Quick question: High internal rank and cohort, low external HSC mark (1 Viewer)

[eating]

Hypothetically speaking, if I get a pretty good rank (eg. above 10/50) in a good cohort but get a pitiful external mark that doesn't reflect my internal, how bad is it? Will it ruin the whole year of work?

 

[Zoinked]

Silly question, of course its not preferable to have a "pitiful" as you say, external mark.

 

[MilkyCat_]

It will ruin half your year of work

 

[eating]

Silly question, of course its not preferable to have a "pitiful" as you say, external mark.

Naturally it's not preferable, but is it as bad as a pitiful rank and good external?

 

[eating]

It will ruin half your year of work

That big of a deal, huh? Alright.

Thanks for the reply.

 

[Zoinked]

Well in some instances if your rank is high enough (such as your first in software), assuming the system works correctly, you should carry your class and get the highest final exam mark. So if you suffer, you suffer double, because both your external and internal mark are lower. But yeah getting a bad external mark will mess you up.

 

[eating]

Well in some instances if your rank is high enough (such as your first in software), assuming the system works correctly, you should carry your class and get the highest final exam mark. So if you suffer, you suffer double, because both your external and internal mark are lower. But yeah getting a bad external mark will mess you up.

Fair enough. I understand that failing the software exam would have a massive impact (I'm far above the pack in SDD and it's a small cohort, so my external mark there is most crucial) but I wasn't too sure about (for example) physics. Thanks for clearing that up for me!

 

[A1P]

If you are maths inclined use this formula

First work out P% being the ratio of your int mark vs the top int mark

then Your mark = (E + P% of E1) / 2

where E = your ext mark, E1 = your cohort's top ext mark

This is based on Mattstaker's explanation in another thread. As such either P% or E or E1 can affect Your mark even though you have no control over E1 (unless you are the E1 student).

 

[InteGrand]

If you are maths inclined use this formula

First work out P% being the ratio of your int mark vs the top int mark

then Your mark = (E + P% of E1) / 2

where E = your ext mark, E1 = your cohort's top ext mark

The scaling process isn't that simple though is it (I.e. your internal mark that'll get used isn't in general simply P% of E₁)?

 

[A1P]

The scaling process isn't that simple though is it (I.e. your internal mark that'll get used isn't in general simply P% of E₁)?

According to Mattstaker your internal mark isn't itself used at that stage.

It's the ratio of your int mark vs the top int mark (of your school cohort) i.e. you earn that ratio of the cohort's top ext mark as your int mark. The point being Your mark should be based *all on external marks*, to eliminate school being easy/tough on internal marks.

Btw this is moderation of internal marks, not scaling.
Scaling is when they adjust the whole HSC cohort for a subject up or down against other HSC subjects.

 

[InteGrand]

I was intentionally using the word "scaling" to refer to a general adjustment procedure.

 

[D94]

According to Mattstaker your internal mark isn't used at all at that stage.

It's the ratio of your int mark vs the top int mark of your cohort, i.e. you earn that ratio of the cohort's top ext mark (as your int mark).

Btw this is moderation of internal marks, not scaling.
Scaling is when they adjust the whole cohort up or down against other subject cohorts.

Well that's not accurate. It may be useful when explaining to someone who doesn't know how it works, and the effect could potentially be similar, but it's not correct.

http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/hsc-results/moderation.html

A quadratic function is used to moderate the school marks (bottom of page). The exact calculation will depend on your school mark, the mean of school marks, relative gaps between school marks, the highest/lowest exam marks and the mean of the exam marks.

 

[InteGrand]

One can find full details of the quadratic interpolation procedure used for the moderation of school marks in the attachment in this comment:

This is not correct.

Although that method may be used by other institutions in other circumstances, it is not used by the Board of Studies NSW to moderate raw school assessment marks. The moderating procedure uses a quadratic function and is non-linear.

You can verify that the transformation is non-linear by inspecting the conversion graph at the bottom of this page. It is a curve rather than a straight line.

The detail of the procedure is explained in the following technical paper, a copy of which is attached to this post:

MacCann, R.G. 1995, The Moderation of Higher School Certificate Assessments using a Quadratic Polynomial Transformation: a Technical Paper, NSW Board of Studies, Sydney.

We implemented a crude web app some years ago to allow students to experiment with the moderating procedure by entering different marks, but it seems to have ceased functioning through the various site upgrades. Perhaps someone can recreate it.

Attachments: View attachment 24602

.

 

[A1P]

and the effect could potentially be similar...

Good enough for BoS i think, without having to resort to explaining quadratic interpolation