cannot score.
- Never give two answers to a one-answer question, even if you are torn. It is marked wrong.
- Skip anything that stalls you and come back to it. The instructions allow it.
- In analogies, keep the direction of the link: “is part of” and “contains” point at opposite answers.
- There is no pass mark, so every extra correct answer moves you up the ranking.
Practise ACER Select verbal on CogniPrep
Our ACER Select Verbal test follows the General level: 34 questions in 15 minutes, mixing analogies, synonyms, antonyms, vocabulary, odd two out and two-statement proofs. Two-answer questions use tick boxes and only count once both are ticked. You can move back and forth, nothing is deducted, and you get a score out of 100 and a percentile against other CogniPrep users rather than ACER’s Year 11 norm group. Questions come from a bank of 102, easiest first, so a repeat run brings some back.