Much of liamkk112's explanation is correct. Your rank in a subject relative to your cohort is determined by the marks that you achieve in your school-based assessment tasks/exams. The relative gaps between those marks are also considered, as NESA maintains them when determining moderated Assessment Marks. The Assessment Mark is the mark that you receive which reflects your internal performance in a subject and contributes 50% of your overall HSC mark. Beyond that point, the marks that you have achieved in your school-based assessment tasks/exams have no significance.
Once your rank is finalised, and once Examination Marks (HSC exam marks) are available, NESA performs the moderation process which uses your rank and Examination Marks achieved in your cohort (including your own) in determining your Assessment Mark, all while maintaining the aforementioned relative gaps. The Assessment Mark of a student ranked first will be adjusted to equal the highest Examination Mark achieved by any student in the cohort (including that same student). For ranks other than first, the Assessment Mark is unlikely to be made equal to an equivalent Examination Mark, although it will likely be similar.
To answer your second question, an HSC mark is the average of two marks, the first being the Assessment Mark and the other being the Examination Mark. We now know the process to determine the Assessment Mark. On the other hand, the Examination Mark depends solely on a student's own performance in their HSC exam and is therefore unaffected by the student's rank or the moderation process. For example, Student A is ranked first in a subject, and Student B is ranked second. However, Student B decides to study very well for their HSC exam to achieve the highest possible Examination Mark, and they end up achieving the highest Examination Mark in their cohort. Student B will be awarded that Examination Mark. At the same time, Student B's Examination Mark will become Student A's Assessment Mark because Student A was ranked first internally. Suppose that the highest Examination Mark in the cohort was 90. Consider the table below:
| Assessment Mark | Examination Mark | HSC mark |
|---|
| Student A | 90 | 80 | 85 |
| Student B | 85 | 90 | 88 |
Despite the fact that Student A received a higher Assessment Mark, their Examination Mark was lower than Student B's, simply because Student B did better in their HSC exam than Student A. In this case, Student B would receive a higher HSC mark than Student A.
Regarding your last question, my understanding is that it is quite rare for students who are not ranked first in their cohorts to state rank in a subject, unless the performance level of the top-ranked students is very close, as is likely the case of a high-ranked school. State ranks consider HSC marks, not just the Examination Marks. Additionally, NESA implements a
process to determine state ranks for students who achieved equal HSC marks:
NESA said:
If students are equal on the highest HSC marks in a course, then the following process is used to determine the recipient(s):
- take an average of each student's examination mark and assessment mark after alignment to performance bands, each to one decimal place
- take an average of each student's examination mark and assessment mark before alignment to performance bands, each to two decimal places
- if an extension course, use the marks awarded for other courses in the subject area.
I hope this helps!
