it's bc while they do get decently good hsc results they put caps on the number of students who can do enx1, mx1, chem and phys. yeah every school has caps on them, however penrith has crazy entry requirements for them in y11 which require you to do well in year 9 and 10.
- enx1 you need to have a minimum of 90% on your semester 1 year 10 report, do well throughout year 9 + 10 and submit work samples and a page on why youre a good fit (about 2 classes i think or maybe 1) for it.
- mx1 you have to do well both years, submit half a page on why you are suitable and do an entrance exam and rank top 60 in ur cohort to get first round offers. there's 4 classes but one goes to compaction (accelerated) kids automatically, so its basically 150+ competing for 72 spots. and then y12 there's two mx2 classes, but one most likely goes to compaction again and you guys need to compete for one class.
- chem and phys you have to do well year 9 + 10 for them, attendance and icas results also go towards your selection. if you're new to the school in year 10, you have to do entrance exams for these 2 which make up 50% of selection criteria. then, they take ur results and rank u in a spreadsheet and offer chem to top 72 (3 classes) and phys to top 48 (2 classes).
it's pretty wild
also they say its bc they don't have resources and teachers to run more classes but pretty sure its a lie they 90% likely wanna raise their rankings and dont want the people who didn't get as good to do ill get them? IF I end up getting into penrith ofc