La prueba práctica sigue a la preselección.

The subject is la prueba práctica. That is the thing doing the action of sigue.

So the structure is:

• La prueba práctica = subject
• sigue = verb
• a la preselección = what it follows

The verb is sigue because the subject is singular.

Because prueba and preselección are both singular feminine nouns.

• la prueba
• la preselección

In Spanish, articles like el/la/los/las are often used more than in English. English might sometimes say something like Practical test follows preselection in a heading or label, but normal Spanish usually keeps the articles here.

In Spanish, descriptive adjectives usually come after the noun.

So:

• prueba práctica = practical test

This is the normal order. If you put práctica before the noun, it would sound unusual here.

This is very common in Spanish:

• examen final
• clase teórica
• prueba práctica

Here, práctica is an adjective, agreeing with prueba.

• prueba = feminine singular
• práctica = feminine singular adjective

It has to match the noun in gender and number. That is why it is práctica, not práctico.

Compare:

• un examen práctico
• una prueba práctica

Because in this kind of sentence, seguir is commonly used as seguir a + noun when it means to come after or to follow in sequence.

So:

• La prueba práctica sigue a la preselección = the practical test comes after the preselection

This a is not translating English to. It is just part of how Spanish often builds this expression.

A learner may expect no preposition because English says follows the preselection, but Spanish commonly says sigue a la preselección.

No. Here it means comes after in order/stages.

So this is about sequence, not movement.

For example, it is like saying:

• first comes the preselection
• then comes the practical test

So seguir can be used both literally and figuratively, and here it is figurative.

Spanish often uses the present tense for:

• general facts
• procedures
• schedules
• fixed sequences

So sigue here means something like comes next or is followed by as a general rule.

If you wanted a future meaning, you could say:

• La prueba práctica seguirá a la preselección

But the present tense is very natural when describing a process.

Because the stress is on the first syllable: PRÁC-ti-ca.

Without the accent, Spanish stress rules would not give that pronunciation. The accent mark shows clearly where the stress goes.

So:

• práctica = stressed on prác

This is also useful because forms like practica can exist too, but with different stress and meaning in other contexts.

Because the stress falls on the last syllable: pre-se-lec-CIÓN.

Words ending in n, s, or a vowel normally have stress on the second-to-last syllable unless there is an accent mark. Since this word is stressed on the last syllable, it needs the written accent:

• preselección

Also, nouns ending in -ción very often behave this way:

• selección
• información
• admisión

A useful approximation is:

la PRWE-ba PRAK-ti-ka SEE-ge a la pre-se-lek-THYON

A few notes for Spain Spanish:

• prueba starts with a diphthong: prwe-
• g in sigue sounds like a normal hard g
• c before i or e is often pronounced like th in much of Spain, so -ción sounds like -thyon
• In many Latin American accents, that last part would sound more like -syon

So in Spain, preselección is often approximately pre-se-lek-THYON.

Yes. That is a very natural alternative.

Compare:

• La prueba práctica sigue a la preselección = slightly more formal or compact
• La prueba práctica viene después de la preselección = very clear and natural
• Después de la preselección viene la prueba práctica = also natural, with a different emphasis

All of these can work. The original sentence is concise and perfectly correct.

Because nouns ending in -ción are almost always feminine in Spanish.

So you get:

• la preselección
• la selección
• la evaluación
• la inscripción

This is a very useful pattern to remember.

Yes. It is a very common combination, especially in education, exams, driving tests, job selection, and official procedures.

It often contrasts with:

• prueba teórica = theoretical/written test
• prueba práctica = practical test

So this phrase will feel very natural to native speakers.