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The evidence of past years is
that between 2500 and 3000 students will sit the entrance exam at the old Melbourne
Exhibition centre in
Carlton for places at one
of the four schools.
Students are given six
papers to complete. These are
- A Creative writing paper (15
minutes to complete)
- An Analytical writing paper
(15 minutes to complete)
- Reading Comprehension paper
(30 minutes for 50 questions)
- Mathematics paper
(30 minutes for 60
questions)
- Verbal Reasoning
paper (30 minutes
for 60 questions)
- Numerical Reasoning
paper (30 minutes
for 50 questions)
These Year 8 students’
aggregate scores are ranked amongst their peers. An
acceptable standard in all sections of the exam is
required.
Currently 85 per cent of the
Year 9 enrolments are selected through the ‘examination’ process
described above with no further information or interview required.
10 per cent of places are
allocated according to rank, score and equity considerations.
Details of what is an equity consideration may be obtained
from the Education Department. www.education.vic.gov.au/aboutschool/enrolling/selectentry
The remaining 5 per cent are
selected through a ‘Principal’s discretionary selection category’.
They are asked to write a letter and present a portfolio of
achievements. Consequently, some these are invited for an
interview.
Our HES exam
preparation workshops offer your children techniques that will
assist them in performing at their best on the day.
Understanding the 5% rule
(Increased from 3% from 2009)
The maximum number of
students admitted to the four schools from any one school must not
exceed 5% of that contributing school’s year 8 enrolment. If
there are 200 in year 8 at a school, then no more than a total of
ten may be selected, even
though more students may have reached the required academic
standard.
The five percent rule is an
example of social justice as it ensures that there are places
available to students from a very wide spread of socio-economic and
ethnic backgrounds.
An illustration makes this
more easily understood.
XYZ Co-Educational Secondary
School has 300 pupils in Year 8. At 5% there will be fifteen
places available. Twenty-two students sat for the exam and
seventeen were up to the standard. Thus five students would
be excluded because they were not up to the standard.
However, because there are only fifteen places available and
there were seventeen students who had reached the required level a
further two must be excluded. The top fifteen would receive
the places and others would be excluded because of the 5%
rule.
The balance between boys and
girls would depend upon their marks. The girls and boys are
competing for the same fifteen places at any one of the four
schools. A student from a large secondary college from which
there are very few candidates may have some advantage. Every
year students and parents say to us, "the 5% rule will not be a
problem, he/she will probably be the only one sitting from the
school." On the day of the exam they are usually astounded to
find a significant number of candidates from their
school.
Do not presume that you will
have no competition from the students within your
school.
Students in schools with a
very small year 8 enrolment may have reduced opportunities when
compared with large schools.
The 5% rule is an example of
social justice as it ensures that there are places available to
students from a very wide spread of socio-economic and ethnic
backgrounds.
There is no 5% rule
applied to applicants to John Monash Science school.
YEAR
8/9 workshops Year 8/9
Dates and Prices
Writing-We have two programs. They are called
Creative Writing and Ananlytical Writing (EACH is two half days or
one whole day).
Creative
Writing -
our emphasis here is on the structure of an essay, the use of
expressive language and the way to respond to an illustration or
other visual prompts.
Analytical
Writing -
our emphasis here is on the organisation of this type of essay, the
use of effective language and the way to express a point of view or
an argument.
Mathematics (four half days or two whole
days).
We focus on Maths problem
solving and exam technique. These workshops are not about training
in the basic processes of Mathematics. Students entering for
Scholarships should already be proficient at Maths. (over
nearly twenty years we have gathered from students information
about the questions used in exams).
There are two stages in
solving any problem.
o
Analysis – what is this problem really about?
What data does the question have which may help
solve it?
o Strategies
– the skills that will help to solve the problem.
Reading
Comprehension - A one-day course to teach students
the skills of inferential reading as well as how to interpret maps,
diagrams, charts, and illustrations. To select from answers which
include partly correct answers, common errors of reasoning and
misconceptions requires students to analyse the text quite
closely.
Verbal
Reasoning - A one-day course to look with the students
at the skills that Verbal Reasoning tests examine. This paper
looks to examine the students’ ability see relationships between
words and solve problems using language. It includes verbal
analogies, synonyms, antonyms and logical reasoning.
Numerical
Reasoning- A one-day
course to look with students at the skills that Numerical Reasoning
tests are examining. Numerical Reasoning Tests measure the
degree to which people can work comfortably with quantitative
concepts.
Practice
Exams - are fundamental to our program.
Every practice exam comes with complete performance analysis with
detailed explanation for every answer. We provide you with
the most authentic testing experience outside of the actual
exam. Results and corrected papers are handed back to
students and parents within fifteen minutes of the conclusion of
the exam with written explanations. | 