Revision for MHS exam,Year 9.

[ab10120]

Greetings Everybody.

I'm a year 8 student who will sit the MHS exam in the upcoming 6-7 weeks. I'm going to dedicate half of the remaining time 'till the exam date revising. I was wondering if anyone had tips for revision or/and what they personally found hard on the exam,(so i can work on those areas more and study/revise them throughly),any advice would be grate. Thanks!! 

[IndefatigableLover]

Have a look on this board. This is generally where most selectve school questions are asked and you can find many things here.

There are also some guides floating around like pi's guide here: Selective School Exam Tips and Strategies
For Year 9 Intake

Revision wise: Do the practice tests on the DEECD. It'll help you get into the feel of the exam even though the questions are a tad easier (Maths based from my memory). It'll also give you a good indication of what to actually study for it if you aren't taking tutoring for this exam. The questions in Maths that they give you can be worked out but are tough to work out in ~30 seconds (average). I remember I had to take ~10 guesses for the both maths exam due to time and difficulty of questions. However, if you're a strong Maths orientated student then you shouldn't have a lot of trouble dealing with the questions. Also draw diagrams... it helps for some questions (E.g All slugs are slicks...)

English Comprehension: Read the questions first then read the text. 30 minutes for 60 questions for English Comprehension is really dodgy... The texts are generally page length with 5-10 questions for each section so read the questions first!

Verbal Reasoning: Not too difficult but in most cases you'll have to pick out the odd word. Rather than trying to find the 'minority', look at  the given answers and find how they are related. If you find a link between two answers then you'll find the others. Work with the 'majority' rather than the 'minority' for those questions.

Writing: Markers are lenient but if your grammar and spelling aren't up to scratch then it'll drag your marks down a lot. Use planning time wisely and don't hesitate to go with your gut instinct for writing. Again if you're strong in Writing then this will be a breeze for you but if you struggle in English then just work on grammar and learn how to formulate ideas quickly. Execution is the key.

Two things to mention are mental strength and educated guesses. You'll find that when put in big situations, some people succumb to pressure. I've seen people I know who should of made MHS/Mac.Rob but couldn't work in pressure situations and ultimately did not perform as they would of. If you can work in pressure situations and not panic then you've won half the battle already.
You'll also find that you will have to guess for some questions due to time or simply because you don't know the answer. Rather than taking a stab in the dark where you have ~20-25% chance of getting it, eliminate answers which you know that are wrong and then guess so that you have a better chance of getting the question right. Back when I did the test, for each multiple choice exam, I had to guess on average 10 questions (which is 1/6 of the exam). Unless you are absolutely running out of time, try educated guesses. If not then just go with 'B' or 'c' LOL (even though it's overrated) XD

Good luck on your exam and if you have any questions then do feel free to PM me

[ab10120]

IndefatigableLover, thanks for the advice. I have done the practice exams on DCEED website and I found the English easier than the maths. My grammar is O.K but I need to work on spelling. There is lots of competition at my school,(like 30 students that stand a chance). Anyway I'm really grateful for your advice and revision tips, they are very helpful.

[Sach1_K]

For the maths tests just try improve your speed try to get through the whole paper. Usually you will find the last questions on the paper very easy.
For verbal reasoning the way I prepared for it was learning as many words as possible. I learnt like a words a day and wrote it in a book and revised them often.
I can't remember much for reading comprension.
For the analytical do something like 30 seconds reading the topic a minute planning 12 and half minutes writing and 1 min checking.
Even though you can't use a digital watch you can set  your watch to 12 am and just click on the button thingy on the right when your time starts so it's easier to see how much time you have left.
If you don't finish the essays on time I wouldn't advise it but you could probably write a few words in after they say pens down. The girl next to me in the exam kept on writing after pens down and the person that collected the paper just smiled at her and said no more, and kept going.

[Butterscotch]

Heads up:

The dodgiest thing last year for the essays was, they didn't let us plan. "You won't have enough time to plan, so there is no spare paper given to you" - What the lady on the speaker said. Just incase they pull out something like this, try to plan your structure and ideas in your head; it'll help even if they give you spare paper.

Also, for the multiple-choice questions no spare pape is given, instead they tell you to use the back of the answer sheet, be wary it's only an A4 piece.

What Sach1_K said is right, some people around you still continue writing their written expression tests even after the time. However, if you cannot finish your essays, try "..." to add a suspensive touch to the text, although this doesn't work in all cases, keep it in the back of your head, just incase! Start with the basics for the written tests; spelling, grammar and vocabulary. Here's a link -> How to write an analytical/creative essay in 15 mins?

Try your best, and good luck!

[ab10120]

Yeah going on after pens down is pretty dodgy,at my current school I'm in the acceleration program and when we were doing the entrance test many people kept going while the examiners were collecting the papers. I don't think I should do it because if you get caught they would count it as cheating, wouldn't they?

[spectroscopy]

this is the biggest biggest piece of advice i got which i took and used in the exam is n the creative writing piece you get three bits of stimuli (for me it was a bicycle a key and a lighthouse im pretty sure?) and the one thing you must remember is that thousands of essays are getting marked, do something that makes yours stand out, and make sure your grammar/vocabulary/spelling/neatness is good quality, and make sure the essay itself is interesting, even if its short
mine was about a child who rode her bike to the lighthouse, climbed up it, used the key to unlock the top floor, and she jumped off with a (literal) cliffhanger for an ending, i didnt even use a full page for it, but made sure i made it sound vivid and nice and they could imagine it happening, and i got a superior for that section, this is just my experience take it with a grain of salt, do not try that method if you dont read alot of novels/have great writing skills/etc.
if you can go to a company like hendersons and do their practice exams, they usually give you a good indicator of where youll be and what you need to improve, and i found their essay help so useful !

good luck

[Sach1_K]

Make sure you address the pictures correctly. My prompt was the same as Alex's. Instead of writing about a key I included a locked door instead. When I found out I was pretty mad at myself. But I guess the examiners accepted it or I may have said something like" I don't have the key" I can't remember. But just be sure to answer the prompt or write about it.

[ab10120]

Yeah right now I'm doing my 31st week at a place called James An college, For the testing they do I'm usually in the top 11 to top 12 rage and for the writing i'm anything from 15-19 out of twenty. I reckon it's o.k. However there is lots of competion at my school and there kids that can ace some of the tests at James An, (Freaky o.0).

[IndefatigableLover]

Yeah right now I'm doing my 31st week at a place called James An college, For the testing they do I'm usually in the top 11 to top 12 rage and for the righting i'm anything from 15-19 out of twenty. I reckon it's o.k. However there is lots of competion at my school and there kids that can ace some of the tests at James An, (Freaky o.0).

Haha good ol' James An College :')

Anyway, what I want to say is that those rankings will eventually mean nothing to you. Although they seem important because you're ranked within your tutoring group, ultimately it's not just them you're competing against but everyone in Year 8 who is undertaking the MHS/Mac.Rob exam. I remember when I did tutoring for the MHS exam, I was ranked near the bottom of the class since I wasn't grasping onto concepts fast enough but I managed to get a place at MHS in Year 9 nonetheless because I didn't let that fact get to me and just gave it my all on the exam. Also the tests which some tutoring companies may not have much correlation to the actual exam itself (not saying that JAC is giving you dud exams but as a whole) which is another reason why rankings don't matter in this case. Add in pressure (environment) and luck (guessing), it changes the whole outcome dramatically.

Honestly don't worry about competing against all these (smart) kids etc. because it'll just put you under unnecessary stress on you. Focus on things that are ACTUALLY important to you which will benefit you when doing the exam or for next year's exam #JMSS

And a good way to check if you're ready for the exam would be to look yourself in the mirror and ask that question to yourself. Do you see yourself getting into MHS? If you do then great! Continue the hard work! If not, what can you do to maximise your chances in getting in? What are some of my weaknesses or things I should work on?
They are simple questions but it gets down to the bottom of it all (reflecting basically) >.<

[Rachet123]

Wow, seems like another life time ago that I too was preparing for the MHS entrance exam!!!! It seems so minute and insignificant when compared to VCE. But if you do get into MHS- which, judging by your initiative, you will- it is an awesome place. From my experience I found Reading Comprehension and Maths quite easy, now I wasn't a particularly fast reader but I was a person that was always in the know about what was happening in the world and so didn't really have to read some of the long articles in exam. For example there was, from memory, a quite extensive article about Michael Jackson and his death- or something along those line- that i did not have to read because the questions were easily 'answerable' from the general knowledge that my brain was imbued with aout MJ and his death.
 
The Numerical Reasoning exam was harder than the maths, I don't believe I finished on time- but I did get superior- just practice identifying patterns(something that may come in handy if your considering doing the UMAT) and learn to problem solve.

For Verbal reasoning just follow Sach1_K, a competent vocabulary is quite useful, plus remember to use Venn diagrams for the Bib, bob, bab (I don't know what exactly these are called) questions.

Finally for the essays, make sure you spend time planning especially your analytical; don't just start as soon as you are given the exam. As for the Creative(which I didn't get a superior for) make sure you don't just rewrite a per conceived essay, a mistake that I made when deciding to use an essay that I scored highly in at tutor for but had no solid connection to the prompts given.

Overall I reckon you'll be ok, and remember there are more schools now Nossal, Suzanne and the number of candidates sitting the exam have decline over the years. I remember when Sach1_K and I did the exam over 5000 people sat it, we even made the news!!

Good luck

[ab10120]

Rachet123, thanks for the tips, I'm doing the most of the stuff you said, except the Venn Diagram thing, I should get into habit of doing that! . Unfortunetly I live 40KM away from Nossal and even more from Suzan Cory, so my only option is MHS!

[pi]

Rachet123, thanks for the tips, I'm doing the most of the stuff you said, except the Venn Diagram thing, I should get into habit of doing that! . Unfortunetly I live 40KM away from Nossal and even more from Suzan Cory, so my only option is MHS!

Haha, I lived ~40km from MHS by train, distance isn't a barrier if you want to go somewhere

[ab10120]

You're right Pi and thanks for the useful links you posted, all I need now is a criteria list,I have learnt a lot, now I'm just doing hardcore revision and trying to find the stuff that I need to learn more about, so this a question open for all to answer, 'what did you find most difficult in the MHS, Nossal, Suzan Cory, Mac.Rob test?'

Wish me Luck!!:p

[Shenz0r]

I found the writing tasks the most difficult. Planning and writing a good text within 15 mins was not something that played to my strength...

Of course this was like 5 years ago, but I guess it's the first "big" exam you kinda go to in your life. It's a bit nerve-racking but just focus on doing your best.