Hsc
It’s an injustice for the ages! A student of an elite Sydney private school who achieved a rank of 99.95 out of 100 in her uni admissions score has lost her appeal to higher authorities that she could’ve done better in her exams if she’d been given more special provisions.
The student was claiming the Board of Studies had unlawfully discriminated against her in exams because they only provided her with rest breaks to help her recover from her hyper joint mobility of the wrist. She says she could’ve done that little bit better if she had a computer or some extra time, Fairfax reports.
There’s a lot to say about this. First, everyone’s wrists hurt during exams. Plenty of people who developed inflamed hyper-essayitis of the hand from scribbling analyses of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead had steam bursting out of their ears when they heard about the situation.
Continue reading "Sometimes, getting 99.95 out of 100 is good enough" »
Dear HSC English Syllabus, so I guess we are coming towards the end of what has been a long and volatile 6-year relationship.
We have seen each other grow from the simple seeds of Year 7; talking about ‘themes’ like ‘love’ and ‘relationships’ and ‘evil’; to the Year 10 hypocrisies of ‘prejudice’ and the evils of ‘appropriation’, and the importance of punctuation (please disregard poor grammar - it comes with time and patience, none of which I have at this moment).
Now in Year 12, there is an understanding that an ultimate truth and knowledge, in itself, probably doesn’t exist - but we all belong so, hey, it’s cool.
Continue reading "Dear English Syllabus, you’re so dumped" »
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dmmaseoseoseo says:
Impressive web blog, Fastidious feedback that I can tackle. I am moving ahead and can apply to my present job as a pet sitter, which is very rewarding, however I need to additional expand. Keep it going! Read more »
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JOHN DOE says:
Dear Haters, This article is pure genius, and if you think it isn’t you should F off because this is spot on. NOWHERE in life will we need to write analytical essays on boring, pretentious texts. And yes i am talking to you Skrzynecki you arrogant @*@$&@*E2/7(*%&$ person. To the… Read more »
The world changed for our universities with the release of the Bradley Review earlier this year.
One of the most significant changes is that universities will have to meet targets to increase their ‘participation of low socio-economic status students’. In other words, they must increase the number of kids from disadvantaged backgrounds gaining university degrees.
This will put pressure on the way universities traditionally select school-leavers for courses – by ranking every Year 12 student on a percentile scale with a system called the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank, or ATAR.
Continue reading "HSC could be the saviour of our university entry system" »
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Anon says:
There are a lot of comments about how life isn’t reflective of exams and how the HSC doesn not prepare one for the real world. Quite frankly, the HSC ISN’T TO prepare you for the real world. That isn’t it’s purpose. The HSC is quite simply and exam used to… Read more »
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Nathan says:
The HSC discriminates against males. Males on average are not as good as females at English. Males on average are better than females on at complex subjects such as maths, physics and chemistry. In the HSC, physics as an example has been so dumbed down that people of lower ability… Read more »
High school students in NSW may not know how they are judged by prospective universities and the admissions system needs a review – according to the man who designed it.
The scheme’s founder is calling for an inquiry into the university admissions system arguing recent changes have led to the loss of transparency for students and parents.
In an interview with The Punch, Professor George Cooney listed a series of changes by universities to the admissions process that he believes are undermining openness in the admissions system.
Continue reading "Giving school leavers a fair suck of the uni sauce bottle" »
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Del says:
Bonus points for school captain??? Makes my blood boil! My daughter wrote and practiced her student leader speech for three days, while others scribbled theirs outside the deans office on the day. She got up in front of 350 kids and spoke with confidence! Lost the popularity vote and didn’t… Read more »
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Danny says:
you imbecile. Notre Dame takes people of Islamic Jewish Anglican Buddhist Salvation Army and NO faith. how do I know? because I attend the Sydney medical School and have seen first hand the cross section of applications come students. Read more »
In the latest incarnation of every child wins a prize, or in this case, no child wins the top prize, NSW and the ACT have joined the rest of the country in bringing to an end the chance for school leavers to get a mark of 100 in their HSC.
While in this case there is a statistical argument for closing the doors of the prestigious 100 club, I can’t help but lament the passing of the chance for some children to be considered, if not perfect, simply better than the rest.
Continue reading "If there’s no losers, it is hard to find the winners" »
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Andy from Khao Lak says:
I remember reading a story about kids playing football (soccer) and if you scored more than 4 goals, you were stood down from playing because,’it wasn’t fair to the other kids who hadn’t scored a goal’. How f..k’d is that! No wonder most kids these days spend more time on… Read more »
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lulu says:
One of the problems is the misunderstanding between HSC scores and the UAI/ATAR. The ATAR is a rank, not a mark and that means that if you got 100 (now 99.95) you are ranked at the top of your peers. It doesn’t mean that you got a perfect score in… Read more »
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