Can you achieve a 95+ Atar, with good marks in General Math (And other Subjects below)? (1 Viewer)

[Greatcreator]

I'm currently Halfway through Y11, I've been getting 99% in General Math, 93% in Advanced Math, 90% in Ext 1 Math, 90% in Chemistry, 88% in English Adv and around 85% in Ext 1 English (I know my English is bad, I'm working on it!). If I continue with these subjects in my HSC in y12, will I be able to achieve an atar of 95+, btw I go to a top 50 school in NSW. Please don't use an atar calculator and tell me, I want to actually know if doing general math, will it pull down my scaling in the HSC. Thanks in Advance

 

[jimmysmith560]

Sorry to ask, but since when can students do Mathematics Standard/General along with Advanced and Extension?

Regardless of that, your marks indicate that you are on the right track in terms of your ATAR goal. Once you're in year 12, you need to ensure you can maintain such marks (and try to improve if possible, particularly in English just to be safe) while ensuring you are ranking near the top of your cohort across all of your subjects for a higher chance of reaching your desired ATAR.

Doing general maths should not affect you in terms of scaling at the HSC, provided you keep performing like you currently are.

I hope this helps!

 

[idkkdi]

I'm currently Halfway through Y11, I've been getting 99% in General Math, 93% in Advanced Math, 90% in Ext 1 Math, 90% in Chemistry, 88% in English Adv and around 85% in Ext 1 English (I know my English is bad, I'm working on it!). If I continue with these subjects in my HSC in y12, will I be able to achieve an atar of 95+, btw I go to a top 50 school in NSW. Please don't use an atar calculator and tell me, I want to actually know if doing general math, will it pull down my scaling in the HSC. Thanks in Advance

drop general tf u doing.

how do u even have 10 units in ur hsc bruh

is this split curriculum?

 

[queenb_3]

I'm currently Halfway through Y11, I've been getting 99% in General Math, 93% in Advanced Math, 90% in Ext 1 Math, 90% in Chemistry, 88% in English Adv and around 85% in Ext 1 English (I know my English is bad, I'm working on it!). If I continue with these subjects in my HSC in y12, will I be able to achieve an atar of 95+, btw I go to a top 50 school in NSW. Please don't use an atar calculator and tell me, I want to actually know if doing general math, will it pull down my scaling in the HSC. Thanks in Advance

Hi there!

I do think it is possible to achieve your ATAR goal given you're doing general maths. A student from my school who graduated a few years ago received an ATAR of 98.90 - she achieved a band 6 in general maths and was an all-rounder (Her subjects were Mathematics General 2, English Advanced, PDHPE, Biology, Business Studies).

All the very best!

 

[jimmysmith560]

In terms of doing 10-12 units, I believe there are some schools where you can do some HSC subjects in one year and then do the rest in the following year. There was a thread that mentioned this a few days ago. My school offered this option to some students. Maybe OP’s school offers this option too.

As for doing Standard along with Advanced/Extension, I’m clueless too. Hopefully OP explains that to us soon.

 

[Eagle Mum]

In terms of doing 10-12 units, I believe there are some schools where you can do some HSC subjects in one year and then do the rest in the following year. There was a thread that mentioned this a few days ago. My school offered this option to some students. Maybe OP’s school offers this option too.

As for doing Standard along with Advanced/Extension, I’m clueless too. Hopefully OP explains that to us soon.

Yes, that is definitely an option. My understanding is that at several selective schools, it‘s fairly standard to sit one or two HSC subjects before Yr 12 and their timetable is organised to cater for it. It makes the workload in Yr 12 lighter. Other schools can also offer it, but the main challenge is organising time tables.

 

[quickoats]

Yes, that is definitely an option. My understanding is that at several selective schools, it‘s fairly standard to sit one or two HSC subjects before Yr 12 and their timetable is organised to cater for it. It makes the workload in Yr 12 lighter. Other schools can also offer it, but the main challenge is organising time tables.

Lol not at the selective school I went to. Things like accelerating and 13 units makes timetabling very messy so it just didn’t happen haha.

Accelerating is usually for ranking purposes - it can really boost a school’s “success rate” (percentage of band 6s)

 

[jimmysmith560]

Yes, that is definitely an option. My understanding is that at several selective schools, it‘s fairly standard to sit one or two HSC subjects before Yr 12 and their timetable is organised to cater for it. It makes the workload in Yr 12 lighter. Other schools can also offer it, but the main challenge is organising time tables.

I was thinking more about a compressed curriculum mode of delivery in terms of OP's subjects, although I'm not too sure what his case is.

Who knows, he could most likely be accelerating, his marks are good enough for him to do so.

 

[Eagle Mum]

Lol not at the selective school I went to. Things like accelerating and 13 units makes timetabling very messy so it just didn’t happen haha.

Accelerating is usually for ranking purposes - it can really boost a school’s “success rate” (percentage of band 6s)

I guess it would be quite easy in a top selective school to just let the top classes work on the next year’s curriculum - they wouldn’t need to change the time table, the whole class can be taught at the same level and it wouldn’t affect the other subject lines in the timetable. I’m surprised your selective school didn’t offer it - your MEx2 mark suggests that you could easily have done MEx1 in Yr 11.

 

[idkkdi]

I guess it would be quite easy in a top selective school to just let the top classes work on the next year’s curriculum - they wouldn’t need to change the time table, the whole class can be taught at the same level and it wouldn’t affect the other subject lines in the timetable. I’m surprised your selective school didn’t offer it - your MEx2 mark suggests that you could easily have done MEx1 in Yr 11.

there's like one selective school in the state in total that accelerates ex1 lol.

 

[Eagle Mum]

@Greatcreator, my apologies for going off topic in my previous posts. On topic, it is my understanding that the very top students in any subject are generally not scaled down, so if you have mastery over General maths, my guess is that it should be consistent with an ATAR of 95+.

This is a link to the 2020 HSC report: https://www.uac.edu.au/assets/documents/scaling-reports/scaling-report-2020-nsw-hsc.pdf
On page 23, there is a table which provides data on the number of students who sat each exam and percentage who scored below a given scaled HSC mark, which might help inform your choice between Standard or Advance maths.

On another forum, a previous HSC maths chief examiner has bemoaned the fact that many students capable of doing Advanced maths are taking General/Standard maths because their independent scaling (each course depends on its cohort’s performance in English relative to everyone else) means that for a particular level of maths ability, sitting General maths results in a higher scaled HSC mark. Whilst Standard, Advance, Ext 1 and Ext 2 English are all on a common scale, only Adv, Ext 1 and Ext 2 maths are currently on a common scale because in the old syllabus, there was inadequate overlap of content to compare General maths & Advance maths cohorts. In the new maths syllabi, they have deliberately included overlapping topics in General maths & Advance maths, so that they can now compare the two cohorts, but they have stated on page 22 that they are not yet intending to place Std & Adv maths on a common scale and will advise Yr 11 students a year before they decide to implement this change to HSC scaling, so it appears (from this report, I don’t have any insider knowledge) that you would still be able to sit the General maths exam under scaling conditions that a past chief examiner believes favours those who sit the General maths exams.