As with all Distinction courses, Philosophy is a lot simpler when it comes to scaling because all assessments are marked by the same people for everyone in the state doing it (50 or so of us).
Here is my Philosophy Assessment Schedule. You will notice that the 'exam' is actually earlier on in the year than the HSC exams and my last assessment (an essay) is due in a couple of weeks before the other HSC exams start, so in that way it's awesome!
Assignment 1: Academic Essay - 750 words. Due: 22/02/2003 (5%)
Assignment 2: Academic Essay - 750 words. Due: 29/03/2003 (5%)
Assignment 3: Academic Essay - 750 words. Due: 17/05/2003 (5%)
Exam: Written Examination - 2 hours. Due: 20/06/2003 (40%)
Assignment 5: Academic Essay - Unspecified length. Due: 27/07/2003 (5%)
Assignment 6: Academic Essay - 1500-2000 words. Due: 16/08/2003 (20%)
Assignment 7: Academic Essay - 1500-2000 words. Due: 11/10/2003 (20%)
So as you can see, it's pretty different to 'normal' HSC courses. Those are the only assessed things we have to do for the whole year. Another benefit is that we had no coursework to do in the Christmas holidays (Cosmo and Comp. Lit. had HEAPS). We actually don't start work until the first residential which is this weekend (only 2 days, at UNSW).
As far as the scaling of each subject goes, we were given a brief run-down on the comparative scaling of each subject on the info day. Philosophy had an average scaled up to just over 42/50, Cosmology had an average scaled up to just under 42/50 (so the scaling was very similar). Comparative Literature had it's averaged scaled up to just under 37/50. As you can see, this is nuts, but of course you only benefit if you do well. As a comparison, Physics and Chemistry scaled to about 32/50 and Extension 2 Mathematics scaled to about 43/50. Can't remember any others, sorry (Adv. English was in the low 30's too).
This year there are 50 people doing Philo, just under 40 doing Cosmo and only 8 doing Comp. Lit. You have to do well to get in, but not awesome. I got 88 in Geog and got in. They actually do take a lot of notice of your school report though. Mine was good. I had a friend who got 94 in IPT but didn't get into Philo because he purposely failed Chemistry last year because he was going to drop it. So yeah, make sure your school report is good!