Choosing schools for OC (opportunity class) test application - NSW (1 Viewer)

[HSP1]

Hi.. I am seeking some advice from students who went through Opportunity Class selection in recent times. Since there are only two schools to be chosen in the application form, it's a bit confusing and high-risk task given that we don't know the usual acceptance rate for each of the reputed schools. I can safely assume that the top 3 schools would be the most selective in terms of applications vs seats available ratio, but not necessary that the same amount of students applied for them in the first place, since the location of the school, population density of the region, etc may play a role too. This all is sort of a black box since we don't get info/ data anywhere. I have the following questions - your thoughts and advice will be highly appreciated.

1) How should we confidently assess the performance of the kid in order to choose the appropriate schools? Is the scoring/ rank in pre-uni leaderboard (that covers all centres) a good indicator at all? Given how many students show a very 'similar' performance in tests and also volatile scoring across the tests, it makes it a bit difficult to evaluate this and choose two right schools confidently for the application form where there are good chances of admission.

2) Do OC schools (let's say top 8 to 10 of Sydney) have any differences among them, as in pros and cons? There's not much info available online to compare schools from the OC perspective; I haven't found any forums either.

3) OC schools are small in numbers - how do kids usually manage traveling when their school is far from home (which would be the case for most families anyway)? Daily pick up and drop may not be practical for working parents since it would go on for two years, not a very short period really.

 

[eternallyboreduser]

Hi.. I am seeking some advice from students who went through Opportunity Class selection in recent times. Since there are only two schools to be chosen in the application form, it's a bit confusing and high-risk task given that we don't know the usual selection rate for each of the reputed schools. I can safely assume that the top 3 schools would be the most selective in terms of applications vs seats available ratio, but not necessarily the same amount of kids students for those in the first place as the location of the school, population density of the region, etc may play a role too. I have the following questions - your thoughts and advice will be highly appreciated.

1) How should we confidently judge the performance of the kid in order to choose the appropriate school? If the scoring/ rank in pre-uni leaderboard (that covers all centres) is a good indicator at all? Given how many students show a very 'similar' performance in tests and also volatile scores across the tests make it a bit difficult to evaluate this and choose two school confidently to apply for.

2) Do OC schools (let's say top 8 to 10 of Sydney) have any differences among them, as in pros and cons? There's not much info available online to compare schools from the OC perspective; I haven't found any forums.

3) OC schools are small in numbers - how do kids usually manage traveling when their school is far from home (which would be the case for most families anyway)? Daily pick up and drop may not be practical for working parents since it would go on for two years, not a very short period really.

I can answer Q3 for you now. I made it to an OC but it was my second choice (missed out on first choice by 2 points) but didn’t go as the only form of getting there was bus which my parents didn’t allow. So i just ended up staying at my original school and didn’t go to an OC class lol. But I do see some primary kids taking train to their school (which is usually very uncommon). But either way going to an OC school does not matter much, it’s going to a selective school that is much more important. There are JR kids who did not go to OC schools.

What area are you in? There’s no need to go to an extremely high cut off OC school like Matthew Pearce if you live somewhere like South west Sydney. Travelling long distances for selective schools is quite common (which I do), however doing that for primary schools is not seen as much. Just apply for the OC school in your area, it doesn’t make much of a difference since it’s only primary. It’s not like it has any effect on your ATAR (which your HS does - slightly).

 

[eternallyboreduser]

Hi.. I am seeking some advice from students who went through Opportunity Class selection in recent times. Since there are only two schools to be chosen in the application form, it's a bit confusing and high-risk task given that we don't know the usual selection rate for each of the reputed schools. I can safely assume that the top 3 schools would be the most selective in terms of applications vs seats available ratio, but not necessary that the same amount of students applied for them in the first place, since the location of the school, population density of the region, etc may play a role too. This all is sort of a black box since we don't get info/ data anywhere. I have the following questions - your thoughts and advice will be highly appreciated.

1) How should we confidently assess the performance of the kid in order to choose the appropriate schools? Is the scoring/ rank in pre-uni leaderboard (that covers all centres) is a good indicator at all? Given how many students show a very 'similar' performance in tests and also volatile scoring across the tests, makes it a bit difficult to evaluate this and choose two right schools confidently for the application form where there are good chances of admission.

2) Do OC schools (let's say top 8 to 10 of Sydney) have any differences among them, as in pros and cons? There's not much info available online to compare schools from the OC perspective; I haven't found any forums either.

3) OC schools are small in numbers - how do kids usually manage traveling when their school is far from home (which would be the case for most families anyway)? Daily pick up and drop may not be practical for working parents since it would go on for two years, not a very short period really.

Answer to Q1:
A lot of students go to Pre-Uni for OC prep and it is very good so I would say the rankings are somewhat accurate of their performance in the actual exam. I did not go to Pre Uni so I’m not entirely sure but I believe that it is more difficult than the actual test. Just put down the schools within your area (or however far you’re willing to travel) that you believe is within their reach. Don’t bother putting schools that have way too high requirements if they are too far to get to (and you won’t end up going) or you believe is extremely unlikely for them to gain acceptance - it is a waste of a choice.

 

[HSP1]

What area are you in? There’s no need to go to an extremely high cut off OC school like Matthew Pearce if you live somewhere like South west Sydney. Travelling long distances for selective schools is quite common (which I do), however doing that for primary schools is not seen as much. Just apply for the OC school in your area, it doesn’t make much of a difference since it’s only primary.

We are in Cheltenham/ Beecroft. The nearest two schools (Beecroft and North Rocks) seem to be very competitive from the basic info that's available from the past - I still don't know how many kids usually choose those schools in their applications but just going by the marks required historically. Apart from these, the nearest other schools would be Artarmon, Waitara, Dural, and Ryde though all of them are quite far. While I would love to opt for the local school, it may be super competitive and I would unnecessarily lose one choice straight away among only two possible in the form - if you know what I mean. Hence, I am not sure which schools to choose for. Any insights on which of these could be a better choice? - Artarmon, Waitara, Dural, and Ryde.

 

[eternallyboreduser]

Hi.. I am seeking some advice from students who went through Opportunity Class selection in recent times. Since there are only two schools to be chosen in the application form, it's a bit confusing and high-risk task given that we don't know the usual selection rate for each of the reputed schools. I can safely assume that the top 3 schools would be the most selective in terms of applications vs seats available ratio, but not necessary that the same amount of students applied for them in the first place, since the location of the school, population density of the region, etc may play a role too. This all is sort of a black box since we don't get info/ data anywhere. I have the following questions - your thoughts and advice will be highly appreciated.

1) How should we confidently assess the performance of the kid in order to choose the appropriate schools? Is the scoring/ rank in pre-uni leaderboard (that covers all centres) is a good indicator at all? Given how many students show a very 'similar' performance in tests and also volatile scoring across the tests, makes it a bit difficult to evaluate this and choose two right schools confidently for the application form where there are good chances of admission.

2) Do OC schools (let's say top 8 to 10 of Sydney) have any differences among them, as in pros and cons? There's not much info available online to compare schools from the OC perspective; I haven't found any forums either.

3) OC schools are small in numbers - how do kids usually manage traveling when their school is far from home (which would be the case for most families anyway)? Daily pick up and drop may not be practical for working parents since it would go on for two years, not a very short period really.

Q2:

I don’t think there’s much of a difference in primary school teaching tbh.

 

[eternallyboreduser]

We are in Cheltenham/ Beecroft. The nearest two schools (Beecroft and North Rocks) seems to be very competitive from the basic info that's available from the past - I still don't know how many kids usually choose those schools but just going by the marks required historically. Apart from these, the nearest other schools would be Artarmon, Waitara, Dural, and Ryde though all of them are quite far. While I would love to opt for the local school, it may be super competitive and I would unnecessarily lose one choice straight away among only two possible in the form - if you know what I mean. Hence, I am not sure which schools to choose for. Any insights on which of these could be a better choice? - Artarmon, Waitara, Dural, and Ryde.

Just put down the two closest schools. Even if you put Artarmon or something like that there’s no point if you don’t end up going, so you might as well take your chances with the higher ranked ones.

Are they doing well at Pre-Uni? If they are consistently on the top of the ranks then they have a good shot.

 

[HSP1]

Are they doing well at Pre-Uni? If they are consistently on the top of the ranks then they have a good shot.

While the kid is doing well, consistency is very subjective when a very few wrong answers can make you slide 50 ranks down or even more and as many right answers can put you above that many people drastically. They have been among top 10% to 15% fairly regularly (i.e. among top 150 in 1000 students or among top 75 in 500 students depending on the cohort size per term). Now, at times they have been in top 5% (top 50 among 1000) and many times between 10% to 15% too. It's just a matter of getting three or four more questions right or wrong, which will make this difference. Having said that, I am sure there will be multiple students at each rank/ mark and I assume that they all would have the same rank (or they are ranked based on alphabetical order of their names, which would be silly - I don't think this would be the case).

 

[HSP1]

Just put down the two closest schools. Even if you put Artarmon or something like that there’s no point if you don’t end up going, so you might as well take your chances with the higher ranked ones.

Interestingly, I am planning to rent so I do have flexibility to move but given how rental market is at the moment, it looks like impossible to look for a new place any time in near future. Vacancy rate is extremely low.

 

[yolo tengo]

Hi.. I am seeking some advice from students who went through Opportunity Class selection in recent times. Since there are only two schools to be chosen in the application form, it's a bit confusing and high-risk task given that we don't know the usual acceptance rate for each of the reputed schools. I can safely assume that the top 3 schools would be the most selective in terms of applications vs seats available ratio, but not necessary that the same amount of students applied for them in the first place, since the location of the school, population density of the region, etc may play a role too. This all is sort of a black box since we don't get info/ data anywhere. I have the following questions - your thoughts and advice will be highly appreciated.

1) How should we confidently assess the performance of the kid in order to choose the appropriate schools? Is the scoring/ rank in pre-uni leaderboard (that covers all centres) a good indicator at all? Given how many students show a very 'similar' performance in tests and also volatile scoring across the tests, it makes it a bit difficult to evaluate this and choose two right schools confidently for the application form where there are good chances of admission.

2) Do OC schools (let's say top 8 to 10 of Sydney) have any differences among them, as in pros and cons? There's not much info available online to compare schools from the OC perspective; I haven't found any forums either.

3) OC schools are small in numbers - how do kids usually manage traveling when their school is far from home (which would be the case for most families anyway)? Daily pick up and drop may not be practical for working parents since it would go on for two years, not a very short period really.

hi! i did not do OC but i have a sibling who does OC so i’ll be happy to answer some questions.

1. if i can recall, you are only allowed to choose 2 schools for this program (correct me if i am wrong), OC is a very very competitive test and it’s pretty hard to be honest. what my parents did was, they picked a high ranking school as the top choice and a slightly mid ranking school, incase my sibling didn’t get into the first priority. i consider this as a gamble, since no matter how good the student may be, they can still make a blunder in the test. based on what your student/kid is performing at, it’s up to you to choose the school.

2. yes, OC schools tend to differ based on the environment. the top ranking OC school will have more resources and they teach at a higher difficulty to cater for the students since they are in an academically challenged environment, whilst the middle ranking OC school tend to cater to the students differently.

3. my sibling travels with the students from their OC class, and it is pretty safe i must say. although it does take an hour and a half to get home, it is still worth it because they’re getting academically challenged in the environment and plus, they have like-minded students alongside with them.

hope this helped

 

[yolo tengo]

While the kid is doing well, consistency is very subjective when a very few wrong answers can make you slide 50 ranks down or even more and as many right answers can put you above that many people drastically. They have been among top 10% to 15% fairly regularly (i.e. among top 150 in 1000 students or among top 75 in 500 students depending on the cohort size per term). Now, at times they have been in top 5% (top 50 among 1000) and many times between 10% to 15% too. It's just a matter of getting three or four more questions right or wrong, which will make this difference. Having said that, I am sure there will be multiple students at each rank/ mark and I assume that they all would have the same rank (or they are ranked based on alphabetical order of their names, which would be silly - I don't think this would be the case).

also, their rank at tuition does not matter at all, my sibling didn’t do tutoring for OC at all and basically self studied and still got into their desired school.

 

[idkkdi]

We are in Cheltenham/ Beecroft. The nearest two schools (Beecroft and North Rocks) seem to be very competitive from the basic info that's available from the past - I still don't know how many kids usually choose those schools in their applications but just going by the marks required historically. Apart from these, the nearest other schools would be Artarmon, Waitara, Dural, and Ryde though all of them are quite far. While I would love to opt for the local school, it may be super competitive and I would unnecessarily lose one choice straight away among only two possible in the form - if you know what I mean. Hence, I am not sure which schools to choose for. Any insights on which of these could be a better choice? - Artarmon, Waitara, Dural, and Ryde.

artarmon should be a tier above the other 3 in terms of how hard to get in. well that was how it was back when I did OC

 

[HSP1]

artarmon should be a tier above the other 3 in terms of how hard to get in. well that was how it was back when I did OC

Interesting.. As per the last few years' entry marks (they stopped giving out marks from 2022), Dural seems to at top among those four.

 

[HSP1]

also, their rank at tuition does not matter at all, my sibling didn’t do tutoring for OC at all and basically self studied and still got into their desired school.

Totally.. I don't have any other base to assess the performance, hence. I agree that performance can be very different in the actual test based on multiple factors.

 

[synthesisFR]

While the kid is doing well, consistency is very subjective when a very few wrong answers can make you slide 50 ranks down or even more and as many right answers can put you above that many people drastically. They have been among top 10% to 15% fairly regularly (i.e. among top 150 in 1000 students or among top 75 in 500 students depending on the cohort size per term). Now, at times they have been in top 5% (top 50 among 1000) and many times between 10% to 15% too. It's just a matter of getting three or four more questions right or wrong, which will make this difference. Having said that, I am sure there will be multiple students at each rank/ mark and I assume that they all would have the same rank (or they are ranked based on alphabetical order of their names, which would be silly - I don't think this would be the case).

Nah mate that’s not good enough, it pathetic
My siblings have always gotten top 1% and I myself have always gotten 0.1%
But I attended not to go cuz primary school is more fun get a life

 

[Eagle Mum]

We are in Cheltenham/ Beecroft. The nearest two schools (Beecroft and North Rocks) seem to be very competitive from the basic info that's available from the past

I’m not trying to elicit identifying info, but is your child already at Beecroft Public?
Beecroft Public ranked third overall in the last NAPLAN (https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw...e-s-top-schools-revealed-20230222-p5cmls.html). That sort of result suggests that students in their mainstream classes also perform well, since OC students, by themselves, in any school can’t pull rankings up by that much. If I were in your position as a parent, I would seriously consider Beecroft Public mainstream class if it was a short commute, to an OC class anywhere that has a long commute.

 

[HSP1]

Nah mate that’s not good enough, it pathetic
My siblings have always gotten top 1% and I myself have always gotten 0.1%
But I attended not to go cuz primary school is more fun get a life

It seems there's some misunderstanding there. 1% among 1000 is top 10 rank and 0.1% among 1000 is the first rank. Both of these are next to impossible to maintain consistently across every test. Even 50th rank is hard to maintain every single time, leave alone 1st rank. Something is not right in your comment it seems. If you did it, good on ya. That's great.

 

[HSP1]

I’m not trying to elicit identifying info, but is your child already at Beecroft Public?
Beecroft Public ranked third overall in the last NAPLAN. That sort of result suggests that students in their mainstream classes also perform well, since OC students, by themselves, in any school can’t pull rankings up by that much. If I were in your position as a parent, I would seriously consider Beecroft Public mainstream class if it was a short commute, to an OC class anywhere that has a long commute.

Thanks. Not exactly the same school but most public schools in this area are decent if one was to go by NAPLAN scores. However, in my experience the regular teaching quality isn't always that great if you ask me. It's a hit and miss since it totally depends on a teacher. Also, classes are mix of students of all levels so the teaching is usually too slow and low level for some students in the class, obviously.

What brings year 5 NAPLAN up of the OC schools could be the OC class performance to some extent. I am not even bothered about NAPLAN scores of the schools knowing that schools are generally good, but the learning is extremely easy and slow in a regular class which sometimes may feel like waste of time. For example, year 4 kids keep learning the same stuff which most above average year 3 kids would know already; you know what I mean. Also, there's no dedicated class or homework for advanced kids or anything - I guess it depends on individual teachers.

 

[synthesisFR]

It seems there's some misunderstanding there. 1% among 1000 is top 10 rank and 0.1% among 1000 is the first rank. Both of these are next to impossible to maintain consistently across every test. Even 50th rank is hard to maintain every single time, leave alone 1st rank. Something is not right in your comment it seems. If you did it, good on ya. That's great.

Shut up and let ur kid have a life
Ur raising them like robots

 

[HSP1]

Shut up and let ur kid have a life
Ur raising them like robots

Wow! You were too quick to judge without knowing how the kid is being raised. Thanks for advice though. I will stop arguing here.

 

[synthesisFR]

i just like arguing mb