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Beating the James Ruseans (2 Viewers)

sikeveo

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Ong, your info about the 69 in maths is a little incorrect. The lowest mark was a mark of the 70's. A rank of 70 should give you a strong band 5.
 

Bookie

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thewhitecomet said:
yeah i agree. i really think people should be able to do whatever they want, i think there's plenty of guys in the lower 5 maths classes who can cope with 4U but they can't do it. and what if they just flunked their half yearly and got stuck in there? i feel sorry for a couple of them who really wanna do well. anyways, i have bigelow he's a great teacher! i admit he's prone to boasting about his students etc but i don't think he's one for lying and the maths department is probably the most able one in the school. science has like 6-7 teachers, english is a mess and i can't really speak for the rest. there's teachers in High who should really have been sacked decades ago.

btw, what'd u guys get in ur UAIs?
Dude, there are guys in our class who cant cope with 4U (well, at least good enough to get a goodmark), so I wouldnt put it up to the bottome 5 classes just yet.

templar said:
In addition, what about those people who fluked their way into the top class? Without mentioning specific names, one person got into the top class for prelim simply because he was conveniently sick when the half yearly, yearly and class placement exams were on, and was given an estimate far higher than his ability warranted. And due to reluctancy to change people between classes he managed to stay there for the HSC.
OR you can be an import and choose your maths class.
 

thewhitecomet

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Templar said:
The maths department is definitely able, bar Nesbitt, who really isn't qualified to teach any prelim/HSC maths. Personally I prefer Choy, he might be strict but it was the only way that got me to do any work. The science department does have a few teachers that are not so good, but there are also plenty of top notch teachers like Kay and Coan.
choy? i've never had him. but i heard he's kinda neurotic and a clean freak when it comes to his room. Coan's ok, but he is kinda hyperactive, i wonder if he takes anything.

but Bennett and Harvey- the duo. those guys are so incapable, especially bennett. he hasn't taught our physics class one thing all year. he goes to class and shoves in a video, you talk he goes "shut up! this is examinable"-lesson ends. you ask him anything and he'll go "what? you don't understand? look in your textbook! normalise!"
 
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sikeveo

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Bookie said:
Dude, there are guys in our class who cant cope with 4U (well, at least good enough to get a goodmark), so I wouldnt put it up to the bottome 5 classes just yet.



OR you can be an import and choose your maths class.
your a fucking idiot, they choose your maths class based upon your marks that you put down.
 

thewhitecomet

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what's that mean? i'm pretty sure that imports are placed into classes based on their comp and SC results.

hey arghya, PM your email
 
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danza108

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sikeveo, is that you Bal? Well thats just the info i got from a graduate of 2004. And thewhitecomet, i proudly got a UAi of 101 :D, nah i am doing it this yr, i wil be happy to break 97, anything more is a bonus. But seriously 5 class of 4u, is ridiciously, considering there re 3000 doing it in the state. High has the biggest cohort of Ext 2 student in the state, not course we are the smartest, but because we are lead to believe so many can do it. Ruse and Grammar both cap it at 75, the girls have about 60 odd, i am not sure of NSB or NSG. But seriously we should only have aroudn 75 odd doing it. Mr Harnett (an ex High teacher, now at Grammar) told me that Grammar gets a lower average UAI, but more band 6s, because more boys do lower ranked subjects, ie 2u. But if you are getting 70s for 4u, thats terrible your UAI scaling will go downwards, not upwards, its a bell curve. And if geninuely believe you have been mistreated and not in 120 and "capable" of doing 4u, then leave, go to another school to d4u, dont have a whinge. Do it at distant education, Mr Bigelow and the maths mob have been teaching for a very long time, they know what they are doing.

At High we don't aim for high band 6s in 2u courses, we aim for higher UAIs, hence more 4u. That point in itself is a worthy one to note, and i am for it, but others may be mislead. As my teacher Mr Choy says, on percentages we lose out, but if you see the actual top marks, we are one of the best maths schools. It will happen this yr, the top maths will be really high, the bottom ones will make the school look bad, especially those 2u ones. Soemone getting 4/120 in 2u maths trial is unbelievable.

Thats a bit rough on Bigelow, i have never had him, but he seems a nice enough bloke, the maths results at High speak for themselves. The idea of Yr 11 accerelation:
a) Give them experience
b) Actually count

There are a number of boys inside that top 120, who do ont go onto 4u maths, because they are good in their other units. In my year alone, there were 2 in the 2 top classes, one has gone one to do really well with the added time. THe 2 and B classes had betweenn 5-10, not do 4u. I don't think this forum is the place to be bagging out teachers, even if Ms Nesbitt or Mr Benett arent good as the rest, there is no place to take a cheap shot, I know myself through Junior yers of Science, Mr Benett is a really top bloke, funny man. Choy on the otherhand is a cleaning freak, but an allround nice bloke, i think he has been there a bit too long :p, but he knows all of his stuff, big expectations for our class.

All round the teachers have big expectations for 2005, its Jaggar's first real year and Trumpette first actual year. Trumpette, as nice(and strange) as she is, i feel she has worked wonders for the English depart. this year, i applaud her for her efforts and hope it amounts to a lot. Hopefgully in English we can scrap 40ish band 6s, i may be dreaming, but its a goal we need to sit. We really dont do that badly, with an average mark in 83, most faculties averages are 85-84. Last year a mate of mine came 70 odd and got an internal of 87 in adv. The faculty isnt that bad, it just looks bad when there is a lack of band 6s, and i believe its the lack of self belief in us High boys whcih drags us back into band 5. If we spent half the time we do on Mahts, on English we would be getting 100+ band6s.

But Sadly, it is not case, although this year we have roughly 3-4 real shots at topping subjects in the state, i wont provide names, you will see them in the papers in about 3 months :p Berger expects a lot of names on the HSC All Rounders List, hopefully we exceed all expectations and get High back up there. This is of course contradicting my previous post, but there is a general feeling amongst my grade that we should at least beat 2004, who knows what the future holds. This is unlike the SGHS grade, who are all saying that we should beat them (that wont ever happen again).

And WhiteComet and Templar, who are you guys? PM if you dont want to post on the boards, WHiteComet especially, you seem to talk a lot of smack, i would really like to see you back up your claims. Strathford had to go, from all reports, he was a racist with huge levels of bias, much like some of the current teachers, no names revealed of course.
 
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danza108

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On a final note, if you keep on bagging out teachers, ie (he is such and such, she is such n such) your only bringing a further burden on yourself. If yout don't get along with your teachers, you wont enjoy the subjects, i personally have had great teachers at High throughout my 6 yrs, barr Selway (those who know him, will agree with my contradiction above). If you keep on saying how bad a teacher is, your marks will fall, trust me.

This year by far was the greatest year in terms of enjoyment and teachers. I had Ross, Choy, Day, Codey and Berger, if they arent the best 5 or at least of the top couple of their staffrooms, do enlighten me. If you hate your teachers so much, why don't you leave, go to a private GPS school pay ur 20k, get beat by teh public school at hotr and have the teacher who are claimed to be "committed', i have found all my teachers are commited 100% to year 12, especially Mr Codey.

If you want to bitch about your teachers go ahead, but be happy with what you are dealt with. Go to a local public, where the cohorts will average a uai of 70 and have teacehrs who are certainly capable, but can't cope. Even Terry Lee couldn't cope at Newington, an elistist GPS school, imagine what it would be like at your local high school, where the teachers wont be as committed, because as much work as they put it, it will amount to nothing. At High, the teachers are constantly challenged with the talented kids, and they love it. Codey and Day constantly tell us "You Blokes are smarter than me, you tell me", how much of that is true is debatable, but they teachers love teaching us supposed talented and gifted kids.
 
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Trebla

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If you think your English department is bad, then you should see my school's English department. We have people who don't know what they are teaching. We have teachers who are downright lazy. We have teachers who LOSE STUDENTS' EXAMS! We have teachers who are just plain show offs and say all the other English departments at other schools are 'stupid'. We have teachers who easily get sidetracked from the lesson by reminiscing about their boring past just like the famous/infamous Grandpa Simpson, and they always go "Back when I was your age....bla bla bla...". We have teachers who often talk about how bad the evil Maths department is lol. We have teachers who are so crap that most of us end up in standard since they can't teach advanced properly. At least 90+% of the grade does Extension English in Year 11 at your school (probably because everyone does Extension Mathematics and can only do 12 units).

In a way, Sefton is similar to Sydney Boys (ignoring the scale of academic performance since Sydney is fully selective while Sefton is semi-selective as well as the fact there are more students in Sydney than in Sefton). Both have strength in Maths, both have weakness in English, both not too bad in science, both declining in ranks at the moment, both have/had Jaggar as principal, both have restrictions in subject choices when it comes to English, just about everyone does Extension Mathematics, nearly half go on to Extension 2 Mathematics....etc

Anyway, why have the conversation posts turned to a topic about the performance of Sydney Boys High School? (Man, I wish I attended that school... :( lol)

Anyway....back to relevent topic. lol
I reckon James Ruse are gonna stay at the top for a while. The only way to beat them is to have a very high percentage of Distinguished Achievers (70%-80% at least, since NSGHS which was 2nd last year had only about 55%) which can arise from a large number of total exams.
 

danza108

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My point exactly, even Sefton a semi selective school, with terrible teachers. I dont know how it go to High talk, I think its boys in general (altho Sefton is co-ed yea?), with the English decling and Maths powering ahead, and sciences level, i dont do sciences personally, but i always had a lot of respect for the department.

Back to the topic at hand, there is no way of beating Ruse, seriously, when you take the top kids in yr 6 and then reenforcement them with 30odd from the best selective schools in the state. THe day that Ruse get beat, is the day that the parents of the most gifted and talent will go to another school. Once a school has the reputation of high achievers, parents send their kids there, its a nevering ending cycle, like the chicken and the egg.

Does anyone know how Ruse forged such a reputation? when did it occur, mid to late 1990s? To Break the Ruse trend a school need to be effective and effiency in all faculties, not one. Obviously RUse did that one yaer and got lucky and became no.1. There are expections to parents sending their kids and daughters to Ruse, they may send them to schools for their superior schooling life, and commitment to sporting pursuits, such as High or SGHS (which is High) or a GPS/CAS school. THose cases are rare, and sadly those will an array of sporting talent are not as balanced acedemically as others, there are occurances where that is not true and you great well all rounded gentlemen and women into top schools.
 

Trebla

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Yes, Sefton is a co-educational school.

I think it was Sydney Grammar School that was once on top before James Ruse came in.
 

thewhitecomet

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yeah, how did ruse become so beast in the first place? and why ruse? it seems kinda weird. and btw, who is 'james ruse'?

btw, about me speaking smack? hahhaa, i'm sure our grade can pull something off :D cos english department has huge overhaul, maths is going into overdrive and so on. i just want our grade to do well.. if i dont get a 99 UAI, my parents will crucify me.
 

danza108

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Yea i am not saying your grade wont do well, of course it will, especially with Trumpette's second year and new teachers coming through like Howland and White. We will just set the bar high, so wont be breakable for many years to come, i guess we both ahve high expectations for our respective grades.

99, thats a huge aim, what are your ranks like? Your and your parents must remember the HSC isn't evertyhing, its not an indication of intelligence, merely how hard one wants to work in year 12, the most enjoyable year of all, you have peeked in terms of maturity and there are distractions left, right and centre from sport and other things.
 
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thewhitecomet

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yo danza, anyways. seriously, think about it. the school's slipping and people are always gonna find someone to point the finger at. i've never had most of the teachers you've mentioned but i'm sure they're fine. it's just that my HSC year is coming up and i'm gonna be really worried if i get some of my teachers again. not all the teachers at high are bad, only a few are. and ther's no point in ignoring the teachers who are obviously incompetant. people at high, usually staff might still think the school's great, but they're just delusional, the school's decaying and i think jaggar should get his priorities straight, this is just my opinion. agree or not, i'm just voicing my thoughts.

btw, how come i can't send PMs?
 

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Ah, hello Steve. Typing again are we?

Our schools going nowhere. It shits me to think that there are more guys in Grammar beating us, over and over. Our grade might not even make the top 20 schools. Not very cool at all.

I'm pretty sure the teachers are goodat our school compared to many others, but being a nerd school, I'm sure its the individual effort that counts (yes, I know "teachers are meant to bring out the best" in us, but face it, we're not going anywhere unless we push ourselves).

The Big man is a ledg teacher and theres no questions about his ability. I couldnt have asked for a better teacher for maths. (Boros was cool, but in the end his coolness put our marks down).

Anyway that's about it. Danza, stop typing massive posts.
 

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The only thing I have against Bigelow or the maths department is the deal over the internal rankings given last year. Now they clearly knew that Ivan was capable of topping maths, and there was clearly a gap in terms of marks between him and Philip Yang, so why were both given equal first ranking? This removed any chance of Ivan topping maths, since let's face it, Philip may be good, but he is no match against the likes of Andrew Ngai and Laurie Field.

As for the teachers, most of them are OK. Selway is definitely better to be rid of (those of you who know him will know why). In the case of Nesbitt, it's clear that some of the people in the top class has more knowledge and ability than her, not just outside the syllabus. She isn't exactly a bad teacher, but it is clear that teaching maths ext 2 is beyond her level.

There is no single person to point the finger at. At the end of every year there's a witch hunt going on about which department brought the school down etc. In reality everyone's to blame. The school should focus on what needs to be improved and makes sure it improves.

I agree on the fact that UAI isn't really a measure of intelligence or anything. Take part in all the activities the school has to offer instead of focusing on studying along.

Back to the original thread. It is possible to beat James Ruse. It requires about 6 years of preparation, and cutting a class of 180 from year 7 down to 120 in year 12. It requires students getting extra tuition before and after school. Is it worth it? No. There are much more important things in life to worry about.
 

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I've lost faith in my school grade already. Not in terms of average UAI, but in terms of number of band 6 results. We need to at least rise up from the shameful rank of 56 last year.

I think the main techniques that James Ruse use to achieve so many band 6 results is acceleration, doing more units and a large candidature. I've also heard that most of the teachers at the school are fairly decent, not supergood but alright. Nearly everyone accelerates at least in a subject or two at the school. Therefore, this leaves room for more time to spend on other subjects and doing well in them. It would also be safe to say that nearly everyone at that school studies more than 10 units in year 12 (most do 12 apparently). The students are able to achieve band 6 results beyond the minimum 10 units of study and this increases the chances of band 6 results and accounts for the large number of All Rounders in the school every year. Also, the school has a fairly large candidature. having more people in the environment of intense academic rigour would increase the number of band 6 results as well for the school. They are especially high in Distinguished Achievers in the whole state compared to the runner up school. I mean, last year the DA was 71.50% for James Ruse and coming in at 2nd was North Sydney Girls with a DA of 54.86%. The difference between first and second according to that is huge. Now for those of you who go to Sydney Boys, you know that the school has a very high number of band 6 results in Mathematics, but for your English it is similar to that of Fort Street High School. Increase the number of band 6 results in English at your school to roughly equal to the number of band 6 results in Mathematics. That's roughly how well James Ruse students perform.

With the high number of band 6 results, this can result in a high average UAI. However, I've got a gut feeling that the average UAI in James Ruse may be lower than the median UAI. The MEDIAN UAI was 99.5 last year and 99.3 for 2003. I don't know what the AVERAGE UAI was for those years, but I suspect they may be lower since they use the median to show off to the public and not the mean.

So how can one school beat James Ruse Agricultural High School? It is possible through acceleration of nearly the entire grade, making the entire grade do more than 10 units to increase chances of a band 6 result and having a high candidature.
 

Templar

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Trebla said:
With the high number of band 6 results, this can result in a high average UAI. However, I've got a gut feeling that the average UAI in James Ruse may be lower than the median UAI. The MEDIAN UAI was 99.5 last year and 99.3 for 2003. I don't know what the AVERAGE UAI was for those years, but I suspect they may be lower since they use the median to show off to the public and not the mean.
It would be a left skewed data set, so mean would be less than median.
 
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James ruse use the tactic of accelerating alot of subjects, so the kids have the advantage of only having to do 3-4 exams during the HSC, contrary to us suckers doing 6-7 (including paper1/2 english)

also they HAVE to do accelerated agriculture, should any of them go well, thats one subject down, do mathematics and 3u for year 11 accelerated and that student has pissed away 5 units, only 5 more does he/she have to do for the hsc, naturally they'll do 6, thats only 3 subjects to study for HSC, imagine how much easier THAT'd be, remember they have every trick under their sleeve to make sure they go better
(not to say its easy to just do accelerated and they are cheating, they have to work hard and complete all their units of subjects one way or another, and i appluad them on that)
 

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