What Is the AAS Scholarship Exam? A Guide for Parents
What Is the AAS Scholarship Exam? A Guide for Parents
If you've started researching scholarship exams, you've probably come across Edutest and ACER. There's a third major provider that catches a lot of families off guard simply because it's less talked about: AAS, or Academic Assessment Services.
If your target school uses AAS, the format is different enough from Edutest and ACER that it's worth understanding before test day, not on it.
In this article:
- What AAS is and which schools use it
- How the AAS exam is structured
- How it compares to Edutest and ACER
- How to prepare
What Is AAS?
Academic Assessment Services (AAS) is an independent testing provider that runs scholarship exams for private schools across Australia. Like Edutest and ACER, schools use AAS results alongside school reports and references to decide scholarship offers.
AAS tests are available from Year 3 through to Year 11, and are customised to each school's specific requirements, so the exact mix of sections can vary slightly from school to school.
Which Schools Use AAS?
AAS is particularly common among girls' schools and Anglican grammar schools across Victoria, New South Wales, and Queensland. Examples include:
- Victoria: Melbourne Girls Grammar School, Camberwell Grammar School, Firbank Grammar, Korowa Anglican Girls' School
- New South Wales: Knox Grammar School, Abbotsleigh, Barker College, Pymble Ladies' College, Cranbrook School, The King's School
- Queensland: Somerset College, Canterbury College, Anglican Church Grammar School
This isn't an exhaustive list, and schools do change providers from time to time, so always confirm directly with your target school which exam they currently use.
The AAS Exam Format
The AAS scholarship exam covers four main areas.
1. Reasoning and Problem Solving
This is the largest section, and it's structured differently to Edutest and ACER: rather than separate verbal and numerical reasoning sections, AAS combines three reasoning types into one integrated test of around 60 questions:
- Verbal reasoning — word patterns, codes, logical deduction
- Figural reasoning — image series, visual patterns, matrix completion (a non-verbal, pattern-based reasoning style not heavily featured in Edutest)
- Numerical reasoning — number patterns and quantitative logic
Because figural reasoning appears here, students who've only practised verbal and numerical reasoning may find this section the least familiar part of an AAS paper.
2. Reading Comprehension
Short passages followed by questions testing understanding, inference, and vocabulary in context — broadly similar in style to Edutest and ACER's reading sections.
3. Mathematics
Curriculum-based questions calibrated to the year level sitting the exam, covering the usual mix of number operations, fractions, geometry, and word problems.
4. Written Expression
A short writing response, marked against a rubric assessing ideas, structure, vocabulary, and grammar — the same general shape as the written expression sections in Edutest and ACER.
AAS vs Edutest vs ACER
The core skills being tested overlap heavily across all three providers: reasoning, reading, maths, and writing. The main practical differences are:
- AAS blends verbal, figural, and numerical reasoning into a single combined section, rather than testing them separately like Edutest does.
- Figural (non-verbal, image-based) reasoning appears more prominently in AAS than in Edutest, and is worth specific practice if your target school uses AAS.
- Format customisation per school means two students sitting AAS exams at different schools may see slightly different section weightings.
→ See: What Is the Edutest Scholarship Exam? A Complete Guide for Parents
If your family is applying to multiple schools across different providers, the good news is that solid reasoning, reading, maths, and writing skills transfer across all three — you're not starting from scratch for each one.
→ See: What Is the SEAL Test? A Parent's Guide
How to Prepare for the AAS Exam
Because AAS blends reasoning types into one section, timing discipline matters even more than usual — students need to shift quickly between verbal, figural, and numerical question styles within the same block, rather than having a clean break between sections.
The written expression section is, as with every provider, the hardest to self-assess without outside feedback.
PassPrep's practice tests and AI-marked writing feedback are built around the Edutest and ACER formats specifically. If your target school uses AAS, the reasoning, reading, maths, and writing practice still transfers directly, though the figural reasoning style is worth supplementing with dedicated non-verbal reasoning resources.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the AAS exam harder than Edutest or ACER? Not inherently. It's calibrated to the same year level standard as the other providers. The main adjustment is the combined reasoning section and figural reasoning content, which can feel unfamiliar if a student has only practised verbal/numerical formats separately.
Do all AAS exams look the same? Not exactly. AAS customises the exam to each school's requirements, so section weighting can vary. Confirm the specific format with your target school where possible.
What age group sits the AAS exam? AAS scholarship testing is available from Year 3 through Year 11, though most scholarship applicants sit it around Year 6 (for Year 7 entry) or Year 8 (for Year 9 entry).
How do I know which provider my target school uses? Check the school's own scholarship information page, or contact their enrolments office directly. Don't assume — providers do change from year to year.
Whichever provider your target school uses, PassPrep offers free practice tests in the Edutest and ACER formats, with AI-marked feedback on the written expression section that no other tool on the market provides.