This scaling up/down business! (1 Viewer)

[MiKeY]

Can someone tell me in easy, simple terms, how I can find out which subjects scaled well and scaled badly for the UAI this year.

I've seen those tables that the UAC released, but I don't get how to use them to determine which got scaled good or bad.

So can someone just briefly tell me how to determine it?

Thanks..

 

[hornet]

I posted this elsewhere, should describe it all fine.






According to the UAC scaling sheet (table 3) on their site, 2002 scaling....

2U Maths:
- 92.2 (90th percentile) would be scaled to 83.4
- 86.6 (75th percentile) would be scaled to 75.2.

4U Maths:
- 90.8 (75th percentile) would be scaled to 92.2
- 84 (50th percentile) would be scaled to 89

See how 2U maths went down, and 4U maths went up. There is ya scaling. By the way, contray to popular belief, most subjects do scale DOWN - just depends by how much thats all! An average subject seems to only scale down by about 10-20%. For a person aiming at 80's UAI, 2U maths might be called a little over average - so its scaling is OK. For those aiming for upper 90's UAI, 2U maths' scaling is too low generally.

Other interesting scaling results:

Business studies:
- 88.4 (90th percentile) scaled to 74.8.
- 81.2 (75th percentile) scaled to 62.8
ie if your higher up in business, the scaling isn't too bad towards you - but the lower you are, the harder it hits, nearly 20% in this case (a "bad" subject then)

Physics:
- 89 (90th percentile) scaled to 84.6
- 83.2 (75th percentile) scaled to 76.2
ie Physics has MUCH better scaling than business. Roughly the same HSC marks scale to 10 to nearly 15 higher than business. Physics is thus a "good" subject

However do note the scaling depends on how well u do in the subject. If you fuck up every subject, scaling wont save u. U have to be doing ok/well at the tough ones to get the benefits. I got mid-80's results for my subjects (2U advanced english, 3U english, 2U maths, SDD, physics) and 92 for IPT (tho both IPT and SDD were top 2% in the state) - and I got 94.5 as my UAI. Compared to a mate who got high 80's and high 70's in his HSC results and did 2U advanced english, general maths, business... and he got 72 as his UAI.



Summary: hard subjects help u. They help by sorting out those who did the hard stuff from the simply stuff - and rewarding thorugh scaling. However a dropout is a dropout, and thus coming last in business vs physics wont benefit you Do OK/good at the harder subjects, and you will reap the rewards in your UAI.

 

[MiKeY]

Thank You.

Finally I think I get it.. LoL

I'm doing..

English Advanced
2u Mathematics
SDD
IPT
Earth and Environmental Science
Cosmology

And I did Portuguese Continuers this year (accelerated)
I'm getting high 80's in most, with 90's in SDD and IPT.

I'm aiming for a UAI of at least 85. Are those subjects too .. well.. If I maintain those marks, would I 'probably' get a UAI of around 85?

P.S. Thanks again for explaining that to me...
P.P.S What's a 'percentile'? How do I know which percentile area I'd be in?

 

[del]

i did pretty much the same subjects as you:

English Advanced
2U Maths
Earth and Environmental Sci
Software Design and Development
Info Processes Tech
Info Tech

so in response to your question, if you get roughly those same marks you should easily be able to get around a 85 UAI if not more.

Best go is to do the subjects you like, as you're most likely to do better in them than something you dislike.

 

[MiKeY]

Originally posted by del
i did pretty much the same subjects as you:

English Advanced
2U Maths
Earth and Environmental Sci
Software Design and Development
Info Processes Tech
Info Tech

so in response to your question, if you get roughly those same marks you should easily be able to get around a 85 UAI if not more.

Best go is to do the subjects you like, as you're most likely to do better in them than something you dislike.

What kinda marks did you get?
And what UAI did you get?

It's funky how we basically are doing the same subjects.

 

[MiKeY]

Originally posted by Bon
No one can really say what you're likely to get in the HSC based on your assessment marks from the school. I had an assessment mark in the 90's for SDD, but I got 81 since I was ranked second and our class didn't go to well in the exam.

You can easily achieve 85 with those subjects, the cosmology course has especially nice scaling if you're preapred to put in the work for it.

A percentile refers to your position in the state/canditatire (out of 100 of course). The closer you are to the top 1%, the better.

Oh ok.. How would you work out your percentile for a subject?

 

[del]

Heya MiKeY, I'll PM you....

 

[ezzy85]

im doing:

english advanced
4u maths
physics
sdd
business

anyone do or is doing similar subjects?
are they considered as "bad" subjects in terms of all that scaling stuff from above?

 

[Ultimate]

Originally posted by ezzy85
im doing:

english advanced
4u maths
physics
sdd
business

anyone do or is doing similar subjects?
are they considered as "bad" subjects in terms of all that scaling stuff from above?

Business is bad, the rest are all very good scaling subjects. I don't think u should be that worried about scaling - cause if u don't come in the top 25-50% of the state in those good scaled subjects, u won't get any benefit and will in fact be scaled down.

 

[schwang_thang]

Originally posted by ezzy85
im doing:

english advanced
4u maths
physics
sdd
business

anyone do or is doing similar subjects?
are they considered as "bad" subjects in terms of all that scaling stuff from above?

i think maths ext 1 and maths ext 2 are both counted as 2 units each, so i guess if u did well in everything, even if u suck at business, u'll still have 10 units in the end and business won't count neways.

 

[Minai]

Unless u enjoy business studies, or u think it will help u in tertiary studies, I'd suggest u drop it, unless u are worried about screwing up 4U maths.
Because business will obviously not count over those other subjects u do (unless of course, u get 99 in business, and only, say 75 for software)

 

[Goldabar]

*edit* if anyone saw my previous post ummmmm that was posted in the wrong forum *

Ok what I was going to write here is, I've been given the advice "do subjects that will help your career". Well in my case that has been BULL****. It seems that all my subjects were scaled down apart from Mathematics. I also did Art, IPAT, Religion and Standard English.

I talked to my teacher in IPAT about half way through the year and she informed me that IPAT is usually scaled down (has something to do with the amount of people that do the course). I've heard that Art gets scaled down because of the same reason, don't quote me on that. Religion, I was forced to do this (Catholic school) otherwise I would not have wasted my time.....thats 100-200 hours I'll never get back

Standard English, I started with Advanced but we ended up having the teacher from hell. I won't whinge about him here, but we had him in year 10, so when I walked in the first day of yr 11 and saw him at the head of the class, I went straight to the school office and got transfered to Standard. Mathematics brought my marks up I think, I went pretty well in it throughout the year. I should mention that I dropped 3 unit Maths and Chemistry at the end of yr 11 because I felt they weren't helping me in terms of what I wanted to do after school. Probably a mistake, but ah well. They were taking up too much time and I was lagging behind in the studies that I do at home (that are needed for my career). I should also mention that I ranked well in my classes throughout the year and got ok-ish marks (70's, 80's and 90's for assesment marks). Ranked 3rd in 2 of my classes I think, 1st in English, and 2nd in.....IPAT I think it was. 15th in religion but thats because the whole grade did it and many of the girls tried to get great marks in it. I hated it And I know people that did the "harder" subjects, scored less than me/were ranked lower than me throughout the year, and still got a higher UAI. So yeah just a warning to those who don't take heed of the scaling.....it can bite you in the ass. Be careful

I got around an 80 UAI by the way. That UAI calculator thing (forget the name) said I'd get 90. Annoying

 

[del]

IMO, scaling only starts playing a big effect when you get to the very low Band 5's and below... as more and more people get in that low level and Band 4's it's obvious that corresponding UAI's would also start dropping pretty dramatically too... this is because the marks in this range fit in with the 'average'

also most subjects scale 'down' as such (i think it was mentioned in some other thread).... just that the lower hsc marks u get the worse the scaling works... which is fair enough

if you pick subjects you like, and study hard thorugh out the year, scaling isn't going to affect you.

 

[flyin']

scaling only really affects you when you are outside the top 10% of candidates ... of note my latin 90 was scaled to 80 ... arggg ... and it had to count ...

 

[timmii]

Scaling is there to make it fair! The HSC isn't a measure of creative talent but academic ability. How else can u possibly compare a 90% in 4u maths with a 90% in DAT?

The HSC is such a complex system, but compared with ones elsewhere, i think it is so good because there is such a strong endeavour to make it as fair as possible, so you are not disadvantaged doing any subject.

No matter what subject you do, if you do well (i.e good percentile), u will do well. If you do badly, ur chances aren't as great, whether its in 4u maths or textiles...You *should* do wat interests you, regardless. It does not "suck". The system was not designed so as to specifically disadvantage you. If you're blaming ur interests etc for making u choose different subjects that don't scale well, then ur career choice and course should also be reflected there and would have a correspondingly lower uai? (not always of course...there was a previous argument about law before).

I'm really sorry you're not happy with your results. Its a horrible situation and I wish you lots of luck in finding a satisfactory alternative, but i just don't think its constructive blaming the "system" - especially since the ways of the system are well documented and should come as no surprise.