Selection to programmes for gifted students in Israel, performed in the second grade, relies on raw ability and achievement test scores, irrespective of age, thereby ignoring the well-known effect of within-grade age differences on test scores. Employing the entire cohort of third graders of legal age (67,366 students, 1.4% of whom were enrolled in a gifted programme) in 2011, this study examined the relationship between chronological age and the probability of acceptance to programmes for the gifted in Israel. The results reveal an almost perfect correlation between chronological age and the probability of being selected for a gifted programme (r[superscript 2] = 0.92): older students have approximately 3.5 times greater chance of acceptance than younger students. Reliance on raw ability and achievement test scores, unadjusted for age, in selection to gifted students programmes is thus shown to be biased in favour of older students and to unintentionally discriminate against younger students.