Most of you are misinformed. English (Standard) and English (Advanced) scale equally. A detailed explanation of the result in SAM that makes it appear not to be the case is below:
RAW MARKS, ALIGNED MARKS AND SCALED MARKS
First of all we must distinguish between raw marks, aligned marks and scaled marks:
RAW MARKS - The marks that result directly after marking. It is the original mark totalled from marking your paper. It depends on the difficulty of the paper. If the paper was hard, then the raw marks would be low and if the paper was easy, then the raw marks would be high.
ALIGNED MARKS - The marks that you
receive in your HSC and the marks you enter into SAM. They are based on certain standards required for certain bands. They are not dependent on the difficulty of the paper. Threfore no one is disadvantaged from having an easier exam or harder exam than previous years. For example, a mark of 90 in English (Standard) in 2001 is the same "level" as a mark of 90 in English (Standard) in 2006. It doesn't matter whether the 2001 exam was harder than 2006 or vice versa, the resultant mark should be roughly the same.
SCALED MARKS - These are the marks that have undergone "scaling". They are used for the calculation of the UAI. Scaled marks are dependent on the strength of one candidature relative to the entire state.
What is the relationship between these 3 types of marks? Here's a flowchart to show (can't find the BOS one):
HSC EXAM ---> Marking ---> RAW MARK
RAW MARK ---> Standardising/Aligning ---> ALIGNED MARK (HSC MARK)
RAW MARK ---> Scaling ---> SCALED MARK ---> UAI
***NOTICE how there is no direct relationship between ALIGNED MARK and SCALED MARK. I'll explain the significance of this later.
English Paper 1 - Area of Study
English (Advanced) and English (Standard) students take a common examination. This allows English (Advanced) and English (Standard) students to be ranked against each other appropriately. GENERALLY SPEAKING, English (Advanced) contains more talented students at English than English (Standard). Therefore it is
these talented students that have access to higher marks in Paper 1. This is why there are more band 6 results in English (Advanced) than English (Standard). The fact that English (Advanced) students tend to score higher than English (Standard) students in Paper 1 means that the English (Advanced) students have access to the higher marks.
HOWEVER, let's take this hypothetical or imaginary situation. What if English (Standard) students performed BETTER than the English (Advanced) students in Paper 1? That would mean that English (Standard) students have access to higher marks because they came out on top in Paper 1. Consequently more band 6 results would arise in English (Standard) than English (Advanced).
If one English (Standard) student excelled beyond the entire English (Advanced) cohort in Paper 1, then it is likely that he or she would obtain 99-100 in English (Standard) or very close to it.
Notice how this is all dependent on the performance of the candidature in Paper 1.
The difference in distribution of marks between English (Advanced) and English (Standard) overall is established by the difference in distribution of marks between English (Advanced) and English (Standard) in Paper 1. Since English (Standard) students generally don't perform as well as English (Advanced) students in Paper 1, this is why there are few band 6 results in English (Standard). Of course, there are some talented English (Standard) students who hammer most of the English (Advanced) students in Paper 1 and it is these students who score up to band 6.
English Paper 2 - Modules
Paper 2 is different to both English (Advanced) and English (Standard) candidatures. Now since this time they vary in content and difficulty, the common scale is no longer applicable for Paper 2. HOWEVER, the
Board of Studies adjusts the distribution of marks in Paper 2 to MATCH the distibution of marks in Paper 1. So say for example, the highest mark in Paper 1 in the whole state was 90% and the lowest was 10%, then the highest mark in Paper 2 would be 90% and the lowest in Paper 2 would be 10%. It doesn't matter whether that Paper 2 happened to be English (Advanced) or English (Standard).
Notice how this is again dependent on Paper 1, the paper which allows for a common scale.
Thus, neither English (Advanced) students nor English (Standard) students are advantaged or disadvantaged in this process. The marks we are talking about here are RAW MARKS.
Resultant Raw Marks
After adjusting Paper 2 in accordance to Paper 1, the result is that the RAW MARKS of English (Advanced) and English (Standard) students are similar if they performed similarly well in Paper 1. For example, a raw mark of 80 from an English Advanced) student is equivalent to a raw mark of 80 from an English (Standard) student. Assuming they maintained their ranks and achieved equal marks in Paper 2 after adjustment, the same raw mark indicates that they performed equally well in Paper 1.
Aligning and Scaling
Keep in mind that ALIGNED MARKS and SCALED MARKS are completely different marks.
English (Advanced) are English (Standard) are SCALED THE SAME.
However, English (Advanced) and English (Standard) are ALIGNED DIFFERENTLY.
Equal RAW MARKS are scaled to become equal SCALED MARKS within both English (Standard) and English (Advanced).
Equal RAW MARKS are aligned to become different ALIGNED MARKS between English (Standard) and English (Advanced).
The common misconception
What most of you incorrectly perceive is that there is a direct relationship between ALIGNED MARKS and SCALED MARKS***. Remember that the marks you enter into SAM are ALIGNED MARKS (the marks on your HSC results). Now keep in mind that
English (Advanced) and English (Standard) align differently. Since they are not aligned equally, then the RAW MARKS that correspond to the same ALIGNED MARK would be different. For example an ALIGNED MARK of 85 in English (Advanced) would correspond to a LOWER RAW MARK than an ALIGNED MARK of 85 in English (Standard). Since the RAW MARK is higher in English (Standard) for the same ALIGNED MARK in English (Advanced), then the resultant SCALED MARK would be different between both of them, because they are different RAW MARKS (Remember that they scale equally).
Imagine this hypothetical situation:
Say an ALIGNED MARK of 85 corresponded to a total RAW MARK of 75 in English (Standard).
Pretend that the SCALED MARK from 75 becomes 80 (it's not what actually happens, just pretend it's all +5 for the sake of making it easier to understand). Now say, an ALIGNED MARK of 85 corresponded to a total RAW MARK of 72 in English (Advanced). The SCALED MARK from 72 would become 77 (using the pretended +5). Now if you entered 85 in both English (Advanced) and English (Standard) in SAM, then the 85 for English (Standard) would have the greater SCALED MARK (as shown above).
Remember that I mentioned above that the same RAW MARK for English (Standard) and English (Advanced) are equivalent to each other.
Now if an ALIGNED MARK of 85 corresponded to a total RAW MARK of 75 in English (Standard), then what mark would correspond to a RAW MARK of 75 in English (Advanced)? Pretend this is 87. By scaling, both would become 80 (remember RAW MARKS are scaled to become SCALED MARKS). Therefore if you enter that in SAM, the scaled marks are EQUAL, because the RAW MARKS were scaled the SAME.
This is what gives the appearance that English (Advanced) students are disadvntaged. However, if you had access to the RAW MARKS (which they use for scaling), you would realise that is not the case.
***Remember that ALIGNED MARKS and SCALED MARKS have no direct relationship and you can't compare between them. They are different types of adustments to the same RAW MARK.
Hope that clarifies everything....
