So how smart are selective school students nowadays? (1 Viewer)

[jadenmaccas]

Hey everybody. How intelligent do you think selective students are and what kind of marks do they get for an average student. Let's say they go to Girraween. What would their report be like? I'm asking these things because I believe I have potential to get in a selective school even though it's pretty much over for me now, being in Year 10.

So, any suggestions?

 

[interesting]

It was pretty much over for me too .. but i managed to change schools. But even in selective schools there are people do and don't work hard so... Just try and prepare yourself for the selective school exam and you can work on improving yourself next year at the new school. The results range from like 10%~95% so yeah can;t really say

 

[Magical Kebab]

I also am looking to get into one, and likewise im in year 10.
Bottom line, the majority of the cohort are smart however you look ai it.

 

[RivalryofTroll]

Not all selective students are smarter than average students from comprehensive schools due to the fact that the selective students may of been lucky in Year 6 or they don't try as hard during their high school years. As for reports, certain schools have different ways of grading like giving only a certain number of As, or they tend to mark harder or set easier tests. To be honest, many selective students used methods such as selective trials training from tutoring places such as Pre-Uni or James An in Year 6 to well prepare them for the test. And they continue to go tutoring up until Year 12 and of course, this is what happened to me (I had to go James An for selective trials). However, in Year 6, I only received offers from partial selective schools but as you know from my previous threads, I recently received offers from fully selective schools (I'm in Year 10 this year).

 

[D94]

What would their report be like?

There's obviously going to be that person who's last and second last and so forth, so it's not like everyone is top ten ranked in their report (unless there are less than 10 people doing the course).

For the average student, I had this chat with an old primary school friend who genuinely told me that an ATAR of 70-80 would be pretty much the result of their current work effort and ethic, so if you see yourself getting above that, or have a good work ethic, then you have the potential to get in a selective school.

 

[Aerath]

Hey everybody. How intelligent do you think selective students are and what kind of marks do they get for an average student. Let's say they go to Girraween. What would their report be like? I'm asking these things because I believe I have potential to get in a selective school even though it's pretty much over for me now, being in Year 10.

So, any suggestions?

Well, given....nature - someone's gotta come first, and someone's gotta come last.
It's not like in a cohort of 200, everyone's gonna be near the top. Someone's gotta be at the head, and someone's gotta be lagging at the tail. So yeah, that's what their report would look like - any other schools'.

 

[W187]

There's obviously going to be that person who's last and second last and so forth, so it's not like everyone is top ten ranked in their report (unless there are less than 10 people doing the course).

For the average student, I had this chat with an old primary school friend who genuinely told me that an ATAR of 70-80 would be pretty much the result of their current work effort and ethic, so if you see yourself getting above that, or have a good work ethic, then you have the potential to get in a selective school.

Your old primary school friend must go to a pretty low ranked selective if 70-80 is their average.

 

[michaeljennings]

In general, its not that selective school kids are amazingly smart, mostly they just have better work ethic, and spend loads of money on tutoring, to get in, then to do well in the hsc. But in saying that there are people who are very smart, and people who don't give a crap and don't study at all. (In year 12)

But in year 10 a majority of the grade doesn't work hard, if at all, especially for history/geo, and at my school only around 30/180 people got straight band6s in school cert, which is not very impressive.

And if you're looking to get into selective, isn't it a bit late now? I know all offers for my school have already been made for next year's year 11, and barely any schools take people in year 12.

 

[D94]

Your old primary school friend must go to a pretty low ranked selective if 70-80 is their average.

Oh, no. I meant that he goes to a comprehensive high school, so assuming the OP is at a comprehensive high school, they should compare themselves alike.

 

[someth1ng]

I was in a comprehensive high school in year 10 and a fully selective school in year 11 (near the same rank as Girra). I used to be top 3 or so in every subject (except English, rank 15) and when I changed to selective, I was near the top in some subjects (Physics) but generally the top third of everything (Chemistry, 2U Maths) else including English but excluding MX1 Maths where I was about 24/65 (slightly out of top third) and Modern History (18/30 LOL) which I really aren't strong at. All my new results are based on half-yearlies but my yearly marks were generally better. In most of my subjects if not all, the lowest mark would be sub-50% but rarely if ever below something like 20%.

Bottom line is that even if you are at a comprehensive high school and a coming near the top, you can become top or near the top of a selective school. I have found that the results in a selective school tend to be skewed towards the higher marks and less people on lower marks. I would assume this skew becomes more evident as the rank of the school becomes higher such as Ruse and Baulko. In the comprehensive high school, I have found that 0 marks were rather common and the low end of the cohort of more pronounced.

 

[fiesycal]

I was in a comprehensive high school in year 10 and a fully selective school in year 11 (near the same rank as Girra). I used to be top 3 or so in every subject (except English, rank 15) and when I changed to selective, I was near the top in some subjects (Physics) but generally the top third of everything (Chemistry, 2U Maths) else including English but excluding MX1 Maths where I was about 24/65 (slightly out of top third) and Modern History (18/30 LOL) which I really aren't strong at. All my new results are based on half-yearlies but my yearly marks were generally better. In most of my subjects if not all, the lowest mark would be sub-50% but rarely if ever below something like 20%.

Bottom line is that even if you are at a comprehensive high school and a coming near the top, you can become top or near the top of a selective school. I have found that the results in a selective school tend to be skewed towards the higher marks and less people on lower marks. I would assume this skew becomes more evident as the rank of the school becomes higher such as Ruse and Baulko. In the comprehensive high school, I have found that 0 marks were rather common and the low end of the cohort of more pronounced.

Not really. At Baulko there's still a fairly large range for the big subjects maths/chem/phys/english.

 

[tearsdontfall]

Not really. At Baulko there's still a fairly large range for the big subjects maths/chem/phys/english.

Agree. I go to Girra, and in maths we range from ~40-100%, English ~50-90%, Chem ~70-low 90s, Phys ~70-low90s.

Selective students are pretty intelligent overall. An average student would get around 70-80% per subject; however it's very hard to find someone with the average. Usually, they're an above average student/top student/below average student/coming close to last student. Note, the average may seem a bit low at times, especially for English - but this is because the exams are harder than normal.

So did you not make it into the schools/weren't ranked highly on a reserve rank? Remember, just because you aren't in a selective school, doesn't mean you're doomed - you can do fairly well at a normal comprehensive school.

 

[someth1ng]

Agree. I go to Girra, and in maths we range from ~40-100%, English ~50-90%, Chem ~70-low 90s, Phys ~70-low90s.

At my school, the results generally range from (what I've seen):
Maths - ~20%-~98%
English - ~20%-~100%
Chemistry - ~20%-~90%
Physics - ~15%-~85%

They're rough but that's what I would expect. In my experience, the skew would be more towards the higher end with very very few at the lower end.

Not really. At Baulko there's still a fairly large range for the big subjects maths/chem/phys/english.

I assume there is a rather big skew towards to higher marks though and extremely few at the bottom. eg. lowest mark 40%, next lowest 50%, then 55%, then 60%, 65%, 66%, 66.5%, 68%...then towards the highest would be more like 10 people on 80%...<insert more>...9 people on 87%, 9 people on 88%...etc.

 

[herbs1]

Depending on the cohort at our selective school, around 75-95/141 get over 90 for atar and 120/140 get over 80...

 

[jadenmaccas]

Agree. I go to Girra, and in maths we range from ~40-100%, English ~50-90%, Chem ~70-low 90s, Phys ~70-low90s.

Selective students are pretty intelligent overall. An average student would get around 70-80% per subject; however it's very hard to find someone with the average. Usually, they're an above average student/top student/below average student/coming close to last student. Note, the average may seem a bit low at times, especially for English - but this is because the exams are harder than normal.

So did you not make it into the schools/weren't ranked highly on a reserve rank? Remember, just because you aren't in a selective school, doesn't mean you're doomed - you can do fairly well at a normal comprehensive school.

I just wanted to make sure if I could make Girraween at least. My friend is going to Girraween next year and I think I should have tried out because he made it in (no offense to him). I beat him in assessments and exams and keep thinking why I didn't take the entry exam this year, considering my chances are better for Year 11 2012.

 

[RivalryofTroll]

I just wanted to make sure if I could make Girraween at least. My friend is going to Girraween next year and I think I should have tried out because he made it in (no offense to him). I beat him in assessments and exams and keep thinking why I didn't take the entry exam this year, considering my chances are better for Year 11 2012.

I have two friends who challenged each other, one of them is SUPER SMART and beats my other friend at almost everything! Everyone in my group of friends predicted that the other guy who usually loses will not make it into Hurlstone while the SUPER SMART one will... I predicted the opposite and guess what? I was right...

Meaning, you cannot be certain of that!

 

[wildchild666]

At my selective high school, about 100 out of ~150 students achieve an ATAR of over 90. It doesn't matter if you are at a selective school or not - you can still do well in your HSC if you put the work into it.

 

[reality3435]

At my school, we're all technically 'good students'. The imports we get from year 11 entrance test aren't all the 'smart ones', it's more often then not, we get the hardworking people who are willing to put those crazy hours into it. Of course a lot of our imports are from Baulko, NSGB, SGB, Hornsby and others but those students are commonly not even top of their year so i'm quite skeptical about the quality of the imports in terms of 'smart'.

^ Agreed, it's a lot more individual however if you are put into the right kind of environment, you are motivated to compete and work harder to beat yourself, to achieve that better ranking so school environment is also very important. I've never attended a non-selective so I wouldn't know, so correct me if I'm wrong but, comparatively, not all of the students in local comprehensive high schools care about their education as much as some of my classmates. A lot of us have goals of getting that top 99.95 or between .7 to .9. . So having those people around you would really motivate any student and it would make you feel obliged to study harder.

sorry if it makes little sense of if I made mistakes by making assumptions about things I don't know very much about.

 

[wildchild666]

At my school, we're all technically 'good students'. The imports we get from year 11 entrance test aren't all the 'smart ones', it's more often then not, we get the hardworking people who are willing to put those crazy hours into it. Of course a lot of our imports are from Baulko, NSGB, SGB, Hornsby and others but those students are commonly not even top of their year so i'm quite skeptical about the quality of the imports in terms of 'smart'.

^ Agreed, it's a lot more individual however if you are put into the right kind of environment, you are motivated to compete and work harder to beat yourself, to achieve that better ranking so school environment is also very important. I've never attended a non-selective so I wouldn't know, so correct me if I'm wrong but, comparatively, not all of the students in local comprehensive high schools care about their education as much as some of my classmates. A lot of us have goals of getting that top 99.95 or between .7 to .9. . So having those people around you would really motivate any student and it would make you feel obliged to study harder.

sorry if it makes little sense of if I made mistakes by making assumptions about things I don't know very much about.

What you've said is entirely true.

I am currently a selective school student who previously attended a comprehensive high school. At the comprehensive school, at least 90% of the grade, as you said, seemingly didn't care about their education. At my current school, it is a much more academically competitive environment which means that students may be motivated to strive just that little bit further.

 

[1981Grant]

I would definitely suggest trying to get in to the selective school.

I'm from one and there is countless advantages to them.