Explanation of HSC Marks (Moderating) (4 Viewers)

[~Dreamer]

hello, first time here,
and to ragerunner, ive learned more from uin 5 minutes about the strucuture of hsc marking, than our "year co-cordinator" who is still trying to explain tit to us

 

[Ragerunner]

why don't you explain it to him/her now then ?

 

[Beaky]

Anybody worried about Maths/Smart People/You doing shit listen to this story

- One of my friends did accelearated 2 unit maths at my school (selective) and obtained an assment mark of 65
- His ext exam mark was 93
- And the best part is... his exam mark got scaled up to 89... (his ranking was like 40th-35th)

so anybody doing shit, that has smart peers... dont worry.... keep working hard and you'll do fine

 

[flyin']

If you have smart peers, then your Assessment marks shouldn't be too bad. Especially if your ranked above them.

 

[DC10]

mmm if you are ranked above them, chances are that you are better than them anyway - so smart ppl win out in any case

 

[pigs_can_fly]

question: is it better to come say top 20 in a selective high school, or to come 1st in a comprehensive high school, assuming you would have gotten the same external exam mark regardless?

 

[Lazarus]

Hmm. I decided to edit and refine my answer.

high exam mark; e.g. 90
first scenario - very good, because you're likely to receive a higher moderated assessment mark, resulting in an HSC mark above 90
second scenario - good, because you'll most likely receive 90 as your moderated assessment mark, resulting in an HSC mark of 90

low exam mark; e.g. 70
first scenario - average, because you're likely to receive a high moderated assessment mark, resulting in an HSC mark around 80
second scenario - bad, because you'll receive the top exam mark as your moderated assessment mark, and that may not be too high, resulting in an HSC mark around 75

Looks like the selective school wins. It does depend, though.

 

[Affinity]

Very High Exam mark; eg 98
probably better with 1st in a comprehensive highschool

But chances of getting a 20th in school and such a high mark is slim

 

[DC10]

i would say if you're in a selective school with over 100 people doing that topic and you are good enough to come first, then you're guaranteed very high 90s. chances are for the first ranked person's mod. assessment mark will be like 98 or 99 and that he will rip the exam anyway if he could be ranked first in a selective school. Crying over my rank of 8th in chem now dropped to 40th

 

[Insomniac]

hey, i got a question

say, there are two people, ranked 1st and 2nd
and their assessment marks differ by 1% (just an example i wish i was coming first or second)
so, e.g. P1 - 91% and P2 - 90%

but then in the actual hsc exam, with the two highest marks, P2 gets 95, while P1 gets 90
would this mean that for the moderated school assessment mark:
P1 would get 95 and then P2 would get 90 (since 90 is the second best mark)
OR
P1 would get 95 and then P2 would get 94 (since the difference was one)?

thanks for your help

 

[Lazarus]

The former would occur - see this thread.

Note that the reason is not because "90 is the second best mark", but because it is the only mark that would ensure that the moderated assessment marks had the same mean as the examination marks (as the other mark is fixed at 95).

 

[Insomniac]

ahhhh ok, i get it now

so what if there are more students, say 10 or so?
wouldn't they be given the 10 different marks in decreasing order?
that would keep the mean the same, or is it a little more complicated than that?

 

[Lazarus]

More complicated - they don't simply get the mark that corresponds to their rank. That only happens for the person ranked first. The other marks are spread out according to the relative differences between the students (in such a way that preserves the mean). It's explained in a bit more detail at the beginning of this thread, if I recall correctly.

 

[slyball]

i must be a complete idiot (while everyone here is understanding and i'm still confused..).

okay, here goes (please bear with me)...

afaik, you get three marks. exam, assessment and hsc.

i'm in a situation where i'm in a room almost full of idiots for IT. for it, we do almost nothing every lesson. we have only done two exams (internal assessments, right?)and those are the halfyearly and the trials. now, i came second for IT in the halfyearly. except i wasn't feeling too well (but not too sick to fill in a misadventure form) for the trials, resulting in my extremely low mark (second last in the class). i know the trials are worth ALOT, so my rank is going to be way down. when i do the hsc exam, i am sure i'll get a very good mark, that'll get 'taken' by others in the class, i'm sure. now, will it state anywhere on my report what mark i got orginally or just the mark that corresponded with my rank?

next, say i got 100% for hsc exam for IT and 40% (coming second last of 34 people since i stuffed up on trials) for moderated assessment mark, and other idiots are getting <50% for hsc. will they 'get' my mark? will my mark just be some mark <50% + 100% / 2? that's a bit unfair if it is since i bombed out on trials due to uncontrollable circumstances... will this great range in marks be taken into account so as not to unfairly award people?

 

[Lazarus]

By IT do you mean Industrial Technology, or Information Technology, or what exactly?

You're correct - your BOS Record of Achievement has three marks and a band printed on it for each course.

Your exam mark will always be your exam mark - nothing can change that. Your assessment mark will appear as a moderated mark according to your assessment rank and so on. Your HSC mark will be the average of the two.

If you "bombed out on trials due to uncontrollable circumstances" then you should have applied for illness/misadventure (and it might still be possible to). It's extremely unlikely that anyone in your class will receive less than 50%, so it would be more probable that your HSC mark would be something along the lines of 70% + 100% / 2.

 

[DC10]

are the marks for the school assessments used only in the rankings , resulting in the moderated school assessment marks (which comes from the HSC exam marks of the peers in your school)?

or do they ALSO get scaled and the mean of those school assessments marks taken into consideration by the BoS?

 

[Ragerunner]

they need the marks as well.

they take into consideration the relative differences in marks between rankings.

 

[DC10]

Originally posted by Ragerunner
they need the marks as well.

they take into consideration the relative differences in marks between rankings.

so the marks come into play? how does it then?
just say if i am if one person gets 80/100 (33/90) and another gets 65/100 (ranked 70/90), then what happens?

 

[slyball]

thanks laz.

they take into consideration the relative differences in marks between rankings.

yeah that was another question i forgot to ask.. how does that work?

 

[Ragerunner]

The BOS simply ensures that the moderating process preserves the relative differences between students - you will be just as far in front of and behind everyone else, relatively, as you were before your marks were moderated. Ratios are maintained.