GATE / ASET · PARENT CHECKLIST
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Start with the Department’s free practice test
Do they teach all four sections, including written expression
Who is in the room, and how many children share them
Does your child sit a full paper under timed conditions
What feedback you get, and how often
What to be wary of
Questions to ask any provider, ready to paste into an email
Two facts first.
The WA Department of Education’s applicant guidelines state that coaching or tutoring for the placement test is not necessary. The test is not curriculum-based. It measures reasoning and potential, not acquired knowledge.
The Department publishes a free full-length practice ASET with an answer key and printable answer booklet, matching the question styles and timings of the real test. Download it straight from the Department: reading comprehension, communicating ideas in writing, quantitative reasoning and abstract reasoning, plus the answer booklet and the answers to the multiple choice questions.
Take both at face value. Download the official paper, sit your child down with a timer, and mark it. If they finish comfortably in time, they may need only a mock exam and some timed practice. If they run out of time or guess most of a section, teaching has something to add. Our GATE exam guide explains each section.
What structured teaching adds, honestly:
A method for each question type, so the child reasons instead of guessing. In our experience abstract reasoning is rarely taught in primary school.
Repetition under the clock. One paper shows a child the format. It does not build speed.
Feedback on writing from a person. An answer key cannot mark a 25 minute piece of writing.
The ASET has four sub-tests of equal value: Reading Comprehension, Communicating Ideas in Writing, Quantitative Reasoning and Abstract Reasoning.
The writing sub-test is the one to ask about. It is one 25 minute task, hand-written, from a prompt the child cannot see until the clock starts, scored by at least two independent markers. There is no answer key, so it is the hardest section to prepare at home and the easiest for a program to cover thinly.
Ask how writing is taught and who marks it. If the answer is a worksheet, keep looking.
Is the person on the website the person who teaches the class, or does a junior tutor run the room?
How long have they taught this specific test? A strong maths teacher is not automatically a strong abstract reasoning teacher.
Can they teach writing? A tutor who cannot build an argument under time cannot teach a child to.
Ask the ratio, not the class size. A large class with three tutors is a different room from one with a single tutor.
Ask whether a second adult is in the room, a second pair of eyes on each child’s writing.
Ask last term’s actual ratio, not the cap.
For reference, ELG averages 5 students to 1 tutor, with two tutors in every room, and Sagar Badve leads every GATE class. Group versus private GATE tutoring sets out where each format wins.
The ASET runs about 2 hours 50 minutes including instructions and breaks: 35 minutes for 35 reading questions, 25 minutes for writing, a 10 minute break, 35 minutes for 35 quantitative questions, then 20 minutes for 35 abstract reasoning questions. A child who has only done worksheets meets that clock for the first time on test day.
Ask whether the program includes at least one full-length paper, sat in one sitting under the real section timings, in a room with other children rather than at home.
Free GATE mock exams in Perth run at Curtin University with all four sections in one sitting. A child from any program, or none, can register.
You are paying for someone’s judgement about your child. You should hear it.
Weekly homework that is set, marked and returned, not just set.
Progress by section, so you know which of the four is lagging. ELG uses a learning platform for this, but any method works if you can see the trend.
Marked writing with comments, not a number.
A straight answer, at any point, to “is my child on track.” A provider who will not say is protecting the sale.
Each of these is a reason to ask a second question, not to walk away.
Pass rates. The Department emails results to families, not tutors, so a provider only knows what parents report back. Ask how the figure was counted.
Guarantees. Each program has a set number of Year 7 places, ranked on the Total Standard Score. Nobody can guarantee a place.
Cut-off predictions stated as fact. The Department publishes previous years’ minimum entrance scores and warns they are a poor predictor of the next cut-off.
Drilling past papers with no method. If the explanation for a wrong answer is the correct letter, the child has learned one question.
Long commitments. A term at a time is reasonable. A year paid up front before you have seen a class is not.
A program that does not mention writing, or mentions it last.
COPY AND PASTE
Who will actually teach my child each week, and how many years have they taught the ASET specifically?
What is the average student to tutor ratio in the class my child would join, and how many tutors are in the room?
How do you teach the Communicating Ideas in Writing section, how often does my child write a full timed piece, and who marks it?
Does the program include a full-length practice paper under the real section timings, sat in one sitting? Do I receive section scores?
How is homework marked and returned, and how will I see which section my child is behind in?
Do you teach abstract reasoning as a method, or only as practice questions?
What does the term cost in total, what is included, and is there any commitment beyond the term?
If my child is not suited to your program, will you tell me?
Our GATE group classes run at two venues, Perth Modern School and Leeming Senior High School. The Term 4 2026 intake begins across three days: 16, 17 and 18 October.
ELG Tutoring, formerly ASET Expert. Helping students prepare for the ASET, GATE and NAPLAN exams with proven strategies and expert mentorship.
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