If your ranking is last, and then you come first in the HSC exams, three things will happen:
1. The person ranked first in your class will get your exam mark as their moderated assessment mark
2. You will keep your exam mark as your exam mark
3. Your assessment mark will be moderated in line with the performance of your cohort, while keeping distance between ranks the same. This means that your assessment mark will still be the lowest in the class, no matter how well you do in the externals.
Your exam mark and moderated assessment mark are then combined and averaged to give your aligned HSC mark.
If you come first in your class and then bomb out in the externals, these things will happen:
1. You will receive the highest exam mark as your moderated assessment mark
2. You will keep your dodgy exam mark as your exam mark
These marks will then be combined and averaged to give your aligned HSC mark.