What are the benefits of going to a selective school (1 Viewer)

[russ3l]

The only benefit I can think of going to a selective school is its competitive atmosphere but that doesn't necessarily mean a better HSC result.
This site seems to have a pretty good balance of selective and non-selective students so it will be interesting what the outcomes will be.

 

[barbernator]

I guess it gives you a safety net for if you don't perform your best in an exam when you are actually a great student. Because if you went to a lowly ranked school, chances are you wouldnt have other good marks in the HSC exam to fall back on for your internal.

 

[madharris]

well since almost everyone at a selective school is competitive (i'm guessing), their energy will bring out the competitiveness in you, allowing you to strive to beat them

(I hope that made sense)

 

[Ph03nix]

Having been to both selective and non-selective, I can tell you that the atmosphere does make quite a difference, not just the competition but in general. Also another thing is, when I was at my non-selective school I used to come 1st quite easily which led me to not pushing myself to do extra work (or any work really, which I believe is costing me now), so even if you were to come 1st at a non-selective, you may not reach your potential due to that reason (or maybe its just a general lack of motivation on my part but still) and get worse in the actual HSC.

 

[LoveHateSchool]

The cohort is the main advantage to a selective school. Good competitive atmosphere, wipes out an complacency you might have being a "big fish in small pond".

Some days I think going to a selective would be awesome, but I am quite partial to my highschool, I've had good experiences and opportunity at my comprehensive.

 

[Amunoruk]

Competition and standards.

 

[deswa1]

Just a potential disadvantage of selectives for a sense of balance- a lot of people that are actually quite smart (like would come close to topping their local schools) get smashed at selective schools in terms of rank. Now this depends on what sort of person you are but some people get discouraged by that and would probs do better at their local school where their self esteem might be higher.

 

[enoilgam]

Just a potential disadvantage of selectives for a sense of balance- a lot of people that are actually quite smart (like would come close to topping their local schools) get smashed at selective schools in terms of rank. Now this depends on what sort of person you are but some people get discouraged by that and would probs do better at their local school where their self esteem might be higher.

I think its important to consider this. I think the competitive nature of selective schools is an advantage for many people, but I dont think it is an advantage for all people. Some people are motivated regardless of where they go, whilst some can lose motivation for the reasons deswa1 has stated.

 

[someth1ng]

Advantages
1. Competitive atmosphere makes you more motivated.
2. If you're at the top and perform poorly in the externals, your internals will still be high but if you were at a comprehensive school, it would drop to around what you get in your poor external performance.
3. Access to better resources from past students
4. Teachers are most experienced teaching capable students.
5. Easier to estimate your mark and ATAR since there are most Band 6s and Band 6 results are released publicly.

Disadvantages
1. Usually at a longer distance than comprehensive schools.
2. Distances allows less time at home and makes it more tiring causing less study.
3. Friends tend to be more spreaded at further distances, this makes your high school social life to be slightly more difficult outside school.
4. Some selective schools tend to have a mild to significant skew towards more pupils from non-English speaking backgrounds.
5. Selective schools do not have selective teaching, this means that some teachers are poor even if they are experienced.