Can HSC Examination marks lift overall HSC scores? (1 Viewer)

[DanS]

If I get better marks in the actual HSC examinations, will my overall scores be scaled up? Apparently the teachers at my school are pretty hard markers... (esp. for Modern History!) and if I do get better marks in the actual exam, can these marks be lifted by the BOS? I've heard something like that...

If so, by how much? For example, if I get 80% for my internal Modern History marks, and then get 92% in the exam, by how much will they be shoved up??

Thanks!

 

[timeflies]

Your internal mark does not matter. It's about your rank. The only thing that matters for internal is the rank unless there is a huge difference between internal and external marks. I believe its something like this: If you come first in your class, you will get the highest mark that anyone scored in the HSC from your class. So if you're teachers are hard markers or easy markers, it makes pretty much no difference.

 

[DanS]

Okay, thanks! That lifts my sights a little... bit scared about English tho!

 

[ocatal]

Well there is scaling and aligning involved with each subject if that's what you mean. This is done so that all subjects are equally accounted for.

For example a raw mark of 70 in MX2 in the HSC scales to approximately 90, so that the final external mark is 90. This is then used to calculate the overall HSC score.

 

[DanS]

Thanks. So the harder/bigger the subjects that you do, the bigger the scale-up is, sort of? Wish I had chosen a bit more wisely...

 

[strawberrye]

Thanks. So the harder/bigger the subjects that you do, the bigger the scale-up is, sort of? Wish I had chosen a bit more wisely...

Don't look back on your choices-you've tried your best-you now just need to rest and I wish you all the bestI am sure you will do well

 

[ocatal]

Thanks. So the harder/bigger the subjects that you do, the bigger the scale-up is, sort of? Wish I had chosen a bit more wisely...

Pretty much. However it is also affected by the difficulty of the exam. A harder exam will scale better. Also in your case, 92 in Modern History will scale to about 95-97.

Don't worry too much about subject selections. Choosing your subjects based solely on scaling isn't wise. You can achieve a great ATAR with any combination of subjects.

 

[DanS]

Cool, thanks for the encouragement & motivation! I suppose it is all over before you know it... time flies these days!

 

[enoilgam]

Your question is hard to answer because the HSC doesn't quite work the way you have assumed in your question (plus, there are other factors at play). Generally speaking however, doing well in the externals can help pull your final mark up (it is a 50/50 split).

 

[timeflies]

Cool, thanks for the encouragement & motivation! I suppose it is all over before you know it... time flies these days!

Damn right it does! (I think you unknowingly referred to my username )

 

[cem]

Can I please point out that there seems to be some confusion with the use of the term 'scaling' here?

Three things happen to your marks - moderating, aligning and scaling.

Moderating happens to the internal marks - and this is the process by which the internal marks are moderated to the external marks so that the range, total, average and median marks from your cohort are the same as the externals - give or take a mark or two. This is the process where the top internal mark is pegged to the top exam mark and the bottom internal mark pegged to the bottom exam mark and the rest of the cohort are given marks based on their ranks and the relative differences in marks between the students.

Aligning happens to the external marks - and this is the process by which a team of HSC markers for the course look at the difficulty of the exam, the marking criteria and the performance descriptor bands for the course and determine the cut-offs for each band e.g. what raw exam mark will be reported as 90, 80, 70, 60 and 50.

Scaling happens to the marks - this is the process by which UAC is able to 'compare' the difficulty of the courses each year to determine marks and totals to be reported as the final ATAR.

For the OP - if you have a hard marker for HSC Modern and you were sent in with a mark of 82 and you then earned 90 raw on the exam the probability is that both the internal and external marks will be reported up on those marks. If you were first with that 82 and then first with that 90 then you final raw mark would be 90 and that would probably be reported as low-mid 90s for Modern - assuming the aligning committee come up with a cut-off of mid-80s for Modern.

 

[DanS]

Thanks for your help, everyone! Good to see there's so many people out there willing to 'give a hand'!

Now please check out my latest one... and see what you reckon!

 

[RealiseNothing]

However it is also affected by the difficulty of the exam. A harder exam will scale better.

No, that would be aligning. Scaling is affected by how good the state cohort is.

 

[RealiseNothing]

Also OP, I doubt your school teachers are harder markers than the actual HSC.

 

[ocatal]

No, that would be aligning. Scaling is affected by how good the state cohort is.

Ohh my bad.

 

[cem]

Also OP, I doubt your school teachers are harder markers than the actual HSC.

It is very likely actually - personally I don't know any teacher who marks as easily as they mark the HSC, myself included, where I always have to condition myself to add at least 2 marks onto what I would give in class when HSC marking and every marker I have spoken to says the same thing. We mark harder at school to lift standards for the actual HSC which is marked to a lower standard. I can't speak for all teachers or all markers but after 20+ years of marking I have spoken to a lot of markers and haven't had any marker say they mark harder at the HSC than they do at school.

Most HSC markers are of course also teachers who teach the HSC so they are aware of the final HSC standard and know that their students need to be pushed to the higher end of marks so they mark harder at school to life the standards in the final exam.