Statement of the School Principal on the Admissions Process to Open Gate Grammar School
Dear parents and friends of Open Gate,
This year, a record number of applicants applied to the eight-year grammar school at Open Gate. Once again, this confirms the long-term growing interest in our school. However, the nationwide overview of the Cermat test results shows that the cut-off score for admission to Open Gate was lower this year than at some other prestigious schools with which we are often compared in rankings of the best Czech grammar schools. This fact may raise doubts about the academic level of our students. Yet, in this case, the numbers are somewhat misleading and must be viewed in a broader context. I would therefore like to add this explanatory comment.
To judge the quality of applicants solely through the lens of the Cermat test is simple but inaccurate. The result does not reflect a student’s real academic potential, only how well they are able to memorize and drill for this specific test format. In fact, Cermat results often say more about whether parents have invested in preparatory courses than about the child’s abilities. Experts across the Czech education system have been pointing this out for years.
Revealing a child’s study potential is a complex matter. This is why, at Open Gate, a substantial part of the entrance exams is our in-house testing focused on cognitive abilities and learning potential. Over the years, it has become clear that Cermat results often do not correspond at all with these aptitudes. It often happens that an applicant with a higher Cermat score is overtaken in the admission process by someone who excelled in the aptitude tests. Typically, these are students with social scholarships from the Kellner Family Foundation. They demonstrate a high level of natural intelligence during the entrance exams, but at home they did not have sufficient support to prepare for the Cermat tests. With that support, they would have achieved significantly better results.
If we were to select students for Open Gate purely based on Cermat, both the cut-off score and the average score would be significantly higher than they are now. Outwardly, it might look better, but it would say nothing about the true quality of the applicants. This is not the path we wish to take. I can assure you that the academic level of students admitted to Open Gate has been stable in recent years, and our admissions system is set up correctly. The best proof of this lies in the long-term success of our students — in their final exams and in university admissions. This year, too, has confirmed that Open Gate students belong to the very top among Czech grammar school students.
In the state-leaving exam in English, our students achieved an average of 97%, which ranked them 12th among all schools in the Czech Republic. In Czech language, our results are not yet as outstanding — which is the price we pay for English being the primary language of instruction at Open Gate. However, we are continuously working on improving outcomes in Czech. In Mathematics, the state exam results are not representative at all, since this year only one student chose that option. This does not mean that our students avoid mathematics — on the contrary. The majority chose the much more demanding IB Mathematics exam instead of the Czech state exam.
We are still waiting for the IB results, so we do not yet know all the universities our graduates will attend. But we already know that they have been admitted to institutions such as UCL in the UK, Berklee College in Boston, universities in Eindhoven, Breda, Utrecht, and Milan, the Faculty of Law at Charles University in Prague, and some are still awaiting results from medical school entrance exams. My heartfelt congratulations to all who have already been accepted, and I believe that the others will succeed in getting into their dream universities.
I must also mention the achievements of our younger students this year: winning the Debate League, advancing to the world finals of the Economics Olympiad, participation in the national finals of the Logic Olympiad, the Linguistics Olympiad, and the mathematics competition Pangea, numerous successes in regional rounds of school Olympiads, and a record number of Gold Awards in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award programme.
In connection with the successes of our students, it is important to highlight the work of our teachers. The true quality of a grammar school is not reflected so much in the level of students at the start of their studies, but in how far the school can take them during the eight years of education. In this regard, our teachers are doing an exceptional job.
I wish you a wonderful summer.
Petra Dobešová
Principal
OPEN GATE – Grammar and Primary School
