Baulkham Hills vs Girraween vs Penrith (1 Viewer)

StrawberryZephyr

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Hi! I'm in year 10 and I have been considering various options for schools to move to in year 11 (I was originally considering St Marys Senior High but I decided against it) and I was wondering, out of Baulkham Hills, Girraween and Penrith, which is better?

I want to do Chemistry, Biology, Maths extension, and I am currently doing accelerated Modern History, so if any of you have gone to those schools and done those subjects, could you tell me what it's like?

Also, how strict are teachers at those schools, and how stressful is it there?

Lastly, if anyone entered after year 7, what are the selection processes like? How hard are they? Do you have any advice for getting into one of those schools in year 11?

Thanks!
 

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Well of course Baulkham Hills is the best, but I'd go to Girraween. You have to do an exam to get in, and you're in luck this year they accept 20 people for year 10, but technically 25 cause people leave and go to other schools. The reason I say Girraween because from experience, most people there are more nice and a more calming environment, Baulko on the other hand is quite toxic. Again take this for a grain of salt, i dont go to either schools but that's what I've heard from friends.
 

ahri

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Would personally recommend Girraween or Penrith.

BHHS:
- Can/ will try to accommodate for accelerated but you would simply be put in a class with year 12s
- Easier to get in than Girra
- Higher ranking, better scaling
- More competition to motivate you

-More competition (especially when it comes to maths, it's insanely competitive)
-Very high stress, lowkey toxic culture

http://community.boredofstudies.org.../378788/baulkham-hills-application-guide.html
This is a good guide for applying to Baulko.

Girra and Penrith would obviously be more chill, but Girra does not do any accelerated subjects other than Chemistry, so they would not be able to accomodate.

BHHS is just report, which is pretty subjective in itself, whilst Girra uses an exam. I personally prefer the exam since it ranks you against the other applicants and its a better accuracy of how you will perform in the school.
 

idkkdi

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Would personally recommend Girraween or Penrith.

BHHS:
- Can/ will try to accommodate for accelerated but you would simply be put in a class with year 12s
- Easier to get in than Girra
- Higher ranking, better scaling
- More competition to motivate you

-More competition (especially when it comes to maths, it's insanely competitive)
-Very high stress, lowkey toxic culture

http://community.boredofstudies.org.../378788/baulkham-hills-application-guide.html
This is a good guide for applying to Baulko.

Girra and Penrith would obviously be more chill, but Girra does not do any accelerated subjects other than Chemistry, so they would not be able to accomodate.

BHHS is just report, which is pretty subjective in itself, whilst Girra uses an exam. I personally prefer the exam since it ranks you against the other applicants and its a better accuracy of how you will perform in the school.
Toxic cultures are lit, and not really toxic in the sense that highschool "toxicity", as you guys refer to it, improves performance in most cases and is really just some sad people flexing their marks. Makes life more interesting than a Peppa pig environment. Now if actual sabotaging was happening, the effects of that would be arguably bad.
 
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c8

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Toxic cultures are lit, and not really toxic in the sense that highschool "toxicity", as you guys refer to it, improves performance in most cases and is really just some sad people flexing their marks. Makes like more interesting than a Peppa pig environment. Now if actual sabotaging was happening, the effects of that would be arguably bad.
Yeah I'm pretty sure 'toxic culture' in the higher selective schools refers to this, it almost always motivates the cohort to do well and push themselves, just that there are usually a few who can't/don't want to adapt to this environment. That being said though I know of a few schools a while ago who had a real problem with rank protection, which went something like people not helping those above and below them to maintain their rank resulting in a truly toxic environment. I'm not sure of any schools that currently have a reputation of really bad rank protection, but it usually occurs to some extent. BUT there's a trend in those top 10 selective schools where the cohort works together really well to improve others and help and collaborate with each other, in these situations I know of I think two schools that got top 2 when they worked together so 🤷‍♂️
 

Velocifire

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I wonder how he did with HAST tho I hope he gets in
 
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seremify007

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Yeah I'm pretty sure 'toxic culture' in the higher selective schools refers to this, it almost always motivates the cohort to do well and push themselves, just that there are usually a few who can't/don't want to adapt to this environment. That being said though I know of a few schools a while ago who had a real problem with rank protection, which went something like people not helping those above and below them to maintain their rank resulting in a truly toxic environment. I'm not sure of any schools that currently have a reputation of really bad rank protection, but it usually occurs to some extent. BUT there's a trend in those top 10 selective schools where the cohort works together really well to improve others and help and collaborate with each other, in these situations I know of I think two schools that got top 2 when they worked together so 🤷‍♂️
This is what we used to think about Ruse back in my time (I was from BHHS).
 

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