HSC:Marks

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are the different types of marks?

Marks: What are the different types of marks?

Initial (Raw) Marks
Raw examination mark*	This is the mark awarded when your examination scripts are marked. The total weighted mark is the total of the marks awarded in each Question after a weighting has been applied to each optional question. The weighting for each such question is based on the distributions of marks in the core questions achieved by candidates who attempted that question. The total weighted mark is the mark subjected to aligning and scaling.
Raw school assessment mark	Your school sends a total mark to the Board which becomes your school assessment mark.
Initial moderated assessment mark*	The raw school assessment mark after it has been moderated.
Raw HSC mark	The average of the raw examination mark and the initial moderated assessment mark.
Aligned Marks
Aligned examination mark	The raw examination mark after it has been aligned to course standards.
Aligned assessment mark	The initial moderated assessment mark after it has been aligned to course standards.
Aligned HSC mark	The average of the aligned examination mark and the aligned assessment mark.
Scaled Marks
Scaled HSC mark**	The raw HSC mark after it has been scaled for inclusion in your UAI.</TBODY>

[*] These marks are generally not released to students. However, these marks were disclosed to certain students under the Freedom of Information Act 1989 (NSW) for a short period in early 2005.[x]

[**] Students do not currently have access to this mark. [x]

The Board stores all marks to one decimal place, but the marks reported to students are rounded to the nearest integer.

Even though UAIs are calculated from raw HSC marks, SAM only accepts aligned HSC marks. This is because there is currently insufficient information regarding raw marks available in the public domain to allow accurate calculations to be performed on those marks.

What do these marks actually mean?

A single mark, by itself, has no meaning. It is merely a number. It is only meaningful if it is capable of being understood within a common framework of reference.

Marks		Meaning
*	Raw examination mark Initial moderated assessment mark Raw HSC mark	Uninterpretable. The Board would need to publish raw band cut-offs or details of the distributions of raw marks in order for these marks to have meaning. These marks are not comparable between courses or across different years.
*	Raw school assessment mark	These marks are interpretable within the context of the assessment tasks given by a particular school and the marking guidelines that were employed in evaluating those tasks. These marks are not comparable between schools, between courses, or across different years.
*	Aligned examination mark Aligned assessment mark Aligned HSC mark	As these marks have been aligned to course standards, they are interpretable within a particular course from year to year according to the performance band descriptors for that course. They are not comparable between courses.
*	Scaled HSC mark	These marks are an estimate of the marks that would have been received had all courses been taken by all students. They indicate the achievement of a student in a specific course relative to the entire HSC cohort. They are comparable between courses.