• Congratulations to the Class of 2024 on your results!
    Let us know how you went here
    Got a question about your uni preferences? Ask us here

Partial Selective High School - and HAST test materials (1 Viewer)

athh

New Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2024
Messages
18
Gender
Female
HSC
N/A
Hello,
Can you please advise how the environment in partial Selective school? Is the pressure in selective class there as the same as fully selective school?
Also I am after some HAST materials and tips.
Thank you.
 
Joined
Sep 11, 2023
Messages
474
Location
Here n There
Gender
Male
HSC
2026
Hello,
Can you please advise how the environment in partial Selective school? Is the pressure in selective class there as the same as fully selective school?
Also I am after some HAST materials and tips.
Thank you.
As someone who has been in both fully and partially selective schooling, I would have to heavily recommend fully selective.
For partially selective classes, you have to remember you're being given the same teachers as the public students, just being taught at an advanced rate - this by no means indicates that the standard of teaching is good. In my experience, it was far from it. There is far less pressure, but to the point where students are hardly encouraged to push themselves - it's an endless hypocritical loop of, "you're the selective class, you guys don't need to put in effort" which goes right back to "you should be pushing yourselves harder than the other classes" in the same breath. It is not a good environment. Not only that, but it's not even carried through to HSC - there is literally no point.
Maybe I do have some personal grievances regarding partially selective schools but... That is my experience.

Tell me your Email. I have HAST resources.
 

athh

New Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2024
Messages
18
Gender
Female
HSC
N/A
As someone who has been in both fully and partially selective schooling, I would have to heavily recommend fully selective.
For partially selective classes, you have to remember you're being given the same teachers as the public students, just being taught at an advanced rate - this by no means indicates that the standard of teaching is good. In my experience, it was far from it. There is far less pressure, but to the point where students are hardly encouraged to push themselves - it's an endless hypocritical loop of, "you're the selective class, you guys don't need to put in effort" which goes right back to "you should be pushing yourselves harder than the other classes" in the same breath. It is not a good environment. Not only that, but it's not even carried through to HSC - there is literally no point.
Maybe I do have some personal grievances regarding partially selective schools but... That is my experience.

Tell me your Email. I have HAST resources.
Thank you I have PM you the email address. Since which year you switch from Partial to Fully selective? was the exam hard? How many candidates for how many spots?
 

iloveeggs

future cat lady <3
Joined
Aug 1, 2023
Messages
861
Gender
Female
HSC
2025
yup ive also been in both partially selective and fully selective and schools and im very inclined to say partially selective schooling and gifted and talented is not nearly as beneficial as selective schools. in my personal opinion if you are in a partially selective school you should give it some serious thought to move to a fully selective school while you can. hear me out

btw this is not to shit on partially slective or gnt schools im just talking abt them in comparison to selective.

ppl want to go to selective schools bc they are higher ranked and have better outcomes for students doing the hsc and this is true. but people often go partially selective or gifted and talented streams bc they didn't get into selective and its better than nothing. yes it might be better than nothing but that doesn't mean its good by any means.

a few reasons why:
  • partially selective/gnt streams merge into the comprehensive stream after y10 or y11. i can't think of any concrete reason how its different from going to a comprehensive school the whole time
  • rankings are often low, cohorts are often not that strong - you dont get the same benefit as going to a fully selective school. the reason is mainly bc in y12 in the hsc, even the actual selective and gnt cohort themselves perform very poorly, often happens bc a lot of y12 students drop out and most of the selective and gnt kids leave for better schools leaving a weaker cohort as a whole
  • the partially selective school i went to forced us to do an extracurricular in y7 that would take up a bunch of time outside of school hours and justify it as being part of stem learning or some shit. a lot of them they try to build up their image through their selective students and push for them to take part in a lot of extracurricular programs and competitions etc. i find that schools that pride themselves off their students extracurriculars and build their whole reputation and personality around it are overcompensating for smth that they are missing. in my old school it was definitely the quality of education we got leading to pretty poor results
  • like i mentioned, poor quality of education. a lot of these schools are just comprehensive schools but they just push selective harder to succeed except they didnt have the means/resources to help them succeed
  • yes selective schools do give you more academic pressure but this kind of an environment pushes people to succeed. this is as opposed to partially selective and gifted and talented streams where they expect you to be low maintenance - the teachers are often more detached and expect you to self study a bit. you'll get taught harder content but probably will get less support from teachers to learn it
  • it will be harder to get a high atar in partially selective high schools as opposed to selective high schools bc of generally lower rankings and weaker cohorts and lower band 6 rates

in case you didnt read all that, in my humble opinion going to a partially selective stream is the same thing as going into a comprehensive high school ranked in the 100-200 range in terms of quality of education and hsc outcomes except it sounds more prestigious

if you are in the selective stream in a partially selective i guarantee you there is some selective school out there that will take you if you have decent ish grades and get through hast, especially if you apply when you are in year 7,8,9

i have no solid advice for school marks bc i wrote it when i was in y7 and got in first try from a roughly 150 ranked school to a top 50 school. i have no advice for marks or anything bc they solely based my year's selections off the hast bc i was in y7 in 2020 when lockdown first hit

for hast i spammed papers off a site called noteedu but i did it a long time ago so you should ask someone else abt it
 

coolcat6778

Active Member
Joined
Jun 9, 2024
Messages
106
Gender
Male
HSC
2025
As someone who has been in both fully and partially selective schooling, I would have to heavily recommend fully selective.
For partially selective classes, you have to remember you're being given the same teachers as the public students, just being taught at an advanced rate - this by no means indicates that the standard of teaching is good. In my experience, it was far from it. There is far less pressure, but to the point where students are hardly encouraged to push themselves - it's an endless hypocritical loop of, "you're the selective class, you guys don't need to put in effort" which goes right back to "you should be pushing yourselves harder than the other classes" in the same breath. It is not a good environment. Not only that, but it's not even carried through to HSC - there is literally no point.
Maybe I do have some personal grievances regarding partially selective schools but... That is my experience.

Tell me your Email. I have HAST resources.
My brother in christ, the HSC is fricking standardised. tfym "harder content". It's all about the individual effort. Even if you manage to get in, if you're fucking retarded and do only humanities subjects, don't expect to get a higher atar than someone who did extension 2 math with band 6 in most subjects in a normal school.
 

spiderfan44

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2024
Messages
1,016
Gender
Female
HSC
2024
My brother in christ, the HSC is fricking standardised. tfym "harder content". It's all about the individual effort. Even if you manage to get in, if you're fucking retarded and do only humanities subjects, don't expect to get a higher atar than someone who did extension 2 math with band 6 in most subjects in a normal school.
assessment moderation dipshit
 

coolcat6778

Active Member
Joined
Jun 9, 2024
Messages
106
Gender
Male
HSC
2025
assessment moderation dipshit
And? If you're top you will take the top marks, which was 99 and 97 in trials. Even the retards wont affect you cause its an average of the top two marks
 
Last edited:

spiderfan44

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2024
Messages
1,016
Gender
Female
HSC
2024
And? If you're top you will take the top marks, which was 99 and 97 in trials. Even the retards wont affect you cause its an average of the top two marks
if you rank 1st in the assessment, your assessment is given the 1st ranked hsc mark in your class, youre not given the top two marks unless your assessment mark is tied
 

iloveeggs

future cat lady <3
Joined
Aug 1, 2023
Messages
861
Gender
Female
HSC
2025
My brother in christ, the HSC is fricking standardised. tfym "harder content". It's all about the individual effort. Even if you manage to get in, if you're fucking retarded and do only humanities subjects, don't expect to get a higher atar than someone who did extension 2 math with band 6 in most subjects in a normal school.
i think what they mean is that fully selective schools in general get harder internal tasks or even in junior years their exams are harder. if you've ever been in a comprehensive or partially selective school you'll know how easy the tests can be in comparison to a selective school exam. when moving to a fully selective school in y8 from a partially selective in y7 i would have been failing if i didn't go to tuition i didnt go to tuition bc they were doing geometry proving, trig, basic polynomials already. also in my current school they taught us the parts of the prelim modules for chem and physics in y10 itself so we would be prepared for y11. for people in schools with easier exams in junior grades they will find y11 and y12 significantly harder.

also its not as simple as doing well as an individual. if im in a selective school and im like 3rd its not the end of the world bc ik my cohort will carry me and ik being 3rd internal probs will mean ill band 6. but if i go to a school ranked low being 3rd internally might not translate across to getting a band 6. its so much harder to get get a high atar in a low ranked school as opposed to a selective school. lots of factors like resources, teachers, funding to the school, low band 6 rate overall, not being able to afford material like textbook q's etc.

also yeah i agree humanities scale shit but only if you do shit in them. once you start getting a raw b6 in pretty much any subject it doesnt scale that bad. there are a few humanities that still scale down a bit but the diff between a 94 and a 95 hsc mark once scaled is not that deep for your atar ngl. since you're talking about selective schools, there are ppl that have graduated from my school with 95+ atars with mid 2u maths marks (maths didnt count towards atar bc it was their worst unit) and full on humanities and english ext. it does happen in selective schools bc they band 6'd everything and state ranked for a subject.

i also dont think you should chat shit about people doing only humanities subjects bc you're not writing their hsc for them. let them live and do whatever, and if you think they are going to flop, let them. keep your opinions to yourself
 

spiderfan44

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2024
Messages
1,016
Gender
Female
HSC
2024
i think what they mean is that fully selective schools in general get harder internal tasks or even in junior years their exams are harder. if you've ever been in a comprehensive or partially selective school you'll know how easy the tests can be in comparison to a selective school exam. when moving to a fully selective school in y8 from a partially selective in y7 i would have been failing if i didn't go to tuition i didnt go to tuition bc they were doing geometry proving, trig, basic polynomials already. also in my current school they taught us the parts of the prelim modules for chem and physics in y10 itself so we would be prepared for y11. for people in schools with easier exams in junior grades they will find y11 and y12 significantly harder.

also its not as simple as doing well as an individual. if im in a selective school and im like 3rd its not the end of the world bc ik my cohort will carry me and ik being 3rd internal probs will mean ill band 6. but if i go to a school ranked low being 3rd internally might not translate across to getting a band 6. its so much harder to get get a high atar in a low ranked school as opposed to a selective school. lots of factors like resources, teachers, funding to the school, low band 6 rate overall, not being able to afford material like textbook q's etc.

also yeah i agree humanities scale shit but only if you do shit in them. once you start getting a raw b6 in pretty much any subject it doesnt scale that bad. there are a few humanities that still scale down a bit but the diff between a 94 and a 95 hsc mark once scaled is not that deep for your atar ngl. since you're talking about selective schools, there are ppl that have graduated from my school with 95+ atars with mid 2u maths marks (maths didnt count towards atar bc it was their worst unit) and full on humanities and english ext. it does happen in selective schools bc they band 6'd everything and state ranked for a subject.

i also dont think you should chat shit about people doing only humanities subjects bc you're not writing their hsc for them. let them live and do whatever, and if you think they are going to flop, let them. keep your opinions to yourself
people do trial papers from the more prestigious selective schools for a reason. had a 10 mark difference between selective trial papers and my own schools trial papers
 

iloveeggs

future cat lady <3
Joined
Aug 1, 2023
Messages
861
Gender
Female
HSC
2025
people do trial papers from the more prestigious selective schools for a reason. had a 10 mark difference between selective trial papers and my own schools trial papers
exactly, and ill also see a gap in marks if i do nsb/ruse papers
 

coolcat6778

Active Member
Joined
Jun 9, 2024
Messages
106
Gender
Male
HSC
2025
people do trial papers from the more prestigious selective schools for a reason. had a 10 mark difference between selective trial papers and my own schools trial papers
I do them from them too. They are the same difficulty if your school buys trial papers from a good provider. Also all the selective papers are easier than hsc.
 

iloveeggs

future cat lady <3
Joined
Aug 1, 2023
Messages
861
Gender
Female
HSC
2025
I do them from them too. They are the same difficulty if your school buys trial papers from a good provider. Also all the selective papers are easier than hsc.
are you actually in y12 doing internals?? bc generally selective trials papers are not easier than the hsc, they are often harder. literally anyone that is in y12 will tell you trials in general are modelled to be harder than hsc and often people score above their trial mark in the actual hsc

sorry to say, but i think youre genuinely talking out of your ass
 

iloveeggs

future cat lady <3
Joined
Aug 1, 2023
Messages
861
Gender
Female
HSC
2025
I do them from them too. They are the same difficulty if your school buys trial papers from a good provider.
also top selective schools dont buy papers and they dont look like bought papers either.

let me clarify, they are a bit harder than cssa bc the school intentionally designs them to be hard for their kids. like picking out what that school's students struggle with. at least ik my school does that for maths adv
 

spiderfan44

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2024
Messages
1,016
Gender
Female
HSC
2024
I do them from them too. They are the same difficulty if your school buys trial papers from a good provider. Also all the selective papers are easier than hsc.
my school writes their own papers, we dont do cssa. also youre in year 11 why the fuck are you doing trial papers?
 

spiderfan44

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2024
Messages
1,016
Gender
Female
HSC
2024
also what are you on about selective papers being easier than hsc. trials are almost always harder than hsc
 

Average Boreduser

Rising Renewal
Joined
Jun 28, 2022
Messages
3,207
Location
Somewhere
Gender
Female
HSC
2026
trials are almost always harder than hsc
? untrue. For at least the context of E1 and E2 maths... Q14s notoriously get extremely hard. The trials for most selectives are relatively average all in all discluding maybe jrahs or nsb (2022 was really fked). The HSC brings in the newer trends. Trials replicate and therefore render them the 'easier' exams.
 

fesi2w3

Member
Joined
Aug 29, 2024
Messages
36
Location
If I don't get a 99+ it's over for everyone
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2025
Hello,
Can you please advise how the environment in partial Selective school? Is the pressure in selective class there as the same as fully selective school?
Also I am after some HAST materials and tips.
Thank you.
Just adding my 2-cents as a student at a partially-selective school (unfortunately), if I could turn back time I would've never let my mother pressure me into going to a closer partially-selective school. Not sure how it is for others, but here the student cohort is unbearably and freakishly divided into two factions (like it's not that serious, we're all losers going to the same trashy high school) all the time. Not worth it. And education-wise, it's probably not worth it either. Go fully selective.
 

iloveeggs

future cat lady <3
Joined
Aug 1, 2023
Messages
861
Gender
Female
HSC
2025
hey i hope ppl dont misinterpret what i said in this thread. i tried to be careful with my words but yeah

its tough to cope in a partially-selective school so if you have the option. move, but if not you can still do well. partially selective schools are not bottom of the barrel in terms of academic and social conditions, there are worse places to be but yeah
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top