ACER CSTP scholarship, how does it work? (1 Viewer)

[oasfree]

Many expensive private schools offer academic scholarships via this ACER testing program. How does it work? I notice that they have 2 writing, 1 reading and 1 maths. Does that mean it favours English to the extreme? Do tehy just add the scores or they have a formula to work out the profile mark or they just leave it to the schools to make sense of the raw marks?

Anyway, the result for this year is out. Any one knows if MLC School Sydney has contacted parents? What I mean is if they have, those who did not get a call would have missed out.

BTW, many tutoring places offering coaching for both selective school tests and private school scholarships. Do they really mean it (know how to coach for scholarships) or it's just general coaching?

 

[MetroMattums]

I don't believe ACER is known for divulging their secrets.. I think all you can get is from their website

ACER | CSTP - Overview

 

[hermand]

i got a scholarship and my writing skills are horrific. i was top percentile in the test for everything but writing and top 10-20% or something for writing. so make of that what you will.

scholarships are supposed to be for kids who are intelligent, not kids who can be coached into circling the right bubble because they've seen that many past papers.

on that note though, do acer even release past papers?

i don't know if tutoring skills can help THAT much. if you're borderline, maybe, otherwise, no.

/slightly disjointed rant.

 

[oasfree]

i got a scholarship and my writing skills are horrific. i was top percentile in the test for everything but writing and top 10-20% or something for writing. so make of that what you will.

Did you get full scholarship or one of the 25%, 50% or 75%? Did you get it from one of the most expensive schools in Sydney? The 25% one is fishy. When a school is not getting enough enrolment it may decide to offer a lot of 25% discount anyway. Also the so so schools' offer is not hard to get. Only the very expensive schools' scolarships (over 20K/year) are very hard to get.

While ACER never releases past papers, but they sell practice papers! This is what I don't like. When people apply, they are taken to the page where they can order a ton of practice papers. In a way, you can do this and use the practice papers to prepare for selective school tests too (if you can trust the quality of them). And ACER is also the organisation that has the contract to prepare selective and OC tests for the NSW government! And many big coaching colleges also claimed they hired ACER to prepare their trial tests for OC/Selective schools! All this makes it impossible for decide.

Anyway, I just wonder. A bunch of OC class kids (from English speaking background and some from NESB) I knew went for this a couple of months ago. The Aussie ones are very good at English (a little soft on maths). I thought they would get something but it did not happen. Therefore I wonder that kids must be really good in maths, English and GA would get the full scholarships. The GA component is built into the maths and English reading tests. The two creative writing pieces are separate.

Anyway, I know one kid who got a full scholarship at a very expensive school. In a few weeks I will be able to compare the selective school profile score with the ACER scholarship score percentile to see how they match. People say that kids who get full scholarships at these (over 20K/year) schools are very good. The fact that a bunch of tough OC kids did not get anything seems to confirm this. I wonder how good is good enough for a full scholarship. Some one told me that even a kid who got in James Ruse could only get a 50% scholarship a few years ago.

 

[hermand]

um, yeah, i went to a private school in rose bay and got a full one. thanks. my school only gave one scholarship at the time i got it.

i was in oc, got into selective high and shiz, without coaching whatsoever. it's all supposed to be for people who are intelligent. if you can't get in then you can't get in. end of story.