Just wondering:
1) How important do you think the GAT is this year? Is there any way to prepare for it if it is substantially more important this year as compared to other years?
2) Do you guys reckon the class of '21 will have to deal with this as well?
Spoiler
3) Anyone else feel like this new system is rigged? Like honestly...just add another section onto SEAS about impact due to COVID that doesn't rely on teachers so much subjectively assuming how a student would have done without coronavirus.
re people feeling sorry for Dan Andrews (don't think it was on this thread but still): yeah I definitely agree, first came the bushfires, then coronavirus, what next?
1. GAT will be monstrously more important this year. The GAT is designed fairly well in that it tests a set of skills, not a set of knowledge - the best way to prepare for it is by practicing those skills. Do some practice GAT essays and ask your teacher to mark them (if they're willing - I was lucky in that my high school English teacher used to be a GAT assessor, and was more than happy to mark practice GAT essays for us), then go through the multiple choice questions and answer them all as well as you can. Realise which of the three sections you're doing best at, and which you need to work on - but also consider which of those areas you need to do well on. The essay section is going to be important since everyone has to do an English, but if outside of that all that you study is maths and science, don't worry too much about doing poorly on the humanities section.
2. No clue. Only time will tell. It's probably best not to make conjectures about this. This is not a system you can try and manipulate, anyway, until we know exactly how it works - otherwise trying to "game it" may just end up hurting you in the long run.
3. Lots of people are, and many have even said so in this thread. I, personally, don't think it is - and sounds kinda fair. Sure, you could add it into SEAS, but VTAC likely wouldn't be prepared for the amount of moderation they'd have to put into it, and it would end up leading into nearly everyone getting the same SEAS bonus, which would just artificially boost everyone's ATARs anyway AND the clearly-ins as a result. Putting it in SEAS would lead to the exact thing that everyone is worried about happening. Whereas the system they've proposed sounds like it'll only be pushing up the people whose both GATs and teachers suggest they could've achieved higher than they will as a result. I maintain that - based on the information that has been made available to us - if you do well on the GAT, were doing well this year before COVID, and continue to do well, you won't be disadvantaged. However, even if you were doing poorly before COVID, and are doing great now, you likely won't be disadvantaged EITHER - and the same for if you did well before COVID, but aren't doing well now. This doesn't sound like a system that will disadvantage anyone other than those who were already doing poorly and likely to not get good ATARs anyway (which is a topic for another thread)