Year 11 HAST Entry - Penrith (1 Viewer)

[D99]

I'm currently a year 10 student looking to gain entry into Penrith Selective High School in year 11. I've done the HAST exam last year and I did well in everything except english. Last year I bought the Selectivetrial Practice exams and they were pretty good. This year I can't find any official hast papers and i'm looking to gain an idea on what the maths exam will consist of.

Will it have:
- Logarithms
- Non-linear
- Circle Geometry

What are some tips for the english exam?

What is the best practice test provider?

Thanks

 

[iloveeggs]

hi, i got in to a top 50 ish selective school 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!

 

[jane1820]

@D99 hello im applying for selective entry into yr 11 myself and i have the hast sample booklets (both 2019 and 2023); do you think we can exchange our resources? ill give you the hast sample booklets and you can give me the selectivetrial exams (like links or pdfs)?

 

[Dubowewew]

Technically it's not possible to prepare for HAST over a short time as the test is to test your skills that you learned over a longtime, however there are some sample papers that ACER has made for students to familiarise themselves but you can try and increase your abstract reasoning and writing by searching up online as all of the abstract reasoning questions are patterns.

 

[Alpcufd]

Technically it's not possible to prepare for HAST over a short time as the test is to test your skills that you learned over a longtime, however there are some sample papers that ACER has made for students to familiarise themselves but you can try and increase your abstract reasoning and writing by searching up online as all of the abstract reasoning questions are patterns.
[/QUOTE

I'm currently a year 10 student looking to gain entry into Penrith Selective High School in year 11. I've done the HAST exam last year and I did well in everything except english. Last year I bought the Selectivetrial Practice exams and they were pretty good. This year I can't find any official hast papers and i'm looking to gain an idea on what the maths exam will consist of.

Will it have:
- Logarithms
- Non-linear
- Circle Geometry

What are some tips for the english exam?

What is the best practice test provider?

Thanks

Do u still remember the format of the writing exam? Are there two prompts and you can choose from one of these to write in any format?

 

[sillyfunnycritter]

I'm currently a year 10 student looking to gain entry into Penrith Selective High School in year 11. I've done the HAST exam last year and I did well in everything except english. Last year I bought the Selectivetrial Practice exams and they were pretty good. This year I can't find any official hast papers and i'm looking to gain an idea on what the maths exam will consist of.

Will it have:
- Logarithms
- Non-linear
- Circle Geometry

What are some tips for the english exam?

What is the best practice test provider?

Thanks

hey,

i am a transfer to penrith high school this year (year 10) and let me tell you, unless you are already coming from a semi-selective school it isn't really worth it. i passed up girraween because i thought there would be less competition, but at penrith you have to sit exams to qualify for subjects like chemistry, physics, ext 1 math, english.... two people have already left my grade this year because of the qualifying exams and im finding people in my grade on these forums trying to figure out how to transfer to schools like baulko. personally i wouldn't even try and go for girra instead. i know applications just closed but seriously... don't think that penrith isn't competitive just because its low, because the departments pit students against one another to qualify for popular courses. i am actually blacklisted from extension 1 english, chem, physics and potentially ext 1 math its so insane... i literally need to get 100 on my term 3 math exam to even be considered... they don't listen to student protest either, its really not worth the stress. you could probably do better at any comprehensive school doing chem, physics, and both extensions. you have to fight for your courses at penrith, so please keep that explicitly in mind, coz they don't let you know about it until your first day. you will have to be prepared for exams to get your subjects early on.

in regard to your question, when i did my hast last year, i got really high in english because i wrote a creative piece for a stimulus that was meant for an essay. i used the stimuli as a quote and wrote a comedy piece. i think the main thing that will get you good in english is trying to steer away from what people would typically think to do under the pressure.

math is kinda just whatever tbh. if you're good at math, you will get good on it.

idk what the best provider is however coz personally i didn't study for hast bc i was depressed ab flunking my baulko edutest lol

 

[__samuelkim__]

hey,

i am a transfer to penrith high school this year (year 10) and let me tell you, unless you are already coming from a semi-selective school it isn't really worth it. i passed up girraween because i thought there would be less competition, but at penrith you have to sit exams to qualify for subjects like chemistry, physics, ext 1 math, english.... two people have already left my grade this year because of the qualifying exams and im finding people in my grade on these forums trying to figure out how to transfer to schools like baulko. personally i wouldn't even try and go for girra instead. i know applications just closed but seriously... don't think that penrith isn't competitive just because its low, because the departments pit students against one another to qualify for popular courses. i am actually blacklisted from extension 1 english, chem, physics and potentially ext 1 math its so insane... i literally need to get 100 on my term 3 math exam to even be considered... they don't listen to student protest either, its really not worth the stress. you could probably do better at any comprehensive school doing chem, physics, and both extensions. you have to fight for your courses at penrith, so please keep that explicitly in mind, coz they don't let you know about it until your first day. you will have to be prepared for exams to get your subjects early on.

in regard to your question, when i did my hast last year, i got really high in english because i wrote a creative piece for a stimulus that was meant for an essay. i used the stimuli as a quote and wrote a comedy piece. i think the main thing that will get you good in english is trying to steer away from what people would typically think to do under the pressure.

math is kinda just whatever tbh. if you're good at math, you will get good on it.

idk what the best provider is however coz personally i didn't study for hast bc i was depressed ab flunking my baulko edutest lol

wow, genuinely i had a very similar experience to you except i went to another selective school. i graduated alr and got the worst atar you could ever imagine like 30 points lower than what i could have gotten if i stayed at my old school. tranferring to a selective school genuinely ruined my hsc life. very depressing 3 years for me.

 

[sillyfunnycritter]

Do you remember what the stimulus was?

sorry i didn't reply until after the hast. it was "harmless gossip doesn't exist. do you agree?" very weird one lol

 

[jebemman]

Why would you want to go to penrith

Ya school is ranked 142 gronk