OSCAR Coleman can point straight away to three reasons why he wanted to join New Lambton South Public's opportunity class.
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"My sister got in last year and I saw they had whiteboard tables, Minecraft laptops and a 3D printer," Oscar, 9, said.
"It was cool stuff that I wanted to do too.
"It seemed really fun and that it would make you stand out overall."
Oscar and his classmate Josie Howard were among around 11,900 year four students across NSW who sat the Opportunity Class Placement Test on Wednesday, vying for a two-year placement in classes that cater for academically gifted year five and six students.
Many will change schools to take up one of around 1700 places in classes at 76 public schools, including New Lambton South, Tighes Hill, Jewells, Soldiers Point, Rutherford, Maryland, Cessnock West and Biraban.
Hunter students sitting the paper were allocated to eight test centre locations. About 130 students from 28 different schools, including Oscar and Josie, 10, sat the test at Merewether High.
Both said they were "feeling good' after the "fair" two-part paper, which comprises 70 multiple choice English, mathematics and general ability questions.
"It was slightly easier than I expected," Oscar said.
"I thought it would be harder than the practice papers and it was - but only slightly."
Josie agreed. "I was expecting more panic, but was pleasantly surprised." Oscar said he was expecting "slightly less panic".
They said there was a mix of hard and easy questions and the ones about patterns were particularly "tricky".
Oscar found maths questions easiest and Josie found English questions easiest.
"When I was thinking about it before I was wondering 'Is it going to be hard or easy, am I going to be tired and fall asleep?' " he said.
"I was very stressed before it. After finishing I'm relieved, but now we have to wait for the results."
Josie said she would "miss the anticipation". "I like challenging myself and trying new things," she said. "I heard about the opportunity class and felt hungry to get in."
Oscar said he would remind his mum regularly about the results, which come out in October, while Josie said she would try not to think about them.