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- Feb 26, 2008
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- HSC
- 2011
In an ideal world, yes. But HSC subjects are as a whole very different from their university equivalents and some bonus point schemes make little sense. While UNSW aren't as lenient as all the other universities and aren't giving them away per se there are still some weird choices. It's not very hard to cap out the 5 bonus points with a B Commerce at UNSW with maths alone for example (hypothetical band 4 in english + b6 and e4 in maths and ext1 or e4s in both extensions). Yet a student who got band 6s in business studies and economics would not get any bonus points for them.Correct me if I'm wrong, but this is the only practical thing which distinguishes between a student who was assessed on 4 units of history, 4 units of English and only 2 units of maths, who has upon recieving their 90+ atar, realised that there is no money in English or History and decided to apply to a science, maths or engineering course with a mark that in no way reflects their potential to perform in said subject- and another student who got 1 or 2 marks lower than the history/english student but was assessed on Physics and 4 Unit maths, subjects which are actually relevant to the degree.
Another example is computer science or software engineering, no bonus marks are awarded for Software Design, IPT, IT Vet or Multimedia. UNSW will say that is because those subjects lack academic rigour and success does not neccesarily transfer into uni. But that is a joke because Physics is a common subject on UNSW's hsc plus bonus points list (including in comp sci and soft eng!), anybody who has done first year university physics will confirm that they are nothing alike and that majority of HSC physics was roting content while uni physics is all (applied) maths.
Then there is engineering studies, it's not a common subject, but from my understanding they do learn the basics of content which is covered in first year engineering courses and would be sure to attract budding engineers at schools where it is offered. UNSW do not offer a single bonus point towards engineering for a band 6 in that subject.
Bonus points are a good idea but executed horribly. At other universities (all of them except Usyd) they are so attainable that they only serve to inflate cut offs and do not differentiate between students, and at UNSW they appear to award students who have picked the 4u, phys, chem and advanced english combo for the most part. It's also worth noting that majority of the subjects i've mentioned in this post that UNSW seem to not recognise actually have bonus points allocated to them in the ADFA (part of UNSW) equivalent courses. Maybe the defence force aren't interested in tutoring college products?