• Congratulations to the Class of 2024 on your results!
    Let us know how you went here
    Got a question about your uni preferences? Ask us here

What aligned HSC marks do I need to achieve to receive an ATAR >95? (1 Viewer)

Schoey93

Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2007
Messages
988
Location
Western Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
What aligned HSC marks in my subjects do I need to get to achieve an ATAR of 95? In your answer please do not assume that a certain subject will not be counted. Give HSC marks (the average of the moderated assessment mark and aligned external HSC exam mark) for each subject assuming that any subject could contribute to the ATAR.

I aim to keep my current load next year (I do not plan to drop a subject).

Thank you for your help.
 

smartalec

Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2009
Messages
505
Gender
Female
HSC
2011
What aligned HSC marks in my subjects do I need to get to achieve an ATAR of 95? In your answer please do not assume that a certain subject will not be counted. Give HSC marks (the average of the moderated assessment mark and aligned external HSC exam mark) for each subject assuming that any subject could contribute to the ATAR.

I aim to keep my current load next year (I do not plan to drop a subject).

Thank you for your help.
really good since your not doing extension subjects and a low scaling category b subject.
 

Schoey93

Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2007
Messages
988
Location
Western Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
really good since your not doing extension subjects and a low scaling category b subject.
You're in the same situation! Go us! Look at my category A subjects. In 2009:
98% in Biology gave 99.8% scaled.
99% in English gave 100% scaled.
99% in Legal Studies gave 100% scaled.
100% in Mathematics did not scale down.
98% in Italian Continuers gave 100% scaled.
98% in Studies of Religion I gave 95.8% scaled.
97% in Hospitality gave 88% scaled.
http://www.uac.edu.au/documents/atar/2009_table_A3.pdf

How useful is this information in determining how high the marks I need to achieve my goal are? Should I just aim for straight band sixes or do I need 95 across the board (would such marks yield 99.95?)?
 
Last edited:

smartalec

Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2009
Messages
505
Gender
Female
HSC
2011
so is our scaled mark the mark we get on our hsc ? man. for hospitality we are going to have to get at least 98%.
fark. lol
 

smartalec

Member
Joined
Nov 9, 2009
Messages
505
Gender
Female
HSC
2011
hmm curious. how did you go in your school certificate? not that its indicative of your hsc, but to see what level your at since we are doing almost the same subjects XD
 

Schoey93

Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2007
Messages
988
Location
Western Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
so is our scaled mark the mark we get on our hsc ? man. for hospitality we are going to have to get at least 98%.
fark. lol
I need someone to clarify this for me. In UAC's scaling report, in the A3 table, is the 'HSC Mark' they refer to the aligned HSC mark which students receive from the Board?

Alec, students do not receive their scaled marks. They receive aligned HSC marks. A reported mark of 97 on your HSC Record of Achievement in Hospitality in 2009 would give a scaled mark of 88. This would contribute 88 marks to your aggregate (a score out of 500). If your total aggregate is greater than or equal to 475/500 you will generally achieve an ATAR of 99.95.
 

bubbrubb

Member
Joined
Nov 19, 2007
Messages
82
Gender
Male
HSC
2009
Dude what you are asking for is so bloody pointless.

How will knowing what aligned mark you need going to affect your work?
You need to ask yourself: Will I be JUST AS happy to achieve an ATAR of 95 as I will be with 99.95? If the answer is yes:

Is it so you can reduce your workload? If I were to say you needed 100 for all your HSC aligned results, would this make you work harder than if I said you needed to get 95? If you are nodding yes then does that mean you are cocky enough to consciously restrict the amount of effort you put into your study and exams if the results you required were not as high as you expected? Does this mean you think there is a magic ratio of study/work to results?

I'm fairly sure you are, like every other HSC student, totally lost as to your potential and the correlation between your raw marks in school to the actual aligned result at the end of the year - that you would still study the same amount if you thought you needed to get 90 percent or 100 percent in the exam.

Furthermore, say you DID know the magic ratio of effort to exam results somehow.... there is the problem of comparing school assessments to HSC examinations. School tests account for 50 percent of your HSC result and are not standardized like HSC examinations. Therefore half of your HSC results will be based on tests that you cannot even begin to use an indicator. For example, Ruse Maths tests are very very hard while say Girra is fairly straight forward - thus getting 95 percent in Ruse would probably be more difficult than in Girra. no offence to girraweens...

Continuing along... You never know what your raw marks are for HSC exams, you only find out your aligned marks. This means that you cannot work out how many marks you need to achieve in the exam anyways even if you knew the necessary aligned mark. If i said you needed 91 aligned would you go ohhhh that means I only need to do 91 percent of the test paper? NO. It's scaled. I can get 70/120 for Maths 4 Unit and get a band 6 while obviously in Maths 2 unit i need a much higher percentage.

A more purposeful question would be to ask around how many raw marks out of the test you needed. However, that question is also iffy because the HSC is always changing in difficulty. In addition, i have yet to find a (serious) student who will simply stop at question x because he knows that it is enough to achieve a band 6 (or whatever he is aiming for), have you? HOWEVER, to save myself from some smart ass who will try to criticize/challenge me by stating that in Maths tests sometimes a good strategy is to do say questions 1-6 perfectly and ignore questions 7 and 8 to maximise marks - I am talking in general terms and am completely aware of such exam strategies but that is beyond the scope of this thread.

If you answered no:
Why do you need to know? You want to do the best that you can possibly do. That means trying the best you can possibly do. That means aiming for 100 percent in every exam even when this is impossible.

Don't mean to target you personally OP because I know these questions common... but it doesn't mean they aren't misguided.
 

Schoey93

Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2007
Messages
988
Location
Western Sydney
Gender
Male
HSC
2011
Dude what you are asking for is so bloody pointless.

How will knowing what aligned mark you need going to affect your work?
You need to ask yourself: Will I be JUST AS happy to achieve an ATAR of 95 as I will be with 99.95? If the answer is yes:

Is it so you can reduce your workload? If I were to say you needed 100 for all your HSC aligned results, would this make you work harder than if I said you needed to get 95? If you are nodding yes then does that mean you are cocky enough to consciously restrict the amount of effort you put into your study and exams if the results you required were not as high as you expected? Does this mean you think there is a magic ratio of study/work to results?

I'm fairly sure you are, like every other HSC student, totally lost as to your potential and the correlation between your raw marks in school to the actual aligned result at the end of the year - that you would still study the same amount if you thought you needed to get 90 percent or 100 percent in the exam.

Furthermore, say you DID know the magic ratio of effort to exam results somehow.... there is the problem of comparing school assessments to HSC examinations. School tests account for 50 percent of your HSC result and are not standardized like HSC examinations. Therefore half of your HSC results will be based on tests that you cannot even begin to use an indicator. For example, Ruse Maths tests are very very hard while say Girra is fairly straight forward - thus getting 95 percent in Ruse would probably be more difficult than in Girra. no offence to girraweens...

Continuing along... You never know what your raw marks are for HSC exams, you only find out your aligned marks. This means that you cannot work out how many marks you need to achieve in the exam anyways even if you knew the necessary aligned mark. If i said you needed 91 aligned would you go ohhhh that means I only need to do 91 percent of the test paper? NO. It's scaled. I can get 70/120 for Maths 4 Unit and get a band 6 while obviously in Maths 2 unit i need a much higher percentage.

A more purposeful question would be to ask around how many raw marks out of the test you needed. However, that question is also iffy because the HSC is always changing in difficulty. In addition, i have yet to find a (serious) student who will simply stop at question x because he knows that it is enough to achieve a band 6 (or whatever he is aiming for), have you? HOWEVER, to save myself from some smart ass who will try to criticize/challenge me by stating that in Maths tests sometimes a good strategy is to do say questions 1-6 perfectly and ignore questions 7 and 8 to maximise marks - I am talking in general terms and am completely aware of such exam strategies but that is beyond the scope of this thread.

If you answered no:
Why do you need to know? You want to do the best that you can possibly do. That means trying the best you can possibly do. That means aiming for 100 percent in every exam even when this is impossible.

Don't mean to target you personally OP because I know these questions common... but it doesn't mean they aren't misguided.
My school principal gave me the impression that it was very difficult to achieve a band 6 in the Hospitality Examination. I am also the only one doing Italian Continuers at my school, which means that the HSC examination mark I achieve will become my final HSC mark (unless how the HSC works changes).

You're right. A solid effort in every 2011 (and even 2010) school assessment coupled with good preparation for the exams and good results on each exam day will yield a high ATAR. I am slightly weary because for two exams I have to be extremely prepared, well rested and mentally alert on the day.

If I do badly (e.g. band 4) in those 4 units, I have another 9 units to back me up, so maybe it's not such a big deal, but I want to ace all of my exams.
 

MrBrightside

Brightest Member
Joined
Jan 18, 2010
Messages
2,032
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
N/A
yea, I don't see why not, If you put ur best into each subject, why cant it be possible to get the ATAR you want?

At the end of the day, If you don't put in the effort, you won't get the ATAR your hoping for, no matter what subjects ur doing. Just simply try your best, in the next 2 yrs and hope for the best :D
 

annabackwards

<3 Prophet 9
Joined
Jun 14, 2008
Messages
4,670
Location
Sydney
Gender
Female
HSC
2009
Does this mean you think there is a magic ratio of study/work to results?
Not a magic ratio as it depends on the instanteous circumstances, but yes there can be a rough guildeline on what is necessary. I doubt many people would be able to accurately estimate such figures though. Glad i did though XD

@Schoey - just aim for as high as you can, but of course aim higher with your lower scaling subjects. After all, you never know what'll happen in the HSC.

TL;DR - Play with SAM.

/Thread
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top