Why are sciences and mathematics scaled so well? (1 Viewer)

[dat202hoe]

Why.

 

[runnable]

Essentially because students doing them get lower marks in the exams than other subjects.

 

[Trebla]

They have stronger cohorts...obviously

 

[dat202hoe]

So people who do social sciences get punished because science people can't achieve decent marks?

 

[lyounamu]

Scaling of the subject is determiend by the overall calibre of the candidature in the course.

In general, subjects like 4 Unit Mathematics, 3 Unit Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry attract many of those high-calibre students.

 

[dp624]

Essentially because students doing them get lower marks in the exams than other subjects.

Not really. It's cos the cohorts for them perform better. 'dumber' people take humanities, while 'smarter' people take sciences and maths. of course the terms are vague and stupid.

 

[dat202hoe]

It's essentially stereotyping, right? Science and maths = smart people.

 

[dp624]

It's essentially stereotyping, right? Science and maths = smart people.

no, the stats actually say that people who do sciences and maths actually do better

but i tihnk in general, it's maths > languages > sciences > humanities

 

[dat202hoe]

It should be easier for them to get marks though. They don't have to write essays or anything. I don't understand why science is held in so much prestige.

 

[lionking1191]

It's essentially stereotyping, right? Science and maths = smart people.

you mixed up cause and effect, but essentially that's the gist of it

 

[lyounamu]

It's essentially stereotyping, right? Science and maths = smart people.

Nope. It's not really stereotyping and I didn't mean that.

Other subjects like Ancient History DO attract many high-calibre students but not as many as, say, Chemistry does.

I guess many high-calibre students do it because it is an assumed knowledge for so many university courses that usually require high UAI as well.

Same story with Mathematics. You sometimes need 4 Unit or 3 Unit Mathematics to pursue a highly scientific university degree (note the word "sometimes").

 

[lyounamu]

It should be easier for them to get marks though. They don't have to write essays or anything. I don't understand why science is held in so much prestige.

Lol. Now you are coming up with a stereotype.

No, Sciences are NOT harder because at least you cannot make "bullshit" on your exams like in subjects like Ancient History.

 

[runnable]

Not really. It's cos the cohorts for them perform better. 'dumber' people take humanities, while 'smarter' people take sciences and maths. of course the terms are vague and stupid.

It is also because of that. BUT if the smarter cohort recevie the same marks in say 4U Maths and Bus Studies, then 4U maths will scale the same as Bus Studies. What actually happens is that the cohort receives a lower mark in 4U Maths than they do in Bus Studies, leading to the higher scaling.

 

[dat202hoe]

So, just say. I do well in English Advanced and Economics (subjects which are done by some science people). I beat them in these subjects. Yet cause they do sciences they get a higher UAI. I don't get that. (I still did crap, I admit that.)

 

[runnable]

You only contribute to a very small part of those cohorts. The overall English or Economics cohort is not as strong as say the 4U Maths cohort.

 

[dat202hoe]

Hm. I wish I knew how much scaling comes into it. I didn't expect to get such a crap UAI with decent ranks. Oh well.

 

[runnable]

Well if you chose the subjects you are best in, scaling shouldn't have much of an effect. If equally good, it is more advisable to choose the one with higher scaling.

 

[Trebla]

You did average in low scaling subjects...that's probably why. Generally if you do well in low scaling subjects it is not much different from doing well in a high scaling subject.

 

[chewy123]

I believe they look at SC results. Generally it is easier to achieve better mark in humanities than science and math. It would then be assumed that math and science is harder.

In the HSC, they calculate what ALL students would get if they ALL do this particular course, and to know how all student do when not all student do this particular course, they will have to refer to the SC.

 

[Nemo1412]

One of my friends got a band 6 in Adv Eng and E4 for both Ext 1 and Ext 2 english. I only got a top band in 3u maths and got an E3 in 4u maths. All our other subjects were common and scored within 1-2 marks of each other and we ended up within 0.20 of each other's uai. I would have thought 4u english would have scaled similar to that of 4u maths.