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[When I was preparing for the selective school exam (which had verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning, mathematics, creative and analytical writing along with reading comprehension) in Victoria, I went to tuition classes that specialised in the exam only. Parents often wonder whether
As the NSW Selective School High School Placement Test that happens in March every year is now 9 months away, parents start to ask questions on how to start preparing for this major test. I thought it’d be great to share with you the five things I did which helped me get into a
Some people approach practice questions in an unproductive way. There’s no need to buy 1000s of questions from different providers. The reason why too many practice questions is not productive is because firstly, the main focus of practice exam questions is to improve for the
This is a question I get asked often. While the quality of your writing is considered over the quantity, this is my opinion on how long/how many words should be in an essay or a writing piece for a selective school exam or scholarship test.
Some people perceive MacRob, Melbourne High or any of the selective schools to be really geeky, full of students with Asian background and all they’re interested is in studying. Most of this is probably true (as I’m of Asian background, geeky and interested in studying) but I’d
With less than 3 months until the NSW Selective High School Placement Test on Thursday 10 March 2016 (but make sure you check the official source to attend your exam at the correct date and time) here are some tips I’ve put together to help those preparing:
The majority of those kids end up being:
Perth Modern School is the only fully selective school in Western Australia. To get into Perth Modern School, students need to sit the Academic Selective Entrance Test, which is coordinated by the Department of Education under the Gifted and Talented program.
This year, there are over 292 schools across Australia offering academic scholarships. Academic scholarships offers are decided primarily on a child’s performance on an entrance exam. These exams are competitive and rightly so - a high school scholarship can save parents $90,000*
Last night, a parent from Western Australia rung me distressed and confused about the multitude of information out there about the ACER scholarship so this guide is here to make it easy to understand the scholarship exam process using a question and answer format.
In Australia, majority of selective school tests and scholarship tests are held in February through to April. With around 13,000 applicants and only 4,000 spots, the exam is fiercely competitive.
Having helped students prepare for the selective school test with high success since 2010 (last year all students received an offer), below are my top tips organised by test area in terms of test preparation for this year’s Victorian Selective School Test.
Do you know of someone planning to sit the Victorian Selective School Entrance Exam this year? Do they have a health care card? If so, tell them to apply for one of our 20 scholarships on offer. The scholarship provides them with all the online courses they need to prepare for the
There are a number of private schools in Sydney and the NSW area that offer scholarship to students. Scholarship offer students monetary reward (through the reduction of school fees) but it also benefits the school too because by attracting bright students, the results of the
In some selective school and scholarship tests they may test mathematics and then also mathematical reasoning.
In general, and from experience with these tests, mathematics is just
In the next four blog posts, I’m going to go into the qualities and work the following four children did in order to be offered a spot at their idea selective school. This post will focus on Perth Modern School.
I received this email from the family of a girl who went through our online courses to prepare for the MacRob.
![[Feedback from the family of a girl who got into
I wanted to share with you great news - one of our students who went through the online course after not getting accepted into Brisbane State High School in the first round of the Academic test (students sit this exam in Grade 5) got an offer in Grade 6. Here is her mother’s happy
Parent: “What part of the school curriculum is important for this test?" and "Do you follow the school curriculum?”
Me: “The curriculum isn’t particularly important in this test” and
Selective school and scholarship exams have demanding time limits!
Around the 15 - 25 minute mark for a writing piece and around 30 - 40 minutes for a multiple choice test such as mathematics and reading
There are 3 major selective school and scholarship test preparers in Australia being ACER, Edutest and Academic Assessment Services. Each of these test paper preparers/creators are detailed below along with what they test in their test papers.
Reading is a fantastic way to:
2016 Dates of the Brisbane State High School Academic Merit Test for the following year levels are:
Grade 5:
The Vic Selective School Test is coming up soon on 18 June 2016! This is the main entrance exam to gain entry into the four selective high schools in Victoria being MacRobertson Girls’ High School (MacRob), Melbourne High School (Melb High / Mel High), Suzanne Cory and Nossal.
What are the 3 ingredients to better writing for your exams – NAPLAN, Selective Schools and Scholarships and IELTS?
No. It’s not grammar and spelling exercises. It’s **practice, modeling
Selective tests such as the Victorian Selective Schools Test, NSW High School Placement Test (HSPT), WA GATE and Brisbane State High School Placement Test and scholarship exams are super competitive so it’s a good idea to have a timeframe of when and how to start preparing your
Does your child write using a lot of speech? Speech is when you put something into “speech marks” and it shows that someone is saying something. I see this kind of writing when children start preparations for their selective school or scholarship test. In fact, sometimes I
If you think that studying for a reading comprehension test is similar to studying for a maths test – you’re wrong!
Reading skills are very different from mathematics skills so "How do you
A few weeks ago, I received an email from a student. It went like this:
*I’m just saying that I need to improve in English - Poetry. It’s hard to understand the words and what it means. I generally need to improve
In Writing & Reading Club (a weekly writing and reading improvement program), we score essays and provide feedback.
The dates of the Perth Modern School test can be found through the Department of Education Gifted and Talent Website here: http://det.wa.edu.au/curriculumsupport/giftedandtalented/detcms/school-support-programs/gifted-and-talented/application-information/key-dates.en?cat-id=2058768#toc2
*Sitting a scholarship test, as many would agree is the most dreaded part of a scholarship application. The exam is hugely competitive with strict time limits in place—as little as 25 minutes is given to write a full essay. Moreover, to be successful in a scholarship test, your
I correct and give feedback to a lot of written expression pieces. Many of the creative writing and argumentative writing pieces are done by students vying for a coveted spot in a selective school or sitting an exam to obtain a hard-to-get scholarship offer.
General ability tests are notoriously difficult (especially those by ACER—one of the main scholarship and selective school exam writers).
In this post, I’ll run you through two questions and the things your
In this blog post, I answer 5 common questions that students and parents ask about preparing for the written expression or writing task of the selective schools test and/or scholarship tests.
I do a lot of tutoring for selective school and scholarship tests and our online course packages that cover abstract reasoning, verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning, reading
The writing test or written expression in a selective entry test is arguably one of the hardest parts of a multi-part test that generally examines reasoning (verbal, numerical), reading and maths.
I want to tell you the story about Anna [name has been changed to protect privacy].
Like many students who sit a selective or scholarship school test, she
Exam Success was in the news (Sydney Morning Herald) on October 11, 2019. The article discussed the tutoring industry and how many teachers, principles and politicians say to parents “you don’t need tutoring” but these are the same people who use tutors for their own children!
Exam Success were also delighted to have the opportunity to assist Nathan, who won SBS TV Child Genuis competition last year in his writing through our writing clubs. Nathan ended up securing a scholarship to a private school.
See the full article here: https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/principals-teachers-kids-are-tutored-despite-public-denials-industry-claims-20191009-p52yzb.html
If you’re unable to view the article on the above link, you can find images of the article below.
“My child struggles to come up with a story and can’t finish a story in the time limit!” “How can my child “show” and not “tell”? “How on earth do we fix up their writing and where do we even start?”
Finally, a simple and easy to use checklist that parents can use (even if you’re not good at writing) to help your child improve their creative writing (narratives) for competitive exams like scholarships, selective school entrance exams, ICAS and NAPLAN.
“My child doesn’t know what to write about!” “What is persuasive writing anyway?” “Where do we even start when preparing to write a persuasive writing piece?!?”
Finally, a simple and easy to use checklist that parents can use (even if you’re not good at writing) to help your child improve their persuasive or argumentative writing for competitive exams like scholarships, selective school entrance exams, ICAS and NAPLAN.
Private school scholarship testing season generally starts from February to April and in scholarship tests, written expression tests how well your child can write:
If your child is sitting a scholarship or selective school exam in 2021 - be prepared for a much different exam. A harder exam.
Anecdotal inside information we received in 2020 regarding questions and results suggest that: