Bad Subjects = Bad UAI...true? (1 Viewer)

[jessrose]

Over the last 12 months I have become fairly familiar with the scaling process... and have basically come to the conclusion that those students who select relatively easy subjects will generally not harvest UAI's as great as those who select subjects with a higher level of difficulty.

This bothers me somewhat, because I am one who has selected poor subjects, I am not saying that the system is unfair; those who do harder subjects should obviously be handicapped.

Just wondering what others thoughts were on the issue.

By the way, I made a post earler about a UAI prediction but got barely any responses;

SOR 1U
Trial: 33/50
Assessment: 35/50
Final Assessment Rank: 64/113

English Adv.
Trial: 46%
Assessment: 58%
Final assessment rank: 73/78

General Maths
Trial: 66%
Assessment: 72%
Final Assessment rank: 32/86

Industrial Tech - Multimedia
Trial: 76%
Assessment: 93%
Final Assessment rank: 3/36

Senior Science
Trial: 86%
Assessment: 80%
Final Assessment rank: 3/37

Thanks again everyone.

Jess.
Information Processes & Technology
Trial: 65%
Assessment: 60%
Final Assessment rank: 17/24

 

[Huy]

Originally posted by jessrose
those who do harder subjects should obviously be handicapped.

It is all about the quality of the candidature (or group).

It has to do with capabilities as well, reflecting the quality (the two go hand in hand).

If, for some reason, and this is my understanding - every "4U maths" person decides to pick, say "General Maths" and gets 100% - then this will raise the scaled mean (average) and increase the quality of the candidature.

I hate getting involved in "which subjects are better, which scale better, why should I choose..." debates.

Jess,
If you were to be doing other subjects, than the ones you are presently undertaking, you would be severely disadvantaged (this is my opinion, it doesn't mean that it is true).

People will have to figure out one thing:

"Choose subjects that you enjoy, and that you know you can perform well in, at least above the average"

It's all about the quality of the candidature

(More info at www.uac.edu.au - See the Technical Report on Scaling in the "Downloads" section- left hand side menu)

From memory, it is about 42-48 pages.

It is a worthwhile read

Edit:

There is no such thing as a bad subject, just wanted to make that clear.

Scaling depends on the students themselves and their own performance on a whole (again, the group effort by everyone doing subject X as opposed to those doing subject Y).

 

[Hotdog1]

again, I know alot of people who do 4 unit maths/Physics/Chemistry/Economics purely for the scaling, without any interest in those subject area. They'll all get 99+ too. Doing well in a subject and interest in a subject are different, though the later compliments the former.

Hardness is also relative, what is hard for one may not be hard for another. But as Huy said, the fair way to do this is by looking at how the people do those subjects perform in the other areas and the subject in concern is scaled accordingly.

 

[Huy]

That's very true.

i hate phy/chem, but i do it anyway (im not that bad at it... but it doesnt interest me all that much).

you can do well in a subject by scraping by and pulling your weight when push comes to shove, so you'll be "rewarded" (though this isnt entirely fair, i know) by scaling and other students working their butt's off and pulling your marks up.

if i had the opportunity, i would have done some HSIE subjects... maybe even biology (because im interested... even though it's not one of the best scaling subjects)

receiving a "bad" uai isn't the end of the world

 

[Jeo]

Originally posted by Huy
receiving a "bad" uai isn't the end of the world

yes it is. the whole world will explode!

anyway, yeah, I do SDD and IPT because I like it. And I get good marks, keeping in mind, I picked up SDD one and a half terms ago, and my exams are in two weeks time.

 

[Huy]

Originally posted by Jeo
yes it is. the whole world will explode!

that's right... it will

there are always other avenues and pathways to take.

it just takes a little longer but people will be happy with where they're at (or will be at) in a few years time, even if the Board can't give everyone 99's

- they would, if they could, but they cant

 

[Jeo]

if they could give everyone 99+, then the cut off for software engineering would be 99.95 and the cut off for law would be 99.993

 

[Huy]

.993?


*walks away, for real lol*

 

[Jeo]

lol! me too

 

[Hankan]

Jess, you have nothing to worry about compared to me! I didn't even know what a UAI was at the start of year 11 and went for Art, Drama, Adv. English, English Ext, Society and Culture and Maths General !!! I'm thinking im gonna get a 48 or below UAI even though i came 1st in the 'creative subjects'... This isn't the end though (says the defeated)...

 

[Jeo]

Yeah, Im looking at around 30 or 40 aswell.