Is it a disadvantage to come from a low achieving school?

[MBBS]

If you're aiming to do well there'll always be a group of kids with the same aspirations in the year level, regardless of the quality of the cohort. So really the other kids shouldn't be a distraction.

Seconded.

Second on your second.

[Eriny]

^ Thinking about it, that's definitely true. In my public school year 12 cohort (where there were only about 50 students) people weren't actually that distracting. It's like, all the people who weren't there to study left by the end of year 11. And then, even further, there were people who were very serious about their study. While the group of 'serious' kids at a private school might be looking at 95+ ATARs, in my class it was more that the 'serious' kids got 80+. But, I don't think the scores themselves matter that much, the fact that they are serious is what matters.

The internet helped me a lot in terms of navigating VCE, just to expose me to the kind of intellect out there, to the advice of past students, and to get people to take a look at practise essays. But, it helped me mostly to get an idea of how the system actually works so that I could exploit it as much as possible for my own ends. I think it meant that my expectations for year 12 were very realistic.

[Keo]

Everything in this thread is pure win, actually insipired me insanely.  Yes everyone is right ,aim to achieve your maximum potential!

[Nomvalt]

Personally, I think the teachers are very caring and they try to do their best to help the students but its mostly the students who don't want to learn. Would this be a bad learning environment? And would the class performing badly on the exams lower the better students' scores?

Why don't they want to work? Don't they realize the severe long term repercussions of neglecting year 12? I suggest you try your best to help everyone in your cohort. Tell them to work together, as a team. I believe it is the responsibility of the top student to help everyone lift their game (especially when the teacher has their hands full as is the case here) as everyone knows there are cracks in our education system and it's reasonable to see some students fall in without proper care and attention. After all 90+ atar is achievable for anyone, any student who gets less has fallen into these 'cracks'.

[binders]

veryone knows there are cracks in our education system and it's reasonable to see some students fall in without proper care and attention. After all 90+ atar is achievable for anyone, any student who gets less has fallen into these 'cracks'

well some students would have to get less than 90, or it wouldn't be 90, it would be 0.
achievable for anyone maybe, but not for everyone.

Perhaps leaving before year 12, not attempting VCE or VCAL or even finding an apprenticeship could be seen as falling through the cracks.  But i don't think getting a score lower than the ~90th percentile really qualifies as falling through the cracks.

and people take vce less seriously for lots of reasons aside from laziness, ignorance or folly.  they may have realistically assessed their chances of a high enough score for uni as being too low to make it worthwhile - not everyone is academically inclined.  they may need to work to support themselves or their families.  

If you look at the UK, where they have a leaving certificate below matriculation, the GCSE, many people take that and go.  
(http://www.statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/ssdataset.asp?vlnk=7738 ?)

So without a lower leaving certificate in victoria, some students will hang around and do VCE just so they have something to show for their years at high school rather than feeling that they need to do well.