Physics scores being very low? (1 Viewer)

[pheelx3]

I've had a discussion with a few friends from different schools and from my school
Is it just us or was physics either
a) had an extremely harsh marking criteria
b) or the alignment pathetically bad?

What did you get, what school rank and what internal rank?

 

[anomalousdecay]

The best way to figure this out is to wait for the percentage given for performance band descriptors. Will take a while for them to be released (took a few months last year unfortunately).

Last year approximately 9.22% of the cohort got a Band 6 in HSC Physics.

http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/ebos/static/BDHSC_2013_12_15330.html

 

[aDimitri]

2013 school rank: 28
Internal rank: 3rd
Hsc mark: 86 (84 exam, 88 internal)

 

[iStudent]

I got 93 HSC.
School rank. Um doesn't matter point is that it's very low
Internal rank. 1

I guess it's an ok mark (not spectacular or anything). I don't think the criteria was that harsh or the alignment that bad... Some questions were really tricky though and that would definitely trip people over into a b5. (compare this to chem, where questions weren't that curvebally; just the marking). Perhaps that's the reason why?

 

[anomalousdecay]

2013 school rank: 28
Internal rank: 3rd
Hsc mark: 86 (84 exam, 88 internal)

Strange though because your school did really well last year for Physics.

 

[aDimitri]

Strange though because your school did really well last year for Physics.

Last year we got 2 kids with 95.
this year we got 0 band 6s

 

[aDimitri]

As i said earlier im willing to bet the band descriptors are down to 5% or less this year for b6

 

[anomalousdecay]

Last year we got 2 kids with 95.
this year we got 0 band 6s

Yeah ikr.

Last year you guys had like 10 Band 6's.

As i said earlier im willing to bet the band descriptors are down to 5% or less this year for b6

I remember looking at the paper. It didn't seem too bad though. I would think at least 8% would have gotten a Band 6.

 

[pheelx3]

yeah well our entire cohort was expecting much higher for physics overall...
I was doing pretty well in school, topping physics trials etc... was expecting 94 min for phys? Ended up just scraping a B6... them expectations though.

 

[Parvee]

Last year we got 2 kids with 95.

Yeah ikr.

Last year you guys had like 10 Band 6's.

wat

 

[aDimitri]

Yeah ikr.

Last year you guys had like 10 Band 6's.



I remember looking at the paper. It didn't seem too bad though. I would think at least 8% would have gotten a Band 6.

It feels like the aligning was a lot worse. Tbh if im wrong then where the fuck did all the band 6s go

 

[anomalousdecay]

wat

Exactly (I know a few from aDim's school from 2013 cohort).

It feels like the aligning was a lot worse. Tbh if im wrong then where the fuck did all the band 6s go

As Dr. Branislav would say at UNSW for 1111 "The arts students".

I'm tipping the marking was odd this year and possibly that the aligning was odd (like you said) if anything did go wrong in the first place.

EDIT: Fizzy, where you at. How did your students go comparatively?

 

[aDimitri]

Look to be fair i crammed all my physics prep into the arvo before, starting at 2pm or so. I also hadnt even finished my option topic at that point, but whats ridiculous is that my 3rd internal was only an 88

 

[SuchSmallHands]

In my whole region (5 schools over three towns) not a single person got a band 6 in physics. To compare, we had three band 6s in chemistry.

 

[aDimitri]

EDIT: Fizzy, where you at. How did your students go comparatively?

I know from Fizzy's school the top mark was 92 iirc. Not sure about tutored kids

 

[Maxwell]

I think it was the same across the board - I got 87 in Biology. Of course, that is by no means terrible, albeit not great. My internal average was 98 (yes, it probably was inflated). However, I discussed this with a lot of other candidates that have received B6s in other courses, and they too have fairly low marks. Hopefully scaling is favourable this year for the sciences (even though it generally is). I will definitely be buying my raw marks.

 

[SuchSmallHands]

I think it was the same across the board - I got 87 in Biology. Of course, that is by no means terrible, albeit not great. My internal average was 98 (yes, it probably was inflated). However, I discussed this with a lot of other candidates that have received B6s in other courses, and they too have fairly low marks. Hopefully scaling is favourable this year for the sciences (even though it generally is). I will definitely be buying my raw marks.

I'm in the exact same position for one of my subjects, I'm absolutely getting a recheck. Mostly just to put my mind at ease though, I'm prepared to deal with the fact I could have just bombed the exam (not likely for you considering how crazy all your other marks were though!)

 

[anomalousdecay]

In my whole region (5 schools over three towns) not a single person got a band 6 in physics. To compare, we had three band 6s in chemistry.

It's not easy to compare with low ranking schools however. We had 3 Band 6's in Physics last year and that was the first time there was at least one Band 6 in Physics since 2008-ish at my school.

I know from Fizzy's school the top mark was 92 iirc. Not sure about tutored kids

Yeah probably need to know about his tutored kids to compare here as I have no idea how his school kids went last year.

 

[RivalryofTroll]

It feels like the aligning was a lot worse. Tbh if im wrong then where the fuck did all the band 6s go

2013 Physics aligning wasn't that great either.

Is it just me or is there some HSC Physics trend that many students are having either:
- A stronger internal mark and then their exam mark is not even close (what happened to me back in 2013 and I see it happening to some BoSers too).
- Their exam mark is much better than their internal mark.

 

[Maxwell]

I'm in the exact same position for one of my subjects, I'm absolutely getting a recheck. Mostly just to put my mind at ease though, I'm prepared to deal with the fact I could have just bombed the exam (not likely for you considering how crazy all your other marks were though!)

Aww thanks

Sucks to hear that this has happened to not only me. Was rather devastated considering the copious amounts of effort I put into the subject. I am sure the same is applicable to you too (hopefully there was some mistake)!

P.S: heard about your Chem mark omfg gratzzzzzzzzzz