idk y but since i never really had anyone who got in mhs last year to tell me their sehs experience, i can share mine for u as it would've helped me a lot in getting a gauge of the test and what to do, so here goes nothing:
Day 1 of starting preparing for selective began at school, term 1, where my friend from school told me he had tutoring after school, i asked him what for, and he said to get into mhs. I had known about mhs because a family friend had gotten in 3-4 years ago, but i took this with a grain of salt. Due to bad friendships in yr 7, i sought for more in yr 8, more being better marks, friends and even a whole new school where i could thrive and feed off the positive energy to kindle a new spark for my academics. I immediately wanted to try out from that day on, i told my mother about this, James An College my friend went to, and within the next week, she got me signed up. I signed up on a Friday and started James An on the 24th of February, the next day. I struggled to say the least, with the maths component i had never really done the shading bubble kinda tests so i stuffed that up, and the reading comprehension sucked for me. I rushed it all and got somewhere in the 30% and 40% for maths and reading. I now knew that getting in was not going to be easy. I severely doubted myself.
The next week of James An comes about, similar story, i get low for both numerical and Verbal, my writing scoring decently 15/20 for both. It was now that i found out about connected class online, and started doing some of the practice tests which were easier than the ones in class. I had started learning new things, quadratic, probability, permutations and combinations which were confusing for a while. The 3rd week of james an was when i scored my first 50%+ in a test, for maths or reading i think. I was happy, knowing i made progress, but with around 12 more classes left, I had to improve big time. My writing was probably my strongest point.
I immediately started vocab practice, collecting around 300 words i didn't know and learning them, changing them from my passive vocab to using them in writing pieces, my writings were now sitting around 17-18/20. I had not scored above a 59% for another 4 classes. I had been doing some numerical practice, and honing my vr, when i went into another James An Class, this time I was in full control. I knew exactly what to do for most of the test, and for vr I also scored well, in the end getting 76% for qr and 60% for vr, from then on, scores fluctuated around the 60-80% mark, i kept at it, every day doing test after test online. Until, simulation. This is where you do all 5 tests in the same class, to simulate the real experience. I scored ok in this first one, around 50's for the maths, 78% for vr and 70 for reading. Next sim, i scored 70 smth for maths, 60 smth qr, 80 on vr and 70% for reading once again, clear that english is my strong suit, seeing as the highest score for sim 2 out of all centers was 90 (VR). Sim 3 i got 60 smth reading, 60 smth vr, 70smth maths and 60 smth qr, overall pretty poor compared to previous one. Though in sim 4 i did my best out of any test, scoring 83% reading, 80% vr, 76% qr, and 76% maths, i was quite happy with this, i probably could've scored 90's in tests but i had limited classes, most people take up the full year of tt8. The mock exam VSSE was a hit and miss for me, this was done right before Sim 1 or right after, i think it may have been the day after. I cooked in writing, reading, vr did average and maths did ok. I was disheartened, but still scored around above average/superior overall in this test.
Test day was funny actually, i had 0 nerves, i was confident with english, less with maths. It was genuinely a surreal experience, knowing it was the actual test that would decide if all this wok was for nothing. I was sure i wouldn't get in afterwards, because initially i wasn't that confident with english, seeing as sharing some of my answers, others seemed to do otherwise, but they would've scored low since i got sups in the English ones. Maths i wasn't surprised, i feel i wasn't exposed to that content enough in preparation, but luckily what i did was enough, and a month later i found out i got in, middle of French class, i was genuinely over the moon. We went out for dinner, and i knew that i had made it, my hard work payed off, and i could just focus on finishing yr 8 and cooking in mhs the next 4 years. ALSO shout out to Arnav Kadian, i made friends with his brother in TT8, his bro didn't get in sad, and neither did the initial friend who started this whole thing for me. Morale: Dont give up, doesn't matter if people have spent longer than you studying, its about using your materials to the fullest, dream big, be positive.
