How does it all happen? Ranks? Raw Marks? [Help] (1 Viewer)

jarrodoliver1

Member
Joined
Aug 31, 2012
Messages
166
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
Hey guys,
I just started year 12, yesterday of course. Our school hasn't really, well, hasn't at all, explained how everything works. I've seen around these forums Raw Marks, Scaling and Atar and what not. I understand what the Atar is, although i don't necessarily understand, how it is calculated. I'm going for an 80 Atar with the following subjects

Adv English
Chemistry
Mathematics
IT (Vet)
IPT
SDD


I understand that the subjects are quite achieving, well, most of them. I was wondering if someone could provide me an insight into how it all works, with ranks affecting marks and what not. Presume i know nothing about this process whatsoever.

NOTE:
If this is in the wrong section, i'm sorry. If links could be provided as well, that would be nice.

Have a nice day :)
 

Rawf

Member
Joined
May 16, 2012
Messages
715
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2012
It doesn't, just like all the other crappy scaling systems used on all the non-science related subjects
Would you count economics as a science? Economics scales well. It scales the best out of all the HSIE subjects.
 

George121

Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2011
Messages
313
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
Would you count economics as a science? Economics scales well. It scales the best out of all the HSIE subjects.
Oh i forgot about economics

Everything else (other than extensions ofcourse) is crap in terms of scaling - must score like over 88 to have a positive alignment (if thats what its called)
 

onedaysnotice

Member
Joined
Aug 27, 2011
Messages
261
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
1. Your school submits your internal marks

2. You do the external HSC

3. Highest raw external HSC mark in your cohort becomes the ceiling (highest possible mark) for the your cohort's internal marks in that subject

4. Likewise, the lowest raw external HSC mark becomes the floor (lowest possible mark) for your cohort's internal marks in that subject

5. Rank 1 gets assigned the ceiling mark as his moderated assessment mark (MAM), and the lowest rank gets the floor mark. Everyone in between's MAM gets moderated via the difference in submitted internal marks between adjacent ranks.

6. Your external HSC mark and your MAM is aligned--your mark in a subject gets exponentially increased the higher your percentile (mark compared to the rest of the state), and inversely, exponentially decreases the more you go below 50th or so percentile.

7. Your aligned external mark is averaged with your aligned internal MAM

8. The end result is your HSC mark

e.g. if you get a MAM of 70 and an aligned external of 90, you'd pretty much get 80 as your HSC mark.

As for your ATAR, there's what, 60 people per 0.05 increment?

Therefore the ATAR is pretty much a rank. The higher your final HSC mark is in comparison to the state, the higher your ATAR is. People are put into an ATAR increment until it is filled and this continues until all year 12 uni applicants are assigned an ATAR. People who get <30 ATAR are given a star (aka a mystery mark) for trying at least.


Here's the BoS page if you still need further clarification:
http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/hsc-results/understanding.html
 
Last edited:

George121

Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2011
Messages
313
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
1. Your school submits your internal rank (your place in the cohort after the trials)
2. You do the external HSC
3. Highest raw external HSC mark in your cohort becomes the ceiling (highest possible mark) for the your cohort's internal marks in that subject
4. Likewise, the lowest raw external HSC mark becomes the floor (lowest possible mark) for your cohort's internal marks in that subject
5. Rank 1 gets assigned ceiling mark as his moderated assessment mark (MAM), and the lowest rank gets the floor mark. Everyone in between's MAM gets moderated via the difference in raw internal marks between adjacent ranks.
6. Your external HSC mark is aligned--your mark in a subject gets exponentially increased the higher your percentile (mark compared to the rest of the state), and inversely, exponentially decreases the more you go below 50th or so percentile.
7. Your aligned HSC mark is averaged with your MAM (moderated assessment/internal mark)

e.g. if you get a MAM of 70 and an aligned external of 90, you'd pretty much get 80 as your HSC mark.

Here's the BoS page if you still need further clarification:
http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/hsc-results/understanding.html
The question i have been wanting to know for ages -

Does alignment actually affect your ATAR score?
 

onedaysnotice

Member
Joined
Aug 27, 2011
Messages
261
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
The question i have been wanting to know for ages -

Does alignment actually affect your ATAR score?
Well my knowledge is that ATAR's a rank, so the higher your final HSC mark is compared to the state, the higher your ATAR. And since alignment affects your final HSC mark, it consequently affects your ATAR as well :)
 

George121

Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2011
Messages
313
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
No. BOS submits the raw HSC exam marks and the moderated assessment marks to UAC, before aligning occurs.
Then what is the purpose of alignment? i mean, it doesn't affect the ATAR so i guess its not important?
 

D94

New Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2011
Messages
4,426
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
Then what is the purpose of alignment? i mean, it doesn't affect the ATAR so i guess its not important?
Alignment is for your HSC marks.

BOS doesn't give UAC your HSC marks (i.e. your final mark), they give your raw HSC exam mark (i.e. your performance in the state for that subject) and your moderated assessment marks (i.e. your rank in the state for that subject).

Alignment just standardises the marks for Bands, so you can compare each subject with each other. The mark which is between a Band 6 and Band 5 performance will be aligned to 90, the mark which is between a Band 5 and Band 4 performance will be aligned to 80 and so on.
 

mike12345678

Member
Joined
May 31, 2011
Messages
535
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
Then what is the purpose of alignment? i mean, it doesn't affect the ATAR so i guess its not important?

from what ive read on this site. its just so that its looks better on the final marks.
but since everybody in the state gets alligned then it wont affect the ATAR majorly
 

nifkeh

Member
Joined
May 29, 2012
Messages
383
Gender
Female
HSC
2013
It doesn't, just like all the other crappy scaling systems used on all the non-science related subjects

don't hate mate, modern is pretty good too. mkay, I did IPT and now I'm doing ancient to save my bad maths marks. I find ancient easy to bs in to get a high mark, while maths you need practice ( you can't rote learn for it)
 
Last edited:

Rohanco

Member
Joined
Aug 11, 2012
Messages
230
Location
Sydney, NSW
Gender
Male
HSC
2013
Probably the best video explanation I've seen http://vimeo.com/47236108.

To be honest I reckon you could aim for a higher ATAR than 80, start putting the hard work in now and it will pay off.

All the best
 

shravan_872

Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2012
Messages
123
Location
Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2012
Uni Grad
2016
This is your job right now!
Step 1: Get as high a rank as you can
Step 2: Aim for a 100% and nothing else in the HSC
Step 3: Alignments and moderation will sort itself out, that's the board's worry not yours!!!!!!!!
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top