People will say different things about scaling, but at OTEN, our highest English assessments were in the 80's. The actual exam marks in English Advanced at our college did not get any higher than the late 70's. I suspect the scaling was considered necessary because they have plans to close OTEN and they don't want too many people doing well from there, it would cause people to question the purpose of changing the system.
Those of us who got in the 80's for our assessment should have been able to keep it in the final assessment mark. So, scaling does play a part, I don't care what anyone says. If you come from the right school, you'll be allowed to keep your high assessment. Sure, there were aspects of my final English exams that I could have done better, I ran out of time but all the most important points were there in my essays, I just didn't have enough time to round them out and finish properly. I didn't experience the same level of nervousness when doing the assessment tasks, even the trial exam.
In this forum, all I've been reading is the highest marks everyone got. Try doing your HSC with a job and kids as a single parent, with many circumstances working against you. I'm just doing it for a better shot at furthering my education. I almost doubled my Modern History mark from the time I did at it at school many years ago and I'm proud of that. I may have got a Limited UAI in the 60's and I didn't reach any of the heights that the rest of you did, but I have life experience in my 40's and have been in the workforce for twenty years. I don't know if anyone values that anymore. Only high marks seem to count.