Past schooling and applying to selective schools (1 Viewer)

[Akuri]

I want to apply to Hurlstone and James Ruse in June 2019, but it seems their applications for year 11 are focused on the last two calendar years.

I was incredibly depressed during this time, and my schoolwork was atrocious. I didn’t even touch my naplan for year 9 in 2018.

I’m still affected by this, however, I’ve been working hard to get into these schools since September. I know that sounds like a short time, but it’s the longest I’ve been motivated school-wise for my entire education.

Since this is my last year to apply, I at least want to try, since last time I took a selective test I didn’t study at ALL and got into a school ( not the best one, but I was still surprised ).

Is it worth applying, or do these two schools go strictly off of past work for students looking to go into year 11? I've never been so motivated to get into a school before, even if I don’t get accepted, I still want to submit something, but if my current work has no relevance when compared to my years of passive schooling, I don’t want to embaress myself by applying.

 

[c8]

hello! i was in a similar situation to you this year, i had terrible reports and faced the lowest point of my entire school years and it really made me rethink what i was doing and made me want to move schools to better my education so i would say that i was in a similar situation as you.

since you said that you began working harder in september i assume your 2018 yearly report was at least a bit better than previous reports where you may have done poorly due to depression. if you apply even greater dedication in your 2019 half yearly report and get it in time for the next application window, you can write a letter explaining to them that you had a big revelation and have the ability to improve even further. i did this and managed to get into a pretty good school.

since you are applying to hurstone and ruse, you will need to do a test first and you need to make sure that you do very well in these tests. there is quite a bit of information about applying and all the steps in years 8-11 on this website however if you have further questions you could always ask somebody on this website.

and to answer you last question, it is DEFINITELY worth applying. at least if you do get rejected from these schools you won't wonder if you could've made it and if you do make it into one of those schools then that's awesome!

also if you don't make it in don't worry, you sound like you have a lot of motivation and you still have chances to improve at your current school

feel free to PM me!

 

[Akuri]

hello! i was in a similar situation to you this year, i had terrible reports and faced the lowest point of my entire school years and it really made me rethink what i was doing and made me want to move schools to better my education so i would say that i was in a similar situation as you.

since you said that you began working harder in september i assume your 2018 yearly report was at least a bit better than previous reports where you may have done poorly due to depression. if you apply even greater dedication in your 2019 half yearly report and get it in time for the next application window, you can write a letter explaining to them that you had a big revelation and have the ability to improve even further. i did this and managed to get into a pretty good school.

since you are applying to baulko and ruse, you will need to do a test first and you need to make sure that you do very well in these tests. there is quite a bit of information about applying and all the steps in years 8-11 on this website however if you have further questions you could always ask somebody on this website.

and to answer you last question, it is DEFINITELY worth applying. at least if you do get rejected from these schools you won't wonder if you could've made it and if you do make it into one of those schools then that's awesome!

also if you don't make it in don't worry, you sound like you have a lot of motivation and you still have chances to improve at your current school

feel free to PM me!

Thankyou so much for the reply! This really strengthened my resolve. I believe 2018 was definetly my best year out of the past 9 ( this is not saying much ), but will they consider the start of 2019? Since I’m planning to apply in July 2019, it won’t be a full calendar year.

I’m hoping I can fully rely on the test, but I’m so concerned about forgetting something during the test and wasting everyone’s time.. Whenever I run into this worry, I’ll remember your advice. I’ll regret it indefinitely if I don’t at least give it a good shot. Thankyou again!

 

[c8]

well for me, i managed to do pretty good in my half yearly report and wanted to include it in my application so i had to ask my current school if i could get it early because all the reports wouldnt be released until after the cut off date for applying. some schools will ask for the most recent 2, 3 or 4 reports (it's usually 2 or 3 though) so whether or not it is a full calendar year doesnt matter so including your half yearly report would be beneficial especially if you did exceptionally well.

don't worry too much about the test though as it is not as daunting as you might think (i definitely worried about it way too much and it ended up being not too hard) the only thing is though that the school normally uses the test to determine a sort of cut off and they choose the top 15 or so people and review their reports, application and anything else you include in your application

also i forgot to say this before but you should definitely have a few extracurriculars or certificates from things like sport, competitions like ICAS and AMC or volunteering because it definitely will make you stand out a bit more especially for hurlstone as they have HEAPS of people applying. it also might be good if you apply to the maximum of three schools, with the third perhaps being a school that is easier to get into (some half selective half comprehensive schools are easier to get into because less people apply) since there is still a chance you may not make it into hursltone and ruse. and don't worry if you think you are wasting peoples time, it is always better to take a chance than do nothing out of worry or concern