Australian Grading System (1 Viewer)

Cujo10

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Are HSC bands equivalent to university grading system?

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jazz519

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No it’s not equivalent, because HSC has aligning of the marks, so this means even if you got a band 6 of 90, that doesn’t mean you got 90/100 in the exam.

Uni on the other hand there is normally no or little alignment and it’s just the raw mark you got. This therefore means that a 90 isn’t like equivalent to a band 6, it actually will require way more work and probably less than 2% of a course gets that mark
 

quickoats

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Note that not all unis use the same grading system. Most common is the HD: 85-100, DN: 75-84, CR: 65-74, Pass: 50-64, Fail: 0-49. However, other unis (like the one above - is it Monash?) use a slightly different scale. Nowadays, WAM is more common so the “band” e.g. distinction that your mark is in doesnt really matter.
 

brent012

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As jazz has said, definitely not. The HSC grading system is much closer to the US uni system (maybe HS too?) where A = 90+, B = 80+, C = 70+ and so on. US uni courses are either marked more leniently or curved generously (like aligned HSC marks) compared to Australian universities - As are pretty common.

A distinction (75+) at an Aussie uni translates into an A (90+) from the World Education Services (WES) calculator which many US unis use for international students.

If we take that analogy to the extreme (which we probably shouldn't...), then the more likely mapping would be Band 6 = Distinction or higher.
 

Velocifire

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Apparently you can "get-by" with just passes. Is this true tho?

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blyatman

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As jazz has said, definitely not. The HSC grading system is much closer to the US uni system (maybe HS too?) where A = 90+, B = 80+, C = 70+ and so on. US uni courses are either marked more leniently or curved generously (like aligned HSC marks) compared to Australian universities - As are pretty common.
Each grade is also partitioned into plus and minus (e.g. A-, A, A+), and yeah, its a lot easier to get a 90+ in the US than in Aus. However, the cut-offs for each grade are not always clear, and is generally arbitrarily decided by the lecturer each year depending on the cohort and how well everyone performed relative to each other. Funnily enough, I ended up getting an A in my last course last semester, but my aggregate was 743.5/741 (more than 100%), yet I didn't get an A+. Lol.

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brent012

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Apparently you can "get-by" with just passes. Is this true tho?

THAT'S AWESOME!
Yes and no. Via experience and the analogy established earlier, i'd say a pass at uni would be roughly equivalent to a Band 4 in the HSC.

No because without strong extracurriculars getting "just passes" won't usually put you in a good position for paid internships, good grad jobs etc. If you ever want to do postgrad down the line, you'd have trouble getting to study what you want, where you want.

Yes because passes will get you the degree in the end ("Ps get degrees") so a "Pass" grade or two is less damaging overall than some band 4s on your HSC.
 
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