The results for the 2022 Victorian Selective School Entry have just been released and they can be confusing for a lot of parents and students alike.
Some students may have received an offer for a spot in one of the schools, in which case congratulations are certainly in order. Other students may have unfortunately been unsuccessful, but it’s important to remember that isn’t over yet; there are still some future prospects that students need to be aware of as even an unsuccessful attempt can be beneficial in unexpected ways. Finally, some students may have some trouble understanding their results and its meaning.
Irrespective of your outcome, read ahead to ensure that you understand the next steps in your application process.
The results that are received from the Victorian Selective School Exam can be difficult to interpret. There are a lot of statistics involved in the calculation of these results and they can often be misleading if results are not interpreted correctly.
To break it down, there are seven categories that a student’s score on a particular section of the exam may fall into; Well Below-Average, Below-Average, Low Average, Average, High Average, Above Average and Superior. Each category represents a percentile ranking, thereby grouping students into different levels of achievement for that section.
These percentile rankings are an indication of a student’s ability with respect to other students who sat the test. It is important to remember, this ranking is an overall ranking and not just with respect to all the students that tried out from their particular school.
The selection of students to receive an offer into a selective school however is based just upon the results from the sub-category of students that sat the test just from their school, and as such even if a student scores incredibly well, they can still miss out.
In short, the results provided from the Victorian Selective School Exam are their rankings overall when compared to all other students that sat the exam whereas the results that they are selected against is their ranking in the group of students just from their school that are sitting the exam.
This can result in scenarios where a student from School A who got four Superior and two Above Average category results didn’t get into Melbourne High School whereas a student from School B whom received all Above Average scores in their tests did end up being selected. This is due to students from School A scoring on average much higher, therefore making the student from school A, compared to their peers from the same school, less competitive, whereas the student from School B was much higher on the ranking for their particular school as on average students from School B did not perform as well.
Selective schools in Victoria only accept 4% of the cohort from any school, however the often overlooked fact is that the competition is against others of that cohort. As such, the student’s school, and more specifically the academic ability of the fellow students applying from that particular school, can often decide what results are required by a student to get into a selective school.
For this same reason, being offered a spot in a selective school alone is not a good indicator of a students’ capabilities. In the competition for selective entry schools, it is often more advantageous to be brilliant between average students than to be average between brilliant students.
So, what does this mean for a student? It means that a student’s results are often representative of their cohort’s ability to perform and are not a good indicator of their own ability. So they shouldn’t be disheartened if they didn’t score as well as they had hoped they would.
At the same time, if a parent is debating on moving to a more remote school, it is crucial to remember that remote schools might provide a better advantage for students sitting the selective entry exam in the future.
If your child got a Principal’s Discretionary, then it’s time to prepare. The Principal’s Discretionary offer is awarded to those students who didn’t have a high enough result to receive a first round offer, but still had a competitive enough score that they may get in. The Principal’s Discretionary offer is a chance for students to demonstrate that they have skills outside of academics and to market themselves to schools in their applications in order to get selected.
Selective entry schools don’t just perform well in academics, they often have national level junior athletes and award-winning junior artists attending the schools as well. These talents often make it into the school through the Principal’s Discretionary offers. Of course not all students that are provided a Principal’s Discretionary offers are at this level, however it is a competition based on extracurricular skills and achievements.
The Principal’s Discretionary (PD) application generally has five parts to it with, two particularly important parts being the Personal Statement and Achievements. The goal of the PD application is to stand out in both these sections through your non-academic achievements. These sections can be encapsulated in a portfolio where the Personal Statement introduces the portfolio, containing a student’s achievements, as well as the way they can benefit the school through their skill set and personal qualities.
It can be challenging to write a Personal Statement in a complete vacuum so it is generally recommended that the Achievements that are going into the portfolio are prepared beforehand. It is great if students are able to collate some high level achievements or participations that they may have. Just a quick note however; a high level is considered a state level or above achievement.
Don’t fret if you are unable to produce anything of the sort, something that stands out also counts such as a Youtube channel, a Github page or even an app store page for an app a student may have created.
Remember to pick out the best achievements to set yourself apart but if you really can’t produce anything, simply placing any certificates that validate that you have participated in activities outside of the classroom can also be a strategy.
After this application, students may be invited for an interview. These interviews are generally run like assessment centers, just as if they were applying for a job. After this process, students will receive an offer if they are successful.
If a student was unsuccessful in getting a selective entrance school first round offer, it is still not the end. There are multiple rounds of offers and if you didn’t get an offer yet, you may receive them later on. According to the selective entry information pack published by the Victorian Government for the 2023 entry, offers can be made all the way until the end of term 4, so it may be too early to lose hope yet.
Even if a student doesn’t end up getting any offers at all, not only can the results be used later on, for example in your portfolio for John Monash Science School if you choose to apply, but there is also an entrance exam for Melbourne High School in year 9 for year 10 entry and in year 10 for year 11 entry which should be considered if the student is still keen to get into Melbourne High School.
It is a lot more difficult to get into the school through this process however. It is important to remember that selective schools such as Melbourne High School are a gathering place for the top 4% of the students in the state of Victoria.
These schools not only have better teachers, better designed curriculums and intensive extracurricular activities, they also have classrooms that teach the curriculums at a higher level and faster pace in order to ensure that they are catering to their students properly.
At the same time, the students themselves are incredibly competitive in nature and have an extremely rigorous work ethic. These factors can often make it incredibly difficult for some students to cope up and as such, they can choose to leave the school.
The application for year 10 entry into selective schools is often to refill these spots that have become empty. There is no longer just an entrance exam that needs to be passed. An application process, followed by an interview are a compulsory part of the process. Year 11 entry is even more rigorous. In Melbourne High School’s case, they only take Arts and Humanities students as they want a balanced cohort and most students that entered into the school through the selective entry exams are not Arts and Humanities oriented.
Whatever the case, even if a student chooses not to apply for further examinations, this is only a small part of the journey that is a student’s education. Although success at this stage may seem like an important achievement, it hardly has any effect on a student’s overall education.
Instead, this should be treated as a valuable learning experience for students as it is a simulation of the true test; Year 11 and 12.
A student should reflect on their experience, on the parts of their preparation approach that worked and on parts that didn’t. Students should then take the learnings about what worked and apply it to their studies as they have only just begun their highschool journey and only by striving to improve will success be guaranteed in their coming years.
If a student was successful in the first round offers, then congratulations, it is no small feat to accomplish! They have managed to score among the top few ranks out of all of the people that were trying from their school.
Even if it is not their first preference, a student should still celebrate their success. If a student has not received their first preference then it is most likely that they didn’t have the required score to get into their first preference school.
If a student decides to wait for their first preference school to release offers, then there is a slim chance that they may get a Principal’s Discretionary offer. It is much more difficult to get into a selective school through a Principal’s Discretionary offer, as detailed above, and unless a student has abundant confidence in their extracurricular skills, it is generally advised that they accept the offer received as the difference between the selective schools is marginal in terms of curriculum and the level of teaching.
At the same time, once a student receives an offer, the journey is still not over. Student’s should begin to prepare themselves as selective entry schools are a gathering place for above average students and given their nature, most students will face incredible competition in their schools, being challenged by not only their peers but also the content which is generally taught at a much higher level.
Selective entry schools also place a strong emphasis on a student’s extracurricular skills. Melbourne High School for example even mandates that students participate in some minimum number of activities in order to ensure that they have a wide repertoire of skills. All in all, a great journey awaits where the students can look forward to being among like-minded individuals and, hopefully, make lifelong friends and a lifetime of memories.
Irrespective of the outcome, all students should be incredibly proud of the efforts that they have put in to sit the Victorian Selective School Exam.
It takes courage and perseverance to take on a challenge such as the exam head on, and it is these personal characteristics, not numerical results on an exam, that will gear students up for success. Thus, whether you got it, didn’t get in, or are still hoping to, the future remains hopeful and bright.