A Parent's Guide to Scholarship Tests

A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

Rebecca Leech

ACER Press

First published 2009 by ACER Press, an imprint of Australian Council for Educational Research Ltd 19 Prospect Hill Road, Camberwell Victoria, 3124, Australia www.acerpress.com.au [email protected] Text © Australian Council for Educational Research 2009 Design and typography © ACER Press 2009 This book is copyright. All rights reserved. Except under the conditions described in the Copyright Act 1968 of Australia and subsequent amendments, and any exceptions permitted under the current statutory licence scheme administered by Copyright Agency Limited (www.copyright.com.au), no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, broadcast or communicated in any form or by any means, optical, digital, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. Edited by Elisa Webb Cover design by Mason Design Text design by Divine Design Typesetting by Desktop Concepts Pty Ltd Printed in Australia by Ligare Pty Ltd National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry: Author: Leech, Rebecca. Title:

A parent’s guide to scholarship tests / Rebecca Leech.

ISBN:

9780864318527 (pbk.)

Notes:

Bibliography.

Subjects: Scholarships--Australia. Examinations--Study guides. Academic achievement. Ability--Testing. Dewey Number: 378.340994

Contents About the author Acknowledgements Introduction Chapter 1

Chapter 2

v vi vii

Getting started

1

What is a scholarship test?

1

Should my child sit for a scholarship test?

2

Which school should my child apply to?

4

How do I register my child to sit a scholarship test?

6

Case study: Billanook College, Mooroolbark, Victoria

8

About the tests

10

About the tests

11

General structure and format

12

Question formats

15

Open-ended questions

17

Multiple-choice questions

26

Humanities, Reading and Viewing

31

Mathematics and Science

38

Case study: Trinity Anglican School, White Rock, Queensland

44

Contents

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Developing skills and abilities

46

How can I help my child develop the abilities targeted by the tests?

46

Thinking

48

Reading

57

Writing

61

Mathematics

64

Preparing for the day

68

The week before the test

68

The day of the test

70

During the test

71

After the test

74

Case study: Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Burwood, Victoria

75

Now what?

77

Managing expectations (for parents and children)

77

Understanding the meaning of results

78

Requests for information

86

Conclusion

89

References

90

Resources

91

iv

About the author Rebecca Leech is an award-winning journalist who works for the Australian

Council for Educational Research. She has written extensively on a range of topics in education and is a regular contributor to Teacher and Professional Educator, magazines published by ACER Press. Her writing accolades include the Publishers Australia Bell Award for Writer of the Year in 2007, and the Australian Council of Deans of Education Journalism Award for best print-media ­feature in 2006.

v

Acknowledgements The author would like to acknowledge the contributions of the following people

to the development of this book: the principal of Billanook College, Mr Alan Ross; the registrar of Billanook College, Mrs Josephine Reed; the principal of Trinity Anglican School, Mr Christopher Daunt Watney; the registrar of Trinity

Anglican School, Mrs Louise Puddle; the registrar of Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Mrs Angela Hurley; the Publisher and General Manager of ACER Press, Mr Ralph Saubern; and the Senior Project Director of the ACER scholarship test programs, Mr David Weeding.

Source acknowledgements p. 10a Image © Danin Tulic 2009. Used under license from Shutterstock.com;

p. 10b Image © Tony Campbell 2009. Used under license from Shutterstock.com; p. 10c Image © Gary Unwin 2009. Used under license from Shutterstock.com;

p. 17 Lighthouse image © 2009 Amanda Pinches; p. 20 Grandfather clock image reproduced with permission of <www.windsorchairs.biz> (Kevin O’Connell);

p. 27 Image © Jennifer King 2009. Used under license from Shutterstock.com.

Every effort has been made to acknowledge and contact copyright owners. However, should any infringement have occurred, ACER tenders its apology and invites copyright owners to contact ACER.

vi

Introduction This book is for parents considering registering their child to sit a scholarship test. It contains advice and information to help you as a parent: • reflect on your motivations and expectations

• understand the details of the scholarship testing process

• familiarise yourself with the format and structure of scholarship tests

• familiarise yourself with the types of questions commonly found in scholarship tests

• understand more about underlying skills and abilities scholarship tests target

• understand more about how to work with your child to develop skills and abilities

• help your child prepare for the day of the test

• help you and your child manage expectations and understand the meaning of results.

Note that the title of the book is not How to Win a Scholarship. Your child’s

level of achievement on the test will be largely the result of his or her natural abilities, learning and efforts over a long period of time. The aim of this book is to help you make the best of that learning and those efforts.

The author is an experienced educational writer who has spent many hours

interviewing and working with program managers, test developers, subject

experts, school principals and registrars to write an accessible book to help parents help their child do his or her best; but she is neither a scholarship test developer nor a technical expert on assessment.

There are many approaches you could take to preparing your child for a

scholarship test and this book provides a great deal of useful advice. However, it is not an exhaustive list of every learning exercise proven to make a positive difference to test results. Children develop at different rates, and each child has

vii

Introduction

an individual set of interests and abilities, just as each parent has an individual style of parenting. The aim of the advice in this book is to provide a range of

ideas from which you may choose those that appeal to you and your child. What you make of this advice is up to you.

Many parents feel daunted by the responsibility of preparing their children

to sit a scholarship test. Parents often feel they need strong advice and clear instruction on how to proceed. With this in mind, the author has chosen to be

as direct as possible in this book. In many cases, she will take an instructive tone, rather than couching statements in qualifications and disclaimers. For

simplicity’s sake, the author is more likely to say, ‘Read to your child’ than to say, ‘There is some evidence that reading to your child may have a positive

effect on your child’s literacy levels, although this is the subject of some debate in the academic community’.

Some points that this book will repeat many times are: that scholarship tests

are designed to be difficult for high-achieving students; that many more candidates sit for scholarship tests than there are scholarships available; and that most candidates will not get a scholarship. In light of this, rather than focusing

on attaining a scholarship as the goal, the author has placed her emphasis on

the process of preparing, and making that process as useful to your child as you can in the wider context of his or her learning.

A note on gender For simplicity of language this book will refer to test candidates, and your child

as a potential test candidate, as female (‘she’, ‘her’, and so on) rather than ‘he or

she’, ‘his or her’, and so on, from this point on. Despite this, the advice and suggestions given are intended to apply to both boys and girls; this book will not give any gender specific advice about preparing boys or girls.

A lot has been written in recent times about differences between the learn-

ing styles of boys and girls. Some of this is evidence-based but much is not. When considering population groups like ‘males’ and ‘females’ it is often the case that variation within the group is as large as or larger than variation

between the groups. In other words, just as knowing that men are on average taller than women doesn’t tell you whether your son will be taller than the

centre for the National Women’s Basketball Team, so knowing that females on

viii

Introduction

average use certain learning styles more than males doesn’t tell you much about

any particular boy or girl. You and your child are in the best position to understand and judge her (and your) individual learning styles and strengths.

Please note that ACER conducts extensive reviews during test development

and trialling to ensure that there is no gender bias in any test units, items or stimulus materials.

ix

Chapter 1 Getting started

While you are no doubt keen to get started with preparing your child to sit a scholarship test, it is best to start with the basics. This chapter will explain the purpose of scholarship tests and, as importantly, will ask you to reflect on your motivations for registering your child to sit one.

What is a scholarship test? Schools use scholarship tests to determine academic performance at the top end of achievement. Based on the results of a scholarship test, schools may

decide to award a student a full or partial scholarship to cover the cost of attendance fees. Individual schools have their own criteria for awarding scholarships,

and this may not be based entirely on the results of scholarship tests, but the tests do provide schools with objective, comparable information about student

achievement across a range of academic areas. The most widely used tests streamline the scholarship application process for students.

Because the tests aim to identify the very best students from a group of

high-achieving students, they are very challenging. Schools are generally more interested in assessing scholarship candidates’ abilities to think creatively and

to problem-solve than in assessing their abilities to memorise facts and figures. In light of this, scholarship tests aim more to measure your child’s skills of

analysis, comprehension, interpretation and reasoning, than to test your child’s

knowledge of curriculum content. Scholarship tests will assess your child’s aptitudes in key academic areas such as written expression, reading and viewing, humanities, mathematics and science.

1

A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

Many more students sit scholarship tests than there are scholarships availa-

ble. The schools that run scholarship tests have very strict standards about who will receive scholarships. Some schools may have a hundred or more candidates sit the test for each scholarship place available. The aim of scholarship tests is to

identify the very best potential students from a pool of outstanding candidates. To be of any use, scholarship tests must find and exaggerate often very small differences in the academic performance of high-achieving students.

These tests are designed to be challenging for students who are accustomed

to receiving high marks and excelling in school. In any group of candidates

sitting a scholarship test, the overwhelming majority will be students who achieve in the top 20 per cent of the students in their state.

ACER scholarship tests This book aims to provide information and tips useful to parents of students undertaking any scholarship test, but it will focus particularly on four scholarship tests widely

used in Australian schools. These tests are the Cooperative Scholarship Testing Program (CSTP); the Scholarship Selection Test (SST); the Australian Cooperative Entry

Program (ACEP); and the Primary Scholarship Program (PSP). These tests are developed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER).

Be sure to check which schools offer which scholarships. Also check that the school

offers the scholarship level you are applying for. Not all schools offer scholarships at each level. See the Resources section at the end of this book for links to a full list of schools participating in these scholarship tests.

Should my child sit for a scholarship test? Preparing for and sitting a scholarship test can involve a lot of hard work and emotional stress. It can be a gruelling and competitive experience, both for the children and for their parents. Most candidates who sit a scholarship test will

not receive a scholarship, and the disappointment of missing out can be demoralising if not handled sensitively. This may be especially true if your child is

accustomed to achieving academic excellence. Working in a group of mixedability students, such as is found in an everyday school classroom, your child

may often find herself achieving in the top percentage of students. In a scholar-

2

Getting started

ship test, however, your child will be competing against other very highachieving students for a very limited number of scholarship places.

Further, some scholarship recipients find that when they do attend the

school of their choice, they experience increased pressure—from the school,

peers, or themselves—to excel academically to ‘prove’ they ‘deserve’ the scholarship. In some cases, scholarship recipients have attended the school of their

choice but decided that it was not a good fit; when this happens, the scholarship monies are forfeited and may have to be repaid to the school.

Weighed against these potential negative effects, the most obvious benefit

of sitting the test is the prospect that your child may win a scholarship to the school of your choice. Certainly, the adage that ‘you have to be in it to win it’

holds true in the case of scholarship testing. Unfortunately, however, while the odds are better than winning the lottery, there is a strong possibility that your

child, despite being a very high-achieving student, may not receive a scholarship. Rather than having the scholarship as the goal, an emphasis on the process—and making that process as useful to your child as you can—is an important consideration.

The process can be a beneficial learning experience for your child. Prepar-

ing for the test can be an excellent opportunity for your child to develop problem-solving and creative thinking skills that may be useful throughout the rest

of her schooling, and indeed her life. Families may find that the extensive time spent together on long-term preparation for the test is a valuable bonding experience. The experience of sitting a large public examination can also be constructive practise for the rest of your child’s academic career.

With these considerations in mind, it may be useful to reflect on your moti-

vation for registering your child to sit a scholarship test. Ask yourself: • Why do I want my child to do this?

• Is my child likely to win a scholarship?

• How will my child react if she doesn’t win a scholarship? How will I react?

• Can I make the process of preparing for and sitting the test a positive experience for my child regardless of the outcome?

• How important is it to me, and to my child, that she wins a scholarship?

Each parent will weigh these considerations differently, and only you and

your family can decide what is best for your child.

3

A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

Steps to deciding if your child should sit a scholarship test 1

Consider your child’s academic results. In particular, consider her performance on

national testing programs such as the National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) or on statewide programs. It is important to remember

that these programs are different to scholarship tests; NAPLAN is a general test for every student in Australia, while the scholarship tests are specialised for highachieving students. National or statewide programs do, however, assess the general

academic ability of your child, and provide an overview of your child’s performance against other students’. As a guide, the candidature for scholarship tests is usually the top 20 per cent of students. 2

Genuinely assess not only your child’s intellectual capability, but also her emotional capability to handle a challenging, long-term preparation process and the

possibility of not winning a scholarship. The notion that your child can’t get a scholarship if she doesn’t sit the test is true—but the process is very competitive, and it is important that children do not feel they have ‘failed’ if they don’t receive a

scholarship. Consider whether your child is emotionally capable of reacting well to a letter that says, ‘You have been unsuccessful in your scholarship application’. Most candidates who sit the test will receive such a letter. 3

Consider which school is the best fit for your child’s interests and abilities. Investi-

gate whether the school of your choice offers scholarships, and if so which scholar-

ship tests the school runs. For more on this, see the next section, Which school should my child apply to?

Which school should my child apply to? Choosing a school for your child could be the subject of another book entirely. This section will focus on how to choose the school where your child should apply to sit a scholarship.

Individual schools choose whether they want to award scholarships, how

many scholarships they will award, to whom and on what criteria. Scholarship

tests provide schools with objective measurement of candidates’ academic

aptitude—but this may not be the only factor in schools’ choice of scholarship recipients.

4

Getting started

Not all schools run all scholarship tests. Not all schools run scholarship

tests at all levels of entry. Some schools do not allow current students of that school to sit for scholarship tests. Check the details of the scholarship tests

offered at the school of your choice to avoid registering your child for a test for

which she is ineligible. Be sure to check the level of the test is applicable to your child’s next year at school.

Some schools weigh aspects of the scholarship test results more heavily

than others; for example, if the school wants to improve its mathematics scores,

it may choose to award a scholarship to a student who performed very well in the maths section of a scholarship test, even if that student was not the best

performer overall. Conversely, other schools may look for academically balanced students who perform reasonably well across all sections of the test.

Schools may consider additional criteria not covered by the scholarship test,

such as candidates’ leadership potential, involvement in extra-curricular or co-

curricular activities or community service, or achievement in sports, music or arts programs. Some schools conduct interviews with a shortlist of candidates before awarding scholarships.

Some schools have a set number of scholarships they award each year based

on consistent criteria. Other schools vary the number or type of scholarships or the scholarship criteria from year to year. Some schools may not decide how

many scholarships they will award until they have seen the results of scholarship tests. Some may not award any scholarships, or may break equivalent full

scholarships into half or partial scholarships awarded to several students. Some schools apply limits to their scholarships, and may only award scholarships to candidates who meet their definition of financial need.

You may want to know what the chances are that your child will win a

scholarship, but due to the variables between individual schools, this is difficult

to quantify. It is likely, however, that your child will have a better chance of winning a scholarship at a school that values her particular interests and strengths.

Before registering your child to sit a scholarship test at your school of

choice, learn as much as you can about the school’s scholarship procedures.

Read the school’s website and newsletters, and if you have questions, contact the school directly.

5

A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

Considerations when choosing a school • How many scholarships does the school plan to offer? Will these be full or partial scholarships? • How many candidates usually sit the scholarship test for the school? • Are some sections of the test weighted more heavily than others? Is the school particularly looking for candidates strong in written expression, humanities, or maths and science? • Are the scholarships awarded based purely on the results of the scholarship test, or does the school have additional criteria? If so, what are these criteria? • Does the school apply additional criteria not covered by the scholarship test, such as candidates’ leadership potential, involvement in extra-curricular activities or community service, or achievement in sports, music or arts programs? • Does the school conduct interviews of candidates before awarding scholarships? • Does the school apply limits, such as financial need, when awarding scholarships? If so, what are these factors and how are they defined?

How do I register my child to sit a scholarship test? Scholarship tests are often run by organisations external to schools. The testing organisation will develop the test, supply test materials to participating

schools for administration, and then collect completed tests to conduct the marking, analysis and reporting. You must register with the school, not the

testing organisation. To ensure objectivity and neutrality, testing organisations

have minimal contact with candidates and parents. In general, testing organisations report the results directly to participating schools, not to candidates. Some providers may send individual reports direct to candidates but this is the exception rather than the rule. Testing organisations do not choose which candidates receive scholarships.

Each school sets their own registration fee. You must pay a separate fee for

each school with which you register. Check with the individual school.

Scholarship tests are usually held between February and May of the year

before the intake of that scholarship cohort; for example, a candidate would sit the scholarship test in May of her final year of primary school, for potential entry into the secondary school of her choice the following year.

6

Getting started

Cooperative scholarship tests allow you to register your child with more

than one participating school, but your child will sit the test once only. You

must pay the registration fee for each school. Your child’s results are then passed on to all the schools you have registered with.

You can register your child to sit a scholarship test either via a pen and

paper registration form available from schools, or online via schools’ websites.

Some schools accept only pen and paper registrations or only online registrations; check with the school of your choice.

Check individual schools’ websites or contact schools’ scholarship adminis-

trators for further information about scholarships schools may offer. Some schools may require additional information or have extra registration forms to fill out. It is your responsibility to check whether you have met a school’s requirements before submitting an application.

Your child will usually sit the test at the school for which she wishes to

apply. In the case of cooperative tests, your child will sit the test at the first preference school. If you are distant from the school, most programs will be able to offer you alternative arrangements.

After the test day, the testing organisation will mark the completed tests.

Marking of multiple-choice answer sheets is computerised. At ACER, specialised teams of experienced markers conduct marking of the written expression

sections of the test, and each written piece is blind-marked by at least two mark-

ers. Blind marking is a process where tests are graded independently so that one marker’s grade does not influence the other marker’s grade and vice versa.

The testing organisation provides results to the school or schools you have

registered with. Testing organisations will generally provide results to schools within two months of the test date. Schools relay results to students at their discretion.

Your child will receive written notification from the school stating whether

or not she has been successful in winning a scholarship to the school. Testing

organisations may also provide an individual report of your child’s performance to the school, which the school may choose to pass onto you.

If your child is successful in winning a scholarship—congratulations!—the

school of your choice will provide further information on how to enrol your child. For ideas on how to debrief if your child does not receive a scholarship, see Chapter 5 Now what? later in this book.

7

A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

Case study: Billanook College, Mooroolbark, Victoria Billanook College is an independent coeducational school catering to

around 860 students from Prep to Year 12. The college comprises a

­primary school for Prep to Grade 6 students; a middle school for Years 7 to 9 students; and a senior school for Years 10 to 12 students.

The college runs the Cooperative Scholarship Testing Program at

Level 1, for students seeking scholarships for entry to Year 7. In 2008, 68  candidates sat the scholarship test. Of these, two were offered full scholarships and four were offered half scholarships to cover the fees of

attending the school. The number and mix of scholarships varies from year to year.

Billanook awards scholarships based on the overall results of the

CSTP, and an interview with the principal, Mr Alan Ross, for a select shortlist of candidates.

School registrar Mrs Josephine Reed suggests that parents take a low-

pressure, commonsense approach to preparing for the scholarship test.

‘Parents do sometimes ask if they should send their child to a coach-

ing college, but we don’t suggest that. I’ve seen cases in some schools where children have been kept home from class for three weeks prior to

the test to study, but we certainly don’t recommend that. Our advice is that the test is on work that your child will have covered in the course of

day-to-day schooling. The child’s own classroom teacher is the best person to guide the parents as to whether that child has scholarship potential’, she says.

Principal Mr Alan Ross explains that he relies heavily on the schol-

arship test results to choose the strongest candidates, but also considers factors such as community involvement and financial need.

‘We are looking for overall academic excellence. We don’t aim to get

strong maths students, or strong humanities students, for example, in any particular year, but I do always read through the test reports very carefully to get an idea of how the child has performed on the day and

8

Getting started

relate the performance back to how this individual will fit into our school cohort’, he says.

‘Sometimes the candidates who achieve the best aggregate score

have quite marked variations in the three sections of the testing program. If there is a difference between a candidate’s scores in sections of the test, I talk to that candidate about how she has gone on particular

sections. Often the child or the parents are surprised that the candidate hasn’t done as well on one or the other section, because the scholarship

candidates are the students that are usually top of the class for all their subjects’, he says.

‘We do consider the other attributes and skills, apart from strictly

academic, that students bring with them. We are looking for students who are well-rounded and who would fit into our environment.

‘We also take financial need into consideration. We would be more

likely to assist a candidate who perhaps was fourth or fifth in line on

merit alone if that individual had a strong financial need case. To have achieved that level in the scholarship test shows clear academic ability,

and if we feel the candidate would benefit from being at the college, and we would benefit from them being here, then we would offer financial assistance’, says Mr Ross.

Mrs Reed agrees. ‘We use the test results as the basis of awarding

scholarships, with a follow-up interview for the very best candidates in

which they can bring in any supporting material to support their application—they might be school captain or on the football team or in the scout club. The interview is an opportunity for the principal to meet

the candidates and know that they are going to get something from the school and be contributors to the school’, she says.

‘A key benefit of using an externally-run scholarship test is anonym-

ity: the test markers who perform the grading don’t know if the candidates are current students or children who will only be able come here if they get the scholarship. We like that objectivity’, says Mrs Reed.

9

Chapter 2 About the tests

Unlike some traditional tests, scholarship tests do not focus on the candidate’s

knowledge—the tests are not curriculum based. A traditional geography test

may require students to know the capital cities of South America and a traditional science test may require students to memorise the first 20 elements of the Periodic Table. Scholarship tests, on the other hand, focus on candidates’ ability

to reason, interpret, explain, problem-solve and express ideas in different subject areas such as humanities, mathematics and science.

As a very simple example, compare the following two science questions:

Q1. What is the Latin name for the black rat? Q2. The European magpie (Pica pica), the Black-billed magpie (Pica hudsonia) and the Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) are very similar-looking black and white birds native to three different continents. Which pair is more closely related?

European Magpie

Black-billed Magpie

Australian magpie

The answer to question 1 is something you either do or don’t know. If you

don’t know the answer, no matter how hard you think and despite how much

10

About the tests

you know about rats, you simply can’t answer the question. The way to know

the answer is to read an article about rats and memorise the Latin names of the most common varieties.

The answer to question 2 is something that you might also happen to know

or not know. The difference is that the answer to question 2 can also be ‘rea-

soned’ and the more you know about science (in this case the scientific classification system using binomial Latin names) the better your reasoning is likely to

be. In that sense, question 2 is testing your scientific reasoning rather than just

your scientific knowledge, although obviously having good scientific knowledge is a distinct advantage. The way to know the answer to this question is to

understand the principles and methodologies of scientific classification in biology and be able to apply this knowledge to solving a given problem.

The answer to question 1 is Rattus rattus. The answer to question 2 is that

while European and Black-billed magpies are closely related, both belonging to

the genus Pica in the Corvidae family (which includes crows, ravens and magpies), the Australian magpie is not very closely related to either, being a member

of the genus Gymnorhina in the Artamidae family (which includes butcherbirds, currawongs and woodswallows).

This section of the book looks at two aspects of scholarship tests. The first

part, About the tests, looks at how each of the main scholarship tests is arranged in terms of year levels and general content, and describes briefly the kind of

questions that are found in the different parts of these tests. The next two parts,

Open-ended questions and Multiple-choice questions, look in more detail at the kind of questions in the tests, discuss what the tests are trying to assess, and give some suggestions about how to approach answering the different kinds of questions. These sections contain several example questions and answers.

About the tests Because scholarship tests do not focus on a particular set of facts and figures to

be learned, the general consensus is that there is not much to be gained from doing hundreds or thousands of practice questions. Given that the tests are designed to test how well candidates reason, interpret, explain, problem-solve

and express ideas, this shouldn’t be surprising. Other sections of this book

11

A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

make the point that to improve results, students need to develop the kinds of

skills and abilities that naturally develop at different rates, at different times

and to different extents in different children. Chapter 3 of this book, Developing skills and abilities, looks at some ways of helping children and parents to think about these abilities and focus on their development.

That said, books like Tackling that Test (ACER Press, 1999) and Practise Now!

(ACER Press, 2002) make the point that being prepared for and familiar with a test may help build confidence and help your child concentrate on the task at

hand. Some candidates, especially younger candidates, might never have sat a

formal examination before, while others may have done examinations of various kinds but not in the format or question style of a scholarship test. Those

candidates may well benefit from familiarisation with the test that comes from

attempting some practice items and practice test forms. Others may benefit from getting a better sense of what’s expected of them and a feel for the amount of time they have to address the questions.

General structure and format Scholarship tests are often reasonably similar in the types of questions asked and the areas covered, but they differ in detail of structure, timing and format.

In particular some scholarship tests have different levels depending on the year level into which the student is being selected.

This book aims to provide information and tips useful to parents of students

undertaking any scholarship test, but it will focus particularly on four scholar-

ship tests widely used in Australian schools. These tests are the Cooperative Scholarship Testing Program; the Scholarship Selection Test; the Australian

Cooperative Entry Program; and the Primary Scholarship Program. These tests are developed by the Australian Council for Educational Research.

Cooperative Scholarship Testing Program (CSTP) The Cooperative Scholarship Testing Program (CSTP) is an annual program of

scholarship testing used by approximately 150 independent schools across Australia to select academically gifted students for the award of a scholarship. The test is held on one day, and is a cooperative test, meaning that candidates can register

12

About the tests

with more than one CSTP school, but they sit the test once only. A candidate’s results are passed on to all the schools with which a candidate has registered. The CSTP is run at three different levels:

• Level 1 tests are designed for students in their final year of primary school

for entry into first year of secondary school (entry into Year 7 in the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, southern parts of the Northern Territory, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia; entry into Year 8 in

northern parts of the Northern Territory, Queensland and South Australia).

In New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Tasmania and Victoria, the Level 1 tests are also suitable for first year secondary students for entry into second year of secondary school.

• Level 2 tests are designed for students in their second year of secondary school for entry into third year of secondary school (entry into Year 9 in

the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, southern parts of the

Northern Territory, Tasmania, Western Australia and Victoria; entry into Year 10 in northern parts of the Northern Territory, Queensland and South

Australia). In New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Tasmania

and Victoria, the Level 2 tests are also suitable for third year secondary students for entry into fourth year of secondary school.

• Level 3 tests are designed for students in Year 10 (all states).

Section 1 25 minutes

Section 2 40 minutes

Section 3 40 minutes

Section 4 25 minutes

CSTP Level 1

Written Expression (one piece)

Humanities: Comprehension and Interpretation (44 multiple-choice questions)

Mathematics (32 multiple-choice questions)

Written Expression (one piece)

CSTP Level 2

Written Expression (one piece)

Humanities: Comprehension and Interpretation (44 multiple-choice questions)

Mathematics and Science (32 multiple-choice questions)

Written Expression (one piece)

CSTP Level 3

Written Expression (one piece)

Humanities: Comprehension and Interpretation (44 multiple-choice questions)

Mathematics and Science (32 multiple-choice questions)

Written Expression (one piece)

13

A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

Each of the tests has four sections: two in written expression format and

two in multiple-choice format. This test runs for approximately three hours, including administration and breaks.

Scholarship Selection Test (SST) The Scholarship Selection Test is designed in the same format and administered

at the same levels as the Cooperative Scholarship Testing Program. Instead of being held on one day for all schools, this test is used by independent schools around Australia who prefer to choose a testing date to best suit their school

program. The test can be administered as part of entry placement procedures or as a scholarship test at any time convenient to the individual school. See the table for the CSTP for more detailed information about this test.

Australian Cooperative Entry Program (ACEP) The Australian Cooperative Entry Program is used in South Australia and Western Australia for students in their final year of primary school for entry into first year of secondary school. The test has three sections: one in written

expression format and two in multiple-choice format. This test runs for approximately three hours, including administration and breaks.

ACEP

Section 1 30 minutes

Section 2 45 minutes

Section 3 45 minutes

Written Expression (one piece)

Mathematics (40 multiple-choice questions)

Reading and Viewing (45 multiple-choice questions)

Primary Scholarship Program (PSP) The Primary Scholarship Program (PSP) has been developed by ACER for use by those schools that wish to offer scholarships at upper primary levels. The

PSP consists of three papers, taken on the same day. The PSP can also be administered as part of entry placement procedures or as a scholarship test at any

time convenient to the school wishing to use it. The test has three sections: two in multiple-choice format and one in written expression format. The program consists of two short writing tasks; a humanities section of questions; and a

mathematics section of 16 multiple-choice questions and four maths operations

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About the tests

problems involving addition, subtraction, multiplication or division. This test

usually takes students about 2.5 hours to complete, including administration and breaks.

PSP

Section 1 30 minutes

Section 2 30 minutes

Section 3 40 minutes

Reading and Viewing (25 multiple-choice questions)

Mathematics (20 multiple-choice questions)

Writing (two short pieces)

Question formats There are two types of questions used in scholarship tests: open-ended questions and multiple-choice questions.

Open-ended questions require the candidate to write a short (a few words

or sentences) or long (several sentences or paragraphs depending on the level of the test) response to a question or stimulus.

Multiple-choice questions present the candidate with a question and/or

stimulus and ask the candidate to choose one of a number of possible answers from a list provided. These multiple-choice questions can be posed either as

individual questions or as part of a unit. A unit is where a number of test questions are arranged together around a common theme or stimulus. This might

mean, for example, that a candidate reads a short text or looks at a picture or diagram and then answers a number of questions related to that text or picture. These questions together make up a unit.

13 Max walks alongside a river and notes that at his walking pace of 6 km/hr the river is moving at about the same rate. The river is flowing at approximately A

0.7 metres per second.

B

1.0 metres per second.

C

1.3 metres per second.

D

1.7 metres per second.

Individual multiple-choice question

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A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

Questions 1–3 PASSAGE When Lucy woke, the room was already light. The curtains were not drawn and the pane of the open casement reflected a gleam of sun which she could lose and find by moving her head on the pillow. A wood-pigeon was calling in the elms. But it was some other sound, she knew, that had woken her—a sharp sound, a part of the dream which had drained away, as she woke, like water out of a wash-basin. Perhaps the dog had barked. But now everything was quiet and there was only the flash of sun from the window-pane and the sound of the wood-pigeon, like the first strokes of a paint-brush on a big piece of paper when you were still not sure how the picture was going to go. 1

2

3

Lucy was woken by A

a frightening dream.

B

a sound, and she knew which one.

C

the sun shining through the window.

D

a sound, but she did not know which one.

Lucy could see the gleam of the sun A

from any position.

B

from some angles only.

C

only if she kept moving her head.

D

only if she kept her head on the pillow.

What do we know about Lucy’s memory of her dream? A

She remembered that the dream had been about water.

B

She thought that the dream might have been about a dog.

C

Her memory of the dream receded as she became more alert.

D

Her memory of the dream disappeared instantly when she woke up.

Multiple-choice questions in a unit

In the case of the CSTP, SST, ACEP and PSP, all the writing tasks are in openended format while all the reading, viewing, mathematics and science ques-

tions are in multiple-choice question format. More information, suggestions and examples of open-ended and multiple-choice questions are given below in Open-ended questions and Multiple-choice questions.

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About the tests

Open-ended questions In scholarship tests like the CSTP, SST, ACEP and PSP, there are usually one or

two sections that require a long response to an open-ended question. These sections are called ‘Written Expression’ or ‘Writing’. Test

Section Name

CSTP

Written Expression (2 sections)

SST

Written Expression (2 sections)

ACEP

Written Expression (1 section)

PSP

Writing (1 section)

In these sections there is usually a short visual or written stimulus and then

an instruction on how to complete the task. Sometimes there are also some suggestions about what sort of things the candidate should consider in terms of style or approach.

Below are some examples.

Example 1 Stimulus

Rain, rain go away, Come again another day.

Instruction

Write a story about the weather.

Example 2 Stimulus

Instruction

Use this picture as the basis for a piece of writing. You may write in any way you wish.

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A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

Example 3 Stimulus

Think of something about which you have a strong opinion. The issue could relate to some aspect of your home, school, community or society as a whole.

Instruction

Write an essay which could persuade somebody who does not share your opinion to change his or her mind and see things your way. Your writing will be judged on what you have to say, how well you organise and present your point of view and how clearly and effectively you express yourself.

What the test is looking for Typically in scholarship tests there are one or two written expression questions that allow candidates to use different styles of writing to express an opinion, write a description, or produce an imaginative piece of some kind. There is no

specific length indicated, although usually a page or two of ruled A4 paper will be provided. It is more important to write well than to write a lot.

Generally speaking, the test is assessing your child’s ability to write in a

clear, lively, vivid and expressive way that expresses her thoughts and feelings in words. It is important that the piece of writing is clearly a response to the

stimulus and instruction and is not seen to be rehearsed or rehashed from a pre-prepared piece of writing. Writing pieces that are not closely based on the stimulus risk being penalised no matter how well written.

The stimulus may be a picture, a statement or a combination of the two. In

general, the instructions will allow your child to tell a story, relate a conversa-

tion, describe a scene or situation in poetry or prose, outline or explain something, express an opinion or make an argument.

The CSTP Candidate Information Bulletin (ACER, 2008) provides the fol-

lowing list of issues that examiners consider when marking written expression tests:

Thought and content The quality of what is said in the piece of writing.

• What is made of the task and what is developed from it.

• The kinds of thoughts and feelings offered in response to the task.

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About the tests

Structure and organisation The quality of the structure and organisation developed to say something. • The shape and form of the piece.

• The sequence and cohesion of the piece.

Expression, style and mechanics The quality of the language used to organise and present what is said. • The effectiveness and appropriateness of the language. • The expressiveness and fluency of the language. • The control of the mechanics of English.

So, simply speaking, the examiners are looking for the quality of the ideas,

the use of structure to present those ideas in a compelling and interesting way,

and the effectiveness and quality of the language used to deliver the ideas and structure. A candidate can get a good mark with a written piece that contains

compelling and interesting ideas but has style deficiencies and some poor grammar—but an even better mark can be achieved if the grammar and style are excellent. The other way around is probably not true. No matter how well-

crafted and error-free the writing is, if it doesn’t contain any strong and interesting ideas and doesn’t relate to the task, it probably won’t score well.

A note on the examples The following sections contain some examples of common question types and

example responses. These worked examples are intended to help you get an idea of the type of questions scholarship tests ask, as well as something about what the examiners are looking for in an answer.

Please note that for clarity, the responses provided have been corrected for

major errors of spelling and grammar. It would be unrealistic to expect all candidates to write in this error-free way under exam conditions. Note also

that these responses are not intended to provide a ‘standard’ for what a candidate needs to produce in order to get a high score. The level and length of the writing produced by candidates differs considerably depending on the test and year level.

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A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

Examples and answers The following example is a typical written expression question. These responses are quite short and intended only to illustrate some of the issues discussed above.

Written Expression Example 1 Look at the following question and then read the three responses. Stimulus

Instruction

Use this picture as the basis for a piece of writing. You may write in any way you wish.

Response 1 It is a room in an old house. The house is now a museum and people can go to see some interesting furniture and other items. In the corner of this room there is a grandfather clock, a rocking chair, a table with a book and some reading glasses, and a candle on the windowsill. There is a painting on the wall in a metal frame. The clock, chair and table are made of beautiful polished wood. The room is set up to show how a person long ago may have spent an evening relaxing in the chair and reading a book by candle light.

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About the tests

Response 2 I couldn’t wait until we arrived at the museum! Mum had packed the sandwiches and a drink and Rachel, my sister, had brought her camera so we could take pictures. We needed the pictures because Mr Wright had set us a project to complete. The topic was ‘Life in 1900’. When we got to the museum we bought our tickets and waited in line to get into the exhibition. I was hungry because I didn’t have any breakfast so Mum said why don’t we wait for the crowd to go down and eat our sandwiches straight away. We went to a little park right next to the museum to eat the sandwiches. The sandwiches were delicious! While we ate we talked about how exciting the exhibition would be. After the sandwiches we played with a ball that my sister had. We got very hot so we went across the road to get a drink from the shop. The sun was warm so we lay down in the shade to have a rest. After a while Mum woke us up and said it was time to go back to the museum. ‘No!’ I screamed as I saw the sign hanging up. ‘Closed’. There was no use, the museum was closed on Saturday afternoon! Anyway, we went to the museum the next day and that’s when we took this great picture. I got an ‘A’ for the project!

Response 3 That evening arriving back at the old house, it was quiet and lonely. Coming into the sitting room I could hear the gentle ticking of his clock rolling across the floor, calling out: ‘It’s time. It’s time.’ But no-one was coming tonight to keep the old clock company, to rock out the seconds, back and forth. No-one was coming to light the candle and cast a warm glow on the clock’s old face. Still the clock ticked: ‘It’s time. It’s time.’

Before getting to the responses, let’s take a look at the question. There is a

picture—the stimulus—and an instruction. The instruction is quite broad. It

asks that the candidate write a response related to the stimulus and says that any form of writing is acceptable.

The three pieces of writing above are markedly different responses. None is

‘right’ or ‘wrong’, but you (and the examiners) may consider one or the other to

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A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

be worth a higher or lower score. What do they have in common? Firstly, importantly, they all take the stimulus picture as the basis of the piece of writing.

Another thing in common is that all three pieces are written in fluent and well-

controlled English and use a range of appropriate vocabulary and syntax. The overall structure of the pieces is well shaped and cohesive.

What’s different? The first piece is a description of the picture, while the

second and third are imaginative stories based on the picture as a stimulus.

Another important difference is that while the second and third pieces take the

stimulus as a starting point and then develop and express some ideas and feelings of the writer, the first piece really only describes what can be seen directly

in the stimulus picture. Given that, think about how an examiner might score

these responses according to the framework on pages 18–19. All three pieces would probably score well on structure and organisation, and on expression,

style and mechanics. In terms of thought and content, Response 1 probably wouldn’t score as highly as Response 2 or Response 3.

This is not to suggest that imaginative writing will always score higher than

descriptive writing. Rather, it’s important to understand that ‘accuracy’ of language is not all that is required of a response.

Thinking again about Response 1, how could the candidate, having chosen

to write in a descriptive style, have gained a higher score for thought and con-

tent? One way might have been to take a broader view, describe more of what is not seen in the picture. The piece does start to describe something about the

broader setting, when the student writes, ‘The house is now a museum and people can go to see some interesting furniture and other items.’ Perhaps this

aspect could be explored further: What else is in the museum? What is its purpose? Who goes there? Why is this part of the museum pictured? Why do we

need museums like this? And so on. The candidate should think about her own

thoughts, feelings, knowledge and experience of the world that can be brought to the writing so that the stimulus is the starting point for the piece of writing and not the only thing the writing addresses.

Looking at Response 2 and Response 3, the strength of the pieces is not that

they are imagined stories, but that the imagined stories have some lively and

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About the tests

vivid ideas that create interest and draw the reader in. In terms of thought

and content, although it is a very short piece, Response 3 seems very strong. In

reading the piece, the reader is intrigued: Who is the narrator? Why does she

feel so alone? Who is the person who usually sits in the chair? Why isn’t the person there tonight?

In fact Response 3 is a very sophisticated piece of thinking and writing and

not typical of what a student would produce under exam conditions.

Written Expression Example 2 Look at the following question and then read the two responses. Stimulus

We live in a throwaway society. Nothing is built to last.

Instruction

Use this statement as the basis for a piece of writing. Your composition will be judged on: • what you have to say • how well you organise and structure what you have to say • how clearly and effectively you express yourself.

Response 1 I very much agree with the statement that we live in a throwaway society. Firstly, everywhere you look you can see people throwing away rubbish, food containers, plastic bags and more. Students buy a new phone or iPod this week but by next week they already want a better one. Secondly, a long time ago only kings and queens had a lot of possessions. Ordinary people didn’t have much so they always looked after their things very carefully. If someone broke something they would take it to the repairer. Nowadays, if something is broken they just throw it away. Thirdly, now with modern technology we can make things cheaply in places like China. Even children can afford to buy lots of things just for fun and when they get bored they throw them away. That’s why they also think that nothing is built to last. So that’s why I agree that we live in a throwaway society.

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A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

Response 2 When people think of a throwaway society, they often think about the plastic bags, drink bottles and take-away containers that people throw in our streets, rivers and beaches. But the throwaway society is more than just rubbish in the street. Years ago the things we owned were built to last. Houses, cars and clothes were very expensive and they had to last for years. Now even things like computers and televisions are so cheap that it’s easier to buy a new one if they break than repair them. Even school children buy a new game or pair of trainers every time a new brand comes out and just throw away the old ones. Even people and friends are ‘easy come, easy go’. On Facebook people compete to see who has more friends even if you haven’t even met half the people. If you lose any of your real friends you can always get another hundred Facebook friends! Everything is getting much faster and new fashions and trends are always coming around the corner. If a kid says that your trainers aren’t any good, you ask your parents to buy a new pair even if they aren’t worn out. So this is why I believe firmly that we live in a throw away society. If we want to leave something in this world for our grandchildren, we should think again about how we live.

In some ways, both of these responses are fairly similar. In both cases the

writer has responded to the question with a fairly standard persuasive or argu-

mentative style essay. Each essay uses paragraphs to arrange the ideas. The first paragraph introduces the topic and seeks to present the writer’s opinion. The

next three or four paragraphs present an idea and then illustrate that idea. Finally, the last paragraph summarises and concludes.

In terms of ideas, both of the essays try to make a similar argument: that

just as we have come to see goods as disposable, so we have come to see other

aspects of our lives as disposable. Each of the responses contains plenty of interesting ideas that the writer has brought to the topic and uses language in an appropriate, fluent and accurate way. Both writers have written a lot, and the

writer of Response 1 has demonstrated significant knowledge of a broad sweep of history.

One of the main differences between the two responses is what might be

called the ‘thread’ of the argument. Looking in detail at the writing, Response 1 tries to make an argument based around a significant shift in behaviour and

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About the tests

attitude from old times to modern times. The thread of the argument is that as

material goods have become cheaper and more available through time, our

general attitudes have become more and more short-term and disposable. The argument is illustrated in the table below: Paragraph 1

Introduction

Paragraph 2

Rubbish

Paragraph 3

Old times vs. modern times

Paragraph 4

Cheap throwaway goods

Paragraph 5

Conclusion

The writer uses a lot of explicit structural markers (‘Firstly’, ‘Secondly’, etc.)

although it’s not so clear that each of these paragraphs introduces a new supporting idea for the argument. Paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 essentially make the same point—nowadays people are willing to throw things away because they are

cheap and plentiful. It’s also not clear that the conclusion is drawn from the evidence presented.

By contrast, Response 2 makes this argument about cheap material goods

fairly succinctly in just one paragraph, and then goes on to pursue the theme as it appears in other areas of our lives. In fact the thread of the argument in

Response 2 is more that the disposability of goods is a metaphor for many changes that have occurred in our society. Paragraph 1

Introduction

Paragraph 2

Material goods

Paragraph 3

Relationships

Paragraph 4

Culture and ideas

Paragraph 5

Conclusion

So although on the surface Response 1 uses paragraphs and structural

markers in a fairly standard way to provide structure to the writing, the ideas in the essay lack overall organisation and development. By contrast, the writer of Response 2 has thought about the central argument she wants to make—‘But

the throwaway society is more than just rubbish in the street.’—and how to

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A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

support it with arguments and examples. Each of the key arguments is presented in a paragraph with supporting evidence. Finally, the conclusion does

much more than mechanically summarise the argument by attempting to frame the importance and value of what has been argued. As with Response 3 in Example 1, this is a sophisticated piece of thinking and writing and not typical of what a student would produce under exam conditions.

Tips for students writing test responses • Think before you write. Don’t try to make it up as you go along. • Don’t try to do too much. Keep track of the time. • Look for something definite to say. • Try to give the piece a direction that unfolds or develops. Try to think of the piece as a whole. • Try to write what you know and feel. Be honest and tell the truth. • Don’t try to repeat stories from other sources. • Don’t go too far and make your writing exaggerated or highly dramatic, but try to find precise or vivid words when they are appropriate. • Keep the reader in mind. It will be an adult, and that should influence what you write and how you write it.

Multiple-choice questions Scholarship tests like CSTP, SST, ACEP and PSP contain multiple-choice format

sections testing reading, viewing, maths and science. Although the focus of these sections is to test your child’s ability to reason and understand while

reading texts, humanities, mathematics and science, it is useful for your child to have some understanding of the multiple-choice layout so that the format is not a distraction in any way. This is especially true for younger candidates who may not have had much or any exposure to formal testing.

This section starts with a discussion of some of the special features of

­multiple-choice questions and provides some general advice on strategies and

approaches to answering multiple-choice questions. It then looks in more detail

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About the tests

at the sections of the tests that use multiple-choice question formats—reading and viewing, and maths and science.

Multiple-choice question structure Multiple-choice questions are a common question format in which a question is asked and several possible answers given. Most commonly there are four possible answers given and they are labelled A, B, C and D. The usual instruction for multiple-choice questions is to choose the ‘best’ answer to the question.

The typical multiple-choice question—whether alone or in a unit of work—

consists of up to five separate parts: Heading

Unit 1

Instruction

Look at the following picture and choose the best answer from the list below.

Stimulus

Question stem

Which state covers the largest area?

Options

A Western Australia B South Australia C

Victoria

D Tasmania

Some of the parts of the multiple-choice question, such as the heading, instruc-

tion and stimulus, are often included only once in the test, section or unit.

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A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

One of the possible answers given is called the ‘answer’ or ‘key’. This is the

correct, or more accurately, the ‘best’ answer. The other possible answers (which

are not correct or not the best) are called ‘distractors’. Because only one of the possible answers is the best one, the list of possible answers is instead usually called the ‘options’.

Multiple-choice question strategy It may seem that multiple-choice questions are easier than open-ended ques-

tions because the answer is there on the page—but so are the distractors (the incorrect options) and they are designed to be distracting. So what is the best way of approaching a multiple-choice question?

Apart from the general advice that applies to all test questions—read the

question carefully, refer to the stimulus text or picture, and so on—there is no one agreed best way of approaching this type of question.

Some teachers and books give the specific advice that the candidate should

first read over the questions, then read or view the stimulus, and then go back to the questions—sort of approaching the question back to front. The idea behind

this is that knowing what the questions are in advance will help the candidate look for the kind of information that they need when reading the text.

More traditionally, others give the advice that the candidate should start at

the start by carefully reading the instructions and the text, and then move on to the questions, one at a time, referring back to the text as required.

In fact, successful test takers use both these approaches at different times

depending on the circumstances, including the type and length of the text or sti­ mulus, the number of questions in a unit, and even whether they are at the beginning of the test with plenty of time or at the end of the test and trying to answer a

few more questions in the last minute. Practising some different approach­es to answering multiple-choice questions will give your child confidence to apply whatever approach seems best at the time when doing the real test.

‘Knocking out’ One strategy that is often talked about is the technique of ‘knocking out’ the

options that are clearly wrong. Although this strategy is not always the easiest

and most obvious way to find the best answer, it is a useful skill to think about

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About the tests

and practise because it can often give the candidate a start on finding the answer, or help confirm that the candidate has the best answer when she isn’t quite sure. Take this example question:

Heading

Unit 4

Instruction

Look at the following text and choose the best answer from the list below.

Stimulus

When it is 9.00 am on Tuesday in Sydney, it is 7.00 pm the previous day in New York City.



Sydney

New York City

Question stem

What time is it in Sydney, when it is 9.00 am on Thursday in New York City?

Options

A 10.00 am on Thursday B 11.00 pm on Wednesday C

11.00 pm on Thursday

D 9.00 am on Wednesday

To answer this question the candidate could use her understanding of time

difference to work out the answer and then hunt for it in the list. Unfortunately,

as many people know from experience, calculating time differences—especially

across the Pacific—can be very tricky and confusing. Understanding that one of these options is the correct (or the best) answer and the other three are wrong,

the candidate could start by knocking out the obviously wrong ones and narrowing down the options. This should give her more confidence in her final choice of the best answer.

Taking a look at this example question, from the stimulus it is plain that

there is a big time difference between Sydney and New York, not a small one. Clearly then, option A is not right and can be knocked out. Option D also seems obviously wrong because the stimulus makes it clear that the difference is not simply 24 hours difference (i.e. the same time on a different day). That leaves

only two plausible options: B and C. So using this strategy the candidate has already narrowed the field from four options to two options.

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A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

In this case, the remaining options provided are the same time of day—

11.00 pm—but different days: Wednesday or Thursday. So effectively we are left

with a much smaller problem to solve. Is New York City behind or in front of Sydney? It seems fairly plain from the stimulus that New York City is behind

Sydney (‘… it is 7.00 pm the previous day in New York City’) so Sydney must be ahead of New York City. That makes option C the only possible answer. There are several benefits of this knock out strategy:

• It can save time by using the information in the question and the candidate’s estimating skills to help make a choice or narrow down the choice.

• It can help the candidate double-check the result of an independent calculation.

• It can give the candidate a good start in making a complex calculation by framing the likely range of answers (i.e. knocking out some obviously wrong options leaving the candidate with a smaller number of options to choose from).

The real key to using this strategy is to think about it in a flexible way as an

effective tool to support and supplement the candidate’s normal approach to reading the question and working out the answer. If the candidate can work out the question quickly and easily, the strategy can be used to double-check. If the question is a little harder, it can be used to narrow down the options. And

finally if the candidate really can’t figure out the answer, it can be used to help her make an educated guess or start her on the right track.

The ‘best’ answer Multiple-choice question instructions are often framed using the phrase ‘best

answer’ rather than ‘correct answer’. This can sometimes be confusing but is important to think about.

Take the time difference question for example. The question is in fact a

simplification of a more complex reality. For example, it doesn’t mention day-

light saving. In fact the time difference between Sydney and New York City is different depending on the time of year and even from year to year if there

is a local decision about when daylight saving begins and ends. So when the test is being sat, the real world time difference between Sydney and New York City could be 16 hours, in which case none of the answers is really ‘correct’.

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About the tests

Nonetheless, option C is still the ‘best’ answer given the information and choices provided.

The following is another example: Heading

Unit 3

Instruction

Read the following text and choose the best answer from the list below.

Stimulus

The girls looked down at their teacher curled in a foetal position at the bottom of the stairs. ‘Are you alright, Mr Smith?’ Abigail shouted in mock concern. Leannah could barely contain her laughter. ‘Do you want us to call an ambulance?’

Question stem

The girls’ attitude could best be described as:

Options

A B C D

Callous Helpful Cheerful Boisterous

Some kind of argument could probably be made for all four options. Lean-

nah is on the verge of laughing, so is she cheerful? Both girls ask if the teacher needs help, so are they helpful? Abigail shouts her question and Leannah is

nearly laughing so perhaps they are a bit boisterous. Despite these arguments,

the tone of the writing and some key words, such as ‘mock concern’, make it clear that answer A, callous, is the best answer even if a (weak) case could be argued for all of the other options.

Choosing the best answer requires a certain amount of inference and

informed judgement—something in itself that the question is designed to test.

Candidates in multiple choice tests must be prepared to be flexible and choose the best answer even when they feel that the absolutely correct answer is not there or that some of the distractors are partially correct.

Humanities, Reading and Viewing Different scholarship tests have sections with different titles such as Humani-

ties, Comprehension, or Reading and Viewing. These are designed to test reasoning, problem-solving, interpretation, and so on through written and/or visual materials. For ease of reference they will be referred to as ‘reading

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A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

­comprehension’. These sections are presented in multiple-choice question format, with questions grouped in units or stand alone: Test

Section Name

CSTP

Humanities – Comprehension and Interpretation

SST

Humanities – Comprehension and Interpretation

ACEP

Reading and Viewing

PSP

Reading and Viewing

These sections require the candidate to read a piece of writing or view a

picture, map or diagram (the ‘stimulus’) and answer one or a series of multiplechoice questions.

Types of reading comprehension questions Most people are familiar with the idea of reading comprehension questions. Reading, understanding, interpreting and applying understandings of written

and visual texts is really a complex process made up of many different and overlapping skills and understandings. At the most basic level, there is ‘decoding’, actually reading the letters and working out what the words are. Of course

reading the words isn’t the same as knowing them. For example, many people who could read the word ‘ultimogeniture’ and say it out loud quite correctly wouldn’t have any idea what it means. So vocabulary is also a reading skill.

Similarly, understanding the way words combine in phrases and sentences

to make meaning is also a skill—we don’t write words out in isolation. Just as

important are the skills related to connecting ideas across text, like understanding that ‘it’ or ‘that dog’ refers to something mentioned before or after in the

text. Then there are a range of skills and understandings relating to inferring and interpreting both from what is in the text and what is not.

Good reading comprehension tests deliberately target a range of these kinds

of skills in order to get a good picture of the candidate’s overall ability. Scholarship tests are designed in particular to assess the candidate’s skills at reasoning and interpreting texts and applying their understanding of the texts to solving

problems. Knowing a little more about the ways that reading comprehension

tests target these different kinds of skills may help candidates think about their approach to answering questions and preparing for the test.

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About the tests

Professionals working in the area of literacy development have considered

lots of ways to think about the different categories of reading comprehension

skills. One simple way of categorising the skills targeted by a reading compre-

hension question is to think about whether the question asks the candidate to find information directly stated in the text, or whether the candidate needs to interpret the text in some way to answer the question.

The first kind of question requires the candidate to go to the text or picture

and locate or ‘retrieve’ a piece of information, something that is directly stated

or displayed. The second type requires the candidate to interpret the information in the text or picture in order to answer the question. This second category

can be further broken down depending on whether the candidate is interpreting from some directly stated information, or inferring an understanding even though the information is not directly stated.

The diagram below sets out this simple framework.

Reading Text

Retrieving directly stated information

Interpreting

directly stated information

by making inferences

There is a certain amount of overlap between these categories and some

questions can test a single, isolated skill, but most questions in a reading comprehension test could be fairly easily slotted into this framework.

Examples and answers The three questions in Example Unit 1 are of a similar level of difficulty, but finding an answer for each question brings different reading skills to the fore.

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A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

Example Unit 1 The following two reviews of a new movie Nothing Left to Burn appeared in the Spring Hills High Gazette. Read the reviews and chose the best answer to the questions below. The movie sounded as if it would be a thrilling mystery, with kidnaps and twists, but the story was predictable and took no unexpected turns. The main character, Sonata, was interesting— she was a real drama queen—but the other characters were boring and predictable. This made the mystery easy to solve. I have enjoyed other movies directed by Natasha Mailman but this one was too simple to hold my attention. Maybe it was for younger kids. I give it one star. Callum Carmichael, Year 7 I enjoyed this movie. I thought the main character was clever. Sonata likes to be the centre of attention and she often is, because the rest of the characters can’t keep up with her. The story was really exciting and the audience is kept guessing until the very end. I think it is Natasha Mailman’s best movie yet! I give it four stars! Bree Shun, Year 8 Question 1 Who directed Nothing Left to Burn? A

Sonata

B

Natasha Mailman

C

Callum Carmichael

D

Bree Shun

Question 2 What did Bree think about the movie? A

She thought it was sad.

B

She thought it was boring.

C

She did not know what was going to happen next.

D

She could easily tell what was going to happen next.

Question 3 How did Callum feel about the movie when he had finished watching it? A

excited

B

interested

C

embarrassed

D

disappointed

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About the tests

Think about the simple categorisation of reading comprehension types dis-

cussed above. Which one of these could be described as ‘retrieving directly

stated information’? Question 1 asks a factual, information type question, ‘Who

directed the movie?’ To answer the question, the candidate goes to the text and finds the sentence ‘I have enjoyed other movies directed by Natasha Mailman but this one was too simple to hold my attention’ and retrieves the correct answer: B Natasha Mailman.

By contrast, to answer the other two questions, the candidate needs to inter-

pret some aspect of the text. Question 2 asks, ‘What did Bree think about the movie?’ To answer the question, the candidate goes to the text and finds a number of sentences and phrases that contain explicit expressions of Bree’s opinion of the movie:

‘I enjoyed this movie.’ ‘The story was really exciting and the audience is kept guessing until the very end.’

In interpreting these explicitly stated opinions, the candidate can determine

that answer C is the best option. This is the kind of process that is referred to as interpreting from directly stated information.

Question 3 asks the candidate, ‘How did Callum feel about the movie when

he had finished watching it?’ Although Callum never directly writes about

how he felt at the end of the movie, the candidate can infer his feelings from the other things he says, for example:

‘The movie sounded as if it would be a thrilling mystery, with kidnaps and twists, but the story was predictable and took no unexpected turns.’

‘I have enjoyed other movies directed by Natasha Mailman but this one was too simple to hold my attention.’

From this the candidate could infer that Callum did not feel excited, interested

or embarrassed, but rather disappointed (D), even if he never says this directly. This is an example of what is referred to as interpreting by making inferences.

Here is another example unit. As you answer the questions see if you can

work out what type each question is.

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A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

Example Unit 2 Read the following text and answer the questions below. Constellations are imaginary pictures people make in the night sky by joining stars together. The constellation Crux (Latin for cross) is the smallest of the constellations but also one of the most distinctive. It is more commonly known as the Southern Cross. Acrux, at the bottom of the cross, is the principal star in Crux and it is the 14th brightest star in the whole sky. In the past, explorers in the Southern Hemisphere used Crux to guide them. They used Crux to locate the South Pole because the Southern Hemisphere does not have a bright polar star. A line that is drawn from Gacrux through Acrux points south. Following this line for approximately 4.5 times the distance between the two stars gives a point that is almost directly over the South Pole. One advantage of using Crux to locate the South Pole is that Crux can be seen in the night sky for most of the year in the Southern Hemisphere. However, Crux cannot be seen from most places in the Northern Hemisphere.

Gacrux

Delta Crucis Hadar Mimosa

Rigil Kentaurus

Acrux

The diagram above shows Crux and two other stars that are part of the nearby constellation Centaurus. These are the two pointer stars, Rigil Kentaurus and Hadar. They are often used to find Crux since a line drawn between these two stars points to Crux. Question 1 Southern Cross is another name for A

Crux.

B

Acrux.

C

Gacrux.

D

Rigil Kentaurus.

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About the tests

Question 2 How does Crux help people to find the South Pole? A

A line from Rigil Kentaurus through Acrux points south.

B

A line from the top to the bottom of the cross points south.

C

A line between Gacrux and the pointer stars points south.

D

A line from the points through the arms of the cross points south.

Question 3 Long ago people made up stories about the constellations, but there are few stories about Crux that come from people who lived in the Northern Hemisphere. What does the text suggest is the most likely reason for this? A

The stars in Crux are not very bright.

B

Most of the people could not see Crux.

C

Crux has only recently become a constellation.

D

The cross shape can be made from many groups of stars.

Question 1 requires the candidate to retrieve directly stated information, ‘It

is more commonly known as the Southern Cross.’ So the best answer is A.

Question 2 also requires the candidate to use directly stated information—

in this case instructions on how to find the South Pole—but requires some interpretation because the best answer, B, refers to the physical structure of the

constellation (top and bottom) rather than the names of the stars which are used

in the text. The candidate needs to read the text and match the information to the diagram to answer the question.

Finally, Question 3 requires the candidate to both interpret and infer. The

text doesn’t talk about the tradition of making up stories, but it does give a few

clues that would allow the candidate to infer the correct answer B. From sentences and phrases such as ‘Crux cannot be seen from most places in the Northern hemisphere’, ‘The constellation of Crux … is one of the most distinctive’ and ‘Acrux is the 14th brightest star in the whole sky’, the candidate could infer

that not being able to see Crux is the likely reason that Northern Hemisphere people didn’t make up many stories about it, rather than it not being very bright or distinctive.

37

A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

Thinking about the different kinds of skills required to answer these differ-

ent types of questions, it tends to be true that questions requiring interpretation

by making inferences are harder than questions requiring interpretation of directly stated information, which in turn are harder than questions requiring the candidate to retrieve directly stated information. However, there are a

number of factors influencing what makes a question easy or hard for any particular candidate, not just the type of skill required to answer it. It is also worth

remembering that scholarships tests, being tests designed to assess a candidate’s ability to reason, interpret, explain, problem-solve and express ideas at a high level, tend to emphasise questions requiring interpretation and inference and tend to have questions and texts of a more difficult level.

Mathematics and Science Depending on the test and test level, most scholarship tests have a multiplechoice section on mathematics or mathematics and science. Test and Level

Section Name

CSTP Level 1

Mathematics

CSTP Level 2

Mathematics and Science

CSTP Level 3

Mathematics and Science

SST Level 1

Mathematics

SST Level 2

Mathematics and Science

SST Level 3

Mathematics and Science

ACEP

Mathematics

PSP

Mathematics

The mathematics tests focus on two different aspects of mathematics. The

first aspect is how well the candidate can work with numbers, do calculations

(add, subtract, multiply, divide), understand and make measurements, think

about chance and probability, and work with spatial ideas. In some curriculum

documents these are the basic subject areas: Number, Measurement, Space,

38

About the tests

Chance and Data, and Algebra. The other aspect is how well the candidate can

solve mathematical problems and apply mathematical ideas. In some curriculum documents this is referred to as ‘working mathematically’.

In the worked examples given in the next section, you will see that often

these two aspects are combined within the same unit and even within the same

question. In particular, applying mathematical ideas and problem-solving often require calculations, measurements and estimates as the first step.

For those tests and levels that also include science questions, there is a

similar approach in that the questions test the candidates’ knowledge of science and their ability to ‘work scientifically’, applying scientific thinking to solve problems.

Like reading comprehension questions, mathematics and science questions

can be independent or arranged in a unit, with a stimulus such as a diagram or a table, and several related questions.

Examples and answers Although they require some fairly difficult number calculations, the questions

in the following example unit don’t really require any sophisticated problemsolving or application of mathematical or scientific knowledge.

Example Unit 1 The Great Artesian Basin is the world’s largest and deepest artesian basin. It underlies parts of four states, as follows: 673 000 square kilometres in Queensland, 216 000 square kilometres in South Australia, 130 000 square kilometres in New South Wales and 62 000 square kilometres in the Northern Territory. Question 1 The two states with the largest areas in the Great Artesian Basin together contain approximately what percentage of its total area? A

80 per cent

B

70 per cent

C

60 per cent

D

50 per cent

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A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

Question 2 Each day roughly 150  000  000 litres of water flows to the surface from the Great Artesian Basin. This means an average over the whole basin of approximately A

140 litres per square kilometre.

B

280 litres per square kilometre.

C

14 000 litres per square kilometre.

D

28 000 litres per square kilometre.

Let’s take a look at the questions in more detail. Answering Question 1

requires a number of steps. The candidate needs to identify which are the two

states with the largest areas in the Basin. She needs to calculate their combined

area. She needs to calculate the total area of the Basin. Finally she needs to calculate what proportion of the Basin these two states make up. These calculations require the candidate to use a range of number and measurement skills.

As a parent who might have been educated in a traditional mathematics

classroom your instinct might be to follow a process something like the following:

1. Find the total area of the Great Artesian Basin by adding together the four areas:

673 000 216 000 130 000 + 62 000 1 081 000 2. Identify the two largest areas—Queensland (673 000 square kilometres) and South Australia (216 000 square kilometres) —and add them together: 673 000 + 216 000 889 000 3. Determine the proportion of the whole made up by the top two areas by dividing the top two by the whole:

40

About the tests

889 000 ÷ 1 081 000 0.82 0.82 is another way of expressing 82 per cent so option A is the best answer.

Nowadays, children are taught to engage a range of problem-solving skills,

and this is a key area assessed in scholarship tests. In this case, rather than starting with this series of potentially tricky calculations, the candidate could

begin by using their estimating skills to find the best answer or at least knock out some of the obviously wrong options and narrow down the field.

Start by estimating the total area of the basin—about 700  000 plus about

200 000 plus about 100 000 plus about 100 000 equals just over 1 000 000. Then

estimate the combined area of the top two states—about 700  000 plus about 200 000 equals about 900 000. 900 000 out of 1 000 000 is 90 per cent so it seems

pretty clear that the answer must be much more than 50 per cent, 60 per cent or

70 per cent. On that evidence the candidate might feel confident to choose option A as the best answer or might confirm her estimation with the series of more exact calculations presented above.

If the candidate does then go back and do the precise calculations and comes

up with 82 per cent, she would be more confident that her calculation was correct. On the other hand, if something goes wrong with the calculation and she ends up with a result of 40 per cent, she would know to check over her thinking (either her estimations or her additions and divisions) and try again.

Estimation is a very important mathematical tool—especially when you

consider that scholarship tests often allow only about one minute per question.

Question 2 requires an understanding of how to calculate a ratio, in this

case another potentially tricky long division calculation, dividing 150 000 000

litres by 1 081 000 square kilometres to come up with an answer of litres per

square kilometre. If the candidate did proceed with the long division calculation they would end up with the figure 139 litres per square kilometre. Option A is the closest so that is the best answer.

On the other hand, using estimating skills the candidate might divide the

amount of water—150  000  000 litres or 150 million litres—by her estimate of

the total Basin area—1 000 000 square kilometres or 1 million square kilometres.

41

A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

A million divided by a million cancels down to 1 so the result must be something like 150. That makes options D and C look impossibly high. Options A and B are the only answers expressed in the hundreds and in fact option A is very close to the estimate of 150.

Again, if a candidate had time, she might take both approaches as a way of

confirming she has the right answer.

The next unit has some simple examples of questions that require the candi-

date to work with numbers, do calculations, understand and make measurements, and make estimates, and to use those calculations to apply her understanding and solve some simple problems.

Example Unit 2 Reuben is using a table to convert from an old unit called pounds to grams.

Pounds

Grams

Pounds

Grams

0.1

45

1.1

495

0.2

90

1.2

540

0.3

135

1.3

585

0.4

180

1.4

630

0.5

225

1.5

675

0.6

270

1.6

720

0.7

315

1.7

765

0.8

360

1.8

810

0.9

405

1.9

855

1.0

450

2.0

900

Question 1 500 grams is closest to A

1.0 pounds.

B

1.1 pounds.

C

1.2 pounds.

D

1.3 pounds.

42

About the tests

Question 2 Half a pound is closest to A

125 grams.

B

225 grams.

C

325 grams.

D

425 grams.

Question 3 Two pounds is closest to A

0.09 kilograms.

B

0.9 kilograms.

C

9.0 kilograms.

D

90.0 kilograms.

For Question 1 the candidate needs to know how to use a table to look up a

value and then to do some estimating or rounding off. A small twist is that when she looks at the table for 500 grams, she finds that there is no entry for 500. Her task is to find the closest entry. Thinking about close in terms of ‘a little more’ or ‘a little less’, the candidate might narrow the search down to 495 or 540

grams. Thinking more about which one of these is closest, the candidate should choose 495, which she can then convert to 1.1 pounds (best answer B).

For Question 2 the candidate also has to look up a value in the table. The

small twist in this one is that the values in the table are decimal whereas the question asks about ‘half’ a pound. That means that before the candidate can

look up the answer, she has to understand that ‘half’ is the same as ‘0.5’. Once that’s solved, the candidate looks up 0.5 pounds and finds the value of grams, 225, which leads her to choosing the answer B.

Question 3 also has a conversion task in it. This time the candidate needs to

understand the relationship between grams and kilograms. Using the table, it’s

easy enough to determine that 2 pounds is the equivalent of 900 grams. Unfortunately the possible answers given are reported in kilograms not grams. Before

choosing an answer the candidate will have to convert 900 grams into kilograms. This of course requires the candidate to know something about the

relationship between grams and kilograms. She might ‘know’ this as a fact

43

A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

(1000 grams equals 1 kilogram) or she may be able to infer it from her general knowledge of measurement terminology (i.e. the suffix ‘kilo-’ usually means a

thousand, as in kilometre, kilojoule, kilobyte and kilogram). From this knowledge there are a number of ways to do the conversion. Three possibilities are:

• convert the grams to kilograms by dividing the number of grams by 1000

• draw a number line with grams on one side and kilograms on the other to match 900 grams to 0.9 kilograms

• understand that 900 grams is just slightly less than 1000 grams and that

1000 grams is a kilogram so the correct answer must be just slightly below 1 kilogram.

Either way, the best answer looks like B and the candidate may well try a

couple of these strategies to double check her answer.

Just as with the reading comprehension questions, there are a lot of separate

skills and understandings that the candidate needs to bring to answer these

questions. Knowing how to do the basic calculations and having other mathematical and scientific knowledge is important, but so too is the ability to apply that knowledge to thinking out and solving problems.

Case study: Trinity Anglican School, White Rock, Queensland Trinity Anglican School in far north Queensland is an independent

coeducational school catering to around 1200 students from Prep to

Year 12. The school comprises a junior school for Prep to Year 7 at White Rock, a suburb of Cairns; a senior school for Years 8 to 12, also at

White Rock; and another junior school for Prep to Year 7 at a campus at Kewarra Beach, on the Marlin Coast.

Trinity Anglican School runs the Cooperative Scholarship Testing

Program at Levels 1, 2 and 3 for students seeking scholarships for entry to Years 8, 9 and 11.

In 2008, approximately 30 students sat the test across all levels, and

of those, four students were awarded scholarships to cover part or all of their school fees for the rest of their education at the school.

Principal of Trinity Anglican School, Mr Christopher Daunt Watney,

says he awards scholarships purely on the basis of the scholarship test

44

About the tests

scores. He says that this is one of the key benefits of using an externally administered and validated test.

‘The scholarship test is an objective measure that has, for a number

of years, provided schools with a very good benchmark in terms of where individual scholarship candidates rank against a large number

of other students. The benefit to me as a principal is that it is a really good objective test’, he says.

It is also a challenging test for candidates, he says, and this places a

responsibility on parents to understand the results of the test. ‘It is important that parents recognise that the scholarship test measures

their child against some of the brightest students in the country. It is a competitive test’, says Mr Daunt Watney.

Preparation is key to your student performing well under this pres-

sure, he advises. ‘If students are reasonably familiar with the way in which the testing is conducted and the type of questions that come up

within the test, I think they are going to perform better. Parents preparing their children should have a look at sample questions, look at the

sort of writing tasks and questions that the children will need to complete, and be aware of the time constraints of the test’, he suggests.

The number and mix of scholarships varies from year to year, as Mr

Daunt Watney explains. ‘Depending on the scores, I might offer several

scholarships to cover 50 per cent of each student’s fees, so that I can make what money I have available for scholarships go further. If I’ve got a candidate who is clearly outstanding they will be offered 100 per cent,

but if I’ve got two people with very little between them, they might get 50 per cent each’, he says.

45

Chapter 3 D  eveloping skills and abilities

This chapter provides a whole range of advice that may be helpful as you assist

your child to prepare for a scholarship test. Each child will develop at a different rate, have a different learning style, and have an individual set of interests and abilities—just as each parent will.

As mentioned in the Introduction, many parents feel they need strong

advice and clear instructions on how to help their child prepare. This section of

the book in particular takes a direct tone, rather than couching statements in

qualifications and disclaimers. For simplicity’s sake, it is more likely to say,

‘Read to your child’ than to say, ‘There is some evidence that reading to your child may have a positive effect on your child’s literacy levels, although this is the subject of some debate in the academic community’.

Having said that, the aim of this chapter is not to tell you what to do, but to

provide you with a variety of ideas from which you may choose those which resonate with you and your child.

How can I help my child develop the abilities targeted by the tests? Helping your child to prepare for a scholarship test will be a long-term effort.

As covered in earlier chapters, scholarship tests do not assess your child’s

knowledge of the school curriculum content. Short-term ‘cramming’ or rote

learning of facts and figures will not help your child to perform better in a scholarship test.

46

Developing skills and abilities

What scholarship tests do aim to measure is your child’s aptitude for

­problem-solving, reasoning, creative thinking, comprehension, interpretation, and applying known concepts to new situations. These abilities cannot be

developed by practice in the mechanical aspects of reading and routine mathematical processes, but they can be developed over time. Children aren’t born with a fixed amount of reading comprehension, problem-solving or ability to

reason mathematically. They require exposure to a culture of learning; to be immersed in a variety of age-appropriate and engaging stimuli; and to be encouraged to think deeply about and freely discuss their learning. You, as a parent, can be an integral part of this process.

Developing these abilities will assist your child in a scholarship test, but

also in her general schooling, and indeed throughout life.

A note on practice tests and private tutoring Some parents assume, or are convinced by other parents or peers, that children

will fail the test if they aren’t subjected to cramming or rigorous external coach-

ing. This is not true. Some practice tests and some tutoring may be beneficial— but these methods should be treated with caution.

Practice tests and sample materials will enable your child to practise basic

skills, to become familiar with the style of questions, and to practise working to a time limit. Completing a practice test may help your child to identify the areas in which she is already competent, and the areas that need further development.

Repeatedly sitting practice tests is unlikely to be the best preparation for a

scholarship test. Sitting a practice test may assist your child to become familiar with the testing experience, and may increase your child’s confidence and

decrease her nerves, but it probably won’t increase your child’s academic aptitudes.

Encourage your child to practise more than answering questions—help her

to prepare planning strategies as well, such as planning the way she organises work and structures answers in the written expression tasks.

Advise your child against memorising sample questions or answers. This is

a waste of time. Practice tests contain examples; these will not be the questions your child will be asked in the test.

The scholarship tests will not require your child to know factual informa-

tion beyond what would normally be expected of a student in that year level,

47

A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

but your child will need to be able to analyse information provided in the test and to apply this knowledge to new situations and problems.

Ensure your child is using the most up-to-date materials for the particular

test she will sit. Practice tests, sample questions and other preparation materials are usually available for purchase from testing agencies. For information on materials for the Cooperative Scholarship Testing Program, the Scholarship Selection Test, the Australian Cooperative Entry Program and the Primary Scholarship Program, see the Resources section at the end of this book.

Private tutoring checklist Private tutoring or coaching is by no means essential for your child to perform at her

best, but may be helpful to improve confidence for the test. Useful questions to ask when considering private tutoring may be:

• Will this tutoring give my child useful skills that can be used apart from the scholarship testing, such as problem-solving skills or interview skills? • How familiar is the tutor or agency with the particular test your child plans to sit? • What methods does the tutor or agency use? Repeated sitting of practice tests or revision of work your child completes in school may not be the most useful methods of preparation. • What claims does the tutor or agency make? Are these realistic? Can they be substantiated? Be wary of anyone advertising outrageous claims or promising success—no child

sitting a test is guaranteed a scholarship.

Thinking This book has been emphasising that scholarship tests will not expect your child

to have memorised slabs of text, tables of figures or batches of mathematical formulae. It has used terms such as ‘thinking’, ‘comprehending’, ‘problem-solv-

ing’ and ‘reasoning’—but rather than take for granted that everyone understands

the same thing by each of these terms, this section aims to describe thinking in more detail by explaining some modern theories of thinking, cognition and

learning. This is by no means an exhaustive list of educational or cognitive theory, and if you are interested in learning more about these and other theories, see the Resources section at the end of this book for further reading.

48

Developing skills and abilities

The following sections describe some different theories that aim to better

explain what thinking is and how it can best be developed. Not every aspect of

every theory will resonate with you or be applicable to your child’s learning, but by understanding the concepts and using some of the ideas covered in this chapter, you may become more aware of your child’s particular patterns of learning, which may help to broaden your child’s thinking skills base.

Higher-order thinking The type of thinking that the scholarship tests aim to assess in your child is

sometimes called higher-order thinking or critical thinking. Higher-order thinking goes beyond rote learning: it assumes that memorising something is not the

same as thinking about it. Children can be taught to memorise things—facts, formulae, quotes from a book—without understanding them.

Rote learning requires a student to memorise and parrot back facts and fig-

ures. It’s the skill of a robot programmed to perform a routine function, but unable to use the information to think for itself. Higher-order thinking requires

more cognitive processing, and is more difficult to learn and to teach than rote

learning, but it also has a much wider application. Higher-order thinking

­enables us to understand pieces of information; connect them to each other; relate new information to existing knowledge; to organise and categorise information; and to fit pieces of information together in novel ways to create new solutions to problems.

Understanding the processes involved in higher-order thinking can be a

good start to your child’s development of these skills.  Higher-order thinking skills are necessary in order to perform the sorts of tasks that will be expected of your child in a scholarship test.

Essentially, higher-order thinking can be seen as a two-step process: the

first step is that we are exposed to content, basic data, and we absorb it and

store it; the second step is that we turn this data into information, ideas, con-

cepts, principles and theories, which we apply as relevant in new situations to solve new problems.

Thinking curriculum The concept of a ‘thinking curriculum’, a term first coined by Lauren Resnick in 1989, acknowledges that while there is a body of knowledge which students

49

A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

should have an understanding of if they are to be considered educated, and that

students must have a solid grasp of foundation knowledge on which to base new information for any form of learning to occur, it is also vital that students

develop the ability to think for themselves if they are to succeed beyond the school context.

The thinking curriculum models learning around ideas generated by stu-

dents; links substantive, real-world problems to curriculum content; ensures that children achieve deep knowledge and understanding; and fosters higherorder thinking through the use of technology, creativity, the visual arts and mathematical and scientific ideas (Resnick, 1989).

A tip from Thomas Edison Highly creative people sometimes give ‘wrong’ answers to strictly defined questions

because they view the problem from a different perspective. Creative intelligence is the

driving force behind invention and innovation. Thomas Edison experimented with

more than 2000 different models before getting the light bulb right. When a journalist asked him how it felt to fail so many times, Edison replied, ‘I never failed once. I invented the light bulb. It just happened to be a 2000-step process’.

Multiple Intelligences The theory of Multiple Intelligences is another model designed to account for the different ways that people learn. This theory, developed in 1983 by Dr

Howard Gardner, professor of education at Harvard University, starts from the position that the conventional concept of intelligence is too narrow and that IQ

tests and traditional education highlight only a limited set of skills, when the range of human potential is much broader. The theory proposes that education

which encompasses a wide variety of methods and learning activities will

appeal to and benefit a wider range of students, not just those with strong verbal and logical skills. Further, it claims that students who are weak in some areas,

such as verbal and logical skills, will better develop these skills if necessary

information is presented in a new way. According to the theory of Multiple

Intelligences, we each demonstrate a combination of strengths and weaknesses

across the areas. Intelligences are not isolated from each other; one activity may

50

Developing skills and abilities

engage several areas, and areas can interact to complement or interrupt each other (Gardner, 1983).

All children have all intelligences, and their intelligence profile is not fixed;

rich learning experiences can develop various intelligences. The theory of Multiple Intelligences emphasises that learners weak in some areas are not lacking

in intelligence, but may simply be stronger in other areas. It also aims to help tailor learning experiences for children that make use of all the areas of intelligence.

This doesn’t mean you need to find eight ways to convey each piece of infor-

mation to your child. It does mean that you should create rich learning activities

that engage her particular strengths, help her to develop in any areas in which she may not be as strong, and allow her to learn across several areas at once.

Gardner’s Eight Multiple Intelligences Verbal–linguistic intelligence has to do with the written and spoken word. If your child likes to read, write and tell stories, has an interest in foreign languages, and is good at

memorising words, facts, names, dates and trivia, she has strong verbal–linguistic intelligence. Learning activities structured around reading, taking notes, listening to

lectures and storytelling should suit your child’s learning style. She may enjoy cementing her own learning by teaching others, so encourage her to explain what she has learned to you.

Logical–mathematical intelligence involves the propensity towards reasoning,

abstract pattern recognition, classification, experimentation, investigation and calc­ ulation. If your child enjoys number problems, chess or computer programming, she

probably has strong logical–mathematical intelligence. Learning activities structured around complex calculations, formulas, drills, problem-solving and theorising should suit your child’s learning style.

Visual–spatial intelligence often manifests as strong visual or ‘photographic’

memory, a good sense of direction, or artistic talent. If your child enjoys drawing or

building, plays with machines, likes mazes or is good at reading maps, she is displaying strong visual–spatial intelligence. Learning activities structured around puzzles, three-dimensional objects, multimedia presentations and creating artwork should suit her learning style.

Bodily kinaesthetic intelligence focuses on physical action and movement. People with

strong bodily kinaesthetic intelligence often talk with their hands, like to make things with their hands, have good dexterity and balance, and enjoy sports or performing arts.

51

A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests If your child has strong bodily kinaesthetic intelligence, she may learn well through doing. Try hands-on learning activities such as dancing or acting out concepts, making models, seeing a play or visiting an interactive science museum.

People strong in interpersonal intelligence are good at interacting with others. They

are often extroverted, good at communication, empathy and teamwork. If your child is

strong in interpersonal intelligence, she may learn best through sharing, cooperating, discussion and debate. Help her to find mentors, and encourage her to invite friends over for study sessions and to join clubs and groups.

In contrast, people strong in intrapersonal intelligence are typically introspective

and self-reflective. If your child displays a high level of self-awareness, is a perfectionist, and enjoys philosophy or abstract thought, she may prefer learning activities that

allow her to set her own goals; to complete individual, self-paced projects that empha-

sise personal growth; and to reflect on her learning through meditative tasks such as journal writing.

People strong in musical–rhythmic intelligence often take easily to singing, playing

musical instruments and composing music. If your child is forever drumming on the kitchen table or humming a tune out loud, she is likely to be strong in this intelligence.

People with musical–rhythmic intelligence remember information that they hear. Information presented through lectures or songs may be absorbed well. Encourage your child to attend lectures, read information aloud to her, and make up songs, rhythms or rhymes to help her remember information.

Naturalistic intelligence refers to an affinity to nature and skill in nurturing. If your

child likes to be outside, loves animals, is good at gardening, or has an interest in geogra-

phy or the weather, she is displaying naturalistic intelligence. She will likely enjoy learn-

ing activities like keeping an aquarium or terrarium, nature walks, and visiting the zoo or the botanical gardens. Abstract concepts may not appeal to her, and she is more likely to understand and retain information if she can see how it relates to the real world.

(adapted from Gardner, 1983)

Sustained shared thinking Sustained shared thinking is a concept defined by a group of researchers investigating early childhood education in the United Kingdom (Sylva et al.,

2007). Their study aimed to investigate the quality of the home learning environment. The study found, not surprisingly, that parents’ involvement in their

children’s education has a significant effect on those children’s achievement and engagement.

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Developing skills and abilities

The study found that the practice of sustained shared thinking has the

strongest positive effect on children’s engagement and achievement. According to the study:

• Sustained shared thinking occurs when two or more individuals work together in an intellectual way to solve a problem, clarify a concept, evaluate an activity, extend a narrative and so forth. Both parties must contribute to the thinking and it must develop and extend the understanding.

• Sustained shared thinking can be achieved by working with your child one-on-one and involving her in active conversations, encouraging her to initiate her own topics, freely offer information and ideas, and speculate about possibilities.

This process hinges on the quality of adult–child interaction. Try to let your

child initiate her own learning activities. You can extend the intellectual challenge of an activity once she has initiated it.

You may find it challenging at first to find a balance where you become

immersed in your child’s learning activity without leading or dominating it. Some of the following strategies may help.

• Respect your child’s choices. If you ask your child what she wants to do,

and then ignore her suggestion, she’s unlikely to engage in whatever ­happens next.

• Listen carefully. Tune in to what your child is saying and doing.

• Limit questioning. Sometimes parents bombard their child with questions in

an effort to be involved—but this may have the opposite effect if it makes your child feel that she’s being interrogated or quizzed.

• Make your questions count. When you do have to ask, use open-ended ques-

tions that leave room for your child to describe and speculate. A simple example is just to ask ‘What do you think about this?’ rather than ‘Do you like this?’ Open-ended questions allow your child to explore her thinking aloud and are more likely to result in higher-order thinking than are closed yes or no questions.

• Try positive questioning. When your child asks you something, extend her thinking by reflecting the question back. Try questions such as, ‘That’s an

interesting question. What do you think?’ or ‘How do you think we could find out the answer to that question?’

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• Encourage elaboration. Use statements like: ‘I really want to know more about this.’

• Use body language. Physically demonstrate that your child has your attention by sustaining eye contact, smiling and nodding. It may seem obvious, but it is a good way to show you are interested without dominating conversation. Also try to be aware of your child’s body language, as well as her speech.

• Clarify. Summarise your child’s thoughts, and reflect her use of language. Repeat words and phrases and restate her ideas.

• Give your child time. Leave short pauses after breaks in her speech. She may not have finished her thought, and a pause gives her thinking time, and

space to continue speaking or to ask a question. Remember to use your body language though, so she knows you’re still listening.

• Make information relevant. When you share information, try not to lecture. Personalise factual information with examples from your own experience.

• Make suggestions. Tone and phrasing both make the difference between a suggestion and an order. Suggesting ‘You might want to try doing it this

way’ is more respectful than commanding ‘Do it this way’. And, no matter how involved—or frustrated—you may get, avoid saying, ‘Don’t do it that way’, ‘Do it my way’, or worst of all, ‘Here, just let me do it’.

• Lead by example. Rather than presenting your decisions and conclusions as faits accomplis, model your own thinking so your child can see how you got there. Essentially, think out loud.

• Praise wisely. Be specific in your compliments, otherwise they risk being insipid.

Use your praise to further extend your child’s thinking. For example, rather than just saying, ‘That’s a pretty drawing’, explore artistic technique by com-

menting, ‘The use of colour is really interesting’, or ‘The sense of depth must have been challenging to achieve’ and leave your child room to respond.

• Share goals. Discuss your child’s educational goals with her, and with her

school and teachers. The UK study found that when children, parents and staff shared information about the child’s education, children were engaged

and parents were able to support their children at home with learning activities that complemented their school experiences.

Sustained shared thinking is difficult to do, and requires much practise and

self-awareness on the part of the parent. The benefit for your child is worth the

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Developing skills and abilities

effort, though: according to the UK study, sustained shared thinking significantly extends children’s emotional and cognitive development.

Six Thinking Hats The strategy of the Six Thinking Hats, originally developed by Edward de Bono

(1985) as a tool for business decision-making and teamwork, has been adapted

for use in education. The strategy defines six states, types or angles of thinking,

each symbolised by a different colour. Students work through a topic or prob-

lem, putting on each hat—either actually or figuratively—as they address the topic from each different angle.

Using this strategy with your child may assist her to brainstorm ideas and

information, to problem-solve and to reflect on her thinking process. Like the Multiple Intelligences theory, the Six Thinking Hats strategy aims to get your child using a range of thinking skills.

• The white hat symbolises neutrality and statements of fact. When your child

does ‘white hat thinking’ she should identify the facts, figures and details, consider what information is available, and identify what information is needed.

• The red hat represents emotion and intuition. ‘Red hat thinking’ allows your child to articulate her gut reactions and feelings about a topic or problem, without having to justify these. This type of thinking is useful for making a shortlist from a range of options and for identifying hunches that may be supported with logic during later thinking phases.

• The black hat denotes constructive criticism. This angle of thinking explores

the problems with a topic or proposal; identifies flaws, risks and obstacles; and exercises judgement and caution. Unlike the red hat phase, this phase should involve logical thinking. In this phase, your child can identify

problems without the obligation to provide solutions. This type of thinking

comes naturally to many people. A key benefit of the Six Thinking Hats strategy is that this type of thinking has its place, but once the ‘black hat

thinking’ phase is exhausted, criticisms should not be made during any

other phase of the process. Similarly, try not to solve problems during the black hat phase—that comes later.

• The yellow hat stands for positivity. ‘Yellow hat thinking’ focuses on the

positive aspects of a topic, problem or proposal. It is not hope or blind

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optimism—statements must still be logical and based on fact. Yellow hat thinking allows your child to list the reasons in favour of an idea.

• The green hat embodies creativity. ‘Green hat thinking’ is the phase of lateral

thinking, brainstorming new ideas, identifying new possibilities, inventing, making suggestions, creating alternatives, and problem-solving the challenges identified by black hat thinking. This phase should generate a range of ideas without passing judgement.

• The blue hat symbolises metacognition. ‘Blue hat thinking’ is about reflection,

the big picture, and thinking about our thinking. In the blue hat phase, your child can revisit the purpose of the project or activity, organise the process,

make decisions, summarise, review, and draw conclusions. You might ask your child questions like, ‘What is the focus of this project?’, ‘What have we achieved so far?’, ‘What thinking still needs to be done?’, ‘What hat might we need for that?’, ‘What have we learned?’

Six Hat thinking can be applied to most topics, problems or activities. You

don’t always have to use all the hats, and you don’t have to use them in any particular order.

As a simple example to illustrate the process, let’s say your young child is

reading the book Woolvs in the Sitee by Margaret Wild, which is quite a sophisticated text in its use of language, illustration and content. Your child’s red hat

responses to the book might be, ‘I like the character of Ben’, ‘The pictures are cool’, ‘The spelling is confusing’, or ‘This book made me feel lonely’. White hat

thinking might allow her to expand on the elements of missing information,

such as, ‘There are wolves in the title but not in the text’, or ‘Something bad has happened to the world in the book, but it’s not clearly stated, so I’m not sure what’. Black and yellow hat thinking would allow her to use logic to explain

why she liked and didn’t like aspects of the book. All of the earlier ideas might be explored using green hat thinking: ‘I think the spelling is supposed to make me want to read out loud’; ‘Maybe the people are the wolves’; ‘Maybe the world

in the book went through a war, or a natural disaster’. Blue hat thinking might be a reflection on what the book taught your child, or a comparison of this book to other books she has read.

The key to using Six Hats thinking effectively is to break down different

styles of thinking, to separate the processes and cycle through each hat purpose-

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Developing skills and abilities

fully. The strategy should teach your child to concentrate clearly on each approach to ensure a thorough and rounded exploration of the topic or problem.

Reading Reading may be one of the best ways you can help your child to develop the skills that scholarship tests target. Your home environment has a significant

impact on your child’s literacy and language development, which in turn has

an impact on academic performance. (See the Resources section at the end of this book to find research on literacy.)

Reading widely will help your child expand her vocabulary, learn informa-

tion about the world, engage in imagination, and deal with complex ideas. It may also familiarise your child with the ways in which different writers express thoughts, ideas, characters and plots, and so improve her writing skills.

Parents’ involvement in their children’s reading practices at home positively

affects children’s educational achievement. This effect is strongest if parents

take an interest in their children’s ability to read and enjoyment of reading from early childhood—but it is never too late to get involved.

Most candidates who sit for scholarship tests are high-achieving students. It

is likely, then, that your child is already an avid reader. There are still ways in

which you can help your child further improve her skills in reading comprehension. Your child needs not just to read, but to think about and discuss what she is reading.

Reading is about much more than stringing a series of words together; it is

about making sense of text in all its complexity, according to Michael Pressley

(2001), education professor and expert in reading literacy. As he explains in his

paper Comprehension Instruction: What makes sense now, what might make sense soon, comprehension requires a reader to master a range of subtle skills.

Good readers are aware of why they are reading a text; gain an overview of the

text before reading; make predictions about the upcoming text; read ­selectively based on their overview; associate ideas in text to what they already know;

note whether their predictions and expectations about text content are being met; revise their prior knowledge when compelling new ideas conflicting with

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prior knowledge are encountered; figure out the meanings of unfamiliar vocabulary based on context clues; underline, reread, make notes and paraphrase to remember important points; interpret the text; evaluate its quality; review

important points as they conclude reading, and think about how ideas encountered in the text might be used in the future. Young and less skilled readers, in contrast, exhibit a lack of such activity. (Pressley, 2001)

There are many strategies you can employ to encourage your child to

develop reading skills. The key is to concentrate on reading activities that your

child enjoys, so that reading is seen as fun, not as hard work. Some suggestions are given below:

• Teach by example. Reading books, magazines or newspapers in front of your child can set a powerful example. When your child sees you reading on a

regular basis for pleasure, she should understand that you value reading, and may model her behaviour accordingly.

• Create an environment in which reading is a natural, spontaneous and

important activity. Share information and opinions about what you are reading, and generate opportunities to share reading with your child. Read

items aloud from the newspaper at the breakfast table and discuss these in a casual way; cook with your child, encouraging her to read recipes and the

labels on ingredients; talk about family history and produce a genealogy chart together; play audio books in the car. Make reading aloud a normal

part of family life. Your child is learning from you all the time, not just when you sit down for a formal lesson.

• Read to and with your child. Take turns reading aloud. If you have more than one child, start a tradition of siblings reading to each other. Hearing

you read and reading aloud may improve your child’s fluency and expres-

sion. Make reading together a non-judgmental, casual, non-stressful activity; your child may learn to associate reading with warm feelings of family bonding and support.

• Discuss the material you read together with your child. Talk about charac-

ters, settings, plot, themes, social issues and language. If you come across

a word your child doesn’t know, encourage her to determine what it might mean in the context of the surrounding text. Look the word up in a diction-

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ary. Introduce your child to your favourite novels and explore why these books are special to you.

• Keep a variety of reading material around the house, and notice what your

child reads. Expose your child to a range of text types and genres, and chal-

lenge her to engage with materials in new ways. Read a headline from a

newspaper or magazine, or the heading from a book chapter and ask your child to anticipate what the following text will be about, then read on to see how accurate her predictions were. Analyse a political cartoon from a

newspaper together, debating each other’s interpretations of the image, and

backing this up by articulating the inferences that you each have made to

find meaning in the graphic. Encourage your child to acknowledge if she doesn’t understand something she has read. Discuss how texts can be complicated if the reader doesn’t have adequate context, and ask your child how she might go about building an understanding.

• Try to strike a balance between helping your child choose engaging, ageappropriate reading materials, and giving her freedom to choose for herself. If you have a mature teenage child, acknowledge this maturity by suggesting appropriate adult-level reading material. Don’t dictate what she should read, but try to encourage her to read across a range of text types and genres. Read the same books as your child reads.

• Designate a bookshelf in the house for your child, and ensure she has a quiet, peaceful place to read.

• Take your child to bookshops, and browse together or separately. Giving an older child a bookshop allowance, gift certificate or subscription to a

magazine will allow her to choose according to personal taste and interest, and may encourage the attitude that reading is a gift.

• Visit libraries regularly and ensure your child has a valid borrowing card.

Check if the library has a book club and consider joining up. If the local library doesn’t excite your child, try a visit to a university library.

• Find out from your child or from your child’s school which texts are being covered in class. Discuss your child’s reading strengths and areas for

improvement with the class teacher. Get advice from teachers on the best

way to support your child’s literacy development. Volunteer for classroom literacy programs.

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• Play games. Invest in board games and puzzles that challenge your child

to think outside the box, improve pattern recognition and vocabulary, use

visual learning cues, and make learning fun. Try word games, picture drawing or pattern recognition games, chess, crosswords and number puzzles.

• Be aware of what your child is watching on television and viewing on the

Internet. Many people, especially from younger generations, get much of their information and entertainment from non-print media, and it would be

naïve and counterproductive to underestimate the ways in which television and the Internet can have a positive impact on your child’s learning.

• Encourage your child to view television shows and Internet materials that

teach the viewer something, introduce new ideas or perspectives, and

encourage her to listen and question. If your child likes a book that has been adapted into a movie, allow her to watch the movie; similarly, encourage

your child to find books that explore the themes of the television shows that she engages with.

• As with reading, try to participate in your child’s television watching or

Internet surfing. Discuss and ask questions about what you view together. Explore what the material has taught your child.

Reading comprehension skills The written words themselves furnish only some of the information that your child as

a reader will require to comprehend a text. Your child needs to supply the rest. Much of the meaning of a text comes from how an author expresses ideas, or from what is not said. Authors imply; therefore, your child as a reader must learn to infer.

Accomplished readers make use of a range of skills to develop understanding.

These may include the ability to: • understand paragraph structure and grammatical conventions

• guess the meaning of unknown words from the context of surrounding text • read inferentially, ‘between the lines’, making logical deductions and conclusions, and noticing hints and omissions made by the writer • identify characters’ beliefs, personalities, motivations and relationships to one another • anticipate what may happen next in the text • provide explanations for events or ideas that are presented in the text • recognise the author’s perspective, with an awareness of the author’s or narrator’s assumptions, beliefs, intentions and biases

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Developing skills and abilities • distinguish the importance of the writer’s voice, including the use of language, tone, syntax, coherence and awareness of audience • interpret multiple levels of meaning • connect the ideas in the text to real-life experiences and knowledge.

Writing Encourage your child to write as well as read widely—learning to write well

and learning to read well go hand in hand. Just as reading books, magazines or newspapers in front of your child can set a powerful example for reading, teach your child to value writing in a variety of ways by example.

• Provide your child with a place to write, such as a designated desk or table in a quiet spot in the house. In addition to a computer, provide plenty of other materials, such as paper, pens and pencils.

• Suggest that your child keeps a journal to write about ideas and feelings,

aspirations, events that happen at home and school, interesting people, and inventions of the imagination. Keep one yourself! If you and your child feel

comfortable sharing some of this journalling, read the entries aloud and discuss them. How do accounts of shared experiences differ?

• Encourage your child to write letters or emails to relatives and friends, or to find a penpal. Write a family newsletter together that you can send to overseas or interstate relatives.

• Talk over ideas for writing projects or topics that interest your child. Steer

her away from tasks that promote ‘knowledge telling’ or ‘knowledge dumping’. That is, if your child wants to write something about World War II,

rather than choosing a topic like ‘The major events of World War II’, explore

an issue that allows her to ‘apply’ her knowledge rather than just show it. A

topic like ‘Should the USA have used nuclear strikes against Hiroshima and

Nagasaki?’ requires the writer to have a solid understanding of the events

of World War II, but also challenges her to engage with various historical perspectives and ethical considerations.

Chapter 2 looked at a number of examples of writing responses and ana-

lysed some strengths and weaknesses against the framework of what examiners are looking for. Practising the kind of writing required in the scholarship

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test will give your child a better feel for the format, length and time restraints,

and therefore hopefully give her more confidence in the test. However, developing writing skills is a long-term process that continues into adulthood. All of us can extend, improve and develop our writing skills through writing more.

There are two main traditions of teaching writing: a skills approach with

direct instruction of essential skills and grammar; and a process approach which

is more student-centred and seeks to engage the interests of the student (Westwood, 2008). Teachers use both of these approaches to help children develop

basic skills and knowledge and to extend and develop their ability to communicate well in a variety of contexts.

With a skills approach, the teacher focuses on direct instruction about

grammar, sentence construction, spelling and punctuation, essay writing formats and so on. The aim is to develop the ‘building block’ skills of writing.

Process approaches, on the other hand, aim to extend and develop the stu-

dent’s writing skills. Process approaches are often characterised by shared experiences of writing, in which the teacher engages the student in interesting and real-life writing experiences that make the process of writing explicit. Starting

with thinking about the topic and purpose of writing, the teacher guides the

student through a process of drafting and revising which allows the student to

see that writing is an evolving process. Often teachers use collaborative writing approaches that maximise opportunities to transfer and share ideas between teachers and students and between students and other students.

Some process writing approaches Paired writing Two students (or a parent and child) work together to plan and write a story or report. Research has shown this to have a positive effect on developing writing skills.

Writers’ workshop A group of writers choose a topic and then plan and write drafts over a number of sessions. Group sharing, paired writing and peer editing are important parts of the writers’ workshop.

Guided writing Guided writing involves the teacher demonstrating the processes involved in a particular writing skill, for example, generating a topic, creating and organising an opening

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Developing skills and abilities paragraph, and developing the remaining ideas in logical sequence. Students then have

an opportunity to try the skills themselves, perhaps presenting back to the group on how they went about it.

(adapted from Westwood, 2008)

One approach teachers use to make the writing process more explicit is to practise

and use strategic writing approaches. These are strategies that help the writer plan and

execute a writing task. Sometimes these strategies are expressed as acronyms or acrostics which the student learns to help them remember the steps of the strategy, for example, ‘POW and TREE’, or ‘POW and WWW and What 2 and How 2’.

POW and TREE (for opinion essays) P = Pick your topic or idea.

O = Organise your thoughts and make notes. W = Write, and then say more.

T = Topic sentence—state your opinion.

R = Give at least three reasons to support that belief. E = Explain your reasons in more detail.

E = End with a good concluding statement.

(adapted from Harris et al., 2002)

POW and WWW and What 2 and How 2 (for storytelling) P = Pick your topic or idea.

O = Organise your thoughts and make notes. W = Write, and then say more.

WWW = Who are the characters? When does the story take place? Where does the story

take place?

What 2 = What do the characters do? What happens?

How 2 = How does the story end? How did the characters feel?

(adapted from Saddler, 2006)

There are many books available on developing writing skills that focus on

strategic approaches. The best strategic approaches are those that give the writer confidence and structure in approaching the task but are not prescriptive in exactly how the writing should be undertaken. Be sceptical of schematic

approaches that try to teach the ‘perfect’ structure for an opinion essay or short

story. These overly structured approaches may end up restricting and limiting the writer’s thinking rather than supporting her to explore interesting, wellformed and well-supported ideas.

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Simply stated, the key to becoming a confident and competent writer is to

write. Doing lots of writing, as well as different kinds of writing, will help your child explore their written voice, apply their growing understanding of how

best to communicate ideas in fluent and compelling ways, and give them confidence to approach any writing task.

A note on spelling and punctuation When reading your child’s written compositions, provide as much constructive praise as possible. Focus first on the ideas the child has conveyed, and the

structure of how the ideas are organised. Fluency, spelling, punctuation and correct grammar are important insofar as they help your child better express

ideas. These are likely to improve the more often, and more widely, your child reads; although if your child consistently misunderstands rules of grammar,

explicit revision may help. In general, it is more important to encourage your child to articulate interesting ideas, and to structure these into a fluent and compelling composition, than it is to criticise minor errors in spelling.

Mathematics The previous section discussed theories of thinking in order to clarify what is meant when broad terms like this are used, and this section will discuss what it means to work mathematically. With regard to reading, for example, you have

learnt the difference between rote learning, such as memorising a slab of text,

and comprehension, such as understanding characters’ motivations by reading

between the lines. In the same way, you may recognise that reciting times tables is not what maths is about in its entirety. What, then, does higher-order thinking look like in mathematics?

The standard concept of higher-order thinking in maths currently used in

school curricula is known as ‘working mathematically’, or sometimes thinking

or reasoning mathematically. Working mathematically requires the practical

and theoretical application of mathematical knowledge. Key to working mathematically is the skill of inquiry—real maths requires students to identify and

pose problems, and to solve these by selecting and applying appropriate strategies. It entails skills in conjecture and proof, generalisation and estimation, and

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Developing skills and abilities

the use of mathematical models. Students also need to know how to express ideas and solutions using mathematical conventions.

According to the National Mathematics Forum (2008) in the Initial Advice

paper to the National Curriculum Board, working mathematically is about ‘interpreting the world mathematically, appreciating the elegance and power of

mathematical thinking, experiencing mathematics as an enjoyable experience, and using mathematics to inform predictions and decisions about personal and financial priorities’ (p. 5).

The Forum lists what it considers to be the key capacities that allow mathe-

matically literate people to interpret everyday information: number sense; measurement, such as length, mass, and capacity; estimating quantities; aspects of

location including map reading; properties of shapes; personal finance and budgeting; graphical interpretation; understanding ratio, rates and percentages; using and manipulating formulas; identifying patterns and relationships; modelling; graphical interpretation; and representing and interpreting sophisticated data.

Your child should be working mathematically in this way as part of her

school curriculum. You can support this at home by becoming aware yourself of all the many ways that you use maths in everyday life, and using your life experiences as learning opportunities for your child.

Working mathematically in the real world Cooking, shopping, travelling and sport are all great everyday opportunities to engage with your child in exploring mathematical thinking. Ask your child to: • convert a recipe that serves four to serve 12 or 15

• work out the best value product among a number of different brands and sizes at the supermarket • do some research on the best mobile phone plan for different family members • find the next place on the map that you’ll need to fill up petrol on a road trip • calculate the run rate required in a cricket match, or how many points per quarter your team will need to score to win a game of basketball from a losing position.

The point about making maths relevant to real life is an important one. Some

students, and some parents, say they find maths hard, boring and ­inaccessible.

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This is probably because they struggle to get past the traditional concept of

maths as monotonous times tables, rows of sums and formulae. These mathematical tools have their place, and your child must acquire basic numeracy and

mathematical knowledge that she can then apply to work mathematically. However, there will almost always be a way to make these tasks more interesting by contextualising them with relevant, real-life examples. If your child mutters the

dreaded question, ‘When am I ever going to use this in real life?’, you should have an answer ready!

Perhaps the most pragmatic reason to take maths seriously is that it is

required in many other subjects, such as business studies, psychology, geography, chemistry, physics, and information and communication technology. It is

essential for anyone planning to go into professional occupations such as economics, architecture or engineering, or into trades such as building, sports, health and hospitality.

When solving mathematical problems, you may notice your child’s think-

ing progress through three stages. The Queensland Studies Authority mathe-

matics curriculum, which focuses on working mathematically, defines these as: identifying and describing; understanding and applying; and communicating and justifying (Queensland Studies Authority, 2005).

In the first phase, identifying and describing, you could encourage your

child to explain her understanding of the problem in her own words. Try

prompting her to identify the problem, what information she has, what information she needs to find out, whether she has done a problem like this before,

what mathematical tools and concepts she already has that she could apply to this problem and what steps she might take to progress.

In the second phase, understanding and applying, she can apply the strate-

gies she has identified, such as applying concepts and tools to tackle the problem; looking for patterns; representing the problem using graphs, objects, pictures, symbols or models; generating a solution; and testing and verifying

her solution by real-world trialling, using a different method to achieve the

same outcome, or working backwards from the answer to prove her work. Encourage your child to discuss the reasoning, methods and outcomes of her

work, including both correct and incorrect outcomes. Try to instil in your child

a habit of checking her solutions against a real-life scenario. If her solution to a

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distance and speed problem in the real-life context of long-distance running

has an athlete breaking the sound barrier on foot, for example, it suggests she

may need to rework the problem. Allow her, as often as possible, to reach these conclusions on her own, and to generate her own self-correcting alternative solutions.

The third phase, communicating and justifying, occurs after she has gener-

ated what she believes to be the solution to the problem. Again, ask her to explain her own work, the steps she took, the tools she applied, the proof of the

solution, and what she has learnt from the problem. Challenge any missing

information, jumps or inconsistencies in logic. The idea is for her to generalise her learning and make connections between existing and new knowledge, so that she retains skills to be applied to future problem-solving opportunities.

The Maths 300 working mathematically process In the 2000s, Curriculum Corporation, a partnership of all Australian education ministers, developed Maths 300, an investigative approach to learning maths. The aim is to help students learn to work like mathematicians.

A link to the program is in the Resources section.

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Chapter 4 Preparing for the day

Many candidates preparing to sit a scholarship test find the week leading up to

the test can be a very stressful time. As this book has emphasised, the most important thing for a parent to do is to make sure that their child feels supported.

The week before the test If you have followed the advice contained within this book, preparing your child to sit for the scholarship test has been a long-term process of engaging in

her education and developing her higher-order thinking and problem-solving

skills. A balanced approach is as important as ever in the days before the test. Now is not the time to resort to cramming or rote learning. This will not help your child to perform better in a scholarship test.

Your long-term efforts up to this point have contributed to your child’s

preparation for the test. She is either ready or she is not, and undue pressure

will not help her in either case. Help her to relax and feel valued. She may be feeling quite anxious about the test and the implications of her results, so try to remove any additional stressors from her life at this time. Support her emotionally. Remember, most students who sit a scholarship test do not receive a scholarship, so prepare her, and yourself, for this possibility. Reassure her that it is OK if she doesn’t get a scholarship. This is not a test of her worth as a person, nor does her entire future depend on the results.

Dealing with panic Many candidates find the test stressful. Good long-term preparation is the best way to prevent anxiety, but even well-prepared children can experience nerves.

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Preparing for the day The first strategy to deal with panic is to stop working. Taking a break when panic

sets in is time invested, not wasted. It is much better than letting the panic continue, as your child is unlikely to work effectively until the panic has gone.

If she feels panicky during the test, she should put her pencil down, cover the ques-

tion sheet so she can’t see it, and clasp her hands loosely together. She should drop her shoulders, uncross her legs, and let her body relax and go limp. Then, breathing slowly

and deeply through her nose, she should think only about the rhythm of her breath, in and out. She should take as long as she needs to feel her mind calm down.

If her confidence is waning, she could try visualising a space in the house—her

room or desk perhaps—where she has undertaken successful learning. Reflecting on the preparation you have done together may remind her that she is, in fact, primed to

attempt this test. Hopefully, too, if you have been supportive without undue pressure,

thinking about the preparation you have done together will be associated with feelings of confidence and joy in learning, and this may buoy her on test day.

When she feels ready to return to the test, she should begin by looking not at the

next question, but at one which she has finished, to review her successful work and build confidence before moving on. If it’s right at the start of the test and she has not yet

completed a question, she should look through the questions and start with an ‘easy’ one, or one she feels confident with.

This is not the time for intensive study, but you can prepare in other practi-

cal ways. If you do not know how to get to the test centre, try going there at a

similar time a week before the real test to ensure you know what to expect from traffic and parking, and to ensure you will not be late on the day.

Your child will usually sit the test at the school for which she is applying for

the scholarship. In the case of cooperative tests, if she has applied for scholarships at more than one school, she will usually sit the test at her first preference

school. If you are distant from the school, most scholarship testing programs

will be able to offer you alternative arrangements. If your child is not currently

attending the school to which she is applying for a scholarship, it may be worthwhile to arrange for her to tour the school before the test day. A large private school, filled with alien buildings and—on test day—a crowd of unknown

people, may be an unfamiliar environment for your child, and could be an

overwhelming or intimidating experience. It may allay her nerves on test day if she is at least a little familiar with the test centre.

The days leading up to the test should be a time to slow down. Spend time

with your child on activities unrelated to study. Encourage her to exercise, eat

69

A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

healthily, and get plenty of good sleep in the week leading up to, and particularly the night before, the test.

It may be worthwhile to learn some relaxation or breathing exercises, and to

set in place a strategy your child can use if she feels overwhelmed or panicky on test day, such as the strategies outlined previously in this chapter.

The day before the test, ensure that your child has everything she needs

ready and packed. This will include two HB or B pencils, a good quality pencil eraser, and two blue or black pens. There will be short breaks between sections

of the test so your child may like to bring something to eat or drink during the breaks. You may also need to bring some form of identification for your child in order to complete the test registration form.

Your child should not bring rulers, mathematical instruments of any kind,

programmable watches, mobile phones, cameras or other image/data capturing devices, books or notepaper. These are not allowed in the test centre.

The day of the test On the morning of the test, encourage your child to eat a substantial healthy breakfast. She will have several hours of concentration ahead of her and this will require a lot of energy.

Give yourself plenty of time to get to the test centre. Aim to be at the test

centre at least 15 minutes prior to the start of the test. This is usually at 8.45 am

but check with the school before test day. You may be required to complete a registration form before your child enters the test centre, so it is important to

arrive at the time specified by the school even if the test is not due to start until later.

Latecomers may not be admitted to the test centre. This is at the discretion

of the examination supervisor. Latecomers, if admitted, will not receive any additional time to complete the test.

Your child may be anxious on the way to the school and as she waits to go

into the test centre. A certain amount of anxiety is quite normal. Getting nervous is a physical response and the effects include increased alertness and focus,

which will be beneficial in the test. Very high levels of anxiety, on the other hand, may overload her nervous system. It’s a fine line between good and bad

70

Preparing for the day

stress, and your safest course of action is to not add to the pressure. Remind her that everyone else is feeling the same way, and reassure her that you are confident she will do her best. If she doesn’t want to talk about the test, respect that. She may need a few moments of quiet to clear her head and prepare mentally.

During the test Once seated for the test, your child should try to relax, give herself time to

answer the questions fully, and clarify with the supervisor if she is unsure about any of the test day procedures.

The test centre should be comfortable for testing, with appropriate lighting,

ventilation, temperature and noise level. Your child should be in a position to

hear the supervisor and see a clock. If she is uncomfortable in any way, she can ask the supervisor to try to fix the situation.

Your child should pay close attention immediately before the test begins,

when the supervisor addresses the candidates and runs over test instructions, such as showing the candidates where to record the answers to each test. She should read the instructions on the front cover of each test carefully.

It is important for your child to focus on what she knows, not what she

doesn’t. Remember, the scholarship test does not require your child to repeat

memorised facts and figures; rather, it is looking for your child’s ability to apply given information and concepts in new situations. With well-developed ­problem-solving skills, she should be able to tackle any question the test has, even if she has never seen that particular question before.

It is also imperative that your child manages her time well during the test.

Before the test she should be aware of how long she aims to spend on planning, drafting, or on each question. Each of the Written Expression sections of the

CSTP test, for example, allows your child 25 minutes to write an essay, story,

poem or other piece of writing. Practice should have provided your child with

a guide to how long she should spend brainstorming her ideas, drafting, and writing each piece. In the Humanities section of the CSTP test, candidates have

40 minutes to complete 44 multiple-choice questions. Therefore, your child should plan to spend a little less than a minute on each question, leaving a few

minutes at the end to review her answers. The Level 1 CSTP Mathematics

71

A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

­section allows 40 minutes for 32 questions; so your child should plan to spend about a minute on each.

Many people start from the beginning and work through each question in

order, while others prefer to work on the easiest questions first. Particularly if

she is completing the questions out of order, your child should take care when

filling in the separate answer sheet to mark all of her answers against the ­correct question number.

Every question is of equal value, so it is unwise to spend too much time on

any question your child might find particularly troublesome. Remember though, that no marks are deducted for wrong answers, so it also best not to leave any

answers blank. If your child finds herself stuck on one question, she may want

to make an informed guess, mark this on the answer sheet, and make a note to return to this question if there is time later. She should remember to crosscheck that she is marking her answers against the correct question number.

The questions in each section of a scholarship test fall roughly into units or

subsections, but these may not be flagged in the test question booklet. Questions within each unit become increasingly more difficult, but as the test moves

to the next unit, the questions will begin again at the lowest level of difficulty. A saw-tooth pattern, as seen below, is a good way to think of the difficulty level

Increasing difficulty

of the questions throughout the test.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Question numbers

72

11

12

13

14

15 16

Preparing for the day

There are 32 questions in the Level 1 CSTP Mathematics section. The first five

questions may, for example, be related to a geometric figure, where Question 1 is

the easiest and Question 5 the hardest. The next five questions might be data and probability problems, where Question 6 is the easiest and Question 10 the hardest. In this way, Question 6 may be easier than Question 5 or even Question 3.

This is not signposted within the test, and your child may not be aware of it

at all, but the important thing for her to know is that even if she is stuck on one

question that seems particularly difficult, she should not give up on the rest of

the test. If she is stuck on one question, it may very well be the most difficult question for a topic, and the next question will be the easiest question for a new

topic. She should remain calm and move on, as she may find the next question quite easy.

Your child should try to allow some time at the end of the test to review and

check over her answers. If time is nearly up and there are questions she has not

answered, it is worth taking a guess. She should make sure that her answers are clear and easy to read, and are all in the correct place.

At the end of each section of the test, no-one will be allowed to leave the test

centre until all the answer sheets have been collected. There will be a short break between each section of the test, in which your child should stretch her

legs, perhaps have something to eat or drink, and try to clear her head. Remember, each section of the test is marked independently, so she should try not to let any concern about her performance in one section influence her approach to

the next section. Each section is another chance to put all the preparation into practice.

Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) A special answer sheet is provided for the multiple-choice sections. For each question,

there are four small ovals labelled A, B, C and D. Your child will need to record the answer to each question by marking the oval of her choice with an HB or B pencil.

When the test is marked, a computer scans the answer sheets, using optical mark recognition (OMR) technology.

Because the answer sheet is initially scanned by a machine, there is no room for

interpretation of what your child might have meant to answer on any given question.

Your child must make sure that she marks her answer in the oval against the question she is answering.

73

A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests Marking one answer next to the wrong question number will not just make that

answer incorrect, but will throw out the rest of the answers. This will be time consuming for your child to fix if she realises too late that she has marked the answer sheet wrongly. It is much easier to crosscheck frequently that each answer is marked against the correct question number.

It is also important that your child:

• uses only an HB or B pencil • does not use ink, ballpoint pen, felt pen or fine-leaded propelling pencil on any part of the answer sheet • does not make any marks on the answer sheet other than in the designated areas • rubs out any mistakes she makes • does not fold or tear the answer sheet. If your child wants to change an answer, she must erase the pencil mark completely

and fill in the oval corresponding to her new answer.

After the test After the test is over, be prepared for your child to experience a range of mixed feelings about how she thinks she performed. No doubt she will be relieved,

and in the luckiest of cases, she may even be confident—but it is also quite normal for test candidates to feel that they could have done better, or to agonise over imagined mistakes. Don’t assume the worst—your child’s nerves are not representative of her actual performance.

Almost every candidate leaving the test centre will be feeling the same way,

and for this reason it is best if you cut short any discussion among candidates of

who answered what for which question. Your child will almost certainly have answered some questions differently from other candidates, and even though

her answers may be correct, if she is already disheartened, this sort of speculation isn’t going to allay her fears.

Similarly, immediately after the test is not the best time for you to undertake

a debriefing session. Give your child some breathing room, and wait until the experience is a little less raw before attempting a post-mortem of the test.

74

Preparing for the day

Case study: Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Burwood, Victoria Presbyterian Ladies’ College caters for approximately 1450 students from the Early Learning Centre to Year 12, including 110 boarders. The Early Learning Centre is coeducational, and the school features a girlsonly environment from Kindergarten to Year 12.

The College runs the Primary Scholarship Program for entry into

Year 5 and the Cooperative Scholarship Testing Program for entry to Years 7 to 11 inclusive.

Scholarships are awarded on the basis of high achievement in the

scholarship test, the candidate’s most recent school report and an interview. The school policy, however, is that where other factors are equal, the family’s financial position may be considered.

Year 5 scholarships offer remission of up to 50 per cent of the annual

tuition fees to the end of Year 8. Years 7 to 11 scholarships offer remission of up to 50 per cent of the annual tuition fees to the end of Year 12.

Scholarships for entry to Years 8 to 11 are not available to girls cur-

rently attending the College. No scholarships are available to full-fee

paying overseas students. Daughters of Old Collegians and boarding

candidates are encouraged to apply. Music and boarding scholarships are also offered for candidates entering Years 7 to 11. One scholarship is offered annually for entry to Year 7 on the basis of financial need.

Scholarship places for entry to Year 7 are perhaps the most strongly

contested. Each year up to 170 candidates sit the test for the equivalent of 12 partial scholarships.

According to the College’s Registrar, Mrs Angela Hurley, candidates

must achieve outstanding results across all sections of the scholarship test.

‘Presbyterian Ladies’ College offers scholarships based on academic

and general excellence, so we are looking for a very high standard of achievement in the scholarship test, as well as excellent school reports,

demonstrated leadership qualities, and involvement in activities such as community service, music or sport’, she says.

75

A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

‘We are not specifically looking for students strong in one area over

any other. Realistically, to get a scholarship to the College, a candidate has to perform very well across all the sections’, Mrs Hurley explains.

The Presbyterian Ladies’ College website provides detailed informa-

tion about the scholarships offered and the process of sitting the scholarship test. Beyond this information, Mrs Hurley simply encourages candidates to be themselves and do their best.

‘Parents sometimes ask where they should send their child for

coaching for the scholarship test’, she says. ‘Our response is that we

would prefer that the candidates are not tutored. We have comprehensive processes in place to ensure we select the most deserving students to receive scholarships. We always look for students who are wellrounded people and high achievers across the board, not the students who have been coached purely to pass the scholarship test’.

76

Chapter 5 Now what?

Managing expectations (for parents and children) It may be helpful for you as a parent, and for your child, to review the expectations and goals you each have about the scholarship test throughout the process of preparing for the test, on the day of the test itself, in the time following the test as your child awaits the results, and after the results arrive.

This book has focused on developing your child’s skills and abilities. Rather

than the attainment of a scholarship as the goal, the emphasis has been placed on the process, and on making that process as useful to your child as you can.

You will naturally have high hopes that your child will receive a scholarship.

Some students do, and your child may be one of these. The reality is, however, that most children who sit a scholarship test will not receive a scholarship. The

disappointment of not being awarded a scholarship can be demoralising, especially as your child is likely to be used to excelling and receiving high marks at

school. It is important to keep in mind that these tests are designed to be challenging for high-achieving students, and although your child may not receive a

scholarship, this does not mean she has performed poorly. In any group of candidates sitting a scholarship test, the overwhelming majority will be students who achieve in the top 20 per cent of the students in their state, so logic suggests that

even if your child scores at the lowest end of this range, she may still be achieving at a high level comparative to the general population for her age group.

It is also important to remember that individual schools have their own

criteria for awarding scholarships, and these may not be based entirely on the

77

A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

results of scholarship tests. Your child may perform very well in the scholarship test overall, but not be awarded a scholarship if the school of your choice is

looking particularly for strong mathematics students with demonstrated leadership qualities, for example, or only awards scholarships to students in financial need.

Regardless of whether your child receives a scholarship or not, she can

review the results of the scholarship test to evaluate her strengths and areas for

improvement. Use the results in a positive way to compare which sections of

the test your child did best on, and areas in which her performance was not as strong as you might have predicted. This might indicate areas in which she should focus her study efforts in future.

The first chapter of this book posed some questions to help you clarify

your motivations for registering your child to sit a scholarship test. One in

particular is relevant following the test. Ask yourself, ‘Have I made the process of preparing for and sitting the test a positive experience for my child regardless of the outcome?’

In assisting your child to prepare for the test, you have hopefully seen her

develop problem-solving and creative thinking skills that will be useful as she progresses through school, and as she embarks upon life beyond the school gates. With any luck, both you and your child have enjoyed the time spent

learning together, and this valuable bonding experience will better enable you

to provide your child with the emotional support she may need when she receives her scholarship test results.

Understanding the meaning of results Some weeks after your child sits the scholarship test, she will receive her results from the school of her choice. The testing organisation reports candidates’

results to the relevant schools, generally within two months of the test date, and the schools pass results on to individual candidates. The testing organisation does not report results directly to candidates.

The key to understanding your child’s test results is a very important point

that has been emphasised throughout this book, but which is worth reiterating. Your child’s performance on a scholarship test is being marked relative to that

78

Now what?

of the best students from around the state, interstate, and sometimes even from overseas. The other candidates are sitting the test because they believe they are

talented enough to have a chance of winning a scholarship. It is a self-selective group of very high-achieving students.

To assist you in understanding the meaning of the results, this section will

explain the marking and analysis process undertaken by the testing organisation.

Marking This information is specific to the CSTP, SST, ACEP and PSP tests administered by ACER.

All answer sheets and papers are marked anonymously. Markers do not

know whose test paper they are marking. The different sections of the tests are marked in different ways.

The Written Expression papers are assessed by a team of 20 or so experi-

enced markers. All markers have teaching experience. The team of markers is

specifically trained in how to mark scholarship test papers by expert lead markers and test developers.

Each paper is blind-marked by two markers. If your child is sitting for the

CSTP, SST or PSP, she will have completed two writing tasks; those two pieces

are separated and marked completely independently. Two markers will assess your child’s first writing paper and two different markers will assess your

child’s second paper. If there is a discrepancy of more than two marks between

the first and second marking of a given writing piece, it then goes to discrepancy marking for a third assessment by one of the lead markers.

Frequent crosschecking of marking maintains consistency between mark-

ers and ensures an even distribution of results. The aim of the marking is to find and exaggerate differences in achievement.

Markers don’t start with one perfect answer in their heads which they hope

to find on the page in front of them. Very often in a writing test, they will give full marks to two pieces of writing which offer quite different approaches to the same topic. Review Chapter 2 of this book, About the tests, for more detail on what the markers are looking for in a Written Expression paper.

The judging of any form of written expression is by its nature somewhat

subjective. Markers use their experience and judgement to decide between

79

A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

­candidates. Bear in mind, however, that at least four and up to six highly-qualified markers will read and reach consensus on your child’s work.

Remember, too, that the markers’ task is to provide information to schools

about who the best candidates are. Not all students can be awarded high marks. Your child may be the best writer in her class at her school. If she doesn’t score

well on the Written Expression of the scholarship test, it doesn’t necessarily

mean her classroom teacher is wrong, or that she is a poor writer. It may simply

mean that she was not the best writer, on the test day, out of a group of other very good writers.

The Mathematics or Maths and Science and the Humanities sections consist

of multiple-choice questions. Your child will have marked her answers on a

special answer sheet designed to be scanned by a computer using optical mark recognition (OMR) software. These answer sheets are marked by computer.

Analysis To better understand how the testing organisation calculates your child’s

results, this section takes a look at a typical report that a school would receive. Note that this is an example of a report sent to schools; you will not be sent this

type of report. The type of report sent to scholarship candidates will be addressed later in this chapter.

Page 81 shows an example of a school’s report from the SST. As we can see

from this example, each candidate is given a unique identification number, and these appear on the far left. Each candidate’s name would usually appear next

to the identification number; as this is an example only, all names have been erased. Next to this is listed each candidate’s date of birth.

The next two columns on the report show each candidate’s raw and stand-

ardised scores for the Humanities section of the test. The raw score shows the number of questions a candidate answered correctly in each section of the test.

Data analysis experts, called psychometricians, then convert these raw scores

into standardised scores using complex mathematical processes designed to

better understand each candidate’s performance in relation to the performance of the whole group of candidates who sat the test. Standardised scores are generated for each section of the test and also for the candidate’s total performance on the test. The final column shows each candidate’s total standardised score.

80

81

13/08/1996 07/02/1997 09/07/1996 12/08/1996 07/11/1996 04/02/1997 20/01/1997 05/03/1997 14/07/1996 18/08/1997 06/01/1996 06/06/1996 07/02/1996 06/01/1997 18/10/1996 04/02/1997 27/06/1996 22/05/1996 19/03/1996 04/08/1996 12/10/1996 24/12/1996

33405

35779

32875

35781

35774

35790

35768

35776

31832

35775

35789

31582

33604

30969

35788

32765

35773

34913

35787

35792

31640

30676

Alphabetical listing of candidates

16/07/1996

30212

Birth

04/11/1996

Name

Date of

35771

Candidate Number

Alphabetic Listing Of Candidate Scores

16

18

8

16

8

14

15

16

15

32

14

32

23

14

16

13

20

15

28

12

18

30

13

22

Raw Score

1

41

44

28

41

28

37

39

41

39

67

37

67

52

37

41

36

47

39

60

34

44

64

36

50

Standardised Score

Humanities

Level

13

8

10

11

12

5

19

12

11

15

7

17

15

10

8

7

15

8

7

13

10

20

10

7

Raw Score

46

35

40

42

44

29

59

44

42

51

33

55

51

40

35

33

51

35

33

46

40

61

40

33

Standardised Score

Mathematics

Cooperative Scholarship Testing Program (CSTP) — 2008

11

12

9

14

6

8

10

17

11

13

15

9

14

7

13

10

14

11

13

6

11

11

11

12

Raw Score

47

50

41

56

32

38

44

64

47

53

59

41

56

35

53

44

56

47

53

32

47

47

47

50

Standardised Score

Written Expression

134

129

109

139

104

104

142

149

128

171

129

163

159

112

129

113

154

121

146

112

131

172

123

133

Total Standardised Score

Sample College

Now what?

82

04/02/1997 07/02/1997 18/10/1996 12/08/1996 04/02/1997 18/07/1996 20/03/1997 19/03/1996 30/03/1996 03/09/1996 26/06/1996 24/12/1996 04/11/1996 07/02/1997 05/03/1997 06/06/1996 12/10/1996 06/01/1997

35790

35786

35788

35781

32765

31686

35784

35787

30529

35512

35778

30676

35771

35779

35776

31582

31640

30969

Merit order listing of candidates

28/03/1996 16/06/1996

35780

32920

06/01/1996 18/08/1997

35789

35775

13/08/1996 07/02/1996

Birth

33405

Name

Date of

33604

Candidate Number

Merit Order Listing Of Candidate Scores

15

18

14

16

18

22

16

20

23

21

16

21

18

15

28

16

25

20

25

27

23

32

32

30

Raw Score

1

39

44

37

41

44

50

41

47

52

49

41

49

44

39

60

41

55

47

55

59

52

67

67

64

Standardised Score

Humanities

Level

11

8

7

8

10

7

13

12

12

13

11

12

8

19

7

12

14

15

16

16

15

17

15

20

Raw Score

42

35

33

35

40

33

46

44

44

46

42

44

35

59

33

44

48

51

53

53

51

55

51

61

Standardised Score

Mathematics

Cooperative Scholarship Testing Program (CSTP) – 2008

11

12

15

13

11

12

11

10

9

10

14

11

16

10

13

17

12

14

11

11

14

9

13

11

Raw Score

47

50

59

53

47

50

47

44

41

44

56

47

62

44

53

64

50

56

47

47

56

41

53

47

Standardised Score

Written Expression

128

129

129

129

131

133

134

135

137

139

139

140

141

142

146

149

153

154

155

159

159

163

171

172

Total Standardised Score

Sample College

A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

Now what?

In addition to the alphabetical listing of candidates, the school will also

receive a merit order listing of candidates, which lists all candidates from highest to lowest overall total standardised score. An example of this report appears on page 82.

The standardised scores, rather than the raw scores, are used in the report

of results sent to candidates. This is the report that your child will receive. An example of a candidate’s report for the SST is shown on page 84.

The wider column on the left shows how the students who sat this test have

been ranked into different percentage levels. Note that lower scores are represented at the bottom of the column and the higher scores at the top of the column. This is shown for each of the sections of the test.

Your child’s performance in each part of the assessment, as well as the total

assessment, is marked with an arrow next to the appropriate column. The

­columns show your child’s performance relative to the performance of other students who sat the tests.

To calculate your child’s position in the total column at the far right, psy-

chometricians have re-sorted the candidates based on their total standardised

score. This column represents how your child performed overall in relation to all other candidates sitting the test.

In some cases, the arrow marking your child’s overall performance may be

considerably higher or lower than each of the individual arrows for the Humanities, Mathematics and Science, and Written Expression sections. This is because

the total scores have been standardised. The column on the right does not rep-

resent a simple sum of the scores for each of the sections of the test. Rather, psychometricians have standardised and re-sorted all candidates in order of their overall performance.

The student in the example shown here has performed very well in the

Written Expression section but slightly below average on the Mathematics and

Science section. The candidate has received an overall rank just above average, because the high Written Expression score has pulled the overall rank up.

A candidate who performs just below average on all three tests may rank

very low in the total column, because most candidates have strengths and weaknesses, and relatively few achieve low scores on all three sections.

83

A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

Sample College Scholarship Selection Test

Individual Report Name:

June 2008 Level: 1

John Q Citizen

Identification Number:

90000

This report shows how you performed in the recent Scholarship Selection Test in the following subjects:

Humanities Mathematics & Science Written Expression The wider column on the left shows how the students who sat this test have been ranked into different percentage levels. Note that lower scores are represented at the bottom of the column and the higher scores at the top of the column. Your scores have been combined to produce a total score that is represented by the wider column on the right. Your performance in each part of the assessment, as well as the total assessment, is marked with an arrow next to the appropriate column. Percentages of students in each level of performance

Humanities

Mathematics & Science

Written Expression

Total

10% 15% Middle 50% of students assessed 15% 10%

Please Note: The columns show your performance relative to the other students who sat the tests. Remember that scores for these tests apply to a special candidate population of above average ability and not to the general population of students. These are difficult tests, and therefore, to achieve at any level in these tests indicates a good standard of achievement in the areas assessed.

© 2008

Candidate report

84

Now what?

On the other hand, it can happen that a candidate who achieves average

scores on all three sections of the test may receive an above average overall

rank, again because most candidates have strengths and weaknesses, and relatively few achieve high scores on all three sections.

A candidate who receives a scholarship based on her test scores may not

have achieved the top score in all three parts of the test. She may, for example,

have scored well in Humanities, well in Maths and Science, and about average in Written Expression. Overall, these section scores may ensure she is ranked at the top of the total column, because she has done better overall compared to, say, a candidate who achieved consistently a bit above average for all three tests.

This information may be helpful as you prepare for the test. If you know

your child excels at reading and writing but is not as strong in maths, it may be

worth concentrating on her maths skills just enough that her overall score is not dragged down by a low score in the Mathematics section.

Norming Your child’s results show her performance against other candidates who have

sat the scholarship test. In the case of cooperative testing programs, such as the

CSTP, where all participating schools hold the test on the same day, the candidature can include thousands of students. For these tests, your child’s results

are marked comparative to the Australia-wide group of all other students who sat the test at that level on that day.

In the case of programs such as the SST, for which participating schools

independently choose a testing date to suit their schedules, the candidature for a test can be quite small. For these tests, your child’s performance is measured

against a norming group. For the SST, this is an Australia-wide cohort of the approximately 10 000 candidates who originally sat this test.

Percentiles You may receive some indication from the results or the school that your child

has performed in the 95th percentile, for example, or the 75th, or the 50th percentile of candidates. What does this mean?

It is easy to confuse percentile with percent, but the two terms are not

interchangeable. As Jan and Stephen Chappuis (2002) explain in their book,

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A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests

Understanding School Assessment: A parent and community guide to helping students learn, per cent, in this case, could be related to raw scores regardless of other

candidates’ performance, while percentile is always a form of standardised scoring, comparing candidates against each other:

Per cent correct refers to the percentage of questions the student answered

correctly and percentile to the percentage of the norm group that the student outscored. A student who receives a percentile score of 50 on a standardised

test did not get half the items right. That would be a per cent correct score …

Instead, it means she outscored 50 per cent of the students who took the test during what is called the norming process. (p. 98)

The percentile is the point below which a certain proportion of the candi-

dates’ scores fall. The 20th percentile, for example, is the score below which

20 per cent of the candidates scored. If your child answered 24 questions correctly out of the 32 questions in the Maths and Science section, then she scored 75 per cent correct. But, if half the candidates got more than 24 correct and the other half got fewer than 24 correct, she will be in the 50th percentile.

So, if you are told that your child is in, for example, the 99th percentile, that

means she has performed better than 99 per cent of the other candidates.

Requests for information In very rare cases, some parents wish to appeal the results of their child’s scholarship test. If you think there is something wrong with your child’s results, there is a procedure you can follow.

First, you should contact the testing organisation. In the case of the CSTP,

SST, ACEP and PSP, this is ACER. Contact details can be found in the Resources section at the back of this book.

There may be an identifiable reason that your child has not performed as

well as expected. If your child has scored low on one of the multiple-choice tests,

for example, it may be that the form was not filled in because your child marked

her answers in the question booklet. While this cannot always be remedied, it can be checked, and so you will better understand your child’s results.

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Now what?

General queries may be able to be answered over the phone or via email;

however, if your query requires ACER to access your child’s test papers and

answer sheets, you will need to submit a formal request for this information. (Note that all documentation is destroyed six months after the test date. If you have a query after this time, it will be impossible to retrieve your child’s test papers and answer sheets.)

You will need to download a personal information request form, complete

all details on the form, and to attach a copy of your child’s birth certificate to

assist with verification of identity. ACER will then retrieve your child’s test

papers and answer sheets from secure storage. See the Resources section at the

back of this book for a link to the personal information request form.

The Written Expression section will be rechecked by expert markers, and

the multiple-choice answer sheets will be hand scored. This process can take up to three weeks. An administrative fee is payable for this service.

When this process is complete, you will receive copies of the Written Expres-

sion papers and of the multiple-choice answer sheets. You will be reissued your child’s candidate report, with listings of her raw and standardised scores.

You will not receive copies of test booklets or questions, as this information

is commercial in-confidence. The CSTP, SST, ACEP and PSP tests are secure

instruments, and any public viewing of test questions would compromise further administration of the tests.

ACER will not disclose the merit listing of candidates. Parents may have a

strong desire to know where their child was ranked in relation to other candidates, but ACER will not disclose any information that could be construed as an invasion of any candidate’s privacy.

Comparison with national tests You may want to know how your child’s results on the scholarship test compare with her results on national tests such as the National Assessment Program—Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN) or the Achievement Improvement Monitor (AIM).

It is impossible to compare these sets of results. Scholarship tests assess different

skills than national tests such as NAPLAN and AIM, so comparing your child’s raw scores from each will tell you very little. Comparing standardised scores will tell you

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A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests even less, because the candidatures for the scholarship tests and for the national tests are not the same either.

Remember that standardised scores for scholarship tests apply to a special candi-

date population of above average ability, while national testing results apply to the general population of students.

You may find that your child got very good results in national testing programs,

but has been ranked quite low on the scholarship test. Remember that even if your child scores at the lowest end of the scholarship candidature range, she may still be achieving at a high level comparative to the general population for her age group.

Parents sometimes express concern that a low score on the scholarship test means

that their child needs tutoring or remedial help. Some parents even worry that a low score means their child has a learning disability. This is unlikely to be the case. If your

child is performing well in school, has scored well in national testing, and is enjoying

learning at home with you, it is more likely that she simply found the scholarship test challenging because it is designed to be challenging, even for high-achieving students. These are difficult tests, and therefore, to achieve at any level in these tests indicates

a good standard of achievement in the areas assessed.

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Conclusion I hope that by reading this book you have found some valuable advice to assist

you with preparing your child for a scholarship test. I also hope that in assisting your child to prepare for the test you have seen her develop problem-solving

and creative thinking skills that will be useful throughout the rest of her schooling, and her life after school. I trust that both you and your child have enjoyed the time spent learning together, and that this valuable bonding experience has encouraged your child to associate learning with feelings of family support.

Success at most endeavours is a result more of perspiration than providence.

For your child to perform at her best in scholarship tests she needs to be

informed, prepare well, and put in some hard work. Those tasks are now up to

you and your child, and having read this book is a good first step. My last words to you are, ‘Good luck!’

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References Australian Council for Education Research (2008). CSTP Candidate Information Bulletin. Camberwell, Victoria: ACER. Chappuis, J. & Chappuis, S. (2002). Understanding School Assessment: A parent and community guide to helping students learn. Portland, Oregon: Assessment Training Institute. de Bono, E. (2008). Six Thinking Hats. London: Penguin. Gardner, H. (1983). Frames of Mind: The theory of multiple intelligences. New York: Basic Books. Harris, K. R., Graham, S. & Mason, L. (2002). ‘POW plus TREE equals powerful opinion essays’. Teaching Exceptional Children, 34(5), 74–77. National Mathematics Forum (2008). National Mathematics Curriculum: Initial advice. Carlton South, Victoria: National Curriculum Board. Retrieved November 21, 2008, from http:// www.ncb.org.au/verve/_resources/Mathematics_Initial_Advice_Paper.pdf Pressley, M. (2001). ‘Comprehension instruction: What makes sense now, what might make sense soon’. Reading Online, 5(2). Retrieved November 21, 2008, from http://www. readingonline.org/articles/art_index.asp?HREF=/articles/handbook/pressley/index.html Queensland Studies Authority (2005). About Thinking, Reasoning and Working Mathematically. Brisbane: State of Queensland. Retrieved November 21, 2008, from http://www.qsa.qld. edu.au/downloads/syllabus/kla_maths_trw_about.pdf Resnick, L. B. & Klopfer, L. E. (Eds) (1989). Towards the Thinking Curriculum: Current cognitive research. Washington, DC: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Saddler, B. (2006). ‘Increasing story writing ability through self-regulated strategy development: Effects on young writers with learning disabilities’. Learning Disability Quarterly, 29(4), 291–305. Sylva, K., Melhuish, E., Sammons, P., Siraj-Blatchford, I. & Taggart, B. (2007). Teaching and Learning: Research briefing, No. 24. London: Teaching and Learning Research Programme. Retrieved November 21, 2008, from http://www.tlrp.org/pub/research.html Westwood, P. (2008). What Teachers Need to Know about Reading and Writing Difficulties. Camberwell, Victoria: ACER Press.

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Resources Information on ACER scholarship tests • For information on the CSTP, SST, ACEP or PSP, or to download Candidate Information Bulletins, visit <www.acer.edu.au/tests/scholarships.html>.

• For a full list of participating schools, visit <www.acer.edu.au/tests/ scholarships-schools.html>.

• To download a personal information request form, visit <www.acer.edu.au/ legals/assessment-services-privacy-policy.html>.

Test practice materials and resources To purchase any of these resources, visit the ACER Bookshop at 19 Prospect Hill Road, Camberwell, Victoria or at , or shop online at .

CSTP Sample Collection of Questions, Volume 1 or 2 (ACER, 2004) Practise Now! (ACER Press, 2002) More Practise Now (ACER Press, 2007) Tackling That Test, by Graeme Withers and John Barnard (ACER Press, 1999)

Other resources available include: Athanasou, J. A. (2000). Excel Practice Selective Schools and Scholarship Tests. Glebe, NSW: Pascal Press. Moir, J. (2001). Excel Practice Selective Schools and Scholarship Tests: Skills and strategies. Glebe, NSW: Pascal Press. Morris, N. (2002). Selective Schools and Scholarship Tests. Marrickville, NSW: Science Press. Rucco, A., McFerran, R. & Garner, S. (2000). Home Help in Selective and Selective Entry Exams: Practice exercises. Ballarat, Victoria: Wizard Books.

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Resources

Student resources There is a huge array of reading, writing, numeracy and science resources available at upper primary and lower secondary level. Choose resources that are engaging, challenging and interesting.

ACER Press publishes the Action Literacy and Action Numeracy readers,

which aim to develop skills across the curriculum. Individual titles include:

Upper Primary Literacy • China

• Elephants

• Extreme Sports

• Human-made Disasters • I Believe in ... • Media

• Science Fiction, Science Fact • Surf and Sand • Survivors

• World War I

Upper Primary Numeracy • The Big Event • Bikes

• Desert Critters

• Exploring Space

• The Facts of Living • Leonardo’s Legacy

• Technology to the Rescue • Travel and Transport • Water and Food

• Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?

To purchase any of these resources visit the ACER Bookshop, shop online at

or enquire at all good bookshops.

For more on Curriculum Corporation’s Maths 300 program, visit <www1.

curriculum.edu.au/maths300>.

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Resources

For a huge range of practical activities, visit <www.thefutureschannel.com/

hands-on_math.php>.

Research and teaching resources If you are interested in following up on any of the research or theories mentioned in this book, below is a list of references to get you started.

Anderson, L. W., Krathwohl, D. R., Airasian, P. W., Cruikshank, K. A., Mayer, R. E., Pintrich, P. R., Raths, J. & Wittrock, M. C. (Eds) (2001). A Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching, and Assessing: A revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives. New York: Addison Wesley Longman. Cam, P. (2006). Twenty Thinking Tools. Camberwell, Victoria: ACER Press. de Bono, E. (2008). Six Thinking Hats. London: Penguin. Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence Reframed: Multiple intelligences for the 21st century. New York: Basic Books. Paul, R. W. (1995). Critical Thinking: How to prepare students for a rapidly changing world. Dillon Beach, CA: Foundation for Critical Thinking. Resnick, L. B. & Klopfer, L. E. (Eds) (1989). Towards the Thinking Curriculum: Current cognitive research. Washington, DC: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Wilks, S. (Ed.) (2005). Designing a Thinking Curriculum. Camberwell, Victoria: ACER Press. Wiske, M. S. (Ed.) (1998). Teaching for Understanding: Linking research with practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

For an overview of research into the benefits of parents reading to their

children, see Strategies for improving outcomes for young children, on the website

of the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development. Available

from

<www.education.vic.gov.au/healthwellbeing/childyouth/

catalogue/sections/literacy-ind2.htm>.

For the full report on the UK study with details on sustained shared think-

ing, see Sylva, K., Melhuish, E., Sammons, P., Siraj-Blatchford, I. & Taggart, B.

(2004). The Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE) Project: Final report. London: Department for Education and Skills Sure Start Publications & The Institute of Education. Available from <www.surestart.gov.uk/research/ keyresearch/eppe/>.

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A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests Preparing, applying and sitting for a scholarship test can be a gruelling and competitive process for a child and the child’s parents, and the disappoint­ ment of not being awarded a scholarship can be demoralising. Scholarship tests aim to identify the very best potential students for an elite school from a pool of outstanding candidates. To be of any use, scholarship tests must identify very small differences in the academic performance of very high achieving students. A Parent’s Guide to Scholarship Tests aims to help parents better under­ stand scholarship tests so that they can help their child do their best when it counts. The book contains: • detailed information about the CSTP, PSP, SST and ACEP scholarship tests; • advice on preparing for the test; • example questions and sample answers with detailed explanations, strategies and approaches; • suggestions on helping your child develop the skills and abilities the tests target; • advice on how to manage expectations and better understand results; and • case studies and advice from participating schools.

Cover images: © Milena Boniek | Gettyimages.com © Monkey Business Images | Dreamstime.com

ISBN 978-0-86431-852-7

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