What to expect from James Ruse. (2 Viewers)

[Deluge]

Hello,

I would like to ask for a bit of advice.

See, the thing is that I've made it to James Ruse for year 11 in 2007. I want to pose the following questions:

a) How are the teachers? Do they expect every one to know every thing and to have learnt it at tutoring? I'm seriously scared of this because I myself don't go to maths tutoring, which, I presume, is their strongest subject.

Do they skip any part of the syllabus under the impression that all would have heard of it and would do fine when it comes to exams?

b) How are the exams? Are they overbearingly hard or are they the sort of exams you would expect from any other school? What about the assessments? Are they harder at Ruse than other schools? (I go to one right now)

Thanks in advance, guys

 

[SoulSearcher]

I suppose there's a couple of people on BoS that goes to James Ruse

 

[Nakashima]

A few people from my school (Fort St) transferred to James Ruse at the end of year 10. I don't know for what reasons, but they didn't end up doing better than many of those that stayed.

 

[lala2]

All I can say is congratulations on your selection into James Ruse--most of the Year 11s they take in are (apparently) brighter than those who made it in Year 7, because these people are the ones that the school "imports" to bring up their HSC results.

 

[Trebla]

I don't go to the school myself but from what I've heard from friends who go there:
a) The teachers are alright. They're just like any other teacher at any other school. In fact, there's a teacher from my school who left for James Ruse. Look out for him. His name is Mr Kowalski and he teaches science. He talks a lot and bores the crap out of the students over there, just like he did with our school.
The teachers may presume a bit that you know your material, but if you don't they will help because that is the role of any teacher. They shouldn't be skipping syllabus dot points, especially if there are keen students out there keeping a watchful eye of what they've covered.
If you're going to do a science course, expect to do a lot of research. Apparently, at the school, in the HSC course, they make you research an entire topic (usually the third core topic) and assess it in their assessment tasks. Apparently, I've heard that they do not cover this topic formally in class until the trials approach, yet they still assess it beforehand because they had asked you to research it. Furthermore, expect to grasp the information quickly, because apparently, they go through the course at a fast pace.
b) The exams and assessments are not overbearingly hard at all. They just challenge your thinking. I've done some of their exams and assessments and I don't find them too hard compared to many other well known selective and private schools. I've seen harder exams than those of James Ruse. Basically, they are certainly doable for the average selective student.

 

[Deluge]

Thanks for your replies.

Well, I'm going to do all three sciences because I like science. I presume that their science faculty is pretty darn good if they got 2nd, 3rd, 4th in chem, 6th in bio and two other ranks in the top ten for physics.

Can any one else shed light on what the English and maths faculty's like? English is my favourite subject but I also like maths a lot. What about their history faculty? I am considering not doing physics for modern history.

Thanks again.

 

[vulgarfraction]

a) Most teachers won't expect that you've gone tutoring. Some are good, some aren't, depends on who you get. The maths part of the curriculum is a bit ahead of other schools, so you might have some catching up to do, and some new people struggle with that. (I was in the last lot on newbies.) You probably will be able to do fine without coaching. But they wouldn't actually skip bits of the syllabus.

b) Exams are okay. It's not the marks you're most concerned about, but the ranks, so it depends on what you/your parents expect. I reckon exams and assessments aren't a lot harder.

The good science results are probably more by talent. Word goes that the phys teachers are bad but chem and bio ones are good. The history department isn't too bad either- again, it depends on teacher.

Hope that helps. =)

 

[James747]

Well, I haven't got an awful lot to tell u. All I know is that they learn ahead in their maths, everyone there is really smart and u have to wear skool uniform to camps! XD

 

[Wooz]

I was freaked out by their yr 11 half-yearlys it covered most of the prelim course and only contained difficult questions.

 

[Wooz]

No just maths. Lily Zhang the 2005 Dux 100UAI, tutored my for a while, she told me only their maths level was higher than other schools, everything else was normal.

 

[Deluge]

Nooooo...

My weakest subject is maths...

I go to a selective school right now... even though I have received good results this year I still have the ominous feeling that I'll fall really behind.

Calculus in year 10? Oh dear......................

And thank you guys. I didn't expect to receive so many replies... I must seem like some little concerned nerd trapped in indecision. =P

 

[Wooz]

Nooooo...

My weakest subject is maths...

I go to a selective school right now... even though I have received good results this year (1st English, geo, 2nd commerce, science, 3rd history, history elective, 8th maths, xth for PE) I still have the ominous feeling that I'll fall really behind.

Calculus in year 10? Oh dear......................

And thank you guys. I didn't expect to receive so many replies... I must seem like some little concerned nerd trapped in indecision. =P

They use fitzpatrick for maths, see if you can borrow one to study, i also recommend that you buy yr 11-3U cambridge mathematics(it covers 2unit) or coroneos 3unit simplified (thick pink book) which covers the yr 11 course.

 

[Trebla]

Nope, nearly everything is pushed forward. i.e. They were finishing off their 3rd tpid of Chemistry, while we were still testing the 2nd, and my school isn't that bad.

I think you're partially wrong there. What they do for all HSC science subjects is that they cover the first 2 core topics in normal time (like every other school) and they SKIP the 3rd core topic and go straight to the option topic. In regards to the 3rd core topic, students are given research tasks to cover some of the dot points hence they can be assessed in trials and assessment tasks even without formally covering the content in class. Once they finish the option topic, they learn the 3rd core topic in class. Since most of the students have researched their asses off a big chunk of the syllabus (since it was assessed), they can cover the 3rd core topic in a shorter time frame than most other schools and hence they would have finished (or close to finished) the entire course by the trial period.
My school does a similar thing with the researching, but we research the option topic instead. We only have one assessment on the option topic based on the research and maybe that's why we're blitzing through the option topic so quickly at the moment and especially in Chemistry, I think we covered a large chunk of the syllabus (like > 10 dot points) in one day on an excursion.....lol.

 

[Feiyt]

Woah...you're coming into my grade next year~! O.O" How random....the first time I check up on this site for months and this is the first thing I see...^^;

Well- don't stress too much. English is fairly normal in terms of what we learn, science is normal, maths is sort of accelerated depending on which class you go into, and everything else is fine. Honestly- no stress. When you come in, you'll soon realise that competition is the reason everyone gets such good marks at our school- competition and perseverance.

Anyway~ hope to see you next year. xD We're getting 30 new students too- you'll fit right in.

EDIT: Realised I got carried away and didn't exactly answer your questions ^^;....

No the teachers don't expect you to have learnt anything in tutoring- in fact, most teachers disapprove of it. Everything is based on knowledge that you should have learnt during your time and school- and if you haven't learnt that, then you're in trouble.

And no, we don't skip things in the syllabus- we just may have learnt it earlier on.

And exams...well....*shudders*. It varies...ALOT. Maths is always the worst possible exam- because it can change from something so easy that the only things you could have possibly gotten wrong are due to careless mistakes, e.g. something set by Mrs O' Reilly (in which case you shall hear the grade moaning on about it for the rest of the month) or they're really challenging (e.g. set by Mr Deimos), in which case you better hope you can at least reach the last section.

English is usually at a consistently alright level, science varies almost as much as maths does. And next year we've got chem, phys and bio too- so I would have no idea what so ever what the tests'll be like.

And to Treblar who mentioned Mr Kowalski....=_= omigosh I have had him for two years now...and I swear that all I have learnt in that space of time is that protons are different from electrons. He's nice I suppose....but an extremely bludgy teacher. He teaches phys btw, and normal science.

Hope that answered most of your questions....=)

EDIT2: Omigoodness you can tell I'm not very smart by how crappily I concentrate when I read =___=""

Our science faculty is good- half are excellent, half aren't so excellent. Our english teachers are overall great, if you get Mr Chandrahandra you are guaranteed long nights of no sleep typing gazillions of pages of quality work- and excellent marks. I'm not sure why, but students that go into his class always seem to come out sprouting Shakespeare like the alphabet. o.o" If you're considering modern history, consider it some more because that's one of the most popular subjects in the senior years- the teacher's really interesting and everyone seems to love it.

Ok ok....no more edits for me....gta sleep =.=

 

[haque]

Firstly congratulations Deluge-u've doen extremely well. i have a few friends from my school who went to Ruse-they were like in the top 20 for our grade but in Ruse they were like in top 50-but the main thing they complained to me about was the fact that in the maths exams the marking is picky-in which you must take into account domains and restrictions on locus more carefully-they tend to give you questions that have hidden tricks to make u lose marks. however their trials and questions themselves aren't too difficult-if u consistently study and watch out for the small things there's no reason u shouldn't do well-don't let the fact they are ruse guys overwhelm u-people outside of ruse also get good marks(however most are from ruse).

 

[eternalparadise]

....Mr Chandrahandra ....

hes such a bad teacher ==" his daughter goes to my school....

 

[Deluge]

Feiyt: Thanks HEAPS bruh! Haha, you're awesome - thanks for that!

I actually know Mr. Kowalski. He's Polish, has a twenty-or-thirty something wife with one (two?) daughters! LOL. I was in his class for a year and duuuuuuuuuuude! I kept asking him questions so that we wouldn't do work. I know, baad me. Lmao. He means well, he does...

Tutoring is discouraged? Wowzer - I thought that every one was multi-tutored with prowess in all fields. I actually wouldn't mind doing loads of English work, because it's my favourite subject. My friends think I'm a freak because they're all math geniuses.

Yeah, I'm going to rant about friends now... Hahaha. One of them were bagging me out because she didn't like JR uniform. *Shrug* I don't think it's that bad.

- L.

 

[vulgarfraction]

By the way, Deluge, no one from this year's Yr 10's can make your orientation day because they scheduled our agriculture camp on that day and the next, unfortunately.

Ingenious.


But there's heaps of new Yr 11's, so talk to each other and so on. =)

 

[Deluge]

Lol, I see. It'll be OK. Awkward, but OK.

At least you get to go on camp :rofl:

 

[VuongstER_boi]

Congrats Deluge ! ...