Consequences of flunking a HSC exam? (1 Viewer)

[anjalika9923]

I took 2 accelerated courses in year 10 and 11 and I got decent marks for one of them (mid-high band 6). At the time I thought it would only be my backup if I did badly in one of my year 12 subjects but it quickly became an excuse for me to be lazy and slack off on one specific subject and as a result I have next to no knowledge of the required course content. My school wouldn't let me drop said subject because they didn't want me on 8 units (I tried twice). I have managed to maintain a decent rank in this subject tho since there was never a huge focus on rote learned syllabus content in the 2 exam style tests and the other 2 assessments were hand-ins and open book.

There is no hope for me trying to cram the entire syllabus in only a couple days especially with other exams going on so I decided a while back that I'd just wing it. But I told my friend recently about this (I was joking around and talking about how the school is gonna email my parents and ask why I did so badly compared to my rank) and she said I would be dragging my entire year group down if I got a really bad mark. I didn't fully understand the explanation so can someone here please explain? Does it mean the person ranked last would receive my HSC mark? How does it affect everyone else? I wasn't aware of this until now but I feel incredibly bad about it

 

[jimmysmith560]

Essentially, the first person whose HSC mark (and consequently ATAR) will be negatively affected should they not perform well in the HSC exam for a particular subject is you. This is because you will receive an unfavourable Examination Mark, causing a detriment to your HSC mark as you will have not performed well in what contributes 50% of your HSC mark for that particular subject.

In terms of how an unfavourable Examination Mark can impact your cohort, it can lower the academic standards of your cohort, particularly if you are an academically capable student who is able to perform well in this subject's HSC exam. With respect to the moderation process, this implies the possibility that a student will receive a low Assessment Mark due to your performance in the HSC exam. If you happen to be unlucky (i.e. if your Assessment Mark is adjusted using your own Examination Mark), then this student could be you, and this would have a more severe effect on your HSC mark than unfavourable performance in the HSC exam alone. Basically, good performance in the HSC exams doesn't only benefit you (i.e. it doesn't just result in favourable Examination Marks), it can also benefit your peers, as per the moderation process. This is why preparations for the HSC exams are encouraged to be much more collaborative as opposed to competitive in the case of Assessment Marks (where the only way to maximise them would be to rank as highly as possible).

I hope this helps!

 

[icycledough]

I also think that's the reason why selective schools produce students who get the top HSC marks for an individual subject, despite having the toughest internal exams. At the end of the day, NESA has to equate the adjusted assessment marks with HSC marks. So for example, I went to a top 10 selective school last year and our 4U exam was absolutely ridiculous in terms of its difficulty. Lots of people didn't pass or barely passed. However, as I was able to maintain a good internal rank, in the HSC (where typically, the difficulty of the exam goes down by a significant amount when comparing it to a selective school trial exam), the external marks were much higher. So for example, if the aggregate of the cohort's HSC marks were 6000 (after scaling) but our cohort's aggregate assessment marks were 4000, then NESA would have to boost the assessment marks up to 6000 as well to equate the two. Thus, it makes sense that our final assessment marks were much higher than what our school provided to NESA, thus resulting in getting a higher final HSC mark, which then equates to a higher ATAR.

Thus, collaboration in the HSC (as jimmy said), is imperative (it's no longer internals where individual success matters; it's now about collective success which will in turn bring individual success to you)

 

[anjalika9923]

Essentially, the first person whose HSC mark (and consequently ATAR) will be negatively affected should they not perform well in the HSC exam for a particular subject is you. This is because you will receive an unfavourable Examination Mark, causing a detriment to your HSC mark as you will have not performed well in what contributes 50% of your HSC mark for that particular subject.

In terms of how an unfavourable Examination Mark can impact your cohort, it can lower the academic standards of your cohort, particularly if you are an academically capable student who is able to perform well in this subject's HSC exam. With respect to the moderation process, this implies the possibility that a student will receive a low Assessment Mark due to your performance in the HSC exam. If you happen to be unlucky (i.e. if your Assessment Mark is adjusted using your own Examination Mark), then this student could be you, and this would have a more severe effect on your HSC mark than unfavourable performance in the HSC exam alone. Basically, good performance in the HSC exams doesn't only benefit you (i.e. it doesn't just result in favourable Examination Marks), it can also benefit your peers, as per the moderation process. This is why preparations for the HSC exams are encouraged to be much more collaborative as opposed to competitive in the case of Assessment Marks (where the only way to maximise them would be to rank as highly as possible).

I hope this helps!

thank you for your explanation it was really detailed!

Correct me if I'm wrong here though, but even if I flunk this particular subject it wouldn't count towards my ATAR right? That's why I was (emphasis on was; obviously now I'm not going to go into the examination hall with zero previous study) okay with it, since I figured that my 8 units (that I'm properly studying for) and the 2 units from the accelerated course from Year 11 would meet the minimum best 10 units requirement for the ATAR. So I'm basically just swapping out the 2 units from this subject for the course I did last year.

 

[jimmysmith560]

thank you for your explanation it was really detailed!

Correct me if I'm wrong here though, but even if I flunk this particular subject it wouldn't count towards my ATAR right? That's why I was (emphasis on was; obviously now I'm not going to go into the examination hall with zero previous study) okay with it, since I figured that my 8 units (that I'm properly studying for) and the 2 units from the accelerated course from Year 11 would meet the minimum best 10 units requirement for the ATAR. So I'm basically just swapping out the 2 units from this subject for the course I did last year.

No worries! You are correct. On an individual level, since you are taking 12 units and assuming you perform the worst in this subject compared to the rest of your subjects, it will not contribute towards your ATAR and hence this subject will not affect you in any way.

On a cohort level, however, the above still applies, because your Examination Mark, despite this subject not contributing towards your ATAR, will still be used as part of the moderation process to determine the Assessment Mark of another student in your cohort (assuming it will not be yourself). In such a case, the remaining consideration is whether that same subject will count towards that student's ATAR, which may not matter to you personally.