Quick Question (1 Viewer)

[MortImmortelle]

I'm not saying this refers to me

but If you go to a selective school and your about averagish..but if you went to a public school you were ranked really high in most of their courses...
Does that mean that you'd be disadvantaged at a selective school?

I was just reading the 100 uai thread...just seeing what people were talking about and someone said that you'd be better off at a normal public school because your rank would be higher and therefore you would have a better chance and a better uai. But i've also heard that your school rank pushes your ua up or down...

so now i'm very confused

If someone could help me out with this...it would be greatly appreciated.

Thankya

 

[jaaaaay]

from my understanding, you would notbe disadvantaged at a selective school. UAIs are not calculated purely on the ranks you receive in your school.

your aligned hsc mark (which determines your UAI) depends upon your whole school’s average mark too. so, obviously the school (i.e. selective school) would have a better school average than a non-selective school and would generally have an advantage over the non-selective school when determining the aligned mark.

therefore... a student with a higher ranking than that of a lower ranked ‘selective student’ may actually be disadvantaged and receive a lower aligned mark despite the higher ranking.

haha sorry bad explanation… you’re better off reading about it here: http://boredofstudies.org/community/showthread.php?t=6642

 

[webby234]

It will be fair in most cases - the marks the students in your class receive in the exam is compared to the marks your school submits. The marks the school submits are then adjusted to make the average the same as the average of the exam marks. The top student in the assessment marks is given the top exam mark as their assessment mark, the bottom student is (usually) given the lowest exam mark as their assessment mark and the rest are adjusted between the two extremes, maintaining the rank order submitted by the school. Understand?

What this means in practice is that a student who would be just above average in a selective school receives as their assessment mark slightly above the average exam mark for their school (and therefore is a good indicator of the standard achieved), but instead goes to a public school and is ranked first, receives their exam mark as their assessment mark - the exam becomes the only important thing. This is perhaps more unreliable - the system works better for those in the middle of their classes than those at the top and the bottom.

The argument in the other thread is in the context of getting 100 UAI. To do this you will usually need to come first in your school and get a good exam mark. The argument is that this is easier to do at a public school, because you can afford a couple of not so good assessments and still come first, while in a selective school this could drop you down the rankings a bit, meaning your chance of getting 100 UAI is fairly small.

However, for students achieving high marks but not that high, this is offset by the fact that at a selective school you can afford to do worse in the exam without affecting your assessment mark (your HSC mark being the average of that and the exam mark), while if you're the top student at a public school and don't do so well in the exam, your assessment mark will be lower than it should be for the standard achieved throughout the year. Of course it works both ways - you could get higher than you deserve if you happen to have a good exam day.

In summary, the system is basically fair and doesn't advantage either, but the system is most reliable for students in the middle of their classes. Any questions?