Box Hill High @ SEAL program vs John Monash Science School

[moderatefaith]

Hi all, I got an offer to go to John Monash Science School, and am currently at Box Hill High School in the SEAL (GAPP) program. For those who may not know, this means is that we are doing work of a year above us, e.g. in year 9 we use the year 10 textbooks (for core subjects), and do the same work as the year 10s. If I go to John Monash I will probably be redoing year 10 work next year, and even so the median study score is only one higher than BH, which is meaningless considering 66% of our school is in mainstream. These are my main concerns (next year might be boring+since Box Hill gets better results, it might even be better to stay there as I'll get better year 12 results), so taking all this into account, my question is do you guys think it is worth going to John Monash from Box Hill, and if so why?

[Herman]

John Monash focuses heavily on science and math and they basically cover the curriculum of year 10 for the other subjects. Someone would know more about this than me.

You should totally make a list of pros and cons but honestly SEAL program Is much better for VCE. Although either way it’s about hard work.

At the end of the day, it’s your choice. Tell us the choice you make in this forum

[Herman]

Honestly, both schools offer great programs to support you in VCE. But the preparation is all to you and the schools are only there for support and to enhance your knowledge.
Whatever school you choose, I’m sure you can achieve the best ATAR.

In my opinion seal is better because of all success students have had with this programs in many of the schools. The Werribee secondary seal program, for example, 90% of their students achieve more than 95 this year. (My friend is the source). To me this was exceptional. However this year they only select about 2-4 students so I am not going to try out.
But if I was in the Werribee Secondary Program, I would pick Werribee over John Monash any day

I don’t know about Box hill though

[undefined]

Your Box Hill VCE cohort will have a very strong top end and very large proportion of students that make up the rest as it is mostly mainstream. In my opinion a stronger overall cohort i.e. JMSS is better than a cohort with a very strong high end and average middle. If you're aiming for higher study scores then JMSS' cohort would be better for you (that is, if you do science/maths subjects) and if you're planning on doing english/humanities then probably not because they're pretty weak in that area. Keep in mind when you're looking at the rankings that the median study scores are all raw, and since people at JMSS mostly do subjects that scale well it doesn't take that into account. By staying at your current school that doesn't mean you'll get better year 12 results; it will just take one year longer for you to get the same results if not higher. You're correct though in the sense that you won't get to feel as accelerated as you are in the SEAL program right now so it's really up to you.

[Herman]

Sorry for all the grammatical errors. I was in a slight rush

[exit]

Went to bhhs , and know people who went to John Monash, so hopefully I can give my opinions.

In my opinion, if you are good enough to get into BHHS SEAL, then you certainly very probably good enough to get into John Monash, so getting in does not mean much. (getting into either in my opinion isn't that competitive)

In my experience, the mainstreams at BHHS are not strong at all, and the % of scores 40+ for SEAL students is actually 32% (according to a SEAL program presentation by BHHS). From this, the cohort of seal students at bhhs is likely to be stronger than John Monash, and including mainstreams slightly worse than BHHS. Although, mainstream might be getting a bit stronger now since Box Hill now gets decent results, making the SEAL program more competitive to get into.

John Monash is strong in the maths and science department. I haven't heard good things about the English department at John Monash, and it's definitely a bad idea to go to John Monash and take humanities subjects for VCE. Most students there only take humanities subjects as bludge, which means that you will only have yourself to rely on. I think the teachers are only slightly better at John Monash for math and science subjects, but BHHS has gotten some new teachers last year and this year (for chem, physics, maths etc.) so it's hard to tell.

The VCE program at BHHS is better than John Monash as you can take 2 'heavy'  (think Methods+Physics combo) year 12 subjects a year early and afaik you can only take one at John Monash. Are you able to do Biology 3/4 next year as well? I think they stopped letting students do that.

The thing to consider is location, If you live much closer to Box Hill than Clayton, then I think the decision is a bit more obvious.

Have you thought about what subjects you are interested in doing for VCE? What 1/2 subjects are you going to be doing?

Hope this helped 

[undefined]

Went to bhhs , and know people who went to John Monash, so hopefully I can give my opinions.

In my opinion, if you are good enough to get into BHHS SEAL, then you certainly very probably good enough to get into John Monash, so getting in does not mean much. (getting into either in my opinion isn't that competitive)

In my experience, the mainstreams at BHHS are not strong at all, and the % of scores 40+ for SEAL students is actually 32% (according to a SEAL program presentation by BHHS). From this, the cohort of seal students at bhhs is likely to be stronger than John Monash, and including mainstreams slightly worse than BHHS. Although, mainstream might be getting a bit stronger now since Box Hill now gets decent results, making the SEAL program more competitive to get into.

John Monash is strong in the maths and science department. I haven't heard good things about the English department at John Monash, and it's definitely a bad idea to go to John Monash and take humanities subjects for VCE. Most students there only take humanities subjects as bludge, which means that you will only have yourself to rely on. I think the teachers are only slightly better at John Monash for math and science subjects, but BHHS has gotten some new teachers last year and this year (for chem, physics, maths etc.) so it's hard to tell.

The VCE program at BHHS is better than John Monash as you can take 2 'heavy'  (think Methods+Physics combo) year 12 subjects a year early and afaik you can only take one at John Monash. Are you able to do Biology 3/4 next year as well? I think they stopped letting students do that.

The thing to consider is location, If you live much closer to Box Hill than Clayton, then I think the decision is a bit more obvious.

Have you thought about what subjects you are interested in doing for VCE? What 1/2 subjects are you going to be doing?

Hope this helped 

You can do 2 3/4's in year 11, however, it's very rare since the prerequisite is a 90% average in year 10 which is hard to get. I know a couple of people who are doing Physics and Methods 3/4 in year 11.

[$noopDodd]

My old school (BHS) had one and I sometimes regret leaving, but I'm pretty happy overall with my decision.
Ultimately, it really depends on whether you're interested in accelerating 3/4 subjects. Have you got a 3/4 in mind for next year? I reckon if you know you want to get a 3/4 out of the way next year / do 2 in year 11, it's probably better to stay at Box Hill (I'm not sure if John Monash allows you to do either of these options).

If you feel that your work ethic isn't ready for a 3/4 next year anyway, and you'd rather go down the standard route, then John Monash would be a better option. Another thing to keep in mind is that John Monash is more competitive in the Asian 5 subjects (Eng, chem, meth, spesh, physics) and also bio, if you're keen on those subjects. (This was the case for me, but I don't go to JMSS)
Also: if you're looking at the cohort, I wouldn't look at median SSs, but rather the number of 40+ for each school, specifically for the 3/4s that you want to take in VCE . I've attached the links here:

https://www.quppa.net/studyscores/browse/2017/Grouped%20by%20School/Sorted%20by%20Total%20Scores/John%20Monash%20Science%20School,%20Clayton.html

https://www.quppa.net/studyscores/browse/2017/Grouped%20by%20School/Sorted%20by%20Total%20Scores/Box%20Hill%20High%20School.html

All the best

[southmelbdimsim]

You can do 2 3/4's in year 11, however, it's very rare since the prerequisite is a 90% average in year 10 which is hard to get. I know a couple of people who are doing Physics and Methods 3/4 in year 11.

If you are good enough, you can do 3/4 subject in year 10 ( when I was in year 10 we had a year 10 student doing Specialist Maths 3/4 ).

You can also do University Extension subjects in year 12 and its super convenient if do them at Monash since JMSS is part of the Monash Campus.

BTW JMSS does not offer Bio 1/2, only Bio 3/4.

[exit]

Oh yeah.

JMSS has strict requirements on accelerated subjects. Most BHHS Seal students do two 3/4s in year 11 while in JMSS, only a very small portion would be able to do it. I definitely wouldn't have been able to based on my year 10 results. So I guess just assume that you would only be able to do one 3/4 early when going to JMSS.

Doing a university subject at JMSS is great, since you have to travel a lot more to do the same thing at BHHS.

It's a tough decision but I think it's much more clear if we knew what subjects were going to be undertaken at VCE level.

[exit]

Hey I wrote up a detailed reply before with subjects and more info, but it got deleted as I attempted to post for some reason, and I don't have time to re-type it. Next year I am doing 1/2 physics, bio and methods. Year 11 I will continue with these three, except replace bio with spec, and continue bio in year 12. I feel like Box Hill will be better, but my parents and brother say that I'll be stupid not to accept, and I can't seem to convince them otherwise. Thanks for the insight in your other comment to!

Why do your parents/brother think it will be stupid to accept? I think the guarantee of being able to accelerate your subjects, and not repeat year 10, are good enough reasons to stay at BHHS.

Edit: you would not be screwed if you wanted to do any humanities/commerce subjects in VCE. Looking at the 40+ lists of JMSS, no one really scores 40+ in any subject that isn't English or science/math related. yikes.

[Herman]

Hey,
Whats your final decision?

[ngupta]

Hi, I just wanted to know what is the format of the boxhill high school seal exam and what are the best coachings and where can I get past papers from?