Elite students exploit bonus points... (1 Viewer)

cxlxoxk

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Elite students exploit uni entry scheme - National - smh.com.au

The Board of Studies grants dispensations including extra exam time and scribes for students with disabilities and illnesses ranging from diabetes to chronic fatigue and illegible handwriting to sweaty palms.
Is this for real? What the hell sweaty palms? And i'm sure a lot of people have messy handwriting when doing their exams, what can be classified as too illegible. Why is this article released now just 9 days away from university offers?
 
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dp624

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What the heck
my writing is pretty hard to read
perhaps i should apply too
 

suzlee

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Where's the quoted bit about illegible handwriting and sweaty palms in the article?
 

cxlxoxk

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dp624 said:
What the heck
my writing is pretty hard to read
perhaps i should apply too
Lol too late to apply =S. I dunno why such an article is being released now, at this date.

suzlee said:
Where's the quoted bit about illegible handwriting and sweaty palms in the article?
It is on 2nd page.
 

annabackwards

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It's being released for 09ers :D

But nah, my writing is atrocious but still legible apparently. I think the extra time wouldn't help anyway seeing as i always write 2 more pages than the average person... just trying to explain what i want to the scribe would be too much of a hassle and time consumer.

EDIT:
EbonyTW said:
It's already been specified in the special provisions for your exam, you could have applied for it already. And you should have asked if you wished to use it.

You can't do anything about it now so just harden up and realize that someone had the oppurtunity to have 5 extra minutes or something.

Big deal/
The extra time is 30mins if i remember correctly
 

Pwnage101

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my writing, seriously, was one of the worst out there

but i believe in hard work and doing things like everyone else - so i just did teh HSC like everyone else, and got 99.9, beating everyone at my school who indeed had special provisions with extra time, laptops, scribes, etc...

sure, it frustrates me that there are people out there who take advantage of the system when they truly have no problem (i have no problem with those who actually need special provisions genuinely), but at the end of the day i can't control it, and i just did my best...
 

-may-cat-

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"At least one Sydney medical clinic is promoting a service that, for about $600, will give students a completed application form for special consideration by the Board of Studies and the Universities Admissions Centre."

o_O
 

wixxy2348

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annabackward said:
The extra time is 30mins if i remember correctly
In the spesh Provs groups at my school, it was mostly 2.5 min extra writing per half hour, or 5 min break per half hour.
 

georgefren

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True. I dont see how many of those special provisions actually HELP : a laptop or scribe isnt going to give you a significant advantage.
 

TehAzner

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Along similar lines, we had two people in our year apply for special provisions for the Biology assessments/exams because they had liver disease... never found out whether it was true or not.

Edit: They got 20 minutes extra for each and every assessment/exam
 
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wixxy2348

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I had 5 minutes break per half hour in exams due to a long term wrist problem making it excruciating to write for extended periods of time.
They took away my paper whenever I opted to take a rest break... I don't feel it gave me an advantage. In fact more often than not I lost my train of thought and wasted time trying to get back into essay-mode following the breaks.
 

kaz1

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I broke my knee recently, maybe I can apply for that, fake depression and show how shitty my writing is.
 

proringz

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The media seems to bashing private schools lately - 'lots' of kids moving out of private schools, the article in The Sunday Telegraph yesterday about uniform which compared private school's winter uniform vs public school's summer uniform in the main picture i.e no jacket, vest etc, and now this.
 

TehAzner

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proringz said:
The media seems to bashing private schools lately - 'lots' of kids moving out of private schools, the article in The Sunday Telegraph yesterday about uniform which compared private school's winter uniform vs public school's summer uniform in the main picture i.e no jacket, vest etc, and now this.
Yeah I read that article as well. Usually most students nowadays will bring their own school bags instead of actually buying them from the school... such a rip-off. With regards to the most expensive piece of clothing, it has to be the winter blazers... my god... $200+ for one, and if you have nothing to put on your blazer, it's a huge waste.
 

scora

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pretty sure i saw an article on this, like a month ago in the smh
 

Peteage

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I had special previsions for my hsc exams because I had sweaty hands (hyperhidrosis) which become a particularly sweaty when you are nervous - which is obviously a pretty huge inconvenience when you are doing HSC exams. To compensate I was granted a writer for my subjects which where predominantly essay themed and was given an extra 5 minutes per half an hour to compensate for dictation. I believe the extra time is completely fair considering ideas are sustained far more difficultly when you are not writing and a lot of time is spend spelling words which are esoteric to year 11 students. All-in-all I managed to do 7-8 pages per 40 minutes which is the equivalent of what I can do without a writer without the extra time; so it seems to me a pretty fair deal.

I wouldn't have felt disadvantaged if I didn't have my hand condition and did not have special previsions. It is hardly fair to suggest I have exploited the HSC to gain extra points.
 
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perilakon

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I suffer from chronic depression and anxiety but I didn't apply for anything for my school certificate and have been offered Special Provisions more than once by different parties. I attend a private school and looking at the Special Provisions for the SC, I can attest for the amount of people taking Provisions. I don't know the reasons why for most, but for some people, I do feel it is necessary. However, having Special Provisions doesn't necessarily grant you extra marks, we don't see any of them gaining a huge increase in mark gain.

I don't feel disadvantages with my illness though I could certainly apply for SP. I feel that if I perform to my complete capacity, then I have achieved what I can and if someone else gets a higher mark, it just means I haven't done enough work or tried enough. If someone else feels it necessary to carry a SP, then so be it, it doesn't grant them any more marks than time, and in the end, if they're a crappy student, they're a crappy student, if they're a good student, they're good.

Going to a private school, I think the media is just doing so much private school bashing right now. They had something on uniforms with the private school wearing vest and blazer and that, then the public school summer. That is just plain unfair, but you also have to remember, it is not the student's fault. If a parent feels they are fit to pay for their children to go to a private school, and the additional uniform, they should let it lie because in the end, it is a person's own decision to spend the extra money on uniform, or a plasma screen TV. Perhaps half the schools don't offer such additional uniform pieces? Even so, there are plenty of public schools that have vests and blazers too, and admittedly, private schools are rip-offs in concerns to these additional uniform pieces.

But what else to expect? We can choose to pay up to $500 to get a brick with our name on it!
 
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TehAzner

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perilakon said:
I suffer from chronic depression and anxiety but I didn't apply for anything for my school certificate and have been offered Special Provisions more than once by different parties. I attend a private school and looking at the Special Provisions for the SC, I can attest for the amount of people taking Provisions. I don't know the reasons why for most, but for some people, I do feel it is necessary. However, having Special Provisions doesn't necessarily grant you extra marks, we don't see any of them gaining a huge increase in mark gain.

I don't feel disadvantages with my illness though I could certainly apply for SP. I feel that if I perform to my complete capacity, then I have achieved what I can and if someone else gets a higher mark, it just means I haven't done enough work or tried enough. If someone else feels it necessary to carry a SP, then so be it, it doesn't grant them any more marks than time, and in the end, if they're a crappy student, they're a crappy student, if they're a good student, they're good.

Going to a private school, I think the media is just doing so much private school bashing right now. They had something on uniforms with the private school wearing vest and blazer and that, then the public school summer. That is just plain unfair, but you also have to remember, it is not the student's fault. If a parent feels they are fit to pay for their children to go to a private school, and the additional uniform, they should let it lie because in the end, it is a person's own decision to spend the extra money on uniform, or a plasma screen TV. Perhaps half the schools don't offer such additional uniform pieces? Even so, there are plenty of public schools that have vests and blazers too, and admittedly, private schools are rip-offs in concerns to these additional uniform pieces.

But what else to expect? We can choose to pay up to $500 to get a brick with our name on it!
Nicely summed up. The media should stop making a gap between public and private schools... they should focus their time and energy on some topics which are more important like how local governments are spending taxpayers money on themselves and not fixing our roads. Now that's one story I'd like to see in the news.
 

dance2urownbeat

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perilakon said:
Subjects Taken for HSC Preliminary 2009
Adv. Mathematics, Adv. English, Latin, Modern History, Physics, Chemistry?
Unit Count: 14/12?


Hopeful Subjects for HSC 2010
Ext. Mathematics, Ext. English, Ext. Latin, Modern History
Unit Count: 13
something is wrong there... you don't pick up ext 1 maths+english in year 12. latin yes, but not the others. you can pick up ext 2 maths+english in year 12 if you've already completed year 11 ext 1.
 

willemhenskens

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dance2urownbeat said:
something is wrong there... you don't pick up ext 1 maths+english in year 12. latin yes, but not the others. you can pick up ext 2 maths+english in year 12 if you've already completed year 11 ext 1.
Not sure about this. Check the Board's documentation.
 

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