Aligned vs Scaled? (1 Viewer)

[NubMuncher]

I'm a little confused on the difference between the two. I'd led to believe that scaling is done by UAC and only affects your ATAR whereas aligned is where your raw exam marks are modified based on something?

Any help is greatly appreciated : )

 

[Shadowdude]

Aligning - RAW HSC marks in the exam aligned to Board of Studies' standards (i.e. those performance descriptors that say a Band 4 student should be able to... yada yada yada), e.g. 46/100 in the exam may align to 90 HSC mark because the BOS decided that 46/100 in the exam satisfies the Band 6 criteria barely
Scaling - done by the UAC

 

[NubMuncher]

ok so both affect your eventual atar?

 

[slyhunter]

Obviously.

 

[annabackwards]

Aligning - RAW HSC marks in the exam aligned to Board of Studies' standards (i.e. those performance descriptors that say a Band 4 student should be able to... yada yada yada), e.g. 46/100 in the exam may align to 90 HSC mark because the BOS decided that 46/100 in the exam satisfies the Band 6 criteria barely
Scaling - done by the UAC

+1

 

[cem]

There are three things that happen with marks:

1. Aligning - the process of determining the raw exam mark that fits the description for the band cut-offs e.g. 81/100 aligns to 90 one year but the next year the judges might decide that the cut-off needs to be 86

2. Moderation - the process of adjusting the marks sent in by the school using the only common assessment task - the HSC exam - this is where the top exam mark becomes the top assessment mark for the cohort and the bottom exam mark becomes the bottom assessment mark for the cohort - the total exam marks are also the total assessment marks for the cohort (within a mark or two) and the marks between the top and bottom are allocated according to the ranks and gaps (not an exact match of second exam mark for second assessment mark etc

3. Scaling - the is the process used by UAC to determine the relative difficulty of the courses and to adjust the marks so that they can rank the state's candidature - so one subject a student might get 100 and another student get 100 in a different subject but due to scaling they will contribute different amount to the total for ATAR due to the perceived difficulty of the subjects

 

[BOSBOY]

due to scaling they will contribute different amount to the total for ATAR due to the perceived difficulty of the subjects

I think UAC prefers "strength of competition" rather than "perceived difficulty".

 

[slyhunter]

I think UAC prefers "strength of competition" rather than "perceived difficulty".

True, but certain subjects tend to attract a certain calibre of students capable of performing in it (e.g. MX2 attracts intelligent people), hence why the "perceived difficulty" of a subject can already determine the "strength of competition".