Thoughts on selective entry schools...(Eg melbourne high)

[slothpomba]

I was surprised to find there are about 5 selective entry schools in Victoria.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selective_school#Victoria

I mean..  i guess theyre good in someways.. it gives students from a disadvantage area/ school who are bright a chance to excell, i think they are wonderful in that regard. However, I think that it is also kind of counter-intuitive because im sure you need to undertake some kind of preparation for the entrance exam which may require (expensive for some) tutoring.

My friend undertook tutoring and still didnt get in.

Also, there is some danger that theyll poach all the good students from schools across Victoria, leaving them with the "left overs". So, i guess in this regard, its sort of stratifying the educational system.. which is not so good.

(I'm sorry if theres a recent thread on this but a on a quick glance i couldnt find it. Yeah there is a similar thread but this one kind of poses a different more broader kind of question)

What thoughts on this do you guys have?  (about selective entry schools in general)

[kyzoo]

Personally, I don't believe you need to take preparation for the entrance exam. But then again I'm biased from personal experience, so I may be wrong.

[slothpomba]

Yeah ive never undertook or looked at an entrance exam, so im purely going on hearsay.

Feel free to show me the way.

[Transcendent]

Well if you happen to go to a school where only a small handful of students (under 6) are sitting for the exam, then you're quite likely to get in if you pass the benchmark for that exam. There's a small chance that the friend you're talking about didn't get in because the other students in his school who also sat the exam did better than him.

If you know how to write essays fast and think on your spot, as well as being above average in comprehension and mathematical skills, i'd say you wouldn't need tutoring to get in.

[slothpomba]

What about the whole poaching and stratification aspect

[IntoTheNewWorld]

With the 5% rule (formerly 3%) those going to schools where noone knows what MHS is can get into selective schools relatively easy (hence why I got into MHS with crappy selection scores =P Not that hard when the test cohort consists of around 5). This stops the private schools from completely dominating the selection cohort.

On poaching, the students chose to go to the better school, which I believe is better than the better school not existing. The students at the schools they left aren't negatively affected in any way, and the students that left get to go to a more competitive environment. Everyone wins.

[GerrySly]

Some practice tests

Personally I think they are great, nothing wrong with them at all. The whole poaching thing I've never heard of. I think it's worse with private schools (e.g. Haileybury) but then again I don't know much about it at all, sounds absurd to me.

[Transcendent]

I believe a 1/3 of students from selective schools (namely MHS and MacRob) came from a private school, and in those schools most of the students don't consider sitting for the exams, so it's unlikely that you're going to poach the top kids from the private schools.

On the other hand with state schools, it's a possibility that many smart students are poached. A fair few students who came from these two governments schools near me, which are considered quite good academically, happened to get 49/50s in the 3/4s that they undertook last year.

[Glockmeister]

I was surprised to find there are about 5 selective entry schools in Victoria.

Three of them have only recently opened or will be opening.

[appianway]

Selective entry schools are both good and bad. I think it really depends on the teachers that you get.

Personally, I think my mathematics has declined dramatically at Mac.Rob due to the formulaic nature of the course. It's no fault of the teachers - I'm sure most of them would like to do different material - but the nature of the cohort means that the work is taught to the exams.

That said, there are some stellar students at Mac.Rob and MHS - 3 of the 4 olympians in biology and physics from Victoria hail from either institution.

[IntoTheNewWorld]

You don't really need tutoring to get in..

it helps if you're borderline though.

Yes I did tutoring. I can't be 100% sure, but I don't think I would've got in without it.