Many people on here predict the Band 6 or E4 cutoffs which I find helpful, but I have a question - isn't your band specified by your HSC mark, not your Exam mark?
Indeed, the Bands are assigned to your final HSC mark. However, in the aligning process, they say "this HSC mark/performance is between a the standards of a Band 5 and 6, so we set that as a HSC mark of 90". So whilst they don't directly say Band 6, it's much easier to say "Band 6 cutoffs" than "cutoffs for the standard between a Band 5 and 6".
So let's say some predict the English Advanced Band 6 cutoff to be 85/105 (ignoring whether it's realistic or not). Is this the supposed mark you will need so your assessments will moderate well enough to get over the line, or is this just the mark you need for an EXAM mark of 90?
Just the exam mark. Assessment mark is a completely different process.
I ask this because for example my brother got 91 in 2011 for Phys (Exam mark) but got 87 for assessments, which pulled him down to 89. So if one can just reach that Band 6 / E4 cutoff, does that even mean that their assessments can moderate well enough?
He got a Band 5. That's what you say, he did not achieve a Band 6, despite a solid exam performance.
Lastly, how do the assessments even moderate? Do they just get close enough to your exam mark? Is the takeaway from all of this just get a few marks over the cutoff and you should be set?
Thanks.
It is derived from how well you performed at school, but relative to the state. Your school marks are relative to your school assessments. But BOS needs to determine your assessment marks relative to the state. The only assessment that is common among schools is the HSC exam.
At school, you will sit assessments and each have a certain weighting. This gets added up to form your raw school mark (but schools can adjust this so long as they adjust everyone's mark the same). You also get a rank, but your rank is only important if you are first or last. All other ranks have essentially no meaning.
Think of your cohort's marks spread out on a rubber band, where you draw a mark on the rubber band reflecting each student's mark. But this spread must be reflective of how well each student performed relative to each other. For example, if the cohort's marks were say 90, 89, 79, 78, 77, this would look differently to say 90, 89, 88, 78, 77. In the first scenario, first is relatively far away from the rest of the cohort. In the second scenario, the last 2 are relatively far away from the cohort. These two scenarios will yield different results when BOS moderates your assessment marks.
You then sit your HSC exams, and this is probably the most important factor. If all your HSC exam marks are with x and y, then all your moderated assessment marks are with x and y. So what BOS does is pins the highest exam mark (of anyone in the cohort) to the assessment mark of the first ranked student, and pins the lowest exam mark to the assessment mark of the lowest ranked student. Then all marks in between are spread out with consideration of how far each student is relative to each other. So if you think of the rubber band, if the range of the exam marks are far apart, then you would stretch that rubber band and so your cohort's marks are spread out more. If the range is small, then you would compress that rubber band, meaning your cohort's marks are closer together.
There are other factors such as keeping the mean of the moderated marks the same as the mean of the HSC exam marks. This is usually done by changing the marks of the tail.
So it is important to do well at school. Coming say 15th by 2% puts you in a better position than coming 15th by 20%. But what matters most, especially if you are far from first, in terms of marks, is that you and your cohort perform well in the HSC exams. It wouldn't matter if the spread of your raw school marks ranged from 95% down to 55%, if your HSC exam marks are within 99 down to 90. It means all your assessment marks will be moderated to within 99 and 90. It may mean you will be at the lower end of the 90's (if you weren't close to first), but this is a definite Band 6.
