Scotch College format

This well known Melbourne school has been writing its own papers for some time.  They employ a similar format to ACER Level 1 SST with the addition of a verbal reasoning paper.

The format of the Scotch College exam is

Creative Writing

Opinion Writing

Mathematics

Reading Comprehension

Verbal Reasoning

Our HES exam preparation workshops offer your child techniques that will assist them in performing at their best on the day.

Scotch College exam papers

Creative Writing   This writing component looks at the students’ ability to present their relative thoughts through writing. The main aim is to assess the content, structure and expression of the written piece. The time given for this piece is 18 minutes.

Opinion Writing    This paper focuses on the students’ ability to construct an opinion piece based on the topic given.  The aim is to assess the content, structure and expression used. Students are given 18 minutes to complete this section of the exam.

Mathematics  The aim here is to test mathematical reasoning (problem solving) This test differs from others in that there are no multiple choice answers given from which students can select. The student writes his answers on a sheet of paper.

Reading Comprehension   This is a paper  requiring inferential skills to interpret written text.

Verbal Reasoning    This paper looks to examine the students’ ability see relationships between words and solve problems using language. It includes verbal analogies, synonyms, antonyms and logical reasoning.

HES Workshops offered

YEAR 6 workshops                                                       Year 6 Dates and Prices

Writing -We have two programs.  They are called Creative Writing and Opinion Writing (EACH is two half days).

Creative Writing - our emphasis here is on the structure of an essay, the use of expressive language and the way to respond to an illustration or other visual prompts.

Opinion Writing - our emphasis here is on the organisation of this type of essay, the use of effective language and the way to express a point of view or an argument.

Mathematics  (four half days).

We focus on Maths problem solving and exam technique. These workshops are not about training in the basic processes of Mathematics.  Students entering for Scholarships should already be proficient at Maths. (over nearly twenty years we have gathered from students information about the questions used in exams).

There are two stages in solving any problem.

o             Analysis – what is this problem really about?    What data does the question have which may help solve it?

o             Strategies – the skills that will help to solve the problem.

Reading Comprehension  - A one-day course (9:15am – 3:15pm) to teach students the skills of inferential reading, as well as how to interpret maps, diagrams, charts, and illustrations. To select from answers which include partly correct answers, common errors of reasoning and misconceptions requires students to analyse the text quite closely.

Verbal Reasoning  - a half day course to look with the students at the skills that Verbal Reasoning tests examine. This paper looks to examine the students’ ability see relationships between words and solve problems using language. It includes verbal analogies, synonyms, antonyms and logical reasoning.

Practice Exams  - are fundamental to our program.  Every practice exam comes with complete performance analysis with detailed explanation for every answer.  We provide you with the most authentic testing experience outside of the actual exam.  Results are handed back to students and parents within 15 minutes of the conclusion of the exam with written explanations.