Selective Entry Routine

[Aligator1000]

Hi all I am currently in year 8 and would love to get into a selective entry school. I have been studying but want to enhance my levels of study and I have came here to ask about daily routines you guys did everyday when studying for the selective entry exam. Did you guys wake up and study then take a break then keep studying for hours, or did you guy play outside and take breaks and study later. Please let me know what you guys done!

[Shanan :D]

Personally, I studied in the morning for about 2hrs (at around 4-5 am, before school) then went to school and came back to do a practice test exam. After I did the practice paper I would take a break for the rest of the day, although in the school holidays nearing the exam, I would go through 3-4 practice tests daily and go outside in my spare time. I think this was a rather extreme approach but I wanted to make sure that I got in.

Hope this helps! 

[justaperson_]

Hey! So for me personally, I would study right after school for about 2-3 hours. Looking back I feel like I studied a little TOO much but it doesn’t hurt to study extra. Either I would do a practice test and go through the answers. Or, I would simply study for each component of the exam. One tip tho, try to turn this into a habit/routine (if you actually want to study hard). As long as you are consistent with your studying, you should be fine .
I hope this helps somehow. PM or reply if you have any other questions 

[somebody8442]

You need to find a sort of motivation to study. This is because to study well and effectively, you need fuel and in most cases, the cheapest and most efficient fuel is motivation. Find motivation and you'll be 5x more effective and productive when you study. Personally, my motivation was the fact that I didn't have time to study that much and that was because it took me 40 mins to walk from my school to the local station where I had to take a bus and so it effectively took an hour and a half before I was ready to study. Some days I had to stay at school for another hour because of some extracurricular and this ate more of my time. This made me feel that whatever remaining time I had was precious and that's what motivated me to study. You can find motivation in anything really e.g. taking inspiration from successful people, older siblings, etc. Now as for study timings, study whenever you feel like it and whenever you can. Sometimes, setting a particular study time can be useful, but as you move to VCE, you may end up studying at the wrong time and this can result in burn-out. I recommend taking sufficient breaks so that you can stay alert and energised for each study session.

In the end, experiment with whatever works for you. If you like studying before school (which is absurd to me but maybe normal for you), then go ahead and if you prefer studying after school, study then. I hope this helps and I hope you make it into whichever school you're aiming for.

[Selective User]

Hi all I am currently in year 8 and would love to get into a selective entry school. I have been studying but want to enhance my levels of study and I have came here to ask about daily routines you guys did everyday when studying for the selective entry exam. Did you guys wake up and study then take a break then keep studying for hours, or did you guy play outside and take breaks and study later. Please let me know what you guys done!

Hi there, my personal study routines were to study for an hour before school in the morning and 3 hours after school (2 before dinner and one after). Usually, I did this routine every day and split my time between the four subjects and writing each day.

I would revise my maths and numerical reasoning notes, solve some IQ tests online, find some videos on how to do some maths concepts I struggled with, do online reading comprehension papers, write one analytical and creative essay every alternate day and build my vocab by learning a minimum 40-50 words each week which I would get my parents and brother to test me on. On Sunday I went to my tuition from 11am-5pm and also did the JAC online practice tests every week.

I made the mistake of trying to learn my vocab and maths by rote and study for extensive periods of time, which I found unhelpful and I ended up procrastinating half those times  I also made the mistake of learning all the content about 6 months before the actual exam and got bored and lazy in the months leading up to it. Thankfully I spent the last few weeks studying harder than usual on my weak areas and I got in 

When you aren't studying, do stuff that you actually enjoy and in those time periods don't speculate about the exam too much.

If you're not sure about any other aspects of the exam or just need a bit of help with study, feel free to message me.
Hope you get into the school of your choice!

[Tapioca]

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[AnxiousInd]

Hi all I am currently in year 8 and would love to get into a selective entry school. I have been studying but want to enhance my levels of study and I have came here to ask about daily routines you guys did everyday when studying for the selective entry exam. Did you guys wake up and study then take a break then keep studying for hours, or did you guy play outside and take breaks and study later. Please let me know what you guys done!

I personally did not have a specific routine but i would definitely recommend getting used to one.
I didn't study before school because i like sleeping and I did not want my sleep to get ruined. I just need my sleep.
But once i came from school i took a bit of a break and then studied like 3-4 hours after that, and slept at around 11.
But on weekends i liked to grind so I studied around 7-8 hours on most of those days. But when I started prepping for this exam, I spent around half my time staring at the wall so I would recommend that u start studying a bit less and then gradually increase those hours of study. And it is upto you to plan out your days and find which routine helps you the best. At the end if you feel like you have learnt something new then i would consider that a good study session, you cant measure gained knowledge with hours.

[anidrasa]

does anyone have practice tests for the Victorian selective entry exam?
If so message me back immediately on the ATAR Notes Private Messages.

[somebody8442]

does anyone have practice tests for the Victorian selective entry exam?
If so message me back immediately on the ATAR Notes Private Messages.

There is some DeRoza test package and there are sample tests for free which are only VR, NR and Maths I think. I don't think that anyone can send you tuition practice material legally so your best bet is to use the DET papers (which are terrible btw). Sign up for a tuition if you really need practice papers or maybe get a Hendersons paper. You can also use s yeaer 9 or 10 textbook to create your  own exam although it might not be the best option. Good Luck.

[AnxiousInd]

I reccomend the henderson tests, they are probably the most accurate compared to the actual exam. Good luck

[OckTheOctopus]

Hello!

My routine is similar to what the others in this thread did. I used to study from this website called IXL. It wasn't strictly because of the exam, but just to get into the mindset of studying every day. I have been doing it since year 4 and there are 2 sections to the app: maths and english. Last year I would do 45 minutes of the english section and 45 minutes of the math section.
My main revision for the exam was from Khan Academy, specifically Algebra 1 an Trigonometry (although I would recommend you do Algebra 2 on top of these courses). I did it for at least 45 minutes a day and did extra if I had spare time.
I did have more than enough time to meet up with friends, do sport, play video games, etc. I didn't study during the holidays or weekends.

Result: 3 superiors, 1 AA and got into my 1st preference school coming from a competitive school.

I feel like I was advantages somewhat by the lockdowns that delayed the exam and the fact that writing, which is my weakest subject, was cut from the exam; and my cohort was weaker than average. If I took the exam under normal circumstances, I feel like the outcomes would have been very different.

I hope this helped, don't panic, and good luck!

[somebody8442]

Also, you may have to make sacrifices to get into a selective school. I personally sacrificed my schoolwork and chose to prepare more for my selective exam which paid off well, but in all honesty, it might have not been the best thing to do. Do what's best for you and try to make the best use of your time. You may have to drop some extra curriculars but it may not be a good idea if you get a PD (Principal's Discretion).

[Selective User]

I remember revising all the maths concepts and doing khan academy in between school lessons and during lunch in the leading weeks till the exam. However, I don't recommend this. You should instead focus on school work during school (try to complete homework in class itself) and work on selective at home. Split your time wisely between subjects but remember to take breaks and do what you like, too (gaming, sports, talking either friends etc). My result doing this was 4 sups and I got into my school of first pref. BTW, the first day of Nossal was today (orientation day).

[somebody8442]

I remember revising all the maths concepts and doing khan academy in between school lessons and during lunch in the leading weeks till the exam. However, I don't recommend this. You should instead focus on school work during school (try to complete homework in class itself) and work on selective at home. Split your time wisely between subjects but remember to take breaks and do what you like, too (gaming, sports, talking either friends etc). My result doing this was 4 sups and I got into my school of first pref. BTW, the first day of Nossal was today (orientation day).

I love how you say what you did, and then instantly say that you don't recommend it.

[Selective User]