patty4848 said:
I go to a selective school and i start my HSC in a couple of weeks...just wondering, at my school to get in the top 5 of a subject you need to get 97+ or so, and that is out of my ability...so what is the disadvantage of me going to a normal school, and coming in the top 5 in every subject...I just don't understand how being at a selective school can benefit us if its THAT hard to get a decent rank.
At selective schools it is harder to get a decent rank because everyone there is generally of higher ability. Therefore there is more competition.
Where you guys might have (these are imaginary examples only) a difference of 99..97...96...94...93 ... between the top 5 people, in a regular school it might 95...89...84...76...70.
Get it?
Therefore, you're coming 5th in a selective school, you're still expected to get 90+ or so. Your final mark is made up of your assessment mark (which is based on rank) and your exam results. They try to maintain the same ranking order and spacing between marks when they do their calculations for the exams.
In general, what that means is, say you're coming 5th in a regular school with a mark of 70. But in the exam you get the highest mark, of 95. For your assessment mark, you will get the FIFTH HIGHEST exam mark. Let's assume for convenience sake that that is also 70. So your final mark will be
95 + 70 / 2 = 82.5
So despite getting 95 in the exam, your ranking has "dragged you down" to 82.5 as your final HSC marks.
in a selective school however...
say you're coming 5th, with a mark of 93. In the exam, you don't even come first, you come 5th again. With a mark of 93 again. Therefore since you were 5th in both you keep your own marks and your HSC results are 93.
So you got LESS than the regular school person in the exam (93 as opposed to 95), and the same rank as them too. yet youre final marks are more than 10 points higher. how?
Because maintaining your rank of 5th in a selective school is far more difficult. You had to have a 93 to be 5th, the other person only needed 70. So you're rewarded for what is perceived as being a more difficult environment for you.
keep in mind that if you come 1st, no matter which school you go to, youre not disadvantaged. No one can "drag you down". So if you come 1st, and get the top exam mark of 100, you can get 100 for your HSC marks =)
