I go to Melbourne High and I would definitely have missed out on a lot of things if I stayed at my local public school. For instance, the students I met there were very inspirational and influences you to do your best. I've heard many times from friends that they use to get A+ at their old school without trying, and now they study for hours and only get a C since the standard is far higher. Extra curriculum is also brilliant, with lots of strange interest groups (nintendo club, barbershop club, heritage, breakdancing, political interest group etc.) It also has a very dedicated old boy community such as voluntary career advice seminars, mentoring and sport coaches. Teachers there are like most schools, but on the first day, a teacher told us that most of the teaching would be done by our fellow peers. He was definitely spot on about his classes, he was lazy and just sat in his chair reading the newspaper while we did work.
From what I remember, there's a few crucial things you need to know. For maths, the Pythagoras theorem and basic trig questions are in there every year and you'll definitely lose marks if you don't know them. Other things include x^0 always equals to 1.
They allow you 15 minutes to write an essay, which is very limited time so you need to plan your story fast. One of the prompts includes 4 pictures, where you need to write a creative story which involves 3 of the 4 pictures. I remember in the exam, I pretty much planned my entire story in 15 seconds. Since it's creative, you can make it as crazy as you want. My pictures were: a ladder, bridge, car. My story was a thief speeds through the highway on a car, enters a bridge, gets cornered from both sides by police, gets out of the car, climbs a ladder to the top of the bridge and jumps off into the river (his body was never found). You can fill in the details as you write. For instance, I didn't think of the conclusion until the final minute or two.
It's much easier for the bunch of yr 9s coming into the schools this year, they've increased the % of students accepted from each school from 3% to 5% since they're building two new selective schools. Good luck to anyone taking the test in the future