hi, i'm currently in penrith rn and i got in 2020 when i was in yr 7.
to be completely honest im not sure how hast has changed or what is on the test since i got in but one thing i can say since you have done hast before is that it will be very similar in terms of topics and the style of exam to last year's because these sorts of exams dont seem to change in terms of question types and they barely get any harder (this what people that joined in yr 11 told me). for math, see what you have learnt in yr 10 and go off that i reckon, but honestly i think they usually stick to more algebra type questions (the kind you see in icas). don't take my word for it tho, please ask someone that did it more recently to fact check me.
there isn't any one best practice test provider and tbh if you are willing to put in a bit of money try buying practice tests from acer (imo they were only kind of worth it). i personally used this site called notesedu to get electronic practice papers, it might be useful but again i'm not too sure because hast in yr 7 was like selective but easier, and also notesedu is around 150 bucks so i would consult other ppl that got in more recently to see if its actually relevant. a lot of people that got in more recently suggest icas trial papers too. search the internet for any practice paper sets, a few sites like notesedu offer timed papers and i particularly like those because it helps you understand what types of questions you get wrong. do as many practice papers you can do and try to understand the specific question types you get. sometimes for specific question types, there are ppl on yt like selective coaches that show you techniques on tips on how to do them, so that could be an option. whatever you choose to do, make sure you have access to some sort of practice papers bc they are honestly the most foolproof way to practice for hast and similar tests.
the english or reading comprehension section was always my strongest section and my technique was to always read the question before reading the text. sometimes you dont even need to read the full text bc they ask for something specific like what does this phrase mean in this context so you could probably just read a few sentences and get the answer from there, but for the questions that ask for something broad like what is the overall tone of the text you should skim over the bulk of the text. skills like skimming/reading critically will help you a lot not just in hast but also eng in the hsc. often the only way you can practise these skills is to read a lot, but if you are short on time i would practice reading chunks of texts like newpapers or whatever really fast, just to practise skimming.
good luck!
