New Syllabus - Scaling (1 Viewer)

[_Anonymous]

Considering the new syllabus for Science and English have become considerably harder than the old syllabus, does this mean that Physics, Chemistry, Bio and English will generally get scaled higher compared to before? Or does it depend more on how everyone does in the 2019 HSC?

 

[Trebla]

Scaling is all relative (i.e. based on where you rank in the cohort). It has nothing to do with the difficulty of a course.

 

[fan96]

Might be nice reading:

https://www.uac.edu.au/assets/documents/scaling-reports/Scaling-Report-2017-NSW-HSC.pdf

The model underpinning the scaling algorithm specifies that the scaled mean in a course is
equal to the average academic achievement of the course candidature where, for individual
students, the measure of academic achievement is taken as the average scaled mark in all
courses completed.

i.e. the scaling of a subject is determined by how well its participants perform in other subjects (after scaling).

 

[sida1049]

Might be nice reading:

https://www.uac.edu.au/assets/documents/scaling-reports/Scaling-Report-2017-NSW-HSC.pdf



i.e. the scaling of a subject is determined by how well its participants perform in other subjects (after scaling).

I'm not sure how accurate your summary is, since it's a circular statement: i.e. "the scaling of a subject is determined by the average scaled mark of students in all courses, including that subject itself." So in regards to the "scaled mean in a course", it's not a parameter that determines the scaling procedure, but rather a summary statistic as a result of the scaling procedure.

lmao wtf every photo in that report is from my high school

damn, my school looks better than how I remember it

 

[Trebla]

The distribution of marks in English (as it is the only compulsory subject so it has just about every student in the state) is used as the common scale which forms the baseline for scaling.

Let's suppose the statewide average raw mark (not the realigned HSC mark you see on your certificate) is 50% for English.

Of that entire English cohort, there would be some that also did say Chemistry. Let's suppose the average raw mark of those Chemistry students in English was 60%, which is higher than the statewide average of 50%. This suggests that there are stronger students doing Chemistry on average. Therefore, the marks in the Chemistry subject would be 'scaled up' so to speak to reflect this 'skewed' distribution.

However, if the average raw mark of these Chemistry students in English was say 40% instead then this suggests that there are weaker students doing Chemistry on average. Therefore, the marks would be 'scaled down' to reflect it skewing the other way.

This is a simplified version of how scaling works. Hopefully it makes sense and you can see why the difficulty of a course does not directly impact how it is scaled.

 

[_Anonymous]

Thank you all for clarifying, I got it now.

 

[fan96]

I'm not sure how accurate your summary is, since it's a circular statement: i.e. "the scaling of a subject is determined by the average scaled mark of students in all courses, including that subject itself." So in regards to the "scaled mean in a course", it's not a parameter that determines the scaling procedure, but rather a summary statistic as a result of the scaling procedure.

lmao wtf every photo in that report is from my high school

damn, my school looks better than how I remember it

The report goes on to say that a set of simultaneous equations are created and solved.

That sounds reasonable enough to me.

For example if there were two subjects then there would be two equations for their scaled means each with two unknowns, so a unique solution would exist.

 

[sida1049]

The report goes on to say that a set of simultaneous equations are created and solved.

That sounds reasonable enough to me.

For example if there were two subjects then there would be two equations for their scaled means each with two unknowns, so a unique solution would exist.

Yeah that's fine, I have no quarrels with the official report itself; it was just that your previous summary of a particular section was worded inaccurately

 

[frog0101]

New Syllabus Scaling

Hi,
Due to the change in syllabus, and each subject content being majorly different (at least in the sciences), do you think that the scaling of subjects will change?

 

[unknownuser123]

Re: New Syllabus Scaling

No

 

[asher32]

Re: New Syllabus Scaling

I mean, it is difficult to assess the scaling given that the first year of the new syllabus hasn't happened yet but I would assume that given the new science syllabi are considerably harder, it could scale a bit better.

 

[Trebla]

Re: New Syllabus Scaling

Scaling is dependent on relative cohort performance, not difficulty of the subject.