GATE Results 2026: Iris Students Achieve the Highest GATE Writing Score in WA

The 2026 GATE (ASET) results are in — and students from Iris Tutoring Centre have set the benchmark for Western Australia. Not one, but two Iris students achieved the highest GATE Writing score in the state: 85.58. Another Iris student recorded the highest Abstract Reasoning score in WA: 78.76. And our top overall result reached 310.75 — among the very best combined GATE scores in Western Australia this year.

What these GATE results mean

The GATE program (Gifted and Talented Education) is Western Australia's selective entry pathway into the state's most sought-after school programs — including Perth Modern School — WA's top-ranked academically selective school — and gifted and talented programs at leading high schools across the state. For thousands of families each year, the GATE exam is the doorway to top school entry in Western Australia. Entry is decided by the ASET (Academic Selective Entrance Test), a strictly timed exam administered by ACER covering four components: Reading Comprehension, Quantitative Reasoning, Abstract Reasoning and Written Expression.

Scores are standardised across every student in the state who sits the test. Achieving the highest score in WA in a component doesn't just mean doing well — it means outperforming every other candidate in Western Australia in that skill. In 2026, that happened for Iris students twice over: in Writing, the section most families find hardest to prepare for, and in Abstract Reasoning, the section that supposedly "can't be taught."

We also celebrated success beyond Year 7 entry: an Iris student sitting the Year 9 GATE entry exam recorded the top Writing mark in their cohort — proof that the same preparation method works at every entry point.

How our students reached the top of WA

There is no secret shortcut — but there is a method, and it's the same one we build into every Iris program:

1. Writing was trained, not hoped for

Most students walk into the ASET writing task with talent and no plan. Ours walk in with a rehearsed 25-minute method: five minutes of planning, a deliberately paced middle with one richly developed moment, and three minutes of disciplined editing. Every practice piece received structured feedback — show-don't-tell, sensory detail, sentence variety, word choice — until strong writing became automatic. That's how you get two students to 85.58.

2. Reasoning was practised like sport

Abstract Reasoning rewards pattern fluency, and fluency comes from volume and variety. Our students trained on hundreds of pattern, sequence and matrix questions of steadily increasing difficulty, learning to track one rule at a time and eliminate options systematically. The result: WA's highest Abstract Reasoning score, 78.76.

3. Mock exams removed the surprise

Every Iris student sits multiple full-length, strictly timed mock exams that mirror the real ASET's structure and pacing. By test day, the format holds no fear — timing is instinctive, and nerves have already been spent on our mocks, not the real thing.

The same preparation is now available to every WA family

The methods behind these results power both our GATE classes in Perth and the Iris GATE Practice Portal — 1000+ questions and mock exams created by educators and experienced GATE teachers, with instant marking, worked explanations, writing feedback and parent progress reports. New questions are added every week.

Congratulations to our students

Results like these belong to the students who earned them — week after week of practice, drafts, mock exams and reviews. To every Iris family in the 2026 cohort: we are enormously proud. A wonderful year of achievements for GATE — and we're just getting started. New GATE-only classes are opening soon.