HARD VS EASY Subjects (2 Viewers)

[Dino The Raja]

does the actual subjects you have have a lot to do with the UAI....
I seem to be hearing stuff about "Hard" (e.g. physiscs) and "Easy"
(e.g. studies of religion?) subjects and that having more "Hard" subjects lets u have a beter UAI


personally I dont think any subject in the HSC is easy......

 

[Minai]

yeah
generally, subjects such as Maths Ext.2, the sciences, and economics have better scaling than other subjects simply because the quality of the canditure is on average, higher

 

[gl]

too right... thats how some people got UAIs lower than their hsc marks and others got higher. My UAI was 4 points higher than my highest hsc mark and yet other people got a uai in a band lower than their lowest hsc mark

it angers me a little that the BOS misleads ppl by saying not to worry about scaling when picking courses and simply to go with what you would like to do, because i feel sure this advice is what results in a lot of people confused by their lowish UAI compared with HSC marks.

 

[Bambul]

At the same time you have to do subjects which you are good at. A friend of mine did no maths or science instead opting for english (4u), history (5u), drama (2u) and agriculture (3u - accelerated). He was really, really good at these subjects (he topped drama in the state) and he ended up getting 99.95.

I would agree that some "textbook" subjects like physics or economics are easier to get more marks per hour of study which you put into it (ie. you have to spend a lot of time to get a good mark in ancient history than economics, but it is possible with both).

It is however almost impossible to get 100 without 4unit maths. There was one girl in my school in 1998 who got 100 without 4unit, but if her UAI was calculated with the new HSC it would have been only a mere 99.95 (how pityful! ). I think it was due to capping and the removal of the 1 unit of humanities which you needed to count.

 

[Sarah]

to answer the question asked, yes and no. It really depends how well u do in the subject. You can do subjects considered easy and do really well in them and still get a good uai or u can do subjects considered hard and not perform so well and get a lower uai than what u expected.

oh btw, i wouldn't classify religion as an easy subject. For 2u, there is heaps of content but its scaled alright and scaled well if u do well. scaling in religion is better than for business studies or general maths and even some languages such as modern greek

 

[dopez]

so wat if 1 person gets 90 in 2 unit maths
and another gets 90 in 4 unit
(both being the hsc mark received last thur)
how much difference will there actually be in the final (when all scaling and stuff the UAC does) mark ?

 

[kini mini]

Originally posted by dopez
so wat if 1 person gets 90 in 2 unit maths
and another gets 90 in 4 unit
(both being the hsc mark received last thur)
how much difference will there actually be in the final (when all scaling and stuff the UAC does) mark ?

Put it inot lazseeker and see what it would have been last year. The 4u one will go up a lot and the 2u will go down i think.

 

[hornet]

Originally posted by dopez
so wat if 1 person gets 90 in 2 unit maths
and another gets 90 in 4 unit
(both being the hsc mark received last thur)
how much difference will there actually be in the final (when all scaling and stuff the UAC does) mark ?

According to the UAC scaling sheet (table 3) on their site, 2002 scaling....

2U Maths:
- 92.2 (90th percentile) would be scaled to 83.4
- 86.6 (75th percentile) would be scaled to 75.2.

4U Maths:
- 90.8 (75th percentile) would be scaled to 92.2
- 84 (50th percentile) would be scaled to 89

See how 2U maths went down, and 4U maths went up. There is ya scaling. By the way, contray to popular belief, most subjects do scale DOWN - just depends by how much thats all! An average subject seems to only scale down by about 10-20%. For a person aiming at 80's UAI, 2U maths might be called a little over average - so its scaling is OK. For those aiming for upper 90's UAI, 2U maths' scaling is too low generally.

Other interesting scaling results:

Business studies:
- 88.4 (90th percentile) scaled to 74.8.
- 81.2 (75th percentile) scaled to 62.8
ie if your higher up in business, the scaling isn't too bad towards you - but the lower you are, the harder it hits, nearly 20% in this case (a "bad" subject then)

Physics:
- 89 (90th percentile) scaled to 84.6
- 83.2 (75th percentile) scaled to 76.2
ie Physics has MUCH better scaling than business. Roughly the same HSC marks scale to 10 to nearly 15 higher than business. Physics is thus a "good" subject

However do note the scaling depends on how well u do in the subject. If you fuck up every subject, scaling wont save u. U have to be doing ok/well at the tough ones to get the benefits. I got mid-80's results for my subjects (2U advanced english, 3U english, 2U maths, SDD, physics) and 92 for IPT (tho both IPT and SDD were top 2% in the state) - and I got 94.5 as my UAI. Compared to a mate who got high 80's and high 70's in his HSC results and did 2U advanced english, general maths, business... and he got 72 as his UAI.



Summary: hard subjects help u. They help by sorting out those who did the hard stuff from the simply stuff - and rewarding thorugh scaling. However a dropout is a dropout, and thus coming last in business vs physics wont benefit you Do OK/good at the harder subjects, and you will reap the rewards in your UAI.

 

[SploJo]

Hey!! i dont think of Studies of religion as an 'easy' subject! i had to put a lot of study and effort into that subject to get good marks.

 

[Lazarus]

Originally posted by Bambul
It is however almost impossible to get 100 without 4unit maths.

One of the students who attained a UAI of 100 this year had the following marks:

2 Ancient History 98/100 98/100 98 6
2 English (Advanced) 93/100 98/100 96 6
1 English Extension 1 48/50 49/50 49 E4
1 English Extension 2 34/50 49/50 42 E3
2 Legal Studies 97/100 90/100 94 6
2 Modern History 99/100 99/100 99 6
1 History Extension 50/50 50/50 50 E4
2 Society and Culture 94/100 97/100 96 6

Granted, they're extraordinary, and he topped the state in both Modern History and History Extension, but it can still happen these days.

There are a number of high 99s who didn't take any science or maths courses, as well. The upper levels of maths do not help as much as they used to.

 

[Weisy]

Originally posted by Lazarus
There are a number of high 99s who didn't take any science or maths courses, as well. The upper levels of maths do not help as much as they used to.

Yes, the dux of our school this year didn't do any maths or science, and she got a UAI of 99.90. The runner-up also got this score, with no science courses, and without doing 4unit maths. Their marks were simply fantastic.

 

[-=«MÄLÅÇhïtÊ»=-]

my skool captain got 100 uai and he did all literature type subjects. But bad example coz he's juz crazy.

The truth is, harder subjects will get you a better uai. Lots of ppl who got below average in 4u and 3u (hsc marks of 70s) still got uai's around 95. Whereas ppl who got 90s in legal and studies of religion got around 95uai too.

 

[quartic]

It seems the scaling for 4unit maths was much worse this year as in 2001 the 75th percentile (92.2) scaled to 97 (according to Lazseeker) and this year the 75th percentile scaled to a mere 92.2. Still comparitivly good scaling but nothing compared to last year or other previous years.

So I wouldn't be surprised to see that this year more non 4unit maths students achieved right up the top in terms of UAI.

 

[Killah33]

Studies of religion easy?

You obviously didn't do the course mate. 2U Religion was one of the hardest I did because of the workload.

 

[saladsurgery]

hmm, yes, but with all this talk of scaling, don't take up subjects you dislike just because the scaling is apparently good. if you really dislike the subject you'll probably get crummy marks in it anyway.

 

[~ForAGoodCause~]

i should have never done standard english, it scales absolute shithouse, and how come no1 is able to get over 90, i mean thats just stupid .... i reckon if i had done advanced english my UAI would have been heaps higher....

 

[Dino The Raja]

Sorry if I offended anyone with the use of studies of religion as an example.... (thats why I had the question mark next to it), Its just what was on the top of my head at that time....

As I said...i personally see no sence of easyness in the HSC

 

[schwang_thang]

Originally posted by ~ForAGoodCause~
i should have never done standard english, it scales absolute shithouse, and how come no1 is able to get over 90, i mean thats just stupid .... i reckon if i had done advanced english my UAI would have been heaps higher....

yeah tru, when i was in yr 10 i thought standard english wuddve had an easier workload than advanced so decided 2 choose it, but the teachers talked me out of it n i ended up doing the adv course. i ended up with a band 6, but im sure doing the standard course wuddve gotten me in2 band 4...its so unfair 4 the yr 10s choosing their courses who dont know jack abt the scaling system, esp. when u think abt the ppl with real brains who chose the standard course, n then those who didnt do well in advanced but got scaled up in the end by heaps (stats r that >50% of adv. students got band 5 or 6).

if u need ne more proof 2 b convinced of scaling, consider this: a chick from my school topped 5 subjects n did the supposedly 'easier' subjects, i topped none but did the perceived harder ones. n my uai ended up higher than hers.

 

[flyin']

do subjects you do well in ... there is no point doing a difficult subject and ending up at the bottom because scaling will not save you (this is from personal experience) ... its better to do outstandingly in a 'easy' subject because you arent as adversely affected by the scaling ...

 

[1 more]

Originally posted by Killah33
Studies of religion easy?

You obviously didn't do the course mate. 2U Religion was one of the hardest I did because of the workload.

I can confirm this. SOR II had a ridiculously big, and detailed syllabus.