So I thought I might make a thread about specific HSC/ATAR terms, realizing how confused I was with the exact definitions of these specific terms. Feel free to post whatever common misconceptions people might have when regarding ATAR/HSC terms such as:
Ranking is more important than marks
"Marks are definitely more important than ranks, but in a certain context. The mark itself, has no meaning. It's where your mark is positioned relative to the cohort which matters, but this does not mean the 'rank' of the student. Coming 20th by 2% puts you in a better position than coming 20th by 20%, yet in both cases, you are the same rank, so clearly ranks do not matter. The only cases where ranks do matter is if you are first or last. In these cases, the first ranked student's moderated assessment mark will be the highest HSC exam mark of any student in the cohort, and vice-versa for the last ranked student. Everyone else in between is moderated based on how well they performed in the year in terms of how close they are to first place, in terms of marks, not ranks.
BOS takes into account the relative gaps between students. If you are not first, then you need to ensure you have as many marks as possible, otherwise factors such as a poor tail or a poor mean of marks can distance yourself from the higher end of marks. Being ranked 2nd won't help you if you are quite distant from first place, and your cohort is stretched in the HSC exams.
As said/implied above, you may be achieving 90% or whatever, and end up getting a low HSC mark of say 80. This is because the standard at which your school sets assessments is not to the standard of the HSC. The problem is that many students only know how well they perform relative to their school's standards, so they are conned into thinking they are set for the HSC and end up doing really crap. This is in no way linked to how well you rank at school, so associating the two in this context is erroneous.
But the important point is to ensure you know how well you are performing relative to the standards of the state. If you feel as if you are not being tested, or the marking seems to be easy (no matter how nice it is to get 95%), then chances are your school isn't setting assessments to the standard of the state. But at the same time, if you aren't doing too well, but it seems like the content isn't too hard, then chances are your school isn't effectively teaching you to a standard that is competitive at state level. Both are hard to tell when you are in the middle of it, so a good way is to do past HSC papers and see how you perform, get someone from BoS or another school to mark it etc. Doing past papers from other schools (preferably selective schools since they are rarely below the standard of the state in most subjects) is also a good way of getting a variety of questions.
To quantify which is more important when one is dependent on the other makes no sense. Marks determine ranks, ranks do not determine marks. BOS does not allocate marks to certain ranks, except first and last, but those marks are based on HSC exam marks which are independent of ranks." - D94 (http://community.boredofstudies.org.../sooo-your-rank-more-important-your-mark.html)
Scaling vs Aligning
"Raw mark is the mark that is attained after the exam has been marked; eg. you do say a 3 unit maths exam, and you get 63/84 - that is your raw mark. Now, this mark is not released to you. First the board of studies aligns the raw mark according to standards, so since 3 unit maths aligns very well, 63/84 aligns to ~92/100 (or 46/50). That is your aligned exam mark. Next, the BOS moderates and aligns your assessment marks, and then averages them with your aligned exam marks - eg. if your moderated/aligned assessment mark was say 88/100 (or 44/50) and aligned exam is 92/100, they do (92+88)/2 = 90 <-- THAT is your HSC mark.
Scaled marks work differently - the UAC takes your RAW exam marks and moderated assessment marks (before aligning), and scale them based on the scaled mean (average) of how the whole state performs - the higher the scaled mean, the better the subject scales; eg. in 2010, 3 unit maths had a scaled mean of 39.8/50 (or 79.6/100), this means it scales extremely well. It is usually the case that the scaled marks are much lower than your raw marks. Another example is Standard English; in 2010, it had a scaled mean of 17.3/50 (34.6/100), this means it scales very poorly, and hence can scale you down pretty badly if you don't perform that well in it. Remember, aligned marks have NOTHING to do with scaling - they are not used in the calculation of your ATAR." - TheCardician (http://community.boredofstudies.org...w-mark-hsc-mark-aligned-mark-scaled-mark.html).
Ranking is more important than marks
"Marks are definitely more important than ranks, but in a certain context. The mark itself, has no meaning. It's where your mark is positioned relative to the cohort which matters, but this does not mean the 'rank' of the student. Coming 20th by 2% puts you in a better position than coming 20th by 20%, yet in both cases, you are the same rank, so clearly ranks do not matter. The only cases where ranks do matter is if you are first or last. In these cases, the first ranked student's moderated assessment mark will be the highest HSC exam mark of any student in the cohort, and vice-versa for the last ranked student. Everyone else in between is moderated based on how well they performed in the year in terms of how close they are to first place, in terms of marks, not ranks.
BOS takes into account the relative gaps between students. If you are not first, then you need to ensure you have as many marks as possible, otherwise factors such as a poor tail or a poor mean of marks can distance yourself from the higher end of marks. Being ranked 2nd won't help you if you are quite distant from first place, and your cohort is stretched in the HSC exams.
As said/implied above, you may be achieving 90% or whatever, and end up getting a low HSC mark of say 80. This is because the standard at which your school sets assessments is not to the standard of the HSC. The problem is that many students only know how well they perform relative to their school's standards, so they are conned into thinking they are set for the HSC and end up doing really crap. This is in no way linked to how well you rank at school, so associating the two in this context is erroneous.
But the important point is to ensure you know how well you are performing relative to the standards of the state. If you feel as if you are not being tested, or the marking seems to be easy (no matter how nice it is to get 95%), then chances are your school isn't setting assessments to the standard of the state. But at the same time, if you aren't doing too well, but it seems like the content isn't too hard, then chances are your school isn't effectively teaching you to a standard that is competitive at state level. Both are hard to tell when you are in the middle of it, so a good way is to do past HSC papers and see how you perform, get someone from BoS or another school to mark it etc. Doing past papers from other schools (preferably selective schools since they are rarely below the standard of the state in most subjects) is also a good way of getting a variety of questions.
To quantify which is more important when one is dependent on the other makes no sense. Marks determine ranks, ranks do not determine marks. BOS does not allocate marks to certain ranks, except first and last, but those marks are based on HSC exam marks which are independent of ranks." - D94 (http://community.boredofstudies.org.../sooo-your-rank-more-important-your-mark.html)
Scaling vs Aligning
"Raw mark is the mark that is attained after the exam has been marked; eg. you do say a 3 unit maths exam, and you get 63/84 - that is your raw mark. Now, this mark is not released to you. First the board of studies aligns the raw mark according to standards, so since 3 unit maths aligns very well, 63/84 aligns to ~92/100 (or 46/50). That is your aligned exam mark. Next, the BOS moderates and aligns your assessment marks, and then averages them with your aligned exam marks - eg. if your moderated/aligned assessment mark was say 88/100 (or 44/50) and aligned exam is 92/100, they do (92+88)/2 = 90 <-- THAT is your HSC mark.
Scaled marks work differently - the UAC takes your RAW exam marks and moderated assessment marks (before aligning), and scale them based on the scaled mean (average) of how the whole state performs - the higher the scaled mean, the better the subject scales; eg. in 2010, 3 unit maths had a scaled mean of 39.8/50 (or 79.6/100), this means it scales extremely well. It is usually the case that the scaled marks are much lower than your raw marks. Another example is Standard English; in 2010, it had a scaled mean of 17.3/50 (34.6/100), this means it scales very poorly, and hence can scale you down pretty badly if you don't perform that well in it. Remember, aligned marks have NOTHING to do with scaling - they are not used in the calculation of your ATAR." - TheCardician (http://community.boredofstudies.org...w-mark-hsc-mark-aligned-mark-scaled-mark.html).
Last edited:
