2018 Selective School and Private School Scholarship Test Preparation

This blog entry will inform members of the Selective Support group on important issues related to the 2018 Selective Test and scholarship tests to take the heavy load away of the internal message board.

10 Jul
---
The 2018 selective test results are excellent. What's more important is that they show how students who were doing OC prep on Mathemafix did so well later in selective test. Most of these students improved further in their selective test than in their OC test.

Selective test 2018 results.

21 Jun
---
Selective school test result will be out on 6 July 2018. It looks like they now making things more predictable. But they budget 1 week in case the result is late. At this moment, they already have most of it. So if parents have a private school offer, and has not paid up, they can request an early release of the result.

https://education.nsw.gov.au/public-schools/selective-high-schools-and-opportunity-classes/year-7/outcome 

14 May
---
Scholarship offers: 18
 
Congrats to Ash for a scholarship offer from St Hilda, Perth, WA


23 April
---
The SSU has released the entry scores for 2017 selective test (to start year 7 in 2018). The dead for changing choices is 27th April so parents need to hurry up if they want to change the choices.

https://data.cese.nsw.gov.au/data/dataset/selective-high-schools-minimum-entry-scores

12 April
---
Scholarship offers: 17

Congrats to Bluebird1 on the top academic scholarship at Pacific Hills Christian School. This takes the total to 17 scholarships so far with 9 of them as 100% scholarships. 

03 April
---
Scholarship offers: 16

Congrats to Elvira on an academic scholarship at Santa Sabina. This takes the total to 16 scholarships so far with 9 of them as 100% scholarships. The investment of time parents made and the extra writing investment during middle of 2017 and term 1 of 2018 really extends the number of offers over last year's already great performance.

29 Mar
---
Scholarship offers: 15
 
Congrats to Cluckey1 on a full scholarship at Knox Grammar. This takes the total to 15 scholarships so far.
 
27 Mar
---
Scholarship offers: 14
 
Congrats to ty070119 on getting a full music scholarship from PLC Sydney. This is the kid's 3rd full scholarship!

26 Mar
---
Scholarship offers: 13

Congrats Nimra has two scholarships offer from Mentone Girls grammar and Mentone Grammar in Melbourne. Mathemafix is reaching out to other states. Kids are also using Mathemafix to prepare for the GATE selective program in WA and the SEAL program in Victoria.

Congrats to Ninja3 on a scholarship offer at Georges River Grammar. 

Congrats to Nima on a full scholarship offer from Shellharbour Anglican College.

21 Mar
---
Scholarship offers: 9

Congrats to FreeGlider1 on a full scholarship from The King's College.

Congrats to ty070119 on getting a full scholarship from Meriden. It's fantastic to achieve 2 full scholarships. This is a great effort.

Congrats to Pikachu2 on a full scholarship from Knox Grammar. 
 
18 Mar
---
The Scholarship Paper Trial gives an alternative view to predict the performance in the selective test. It's only 1 test so it's not accurate like the average of selective trials. However, students seem to confirm that the GA part is closer to the selective GA. The English part is also harder and probably close to the difficulty of selective English.

16 Mar
---
Many students have done the survey for 2018 selective test. It looks like the test is easy and similar to the one in 2017. The students this year have worked harder and most try to do the hardest stuff on Mathemafix. So, it is expected that they feel confident in this selective test.

A new feedback module has been created to allow students to compare questions that they failed on Mathemafix to what they saw in the selective test and identify similar questions. The feedback from the students will be very valuable as it gives insight into what is happening at ACER when they select the questions. It looks like the new Australian maths curriculum has kicked in. Students are given a fair number of hard questions related to maths problem solving at year 7 and 8. Students on Mathemafix have been given these questions for many years and this is why the top ones have been scoring near 95% on the selective maths tests.

The year 5 will have the benefit of seeing questions similar to what seen in the real 2018 selective test flashed before them so they can pay more attention to these questions.

Some students who did a lot of work also confirm that the reading skills for year 7 and 8 are relevant to the skills required to handle the English test. And more interestingly, the non-verbal reasoning is important for the GA test. The GA strategy is working well for students doing scholarship and selective tests. This is why students who have done enough of all test series give very good ratings in the survey.

15 Mar
---
Scholarship offers: 6

Congrats to MarMar1 who got a scholarship offer from Queenwood School for Girls.

Congrats to CharmeleonRPS on a full scholarship from Sydney Grammar. Two years ago, we got a full scholarship offer from Sydney Grammar. This is one of the few hardest scholarships to get in Sydney.

With a lot of schools yet to do interviews and make offers, we have still a along way to go until end of Mar or 1st week of April. Hopefully, the year 6 students will exceed the 9 scholarships last year.

Best of luck to all year 6 students who do the NSW selective school test today! After the test, students and parents should celebrate hard. And in the evening, please take a moment to fill out the survey form for 2018 selective test when the knowledge is still fresh in the mind.

14 Mar
---
We are now finally on the eve of the 2018 selective test. Students should have been rested for a few days for this big event. 

This is the ranking against 2017 students for all 8 trials.

And this is the ranking against 2017 students for the last 3 trials.

13 Mar
---
We are getting so close to the selective test. Students should now rest and relax for the selective test. This is the key to a reliable performance on the day.

This is a flash back to the survey on the 2017 selective test. Students provide a fairly positive picture on their preparation at Mathemafix for this selective test.

09 Mar
---
Scholarship offers: 4
 
Congrats to ty070119 on getting a full scholarship from Santa Sabina on spot. The principal could not look past a student who applied for music scholarship but also performed extremely well on the scholarship test.  

Congrats to Elvira on getting an interview offer from Santa Sabina for an academic scholarship. 

07 Mar
---
Congrats to CharmeleonRPS on getting an interview offer from Sydney Grammar.

06 Mar
---
The scholarship and Sydney Grammar invitation report from RyanJiang was a not-so-funny joke. The scholarship count is back to 3.

05 Mar
---
Scholarship offers: 3

Congrats to RyanJiang who has made it the group activities for Sydney Grammar and got a full scholarship from Trinity Grammar

Congrats to Staycurious with an interview offer from Mentone Grammar School, Melbourne. Last year there was a selective school placement in Perth. We are slowly reaching out to other states.

02 Mar
---
- Congrats to FreeGlider1 on a scholarship from The Scots College. This is our 1st win for 2018.
- Congrats to CharmeleonRPS on a full scholarship offer from The Scots College. This is a job well done, both in sitting the test and handling the interview.
- Congrats to Cluckey1 on a scholarship from The Scots College.

01 Mar
---
The Scots Colleges has interviewed our three shortlisted candidates CharmeleonRPS, Cluckey1 and FreeGlider1. The results should come out shortly.

- Congrats to Cluckey1 getting short listed for King's
- Congrats to Cluckey1 getting short listed for Sydney Grammar pre-interview activities
- Congrats to FreeGlider1 getting short listed for Sydney Grammar pre-interview activities
- Congrats to MarMar1 getting short listed for Queenwood

Scholarship interview offers are rolling in from Academic Services and EDU tests. The ACER Co-op test will take another 3-4 weeks for results to come back.


21 Feb
---
We are now entering the most critical of the selective test and scholarship test preparation. It's now important to worry about the health and well-being of the students. For most students, the work is done. They just finish the last 2 trials and rest. However, for some, they still have work to do. It's important to slow down and relax as well. A few days off from school will help to work at a more relaxed pace. Most of the work now should be on revision of failed questions and honing exam skills (mainly timing). 

We are entering the centre of scholarship season where so many are on offer. Unfortunately, the ACER co-op test is a bit of a cheat when they say you can apply to as many schools as you like but only the 1st choice school would likely look at the application. This is why students should only apply to one school offering this test. The good news is that more schools are now using Academic Assessment Services instead. This allows one to apply to several schools.

Knox Grammar	Boys	Wahroonga	Fri 23 Feb	Academic Services	28
Arden Anglican School Secondary	Co-ed	Epping	Sat 24 Feb	Academic Services	116
Sydney Church of England Grammar School (SHORE)	Boys	North Sydney	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	26
St Joseph’s College	Boys	Hunters Hill	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	90
International Grammar School	Co-ed	Ultimo	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	96
Penrith Anglican College Secondary (IB)	Co-ed	Orchard Hills	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	96
Oxford Falls Grammar School	Co-ed	Oxford Falls	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	107
Pittwater House	Co-ed	Collaroy	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	110
Northholm Grammar School	Co-ed	Fiddletown	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	130
Thomas Hassall Anglican College	Co-ed	Middleton Grange	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	137
St Andrew’s Cathedral School (IB)	Co-ed	Sydney	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	139
Georges River Grammar	Co-ed	Georges Hall	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	140
SCECGS Redlands (IB)	Co-ed	Cremorne	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	153
Rosebank College	Co-ed	Five Dock	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	179
St Paul's Grammar School (IB)	Co-ed	Cranebrook	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	273
All Saints Grammar	Co-ed	Belmore	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	278
ShellHarbour Anglican College	Co-ed	Dunmore	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	290
Wollondilly Anglican College	Co-ed	Bargo	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	304
Rouse Hill Anglican College	Co-ed	Rouse Hill	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	313
SCEGGS	Girls	Darlinghurst	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	12
Presbyterian Ladies' College	Girls	Croydon	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	36
Ravenswood School (IB)	Girls	Gordon	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	39
Monte Sant’ Angelo Mercy (IB)	Girls	North Sydney	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	74
St Vincent’s College	Girls	Potts Point	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	81
Wenona School	Girls	North Sydney	Fri 2 Mar	Academic Services	15
TARA Anglican School for Girls (IB)	Girls	North Parramatta	Fri 2 Mar	Academic Services	43
Cranbrook School (IB)	Boys	Bellevue Hill	Sat 3 Mar	Academic Services	56
The Hills Grammar (IB)	Co-ed	Kenthurst	Sat 3 Mar	Academic Services	73
Kambala School (IB)	Girls	Rose Bay	Sat 3 Mar	Academic Services	56
Our Lady of Mercy College  Parramatta Secondary	Girls	Parramatta	Sat 3 Mar	Academic Services	100
Pacific Hills Christian School	Co-ed	Dural	Sat 3 Mar	ACER alternative	131
St George Christian School	Co-ed	Hurstville	Fri 9 Mar	ACER alternative	169
St Catherine’s School	Girls	Waverley	Sat 10 Mar	Academic Services	46
The Illawarra Grammar School (IB)	Co-ed	Mangerton	Thur 29 Mar	Academic Services	245

  
Soon, we will start to get results from scholarship interviews and new offers for interview coming in. The Scots College has finished their interviews and we will know if any of our 3 candidates get a scholarship. Several other schools with tests dates 10th Feb-18th Feb will offer interviews soon. It will be an exciting period to see the results of all the hard work.

16 Feb
---
At this late stage, the following is all that matters

Selective trials
---
Selective Mathematics Trial Test (8 tests)
Selective English Trial Test (8 tests)
Selective General Ability Trial Test (8 tests)

Selective boosters
---
Mini Selective Mathematics Booster (20 tests)
Mini Selective English Booster (18 tests)
Mini Selective General Ability Booster (18 tests)

OC Revision Work (10 tests) - extremely hard questions from OC level suitable as selective boosters
SS Revision Work (10 tests) - the hardest questions from selective level - ultimate revision for top performers

Other work if time allows
---
English Comprehension Grade 7 (22 tests)
English Deep Comprehension Exercise (20 tests)

Mathematics Grade 6 (11 tests)
Mini Math Challenge Grade 6-7 (44 tests)
Mini Math Problem Solving Grade 6-7 (50 tests)

Mini non-verbal/visual reasoning Grade 6-7 (18 tests)
English Verbal Reasoning Grade 6-7 (10 tests)

14 Feb
---
At this stage, some top students have completed a large amount of work at selective test level and done some scholarship tests. So, the selective preparation is drawing to a close. There are only 2 more selective trials to complete. After this, it is possible to predict the selective profile based on the 8 trials and past students' performance.

For these strong students have nearly complete the whole program, the most important thing is to take it easy and slow down. It's important to rest and take it easy to make sure they are healthy and fresh for scholarship tests and they should rest completely 1 week before the selective test. The time is now best used for revising the failed questions from the hard series. Super Revision module is now the most effective tool for this purpose.

For other students who are still behind, it's important to focus on the hardest work and the trials. The main thing is to get enough work done but not too much as it's time to slow down and rest as well.

08 Feb
---
Year 6 students should complete the OC Revision series of 10 tests. These tests are probably more challenging than some of the selective trials! This table shows the ranking and past selective profiles. Some of the past students wentthrough the OC program before. They failed these questions but they had a chance to review them. So their scores would be high if they can remember them well. Those who did not go through the OC program here really struggled to score over 70%. So this series is especially recommended to those who did not do the OC program here (or doing the OC revision during Jan-Mar).

06 Feb
---
Many students have done 5-6 selective trials. Now they enter the last 2 that are harder and the time is at 40 minutes per test. This is the point where one can see if s/he is reaching a higher level of performance or not.

The following table compare this year students with last year's students over trials 1-6. The last 2 have been taken out. 

It is important for parents to be aware that the selective test last year was a little easier than normal so the profiles were higher than normal (about 5-7 points). Therefore the cutoff profiles at the selective school also rose sharply last year.

13 Jan
---
We are only  around 4-5 weeks away from the earliest scholarship tests of the main scholarship season for 2018 (to start year 7 in 2019).

School name	Type	Location	Date	Test type	Ranking
Trinity Grammar (IB)	Boys	Summer Hill	Sat 10 Feb	Academic Services	106
Ascham School	Girls	Edgecliff	Sat 10 Feb	Academic Services	18
Santa Sabina College (IB)	Girls	Strathfield	Sat 10 Feb	Academic Services	47
Brigidine College St Ives	Girls	St Ives	Sat 10 Feb	Academic Services	50
Sydney Grammar	Boys	Darlinghurst	Sun 11 Feb	unknown	6
Newington (IB)	Boys	Stanmore	Mon 12 Feb	Academic Services	89
Emanuel School	Co-ed	Randwick	Thur 15 Feb	ACER alternative	38
Queenwood School for Girls (IB)	Girls	Mosman	Fri 16 Feb	Academic Services	19
St Luke’s Grammar School	Co-ed	Dee Why	Sat 17 Feb	Academic Services	58
Meriden School	Girls	Strathfield	Sat 17 Feb	Academic Services	22
MLC School (IB)	Girls	Burwood	Sat 17 Feb	ACER alternative	68
The King’s School	Boys	North Parramatta	Sun 18 Feb	Edu Test	30

The applications to the above schools should close around 2 weeks before the test date. Parents should put applications in ASAP. A good thing to notice is that all of these scholarships are unrelated. The only thing that stops students from taking many tests is when the dates clash.

For those students who intend to win a scholarship, it is expect that they work hard and finish at least 6 selective trials along side with many tests at year 6-7 level as indicated in the Selective Minimum Work Plan 2018.

12 Jan
---
This is a snapshot of how the current year students who have done 3 sets of selective trials compared to last year students' trials and selective profiles. 

24 Dec
---
Kids should be given a fun-filled week to settle them down for the next leg of selective test preparation. 

From 1st Jan-mid Feb, students work hard to prepare for scholarship tests and the selective test. The ones who are on the right pace will have a very easy time as they should by now stop all tutoring/trials at coaching colleges. Some even never had any tutoring class to start with. Those who are behind will have to work hard. Most kids around this time of the year will concentrate on doing enough work on Mathemafix to have enough experience going into these difficult tests.

The 2017 survey for selective tests confirm that we are on the right track with the kind of work and the difficulty of the work.

23 Dec
---
A fair number of students have done 3 trials. This table ranks students who have done 3 trials with last year students to give some idea where they are. As students proceed to trial #8, the average trial scores tend to fall as the time is stricter and the tests become a bit harder. This means they must work hard between trials to support the trial averages.

18 Dec
---
Students who have just joined at this late stage should do the following

1/ Quickly do some tests among the series marked with arrows so the online tutor can see performance and advise what to do
2/ Go to "Customise available series" at the bottom of Welcome page and follow that link. Then copy the table "Recommended work ..." Paste this into Word and reformat it to make a work tracking plan. Follow this tracking plan to make sure up to 30 tests get done per week during the holiday time.
3/ Go to page QUICK LINKS and print the document Selective Minimum Work plan 2018 to use as the guide to make sure the minimum amount of important tests are done. One must try to catch up to make sure the selective trials and boosters get done and 8 sets completed by end of Feb 2018.

15 Dec
---
HSC 2017 ranking by all rounders. We keep our own data to allow more efficient searching to identify the most consistent schools. There are many schools rising in ranking due to movement of population. Private schools are getting increasingly better perhaps because their rising number of students from Asian backgrounds.

http://mathemafix.com/hsc_all_rounders.html

14 Dec
---
Good problem solving skills requires good reading skills too. And this is why students who do well in ICAS Science competition tend to do well in the selective test. The scores from the following series tell a lot about the overall ability of students.

Mini Science and General Problem Solving Grade 4      
Mini Science and General Problem Solving Grade 5-6

While science is not part of the selective test, these tests need the general observation skills and thinking skills. Students who are ahead of selective prep pace and have not completed these tests should now do them. The failed questions should be reviewed carefully.

07 Dec
---
The TSC scholarship results are out. Three boys were short-listed for interviews. The performance looks fantastic. This again confirms the writing strategies that have taken the kids to band 9 where it is possible to secure interviews.

interview	interview
interview	no interview
no interview	no interview
no interview	no interview
no interview

05 Dec
---
Pymble LC scholarship results are coming back. They look pretty solid even though there is no offer of interview. Writing is the area where kids are most vulnerable. It looks like the writing class helped the kids a lot as the lowest is touching band 8 while one student improved from end of band 5 (in Mar scholarship test) to middle of band 8 in this Oct scholarship test.


01 Dec 
---
There are students who are still struggle to score well at year 5/OC level. At end of Dec, they must move on and work with the Selectuve Minimum Work Plan 2018. They still have to do the 8 selective trials and some of the Selective Boosters to get redy for the selective test.

Over the Christmas and New year school holidays, these students should try to get a lot of work done. When the number of test results get to 700, it does make a real difference. This may mean that they have to do 25-30 tests per week during the holidays. Then, when term 1 of 2018 starts, it makes sense to take 2 days off from school per week to do more work. This makes room for a rest just before the selective test. Students can take 1 full week off doing nothing just to relax, stay healthy and let the memory fully recover from the pressure of hard work.

29 Nov
---
A revision set of  year 6 school maths for checking learning gaps have been uploaded to page QUICK LINKS.

Year 5 students can do the year 6 revision set to make sure there are no learning gaps. This is the minimum level of school maths expected to support the difficult maths at selective test level.

Parents will have to do the marking or students have to get on the module Maths Lessons, go to the Weekly Revision section and put the answers in for each 2-page test to get the questions marked.

Those who still have learning maths gaps should use the document Maths Lessons guide to cover all school maths topics at 1 year higher than their current school year. This is the minimum required. 

For a few students who are well ahead of others in selective preparation and their scores in Maths and English at year 6-7 level are consistently around 90%, it might be a good idea to do the year 7 maths revision. Year 7 maths is not very relevant to selective maths questions but it can provide more efficient ways for calculation (speeding up).

27 Nov
---
It's now the time to look at applying for private school scholarships. Many students have completed the early scholarship tests. The result coming out in Dec will give some idea on strengths and weaknesses and inform how to prepare for the main scholarship season (and the Selective test).

Parents who are interested in private school scholarships should apply to 2-3 schools and try to make sure the test dates are as far apart as possible.

Popular private schools in Sydney offering scholarships

This list is for 2017 and 2018.  Early scholarships in Sep-Nov are offered at Abbotsleigh, Pymble LC, Danebank (girls) and Barker, The Scots College (boys) in 2017. However, Barker and Abbotsleigh do NOT offer performance report to parents.

Parents must also beware of the ACER co-op test (one test with result to be shared between schools). This test forces parents to nominate a preferred school (first choice). Often, other lower schools will be happy to take the fee but won't offer anything. So it makes sense to apply to just ONE school offering the ACER co-op test.

The ranking in 2016 HSC can serve as a guide. However, any school that provide IB program would have their best students in IB program (and they will not do HSC). That means the ranking based on HSC will be lower than otherwise. This is why some schools ranked outside top 50 but offers IB are also considered as elite schools.

The main season of scholarship tests is from Feb to Mar each year.

School name	Type	Location	Date	Test type	Ranking
Trinity Grammar (IB)	Boys	Summer Hill	Sat 10 Feb	Academic Services	106
Sydney Grammar	Boys	Darlinghurst	Sun 11 Feb	unknown	6
Newington (IB)	Boys	Stanmore	Mon 12 Feb	Academic Services	89
The King’s School	Boys	North Parramatta	Sun 18 Feb	Edu Test	30
Knox Grammar	Boys	Wahroonga	Fri 23 Feb	Academic Services	28
Sydney Church of England Grammar School (SHORE)	Boys	North Sydney	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	26
St Joseph’s College	Boys	Hunters Hill	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	90
Cranbrook School (IB)	Boys	Bellevue Hill	Sat 3 Mar	Academic Services	56
Emanuel School	Co-ed	Randwick	Thur 15 Feb	ACER alternative	38
St Luke’s Grammar School	Co-ed	Dee Why	Sat 17 Feb	Academic Services	58
Arden Anglican School Secondary	Co-ed	Epping	Sat 24 Feb	Academic Services	116
International Grammar School	Co-ed	Ultimo	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	96
Penrith Anglican College Secondary (IB)	Co-ed	Orchard Hills	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	96
Oxford Falls Grammar School	Co-ed	Oxford Falls	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	107
Pittwater House	Co-ed	Collaroy	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	110
Northholm Grammar School	Co-ed	Fiddletown	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	130
Thomas Hassall Anglican College	Co-ed	Middleton Grange	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	137
St Andrew’s Cathedral School (IB)	Co-ed	Sydney	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	139
Georges River Grammar	Co-ed	Georges Hall	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	140
SCECGS Redlands (IB)	Co-ed	Cremorne	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	153
Rosebank College	Co-ed	Five Dock	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	179
St Paul's Grammar School (IB)	Co-ed	Cranebrook	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	273
All Saints Grammar	Co-ed	Belmore	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	278
ShellHarbour Anglican College	Co-ed	Dunmore	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	290
Wollondilly Anglican College	Co-ed	Bargo	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	304
Rouse Hill Anglican College	Co-ed	Rouse Hill	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	313
Reddam House School	Co-ed	Woollahra	TBA (in Feb)	ACER alternative	8
The Hills Grammar (IB)	Co-ed	Kenthurst	Sat 3 Mar	Academic Services	73
Pacific Hills Christian School	Co-ed	Dural	Sat 3 Mar	ACER alternative	131
St George Christian School	Co-ed	Hurstville	Fri 9 Mar	ACER alternative	169
St Catherine’s School	Girls	Waverley	Sat 10 Mar	Academic Services	46
The Illawarra Grammar School (IB)	Co-ed	Mangerton	Thur 29 Mar	Academic Services	245
Ascham School	Girls	Edgecliff	Sat 10 Feb	Academic Services	18
Santa Sabina College (IB)	Girls	Strathfield	Sat 10 Feb	Academic Services	47
Brigidine College St Ives	Girls	St Ives	Sat 10 Feb	Academic Services	50
Queenwood School for Girls (IB)	Girls	Mosman	Fri 16 Feb	Academic Services	19
Meriden School	Girls	Strathfield	Sat 17 Feb	Academic Services	22
MLC School (IB)	Girls	Burwood	Sat 17 Feb	ACER alternative	68
SCEGGS	Girls	Darlinghurst	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	12
Presbyterian Ladies' College	Girls	Croydon	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	36
Ravenswood School (IB)	Girls	Gordon	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	39
Monte Sant’ Angelo Mercy (IB)	Girls	North Sydney	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	74
St Vincent’s College	Girls	Potts Point	Sat 24 Feb	ACER Co-op	81
Wenona School	Girls	North Sydney	Fri 2 Mar	Academic Services	15
TARA Anglican School for Girls (IB)	Girls	North Parramatta	Fri 2 Mar	Academic Services	43
Kambala School (IB)	Girls	Rose Bay	Sat 3 Mar	Academic Services	56
Our Lady of Mercy College  Parramatta Secondary	Girls	Parramatta	Sat 3 Mar	Academic Services	100

There is one high ranked selective Catholic school in North Sydney called St Aloysius that has a generous bursary program but ONLY for Catholic students. Parents must contact the school for details.

For more information and other states, visit the website of local private schools and also the website of the largest assessment agencies.

ACER scholarships (with links to different states)
Academic Services Scholarships
EduTest scholarships
Independent Schools Scholarships & Bursaries

27th Nov
---
No girls received offers of interview from Danebank, Abbotsleigh and Pymble LC. It looks like no girls went for Danebank. We will know more about their performance when the report comes out for Pymble LC test. This is fine as the early scholarship tests are just for warming up. We are focusing on peaking the students in Feb for the main scholarship season and the selective school test. The scores on first 3 selective trials and series that lead to these look very good for the strong students. So everything is looking very smooth to match last year's performance.


6th July
---
After this holiday period, year 5 students will soon face the ICAS English and Maths competition. These 2 tests are very important for some students as their schools will use them as part of the school marks for the selective school application. To prepare for these competitions students should at least get the following work done.

To hope for High Distinction students must score well on this minimum amount of work

Test series	Qty
OC Mathematics Booster (6 tests)	all
Mathematics Grade 5 (11 tests)	Test 5-11
Math Short Response Grade 5 (12 tests)	5 tests
Mathematics Grade 6 (11 tests)	tests 1-6
Mini Math Challenge Grade 6-7 (44 tests)	5 tests
Mini Math Problem Solving Grade 6-7 (50 tests)	5 tests
OC English Booster (16 tests)	all
English Reading Skills Grade 6 (67 tests)	one test from each test type
English Comprehension Grade 6 (22 tests)	5 tests
English Comprehension Grade 7 (22 tests)	3 tests
English Deep Comprehension Exercise (20 tests)	2 tests

We will soon enter the period where strong students should be preparing for early scholarship tests. These tests are offerred by a few elite private schools in Oct. They are much better than the mock selective trials offerred by tutoring colleges. This early scholarship preparation is between 1st Aug and 1st Oct where students will do some difficult work, 2 selective trials and writing work. 


See 2017 Early Scholarship Tests in Sydney for more details


This is a snapshot of some early scholarship testresults for year 5 students in Oct 2016.

We have got 1 full scholarship winner in early scholarship tests among the boys. There have been several interviews including one at Barker College (result not available). However, there has been no offer of interview for the girls from Pymble and Danebank so far. Hopefully, the girls will do better this year.


---
Information from the Selective School Unit (SSU)

Minimum entry scores for 2017 (from 2016 the Selective Test): 2017 minimum cutoffs

Official webpage for Selective School Test: Selective School - Year 7


The timing for Selective test preparation

Time	Activities
Year 5, Jan - Jul	OC level (advanced year 4 and year 5) revision
Year 5, Jul - Oct	Year 6 level, year 7 level and 1st 2 Selective Trials
Year 5, Oct - Nov	Early private school scholarship tests and some big selective trials at big tutoring colleges such as Northshore, PreUni, James An, etc.
Year 5, Dec	Analysing results from early scholarship tests
Year 5 and 6, Dec - Feb	Year 6 - 7 level, doing 6 more Selective trials and Selective Boosters
Year 6, Feb-Mar	Main season for private school scholarships
Year 6, mid Mar	NSW Selective School Test (and WA plus various places)

Mathemafix documents
Important Mathemafix guides for Selective Test preparation. These documents are only available to members after they log on the website.
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User Guide (updated Feb 2017) *
SS G&T Program Year 5-6 *
Selective Roadmap *
SS Work Schedule (updated Mar 2017)  
Maths Lessons Guide  
Maths Problem Solving Strategies Year 4-5  
Maths Problem Solving Strategies Year 6-7
Guide for Scholarship and Selective Test Writing (updated May 2017)  
Guide for English Question Types and Strategies
Guide for Exam Techniques

* most important documents


UNSW ICAS competitions

The ICAS competitions are worth preparing for. Some OC classes will use ICAS English and Maths as part of the school marks for the Selective School application. Generally, getting top 3% - 1% in the ICAS maths and English competition is a good sign for success in the Selective School test.

ICAS SUBJECT	ICAS SITTING DATE	OFFICIAL CLOSING DATE
Digital Technologies	Tuesday, 23 May 2017	Friday, 7 April 2017
Science	Tuesday, 30 May 2017	Tuesday, 2 May 2017
Writing	Monday, 12 June – Friday, 16 June 2017*	Monday, 15 May 2017
Spelling	Wednesday, 14 June 2017	Tuesday, 16 May 2017
English	Tuesday, 1 August 2017	Friday, 23 June 2017
Mathematics	Tuesday, 15 August 2017	Friday, 23 June 2017

 
To prepare for the ICAS tests, students should do the following work

ICAS SUBJECT	Suggested work and test series
Digital Technologies	Computer Skills Grade 3-4 Computer Skills Grade 5-6
Science	Mini Science and General Problem Solving Grade 3-4 Mini Science and General Problem Solving Grade 5-6
Writing	Do work in modules: Read Summarise Write, Punctuation, Story Starter and the Writing Forum
Spelling	Do work in modules: Wordlist and VocabTest English Vocabulary Year 5-6
English	OC English Booster English Comprehension Grade 6 English Reading Skills Grade 7 English Comprehension Grade 7
Mathematics	Mini Math Challenge Grade 4-5 OC Mathematics Booster Mini Math Challenge Grade 6-7 Mini Math Problem Solving Grade 6-7

 

2017 NSW OC results

07 Oct
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The wait is over. They again released the OC result on Friday of the first week in Oct. Some results are slowly rolling in. It looks like the test was easier this year so raw marks look high. The school marks seem to have a big influence on the profile. Any school mark around 85 or lower would significantly drag the the OC profile down.

13 Sept

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Only 3 more weeks to wait until we have the 2017 OC results. The 2017 results would look similar to those from 2016. Knowing that the lowest OC classes in Sydney would take OC profile cutoffs around 198, most of the students on Mathemafix have the opportunity if parents care to apply to those low classes. 

One good thing about applying for OC classes even though parents don't really want to send kids to OC classes is the opportunity for the kids to get into an enrichment class at their current schools (if the schools have enrichment classes). Schools often allocate places in their enrichment classes based on the result of the OC test and other evidence such as ICAS competition results and school reports.

2017 NSW Selective School results

05 July 2017
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If parents want to appeal, they should look at the raw marks and profile relative to other students to decide. Appeal is only on school marks and must have support from the school principal. The SSU will only recalculate the profile by dropping the school marks out of the calculation. There is no such thing as getting extra school marks or changing the profile. The SSU only explores an alternative profile to improve the position on the waiting list(s) while leaving the official results as they are.

Parents who already decided to take up scholaships at private schools should do others a favour by declining the selective school offers so other kids on the reserve list will get the offers quickly. Often some parents would still accept the offers then wait until Nov-Dec to decline!  That's a long wait for other kids/parents on the reserve list.

Here is the reserve list

https://education.nsw.gov.au/selective-high-schools-and-opportunity-classes/year-7/outcome/year-7-reserves

01 July 2017
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The selective result came early for a change! It was released on last day of Jun. We have got a set of fantastic results coming back. Early picture shows 7 students getting over 250 and most kids exceed expectations. And as expected, GA is powerful and maths does not matter that much. Our students consistently do well in GA and in many cases this covers for weak English and maths.

Looking at the raw marks, it is clear that strong OC classes in Sydney have enjoyed wonderful scaling (going down less) of school marks while other schools have poor scaling (going down more). One student from overseas had no schoolmarks and the profile is great based only on raw test marks. This is why the SSU generally does not allow parents to apply for school marks exemption (not to use them). While school marks always drag the profile down, the scaling ensure that strong schools get dragged down less than normal schools (dragged down). There is no pushing-up like parents often misunderstand in this game. There is only going down less than expected.

This selective test is easier than previous tests. But it is clear that English is again extremely hard causing many kids to score under 50%. Maths is now like last year so the maths scores are extremely high. GA also looks easier than before. Our students are strong in GA and this helps cover the weak English.

27 June 2017

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Less than a week before the 2017 selective test results come back!

Parents should be aware of the important dates for making an appeal if you think the result is lower than expected due to some unfair reasons. This could be due to unusually low school marks or family circumstances.

- Early July 2017, placement outcome advice sent for entry in 2018

- 24 July 2017, appeals due to primary school principals for entry in 2018

The dates above mean that as soon as the result comes back, parents should use the hyper link provided on the email to request the marks immediately. It takes 1-3 days for the marks to come back. This allows an assessment of why the selective profile is not expected. If the school marks are low, parents could appeal but the whole thing must go through the school principal! The school principal must first have a look to see why the school marks are low and agree to support it before it can be sent to the SSU for further processing. The time will be so limited. Often they delay the result so there will be even less time to fill the application, see the principal, wait for the principal to meet with the teacher to discuss and meet back with parent discuss further...

In short, one must be quick in this whole thing and prepare a good case for appealing. One cannot simply appeal without very good reasons why the SSU should help find ways to bring the profile up and jump the reserve lists. Remember that they will never admit mistakes and change the profile! They will only help to figure out what the profile should have been, and help jump the reserve positions.

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The 2017 selective school test result will be released during 1st week of July. It's a nervous time for parents. This year have a strong group of students and the scholarship test results with 9 scholarship offers have proven this. So the selective school test results are likely to be good.

When the results start to roll in the first week of July, this web blog page will be updated. The raw marks and ranking table will tell us a lot about how the students performed.

This is the 2016 and 2015 results for those who reported. Hopefully 2017 will be better.

2017 OC preparation

This blog entry covers useful information and take the load away from the Mathemafix internal message board leaving it for only the new information. 

13th Aug,
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Students generally report hard English while GA and maths are easier than what they get to do on Mathemafix website. Overall, the feedback is positive. 25 students have given feedback and the summary is as follows.

24th July,
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We are now at the END of OC preparation. Students should be resting. Parents either ask students to quickly complete the rest of the trials if they have not finished 8 sets. Or it is ok to ask them to rest completely, and then come back after OC test to finish off the trials just for the purpose of getting a ranking and prediction of OC profile.

Every year in the past, I felt a little worry about the performance of the kids but the results came back were better than the year before. With more content and better experience, this year is probably going to be better again. The key success factor right now is "resting completely" and thinks about the OC test as just a game. Kids should just keep calm and keep cool. Parents should book a restaurant for a nice lunch on the OC test day and let the kids know that it will be a time for celebration and not to worry about the result. That is something nice to look forward to rather than worrying about the test.

After the OC test, parents should ask the kids how they feel about the OC test, fill the survey form on Mathemafix and decide on updating the OC choices. The SSU allows updating choices until near the end of April. It's important to put 2nd choice at a OC class just to get an offer (even if you have no intention of accepting). Then use that offer to pressure the current school to put your kid into its enrichment class (in case there is no placement into the first-choice OC class).


If your kid is not well on the day, go to see a doctor immediately after the OC test to get a medical certificate then fill the illness and misadventure form.

Attached is the trial ranking for 2017. Kids who have not done all 8 trials would rank a little higher as the later tests are harder.

6th July
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A lot of year 4 students are working hard. The scores are improving. The overall picture looks very good much like last year. We are heading a great set of OC results where it is expected that 80% of the students will get over 200 and about 60% will get over 220. While 200 is enough for placement in some low OC classes but it is expected that many parents won’t accept OC offers far from home. However, the 2017 selective result again confirms that students in OC classes have strong advantage over students in schools without OC classes.

Their school marks are valued much higher. Those students in schools without OC classes have their marks devalued because there are too many weak students also applied for selective school test. Their poor performance drags the entire school down. The disadvantage could be between 6 - 20 profile points for similar raw marks in the selective test! At the extreme end, it's the fault of the students as they also get poor school marks because they don't try hard at schools to be among the top 5.

So the message here is that parents should consider accepting OC placement even if the class is a little far from home. And picking a reasonable 2nd choice is the key to getting placement then decide later to accept or not. Also gaining OC placement anywhere will also place the student into a local enrichment class (if the school has one). With the OC placement, it is much easier for parents to see the principal to request enrichment which could take 2 forms (1) entering an enrichment class (if there is one) or entering a composite class to study with a higher year (skip year 5, go to year 6 then repeat year 6 again).

One other important thing is  the 10 days after school holiday and the OC test. Some parents will let the kids stay home right until OC test to get more work done (or just relax and be healthy). It is now winter and many kids turn up with cold and flu on the OC test day in the past.

19th Jun
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We are reaching a critical time for 2017 OC preparation. The coming school holiday period is so important as students have 2 weeks without school to focus on OC preparation. At this late stage it is most useful for students to stay at home and do a lot of tests, review failed questions, use Super Revision to review past failed questions. It is normal for those who are behind to do as much as 40 tests per week to gain enough depth to score better in OC trials.

Parents should resist the temptation to send kids to intensive trials at tutoring colleges. This will be a waste of money and time. It will stress the kids out without any evidence of benefits among the past students on this website. It is more important to make sure they don't get cold/flu during this winter period before the OC test. So it's important to avoid activities that expose kids to extreme weather and gatherings that expose them to many kids.

There are a few things about performance and exam techniques that parents should pay attention to and coach the kids out of bad habits ...

- Kids tend to rush too much on English comprehension. They need to spend more time reading the texts and reading the questions.

- Kids tend to make silly mistakes in maths as they do not read the question properly (several times) to know exactly what the question asks for.
- Kids have learning gaps at the basics for year 3-4 maths but parents are not aware of because they are top maths students. This leads to silly mistakes or failure to deal with hard questions. The Maths Gaps module should be completed and the learning gaps must be filled.

- Many kids don't have good exam techniques. Parents should take the kids through the Exam Techniques guide to help them do better timing under exam conditions.

- Parents must remember that having a few days of rest before the OC test is very important. So the time remained for OC preparation is less than what it seems to be.

15th May
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The series General Academic Knowledge Grade 3-4 is being expanded. This series provides really useful assessment of kids' general knowledge about the world, the Universe, general science and human bodies. Doing well in this series will ensure kids have the vocab for GA and English comprehension. The information comes from Brainpop Jr. This is a great website that parents should consider getting a subscription.  
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Looking back at 2016 OC results 

 

There were a lot of strong students in 2016. Hopefully we will have a similar group of students this year. Looking at the results, a trial average around 70% on Mathemafix's 8 trials would be required to get OC placement. Around 80% will be an excellent level to expect placement into any OC class.

OC placement cutoff scores for 2017 can be found here: Minimum Entry Scores for 2017 OC Placement

Official web page for key information about OC test: Opportunity Class year 5

Most important documents on Mathemafix related to OC test preparation: OC Roadmap, Minimum OC Work Plan 2017, OC G&T Program guide, Maths Problem Solving Strategies Year 4-5, Maths Problem Solving Strategies Year 2-3 (for year 3 students)

The above documents are available for download after a user log on Mathemafix website (into OC group).