HSC tutorials - tips for the success of your first instance of HSC exams

At the time of writing this article, we are in the middle of term 2. Most 12 students have their examinations of HSC trial term beginning 3, which means that there are still (almost) a term any left, it has on students in time begin to prepare specifically for their reviews of the trial.

Learn how to use Packages of standards HSC

For almost all subjects HSC, the Board of Studies has packages of standards publicly available for students to read arc.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/go/hsc/std-packs/. We recommend that students look at the standards packages for their subjects - they give you an idea of the quality required for intervention of Group 6. Packages of standards are particularly useful for humanities subjects such as English HSC, where your expression and writing style also come into play. Feel a sense of acceptable expression and details such as paragraph General length, the manner in which the literary techniques are referenced, how many times a text is cited and the length of the quotes, etc. Even if technically your knowledge is as good as any that a poorly structured test (where you use poor expression, or the text of reference superficially or spend too much time on insignificant points etc.) will make the difference between a group of 4/5 and a band of 6.

Familiarity with standards packages will also help topics such as the HSC chemistry, physics, biology and social sciences (economics, Business Studies etc.). In the case of the HSC science, they give you fresh ideas for novel, means acceptable to structure your answer. Some questions may fully answered in terms of a table or a list of dot-point (for example identify / describe issues). Students that details in details diagrams graphics - all points are awarded a line / curve better adjust correctly (ignoring outliers in appropriate situations) and be able to justify the choices made.

Always refer to HSC science - syllabus

HSC science such as chemistry, physics and biology, are normative in nature. This means the syllabus shows you exactly what you need to know, content wise, and is an excellent work at that. While studying for these topics, it is always a good idea to have the syllabus you, printed or on your computer screen. The dot-points give you a clear idea of what you need to know and the scope at which you need to know every aspect of the course. For example, if a dot point requires that simply identify you the qualitative aspects, this means only, you must be able to appoint the aspects that it refers to qualitative and means that you be required to make calculations on them.

Another reason is that some syllabus dot-points are made as if they were rephrased examination questions. This is particularly true for dot-points asking you to ' discuss the impact on society... "or" assess the environmental impact of... "." You may very well be a question of the review, which was worth about 7 points, which basically asks you to demonstrate your understanding of one of these dot points if they ask in General.

However be careful for internal evaluations, such as teachers are known to define the test questions are dubious in terms of fitness as the program of the school, this is why you also cross reference your own material with the notes given by your teacher to school to ensure that all of the deficiencies is covered.

HSC math - only examination questions

When it comes to math, test questions and the manual issues are not the same. The first type are often are structured as a composed with several subparts. Question of the review are often designed with consideration more deep and incorporates several unique aspects of Mathematics (e.g. in math Extension 2 question 7 and 8). However, the manual issues can get repetitive and give you a false sense of security. Because the manual issues lack of variation in style, once you master it contains several types of questions and are able to do his exercises, this does not mean that you have known all the types of questions that a review can launch on you, especially if you go to a school which has a talented Math Department.

There is a limit on the types of questions for each topic, that a review can launch on you. If you do math Extension 1 and 2, it also much effort and skill to design a truly new and unique at this level maths question. As an industry insider (yes I am a teacher), I can tell you that many schools to simply questions of examination of documents from other schools. When I made my HSC mathematics Extension 2, I sought actively past papers for the trial of the top private and selective schools for practice before my HSC tests. I noticed in a year, say, 2002, there would be a question to the document from the school, and then in the next year, say, 2003, there would be an identical question B school paper. It is a good idea as a student to use old documents as practice - there are certainly more papers review useful to your time would allow, is why I recommend only review manual documents instead of questions.

I spoke with a teacher who works in a selective school top of Sydney on the way in which their teachers set for their 12 year examination questions students: "we have issues of review of schools outside NSW - we know typical students do not have access to resources". Thus while the test questions are definitely recycled, they are not always from sources, you can expect. But it is still useful documents of the practical examination, purely for the sake of familiarizing yourself with the General style of examination questions that you can't any old book.

Learn the tips and techniques to achieve the success and quality required for intervention of Group 6 with experienced tutors of chemistry, tutor of mathematics and physics. The dux College is among the best tutorials HSC in Sydney. Visit DuxCollege.com.au to familiarize yourself with the General style of examination through guardian HSC expert questions.

View the original article here

Private Vs Public High School and College Admissions success

Error in deserializing body of reply message for operation 'Translate'. The maximum string content length quota (8192) has been exceeded while reading XML data. This quota may be increased by changing the MaxStringContentLength property on the XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas object used when creating the XML reader. Line 1, position 9418.
Error in deserializing body of reply message for operation 'Translate'. The maximum string content length quota (8192) has been exceeded while reading XML data. This quota may be increased by changing the MaxStringContentLength property on the XmlDictionaryReaderQuotas object used when creating the XML reader. Line 1, position 9237.

This week I'm going to answer a popular question among parents concerning whether from a college admissions perspective if it's better for a student to attend a public or private high school and how this decision factors into the admissions equation. After having attended both public and private high schools myself, interviewed several administrative insiders and college admissions officers our research has shown that the short answer is no and the long answer is that it depends. I'll explain what I mean by both these terms and what strategies are most useful for high school students in this edition of college planning Saturday.

In order to effectively answer this question let's start by talking about the major differences between public and private schools as they relate to both you as a parent, your student and their ability to get into College.

Cost of Attendance:

Many parents make the mistake of believing that if a high school charges more it must be better. Not true. Not only do private schools tell Colleges that you most likely do have spare cash available for College tuition many College specific scholarship programs are not available to students. Likewise, it we have also found that many expensive private high schools in the country provide an educational experience that is only equivalent to that of a well funded public high school. The reason is that many private high schools invest their endowment money in order to continually build their brand name. Yes they have the capacity to provide better classrooms, facilities and teachers but the question you want to ask yourself is to what degree they actually do so. They are most valuable when they actively invest substantial sums of capital into building the structures and conditions necessary to help students outperform national averages on important metrics of high school achievement. Many of these schools however have proven incapable of doing so.

Many of the core services that your student needs in fact to get into a top college like stellar AP classes, SAT preparation and extracellular opportunities are available at many great public high schools for free. A national survey taken by the College Board revealed that Colleges on average accepted roughly 25% of their students from private high schools while 65-70% of students were from public high schools. This data suggest that Colleges do not distinguish their admissions criteria by whether a high school is public or private but rather what percent tile your student ranks within that given school.

Class Ranking:

As a result one of the most important things you should be looking at is not whether the high school is nationally ranked high enough but rather where your student places within their graduating class. This is why students who attend highly competitive high schools where the majority of students all have private tutors, SAT prep classes and lots of encouragement at home will have a far more difficult time graduating in the top 10% of their class than students who attends a far less competitive schools and have less support at home. It is actually more challenging therefore for students who attend more competitive high schools to graduate high enough in their senior class to significantly distinguish themselves.

Class Curriculum:

Most public schools, because their funded by mostly state and federal funds will only typically offer general classes in the core subjects of math, English, reading, writing, science history and physical education. In addition to these core subjects, they offer programs in the music and the arts. In contrast because private high schools are funded internally, the breath of their curriculum is often much larger and more narrowly tailored towards specialized programs and the diverse interests students may have. So from a purely curriculum perspective private high schools are far superior in that they have the capacity to offer students a very diverse and rich learning experience. Now where parents typically error on this specific point is thinking that this matters to a College. It doesn't. The reason is simple, College admissions departments hate subjectivity and there is no way as of yet to fairly and objectivity take into account the vast differences that specific classes have on whether a student is qualified for admissions. Instead, your focus should lie on what is measurable and what is objective and what Colleges actually look at which includes GPA, SAT and other standardized measures of achievement. I can't tell you how many times we have worked with clients whose students took generic AP classes, did excellent and got into some great Colleges while other clients had their students take highly complex specialized classes, did mediocre and were surprised when their admissions competitiveness suffered as a result.

Location:

This is a factor many parents fail to take into account when thinking about public versus private high schools. When I attended private high school some years ago, one of the biggest challenges I had with attending was that I had to commute via bus 60 minutes every day. After working with thousands of families as a financial and admissions advisor I am convinced that this plays a critical role in getting into College. Why? Because doing well in your classes and tests are based not on how much time your student spends at school but how much time they spend at home mastering the material. Learning is an integrated process that is the result of always thinking about and applying class concepts. If your student is spending their time focused on logistics and travel it only makes this learning process more challenging to achieve.

Passion & Desire:

Most importantly, if you want to your student to have the opportunity to attend the College of their dreams then it's vital that you keep in mind that research reveals that student ability and achievement is not something you academically create but rather something you unleash within them. How do you unleash your student's abilities you may ask? Easy. Allow them to learn and grow in an environment their most passionate in. It's like a quote my mentor once told me that "attitudes are more important than abilities, motives than methods and character than cleverness; and at the end of the day the heart takes precedence over the head... so follow your heart and your abilities will unleash like an avalanche". That is perhaps the on universal truth inherent in all the students of families we have worked with that were most successful in getting into any College they desired.

So remember, having your child attend a highly competitive private prep school is pointless if you're not focused on having them academically distinguish themselves within their class. That is one very important factor in College Admissions and one that can be accomplished at any high school, public or private.

To discover the business-side behind the admissions and financial aid process the "stuff-behind-the-stuff" sign up to receive (1) a free chapter of Phillip Lew's College Planning book, (2) a report on which colleges give grants for high income families and (3) a database on where to find the highest quality private scholarships. To instantly receive these free gifts go to http://www.totalcollegesolutions.com/ and watch our 5 minute introductory free video.

Phillip Lew is author of the best seller "Phillip Lew's College Planning System for Success" and is America's leading authority on getting your child into the college of their choice without using all your savings, sacrificing your current lifestyle or going plain broke. After graduating high school with a near perfect SAT and GPA, Phillip was accepted into UCLA, UC Berkley and Georgetown University. After making mistakes on the financial aid forms however Phillip was denied any financial aid at his top colleges and ended up not going to college over a year. Phillip's turning point was when he decided "enough was enough" and reapplied to Boston University, receiving over $40,000 a year in financial aid. After graduating Boston University cum laude with a double concentration in Finance and Entrepreneurship; Phillip has dedicated his time and talent teaching families across America the "truth" about the financial aid system and how to qualify for financial aid regardless of your income or assets or student's grades.

Phillip has been featured in the Daily News, the Signal Newspaper, KHTS AM 1120 as well as over 100 TV channels such as Fox News, USA network, Bravo, E network, ABC Family, Food Network, TLC, Tru TV, VH1, Animal Planet, Lifetime Movie Network, Oxygen, CNN and many more.

Total College Solutions is a member of: National Institute of Certified College Planners

View the original article here