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What counts towards your ATAR? (1 Viewer)

hayabusaboston

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Can someone please tell me, what are the exact things that count towards your ATAR, is it everything in yr 11 and 12, or just the final exams in yr 11 and 12 etc? What counts? also, for the first in course thing is that throughout yr 11 and 12 too or is that JUST the final exam for a subject?
 

enoilgam

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First, nothing from year 11 counts towards your ATAR. Secondly, in year 12, your internal school assessments will count for 50% of your final HSC mark, whilst the other 50% comes from your final exams which everybody in the state sits.
 

hayabusaboston

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Wow, really? Nothing from yr 11 goes to your ATAR? Wow that's a surprise. So it's definitely set at 50 percent of your school exams+ 50 percent of final exam=ATAR? So you can only get a first in course if you do well both in school and final exams?
 

enoilgam

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Wow, really? Nothing from yr 11 goes to your ATAR? Wow that's a surprise. So it's definitely set at 50 percent of your school exams+ 50 percent of final exam=ATAR? So you can only get a first in course if you do well both in school and final exams?
Pretty much. Just as a side note, with internal school exams its all about rankings. For more about the process go here http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/hsc-results/
 

hayabusaboston

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Pretty much. Just as a side note, with internal school exams its all about rankings. For more about the process go here http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/hsc-results/
Whaat?? How the heck is that logical?? Rankings? How does the ranking affect your score? If you have 30 people who all get 95+ in fore example biology, how will the ranking thing make sense? Isn't it potentially unfair too, if you're in a rural town and you smash everyone in all your subjectsk, your rankings will be much higher than if you were at James Ruse. How can that be fair?
 

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Whaat?? How the heck is that logical?? Rankings? How does the ranking affect your score? If you have 30 people who all get 95+ in fore example biology, how will the ranking thing make sense? Isn't it potentially unfair too, if you're in a rural town and you smash everyone in all your subjectsk, your rankings will be much higher than if you were at James Ruse. How can that be fair?
Rankings AND marks count.

After you sit the HSC exams the school assessment marks are moderated using the HSC exam marks so a student who goes to Ruse and is ranked 35th but scored 98 on the HSC exam and still was ranked 35th at Ruse (so the 34 ahead of this student got 99 or 100) will still outdo a student ranked 1st a Bullamakanka High who earned 95 for their HSC mark.

The system is fair.
 

hayabusaboston

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Rankings AND marks count.

After you sit the HSC exams the school assessment marks are moderated using the HSC exam marks so a student who goes to Ruse and is ranked 35th but scored 98 on the HSC exam and still was ranked 35th at Ruse (so the 34 ahead of this student got 99 or 100) will still outdo a student ranked 1st a Bullamakanka High who earned 95 for their HSC mark.

The system is fair.

So where does the 35th come in?? From what you've said, it looks like the 98 counts but not the 35th.
 

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If the person ranked 35th got 98 in the HSC exam, then that person's HSC external mark will be 98.

If there are 35 people in the class and the lowest exam mark in that class was 98 - then you better believe that the final HSC mark for that person who is ranked dead last but got 98 externally in the HSC exam is gonna be: 98.
 

cem

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So where does the 35th come in?? From what you've said, it looks like the 98 counts but not the 35th.

If the 35th person was also the last person in the cohort and got 98 for the exam but another student in the cohort got 94 on the exam then that 35th person would end up with 96 as there final mark - the average of their own external mark and the lowest assessment mark, which equates to the lowest external mark.

Why is this fair - because the last ranked person didn't work as well or consistently as the rest of the class so 50% of the marks reflects that effort while the exam mark is a reward for their own work.

This is the same for the person who was ranked above 35th but didn't do as well in the exam - they get the 94 as their exam mark and probably something like 98 for their assessment again giving them 96 - reward for consistent work throughout the year but penalised for their less then top effort in the exam.
 

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To get in the 90's range (ATAR) , what would you need to consistently get in your assessment marks throughout the year? (raw marks)
 

hayabusaboston

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If the 35th person was also the last person in the cohort and got 98 for the exam but another student in the cohort got 94 on the exam then that 35th person would end up with 96 as there final mark - the average of their own external mark and the lowest assessment mark, which equates to the lowest external mark.

Why is this fair - because the last ranked person didn't work as well or consistently as the rest of the class so 50% of the marks reflects that effort while the exam mark is a reward for their own work.

This is the same for the person who was ranked above 35th but didn't do as well in the exam - they get the 94 as their exam mark and probably something like 98 for their assessment again giving them 96 - reward for consistent work throughout the year but penalised for their less then top effort in the exam.

So your own ranking doesn't do anything then? Because it looks like what you guys are saying is that regardless of rank you get 98 in your external, and the only thing ranking does is it averages your mark with the lowest mark in the class? Or does it average your mark with the lowest AND highest mark? Essentially, unless you have a real fool in your class, ranking will not be that significant at all right?
 

cem

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So your own ranking doesn't do anything then? Because it looks like what you guys are saying is that regardless of rank you get 98 in your external, and the only thing ranking does is it averages your mark with the lowest mark in the class? Or does it average your mark with the lowest AND highest mark? Essentially, unless you have a real fool in your class, ranking will not be that significant at all right?
Your ranking is crucial.

Take our 35th ranked person who got 98 on the exam but if that 35th ranked was also last and the lowest exam mark dropped to say 80 with a spread of marks from 80 to 100 then our 35th and last ranked person would end up with an assessment mark of 87 - the average of their own exam mark and the lowest exam mark from the cohort.

Now if instead of coming last our person was ranked 17th then their assessment mark would be about the middle of that range so would be about 90 giving them an HSC mark of 94.

What if this person was ranked 2nd with a 1 mark gap behind the person ranked 1st - then their 98 exam mark would be averaged with 99 to give them 99 as their final mark.

Rankings are very important as are the gaps between the ranks.

e.g.

Our person who was ranked 35th is only 5 marks behind first will be better off then the person in another school ranked 35th but 40 marks behind 1st.
 

enoilgam

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To get in the 90's range (ATAR) , what would you need to consistently get in your assessment marks throughout the year? (raw marks)
Its all about rankings, raw internal marks are only used to determine the relative gaps between you and the rest of your cohort. As I have said before, I had a raw internal percentage of 67% in SOR, which was moderated to 88 for my final internal mark. This was because I had a good ranking, and my cohort did well in the externals.

For more on the process, see the link I posted earlier.
 

Shadowdude

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Where is the moderation calculator BOS used to have? That was awesome and would really help right now...
 
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How does ranks count towards your ATAR? It doesn't make sense. I been told that just say if you got 80 in Economics and someone else has got the same mark as you, but they check your English results and that separates you from the other person. T.T"

But yeah, everything that you did in year 12, start to finish, counts towards your ATAR.
 

enoilgam

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How does ranks count towards your ATAR? It doesn't make sense. I been told that just say if you got 80 in Economics and someone else has got the same mark as you, but they check your English results and that separates you from the other person. T.T"

But yeah, everything that you did in year 12, start to finish, counts towards your ATAR.
Checked out the link I posted earlier to see how ranks are factored in.
 

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