where does "scaling least apply.. (1 Viewer)

[mocin]

hello
im sorry if you've already answered this one
i haven't had time to read through all the responses

just assuming the quality of candidature in a subject was poor.. but my overall rank was 3rd of 2nd out of 60... and my mark for the hsc was excellent

is it true that scaling only affects (in a major way) those that are somewhere in the middle in terms of ranks? or score around the average mark?

 

[Huy]

I would have thought scaling affected those furthest away from the mean.

ie Those who are in the Top 5, (out of your class of 60) would have been scaled if they were the furthest away from the average mark.

An example:

Those who come last, won't benefit at all (obviously).

If, for a 2U subject, the average was 60.

And you had a few students getting in the 80's and 90's - then they would benefit.

If you had a mark of 65, and keeping that average at 60, you wouldn't move too much.

 

[Ragerunner]

In simpler terms, the higher your HSC mark, the less susceptible you are to bad scaling.

Hence, why the Board of Studies say to pick subjects you enjoy and will do good in rather than selecting subjects based on scaling.

 

[mocin]

"In simpler terms, the higher your HSC mark, the less susceptible you are to bad scaling." ragerunner says

Thats pretty much how i took it to be as well. Regardless of the candidature or the general performance of the school as a whole, if you are ranked well (and performing well) im probably guessing you have a better chance of keeping the raw mark relatively "unchanged".
Although i know little about all of this really.

 

[Ragerunner]

Yes.

As an example,

Person A picks Chemistry because it's a good scaling subject.

Person B picks IPT because he is good at it. (not talking about you Huy! haha )

Person A ends up with 70/100 for Chemistry.
Person B ends up with 85/100 for IPT.

After scaling by the UAC, the marks are made so that they can be compared between courses. The scale down of IPT isn't as much as Chemistry because Person B has attained a high mark that is high above the mean of the rest of the candidture thus removing any really bad scaling effects.

I'm not sure If I've made myself clear. Typing this in a rush to go back to study.

 

[Lazarus]

You should read the "You and Your UAI" guide from last year.

http://www.uac.edu.au/pubs/pdf/uaibook_2002_web.pdf