For most of the 11,849 year 4 students who sat the "nerve-racking" opportunity class placement test on Wednesday, the results will be disappointing.
Less than 15 per cent will be offered one of 1740 places in the year 5 and 6 classes for gifted and talented children.
Olivia Cassell, 9, from Summer Hill Public School, said she is not expecting to get in.
"You only get in if you get into the top 90 per cent of something, there's not much of a chance," Olivia said. "I want to stay at Summer Hill and there are only 30 [OC] places, and I don't think I was one of the top 30 people."
Christian Burger, 9, said the multiple choice test was "pretty easy but some of the questions were really hard...it was a mixed variety".
Students had an hour to complete 70 English, maths and general ability questions, and Christian said running out of time was one of the most stressful things about the test.
"It was very nerve-racking when you were sitting there waiting for it to start and then at the end I had 10 questions left and only five minutes to do it," he said. "It was a lot of pressure."
The OC test has become increasingly competitive in recent years, with 739 more students than last year competing for the same number of places.
Christian said he spent every Saturday during the past two months at a tutoring centre to prepare for the test. Another student, Sooyeon Kim, 9, also got weekly tutoring, while Olivia and Ben Ryan, 10, did practice tests at home.
"I did an overall of like 25 tests," Ben said. "I'm glad it's over because I don't have to do any more."
NSW Department of Education secretary Mark Scott recently said students from less well-off families are being disadvantaged because "parents can spend more than $20,000 a year on preparation for OC or selective high school tests".
For Christian, the OC test was just a stepping stone towards his ultimate goal of getting into a selective school.
"I only tried for OC because I wanted to see how hard it would be and just practise for the selective test," Christian said. "OC is just a test but I actually do really want to get into a selective school."
Karen Shehata, principal at Summer Hill, which has one opportunity class in both years 5 and 6, said many students who are not in the classes still make it into selective schools.
"This year, 87 of our year 6 students sat the selective test and all the 30 OC students and 12 mainstream students got in," Mrs Shehata said. "The OC teachers have a clear understanding of what is needed for students to be successful but our mainstream teachers also differentiate the needs of gifted students.
"We try to work on their resilience and [tell them] that even if they don't get in to the OC class, they still are going to have the same opportunities within the mainstream classroom if they are motivated."
Students who are successful in today's OC test will move to one of 76 primary schools across the state that offer the classes at the beginning of next year.
Entry into the schools is on the basis of a child's combined OC test and school assessment scores, with the most sought-after schools requiring the highest scores.
Beecroft Public School currently has the highest entry score, followed by North Rocks Public School, Ermington Public School, Matthew Pearce Public School and Summer Hill Public School.
The test comes as a leading academic in gifted education said the NSW government should consider increasing OC places, expanding the program to cover all year levels or even introducing "primary selective schools".
