I may be wrong but I always thought 70ish was the average HSC mark. ATAR is a ranking so if you get an HSC mark of 70 in all your subjects will this equate to an ATAR of 50 ie the 50th percentile=average?
I agree that it is hard to write a well structured essay on the fly so preparation is essential. However I think the assumption that needs to be challenged is that the student is preparing their own essays and hence their writing in the exam is a direct reflection of their own skill/knowledge...
What exactly is the schools role in the moderating process - do they just provide the rankings and raw assessment marks and the BOS does the rest or are the schools responsible for actually allocating the pooled exam marks in accordance to the rankings ? Also is it the same for the UAI - is...