How did/do you 'play the system'?

[flash36]

Neglecting my fifth subject to concentrate on my top 4 was how I 'played the system', if indeed I did 'play' it.

Also, I did it by doing Business Management

[Zien]

Basically a scheme to help disadvantaged students enter tertiary education by lowering the requirements needed.

http://www.vtac.edu.au/seas.html

[Russ]

If you qualify for SEAS you're hardly playing the system

[Truck]

On the topic of MHS,

I was told by a fellow MHSian

Half of MHS are the generic nerds whilst the other half are the "Play hard, study hard" types. Is this true, I wish my parents would accept the latter. It'd show them something!

Pretty much true.

But like, there's plenty of people in MHS who get 70's and 80's, it's not a guaranteed 90+ ATAR.

I assume they are shunned for getting a crappy score?

Not really, lol why would you assume that =P. We're not all that mean .

[Pixon]

Basically all you have to do is...screw whatever educational beliefs you have and bend over for VCAA and their system. Read the examiners reports, learn what style of answers they write. Forget what you think is right...it doesn't even matter. Just do whatever it takes to get as high an ATAR as possible at the sake of your enjoyment and the fun of learning. Whether that means taking subjects you don't like or screwing over your friends because "VCE IS A COMPETITION"...just do it!

I really hate VCE for creating this mentality in students. I know almost everyone does it, but it's still a horrific result of what VCE does to people. And then I get more annoyed at people who accuse others like myself for taking subjects like Latin simply because of the markup when in actual fact I just love the language and the literature involved (which is why I took Classics...a subject in which top 6 got me a 45, so no, it's not about picking subjects which give you easy high scores). /end rant

(tldr) Find a balance between "playing the system" and enjoying your education because I honestly believe that such a mentality results in the top scores.

[luken93]

Neglecting my fifth subject to concentrate on my top 4 was how I 'played the system', if indeed I did 'play' it.

Also, I did it by doing Business Management

It seems BM is becoming a common occurence

[binders]

Basically all you have to do is...screw whatever educational beliefs you have and bend over for VCAA and their system. Read the examiners reports, learn what style of answers they write. Forget what you think is right...it doesn't even matter. Just do whatever it takes to get as high an ATAR as possible at the sake of your enjoyment and the fun of learning. Whether that means taking subjects you don't like or screwing over your friends because "VCE IS A COMPETITION"...just do it!

I really hate VCE for creating this mentality in students. I know almost everyone does it, but it's still a horrific result of what VCE does to people. And then I get more annoyed at people who accuse others like myself for taking subjects like Latin simply because of the markup when in actual fact I just love the language and the literature involved (which is why I took Classics...a subject in which top 6 got me a 45, so no, it's not about picking subjects which give you easy high scores). /end rant

Aren't you exaggerating a bit?

I don't think VCE creates this mentality in people, they do it to themselves, or adopt it because of peer/parental/teacher pressure. There must be some of the 99.95s who haven't sacrificed their love of learning to their score. And you yourself seem to have avoided it by taking subjects you love.  

The range of subjects offered combined with your own attitude to learning can make VCE an enjoyable experience, and one full of actual learning and inquiry.  I enjoyed VCE a lot, and did the subjects i found most interesting.  While I'm not so academically inclined and certainly no top scorer, it was enough to get the uni place i was after, so it seems you can have your cake and eat it too.

[Zien]

Basically all you have to do is...screw whatever educational beliefs you have and bend over for VCAA and their system. Read the examiners reports, learn what style of answers they write. Forget what you think is right...it doesn't even matter. Just do whatever it takes to get as high an ATAR as possible at the sake of your enjoyment and the fun of learning. Whether that means taking subjects you don't like or screwing over your friends because "VCE IS A COMPETITION"...just do it!

I really hate VCE for creating this mentality in students. I know almost everyone does it, but it's still a horrific result of what VCE does to people. And then I get more annoyed at people who accuse others like myself for taking subjects like Latin simply because of the markup when in actual fact I just love the language and the literature involved (which is why I took Classics...a subject in which top 6 got me a 45, so no, it's not about picking subjects which give you easy high scores). /end rant

(tldr) Find a balance between "playing the system" and enjoying your education because I honestly believe that such a mentality results in the top scores.

+1 I think Fabbri is the perfect example for this.

Aren't you exaggerating a bit?

I don't think VCE creates this mentality in people, they do it to themselves, or adopt it because of peer/parental/teacher pressure. There must be some of the 99.95s who haven't sacrificed their love of learning to their score. And you yourself seem to have avoided it by taking subjects you love.  

The range of subjects offered combined with your own attitude to learning can make VCE an enjoyable experience, and one full of actual learning and inquiry.  I enjoyed VCE a lot, and did the subjects i found most interesting.  While I'm not so academically inclined and certainly no top scorer, it was enough to get the uni place i was after, so it seems you can have your cake and eat it too.

It was exaggeration but a lot of people actually do do this to a large extent. Although it's true that VCE doesn't create this mentality to the students directly, it offers a breeding ground for it. Whether you do or not is up for the students to decide. Anyway, Pixon was probably implying that the majority of those who do get 99.95 were 'playing the system' but also enjoying the subjects they're doing.



To actually play the system, you need pure determination to actually grit your way through the subjects which you don't necessarily like but gives back great returns for your effort. Constantly asking teachers for help after class/school, ignoring extracurricular and other activities you like (including sport), rote learning perfectly exactly what you need to do to please the examiners, never ever helping your friends at school because they might then get higher SAC ranks - it's not an enjoyable life. Not to mention that once you hit Uni, it's a completely new playing field.

[Pixon]

@Binders

I heartily agree with you that VCE can be an enjoyable experience if one sets out for it to be so, especially if you pick the subjects you love as you have done.

And yes, I was exaggerating to a certain degree, though there are people (even on VN) who have adopted such a style of learning, and I suppose there is a fine line between what VCE directly does to a person and what that person does to him/herself. In the end, it is up to us as students to try and avoid falling into the trap, but also, VCE must be partly to blame for directing students in such a way. Of course, teachers and parents will place pressure on students, but this pressure comes from a need to achieve high rankings and scores in an environment which is created by VCE/VCAA. The unfortunate reality is that, for many, they simply becomes a number in the end, and all the important values of education and learning are lost in this ranking. People won't focus on what they have taken out of their high school life, but instead rejoice or mourn in their final score.

Indeed, there are people like yourself who can take more out of VCE and education as a whole than just a number, but unfortunately this is not the case for many.

(sorry I realise I'm doubling on points made by Zien (Y) )

[binders]

surely around 90% of people can't be falling victim to this mindset? and of the top ten 10%, not all them will either.

I think that the highly competitive atmosphere at a small percentage of schools, and the...drive for excellence here on AN might be skewing
the perception of how many people actually fall into this.

[Pixon]

Interestingly, or perhaps more meaningfully, you will see this mindset mostly outside of the top 10% by people who need to "play the system" to succeed. Perhaps it is the people who don't play the game and enjoy their education who really succeed in the end.

And you have a point about AN and the small percentage of schools...and I can see how my perception would be skewed. I dunno...I still think it's an issue with VCE that should be addressed, and since this is AN we are discussing this on, the issue is more profound by addressing it here.

[luken93]

In support of Pixon, I don't go to an elite private school (and far from it), but I will admit that I'm highly competitive. However, I probably wouldn't be that competitive unless I came upon this very website. But has it been a bad thing? No, definitely not. I've come to meet some very smart and very dedicated students of whom I would never meet at my own school, which has only given me further determination to do well. If I hadn't, then there is no way I would have done as well, because where I come from a lot of people are far too optimistic about how well they do - only to find out there are far better kids out there. Now I'm not saying you HAVE to be competitive to do well, but you have to know what's around in order to realise what it takes to do well.

Furthermore, I want to do Medicine next year. There were 5000+ students that put this course as their highest preference, and yet they only take 10% of these kids. Is it wrong that I shouldn't put myself before others? Of course, I'm not going to tamper with results or "take out the competition" so to speak to get into the course, but in the end why wouldn't I try and better myself to get in?

Sorry if I wasted a minute of your life with my rant, I didn't mean to 

[Greatness]

In support of Pixon, I don't go to an elite private school (and far from it), but I will admit that I'm highly competitive. However, I probably wouldn't be that competitive unless I came upon this very website. But has it been a bad thing? No, definitely not. I've come to meet some very smart and very dedicated students of whom I would never meet at my own school, which has only given me further determination to do well. If I hadn't, then there is no way I would have done as well, because where I come from a lot of people are far too optimistic about how well they do - only to find out there are far better kids out there. Now I'm not saying you HAVE to be competitive to do well, but you have to know what's around in order to realise what it takes to do well.

Same situation, you dont realise the level of competition until you get results which arent what you expected or you meet other high performing students and find out what they do to obtain such high results.

[Romperait]

Don't need to play the system. I'm just that good.

[SDPHD]

If you qualify for SEAS you're hardly playing the system

Meaning...?