Mani Beeram,11,is sitting the selective school exam on Thursday.Credit:Brook Mitchell
Among those who will be sitting the test tomorrow will be Mani Beeram,11,from Dundas Valley in Sydney’s north-west. Her father,Raghu Beeram,said he wanted his daughter to sit the test in the hope of getting into a high school with other smart children.
“When it comes to the HSC,I have been told the entire cohort needs to do well,to lift up the child’s scores,” he said.
Mani has enjoyed practising for the thinking skills component of the test but said she had been offered a place at a private school,so she wasn’t particularly daunted by the exam which will run from 9am to 1pm tomorrow.
“I am a bit nervous … but I am not as nervous as my friends. This is the moment that practically decides their lives,” she said.
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The selective high school placement test has recently undergone significant changes – last year the previous government introduced its equity placement model,which set aside 20 per cent of places to children from low socio-economic backgrounds,Aboriginal students,those with a disability and students from rural and remote areas. In 2021,a thinking skills component was added to the test in a bid to make it less coachable. More places are expected to be made available after a new selective high school was slated for Leppington.
A plan to scrap pen and paper exams and take the test online was meant to come into effect in 2022 but it has been delayed until 2025. Overseas students will also be able to sit for the test after it is offered online.
Last year,4248 places were available in selective high schools across NSW for entry to Year 7 in 2023.
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University of NSW gifted education Associate Professor Jae Yup Jung said parents in different parts of Sydney had different social and cultural attitudes. He said parents of gifted children in regional parts of the state might not even be aware selective school is an option.
“I am sure there will be many students who might not even have considered selective schools,” he said.
He was supportive of the equity model adopted last year but said another option to identify more gifted children could be to use NAPLAN results or another assessment which every student in the state completed,not simply those who sat the test.