Originally Posted by Staplerrr
I am 100% sure I was 1st, and by a big gap. I topped every assessment task and there was a gap of more than 20 marks in the trial exam between me and second place (trial was worth 40%). I go to a public school with a rank >400 but I was always told as long as I was first in a subject, I couldn't be dragged down by my peers.
So, please explain? :S
The reason this happened is because someone actually got a higher exam mark than you in the actual HSC exam. If all your cohort (class at school) have done exceptionally well in the actual external exam then the mark distribution when they moderate and align the marks (the pool of marks in the external exam) has no where to go. If the gaps have closed significantly in the external exam then there is no where for the group to move. Because you are first there is nowhere for you to move (you keep your own external mark, but receive the top mark from the exam - because your assessment mark and exam mark are different someone had to have gotten a better mark than you in the external exam) - if you got the highest exam mark both the assessment mark and your exam mark would be the same...where people get confused is they think that the marks sent in by the school are the ones used to moderate and align. This is not true - it is the pool of marks gained by the cohort in the external exam that is used - the marks used by the school is for the relative gaps and to compare those against how the class went in the external exam (given that some schools mark harder than others - this allows the marking to be fair against the rest of the state).
I will give you an example:
Student A (rank 1st by 16 marks which you need to half for assessment as 50% of HSC and 50% assessment) - External Exam mark 93
Student B (rank 2nd) - External Exam mark 95
(Rest of cohort get marks in range of 92, 92, 91, 89 in external exam even though they were significantly ranked below first place in rankings submitted by school)
Student A receives - HSC mark 93 and Assessment mark 95 (they take the highest exam mark because they were ranked first) - 93 + 95 / 2 = 94
Student B receives - HSC mark 95 (they get to keep their external mark) and Assessment mark ends up being 94, therefore: 95 + 94 / 2 = 95 (because when they have moderated and aligned the marks, because the marks in the external exam were so close the lower ranked students have no where to go but up, as the board of studies tries to give students marks not take them away from them - the problem is that the student ranked first also has no where to go so they get punished).
Ring your Director of Curriculum and I bet you will find that your cohort did extremely well and that you didn't get the highest mark in the external exam...
Hope this helps...
It sucks I know - at least you weren't done out of a state ranking because of it...
