Shitty internals VS good HSC result (1 Viewer)

[9995jhp]

It's doing my head in--my school which ranks at around top 50 in NSW really fluctuates every year because we rely on the cohorts' ability to do well (it's not a selective high so...). My internal marks are not looking too well and while I ranked in top 3 in all my subjects during year 11, I had a huge burnout in year 12 and currently for some subjects like English and Biology, my rankings were somewhere like 1st, 18th, 10th. Which...really makes me confused on how it would affect my overall internal mark.

I am yet to sit the Trials, and I am back on track for gaining that top trial mark, but honestly, the weighting on the Trials is around 20%-(15% even for some subjects) so I'm not sure ranking in the top3-5 in Trials is going to change much of the horrid ranks I got in other assessments (like English Adv Task1 I was ranked 18th out of a 46ppl cohort smh).
I wouldn't stress too much if I was going for an average ATAR but because my goal is still medicine, I'm wondering if I have ANY hope of gaining an internal mark similar along the lines of the HSC. This is to assume I'd be getting HSC scores of 93-95 in my subjects scaling up to 99.45+ ATAR w. only the HSC considered (ATAR calculator). I know I can smash the HSC but I'm regretting so much rn about my internals. Depression hit at the worst stage of my life.

Can anyone give advice/insight on if it is even worth trying so hard to get a good HSC to aim for undergraduate medicine? My school produces like 5 ppl that receive Band 6s in each subject so if my internal rank is under top3/4 I may end up with an 85 internal (ya'll know the adjustment, scaling etc right) and 95 HSC. Does NESA do anything about drastically different internal and HSC scores?

Please experts guide me through w. your wisdom

 

[carrotsss]

NESA won’t do anything super drastic but keep in mind that the actual HSC exam makes up half of your HSC, so it’s very very possible to make an insane comeback. Your school weighting trials so little really sucks and I have no idea why they’d do that though, but keep in mind eventhough it’s not weighted as much, the mark differences will be much bigger, so effectively it sorta is weighted more than you think. The other thing to consider is that if your cohort does better in the HSC that could drastically help the situation, so try to motivate your peers to try hard in the HSC if you can.

There is absolutely still hope of getting into medicine, you got this

 

[random93810938]

It's doing my head in--my school which ranks at around top 50 in NSW really fluctuates every year because we rely on the cohorts' ability to do well (it's not a selective high so...). My internal marks are not looking too well and while I ranked in top 3 in all my subjects during year 11, I had a huge burnout in year 12 and currently for some subjects like English and Biology, my rankings were somewhere like 1st, 18th, 10th. Which...really makes me confused on how it would affect my overall internal mark.

I am yet to sit the Trials, and I am back on track for gaining that top trial mark, but honestly, the weighting on the Trials is around 20%-(15% even for some subjects) so I'm not sure ranking in the top3-5 in Trials is going to change much of the horrid ranks I got in other assessments (like English Adv Task1 I was ranked 18th out of a 46ppl cohort smh).
I wouldn't stress too much if I was going for an average ATAR but because my goal is still medicine, I'm wondering if I have ANY hope of gaining an internal mark similar along the lines of the HSC. This is to assume I'd be getting HSC scores of 93-95 in my subjects scaling up to 99.45+ ATAR w. only the HSC considered (ATAR calculator). I know I can smash the HSC but I'm regretting so much rn about my internals. Depression hit at the worst stage of my life.

Can anyone give advice/insight on if it is even worth trying so hard to get a good HSC to aim for undergraduate medicine? My school produces like 5 ppl that receive Band 6s in each subject so if my internal rank is under top3/4 I may end up with an 85 internal (ya'll know the adjustment, scaling etc right) and 95 HSC. Does NESA do anything about drastically different internal and HSC scores?

Please experts guide me through w. your wisdom

I'm not certain but I don't think you'll be getting the 99+ atar required for medicine. Before my predicted atar was 99 ish by comparing ranks with year 12 cohort and I got better ranks (this is like year 10 so not entirely accurate). Depends on how you do in ucat, can always repeat the hsc if already have a high ucat. You can always transfer later though so if you are set on it then there are other paths.

I also have mental health stuff which sucks so it's relatable, knowing that there are other ways of getting into courses is comforting so don't stress. Worse case you just repeat a year but you can also try to transfer. I know numerous people who have done so. Don't get too worried.

 

[9995jhp]

I'm not certain but I don't think you'll be getting the 99+ atar required for medicine. Before my predicted atar was 99 ish by comparing ranks with year 12 cohort and I got better ranks (this is like year 10 so not entirely accurate). Depends on how you do in ucat, can always repeat the hsc if already have a high ucat. You can always transfer later though so if you are set on it then there are other paths.

I also have mental health stuff which sucks so it's relatable, knowing that there are other ways of getting into courses is comforting so don't stress. Worse case you just repeat a year but you can also try to transfer. I know numerous people who have done so. Don't get too worried.

I don't know if you can repeat a year for the HSC..? Never heard of anyone doing that unless they were gone for half a year or something due to illness/special issues or simply unspeakable academic scores (like non-attempt at everything). But yeah, I could go into another course and transfer with help of UCAT...

But genuinely though, if I were to come first in the HSC with a 95+ (not ATAR, but the pure-scaled scores, which I put into the calculator, amounts up to 99+ ATAR for my subjects) and then because of my rankings which are on average like 8th, receive someone's score that is likely 89 at best for internals... does that not mean anything to NESA? I'm so frustrated right now, because for some subjects like Biology and English which I received the worst ranks at like 14th, 18th then 3rd (others, I'd say are top 3-4 like chem, Eng Ext1 and music) there were assessments that were unfairly marked.

Like for two of the Bio assessment, the SOLE marker (not double marked even) told her class what key words she'd be looking for, and even though most of my responses deserved full or 1 mark deduction, she'd taken like 3-4 marks off. I'm not being delusional because my teacher checked and literally told me I should have gotten full marks for those questions, but grades were out/ it was too late etc etc to make corrections--because the department released the marks after the holidays (and somehow that grants them the right to not correct anything apparently?)

Sorry for the rant, but I'm really not looking forward to spend an extra year or so for a biomedicine degree...and carry the chance of getting UCAT scores that aren't good enough.

 

[9995jhp]

NESA won’t do anything super drastic but keep in mind that the actual HSC exam makes up half of your HSC, so it’s very very possible to make an insane comeback. Your school weighting trials so little really sucks and I have no idea why they’d do that though, but keep in mind eventhough it’s not weighted as much, the mark differences will be much bigger, so effectively it sorta is weighted more than you think. The other thing to consider is that if your cohort does better in the HSC that could drastically help the situation, so try to motivate your peers to try hard in the HSC if you can.

There is absolutely still hope of getting into medicine, you got this

Thank you,, I will keep trying because at least I can complain about the discrepancy if I actually get the good HSC score but bad internals. I'm pretty dismayed though, because internals, I realised, are also subjective to the marker and my school still has teachers that vary so much between different students and their responses (plus some are very adamant about their first choice of marks and reluctant to change anything even if the problem is staring at their face)...

 

[nsw..wollongong]

Thank you,, I will keep trying because at least I can complain about the discrepancy if I actually get the good HSC score but bad internals. I'm pretty dismayed though, because internals, I realised, are also subjective to the marker and my school still has teachers that vary so much between different students and their responses (plus some are very adamant about their first choice of marks and reluctant to change anything even if the problem is staring at their face)...

also keep in mind that the majority of ppl sitting the ucat arent high schoolers, they're undergrad students (most likely doing premed or sum similar) in their first or second yr of uni. given this, the majority of high school ucat-sitters opt to do another degree before applying for undergrad med again, which is not as bad as u say it is (i don't think one-two years would be a huge difference anyways). its better than waiting to sit the gamsat which is objectively more competitive and harder.

 

[random93810938]

Thank you,, I will keep trying because at least I can complain about the discrepancy if I actually get the good HSC score but bad internals. I'm pretty dismayed though, because internals, I realised, are also subjective to the marker and my school still has teachers that vary so much between different students and their responses (plus some are very adamant about their first choice of marks and reluctant to change anything even if the problem is staring at their face)...

I'm guessing you go to a public or selective school due to the lack of good teachers? It sucks tho, good luck.