How does scaling work? (1 Viewer)

[Leggie]

For your atar when does scaling occur and is it just your external mark?

 

[jimmysmith560]

Scaling is the process of taking raw HSC marks and standardising them across different subjects. Raw HSC marks are determined by taking the average of moderated Assessment Marks (an Assessment Mark is a mark that reflects internal performance) and raw Examination Marks (an Examination Mark is a mark that reflects external performance). This makes sense given that each component contributes 50% of an HSC mark in a particular subject. Scaling is performed by UAC (not NESA) and allows results in different subjects to be compared with one another so as not to disadvantage students based on their subject selections or school system. It works by standardising raw HSC marks so that students who complete different courses can be ranked against each other for the purpose of creating an ATAR.

The fact that scaling uses raw HSC marks, which evidently implies that the process of moderation that NESA performs with respect to Assessment Marks in addition to marking HSC exam papers occur before scaling (resulting in a raw HSC exam mark), means that scaling occurs after a student completes their HSC exams (i.e. after they finish year 12), which makes sense as students' raw HSC marks need to first be determined before UAC can use them to determine students' ATAR's.

Additionally, a visual representation of the elements leading to the scaling process can be found in the BoS Flowchart, which can be accessed using the following link:

Flowchart of how HSC marks and ATAR are determined

Hi all, We have received a lot of questions on the aspects of the HSC and ATAR calculation process ranging from scaling, moderating and aligning. It has become apparent that some confusion exists on how the process works overall. This is important to understand before diving into the finer...

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I hope this helps!

 

[sammantha]

wait so the examination mark that you receive when you get your results, is that moderated as well or is that what you get on the day you sit the exam and what mark do the teachers receive? do they see your examination mark or your hsc mark overall?

 

[jimmysmith560]

wait so the examination mark that you receive when you get your results, is that moderated as well or is that what you get on the day you sit the exam and what mark do the teachers receive? do they see your examination mark or your hsc mark overall?

The Examination Mark (i.e. the HSC exam mark, which contributes 50% of a final HSC mark) is aligned. Before it is aligned, it is a raw mark. A raw mark is the actual mark that a student receives in an HSC exam. However, students are not made aware of their raw HSC exam marks unless they request them from NESA. Examples of raw and aligned Examination Marks from former HSC students in various subjects can be accessed on rawmarks.info.

The moderation process applies to a different type of mark. This mark is the Assessment Mark, which reflects a student's internal performance and contributes the other 50% of their final HSC mark. A student's Assessment Mark is subject to both the moderation process and alignment.

As far as I am aware, schools receive the same HSC results that students receive, that is, students' Assessment Marks, Examination Marks, and HSC marks. However, schools are not made aware of students' ATARs.

 

[Nedom]

@jimmysmith560 (Don't know why, but couldn't use 'Reply' cause of something containing a 'link' with my limit being 0? But anyways)

If your school receives your HSC marks, can't they just calculate your ATAR? Similar to how people can use an ATAR calculator, or they could use aggregate/data to calculate your ATAR anyways. Is this possible, or does it work differently? I never understood the point of schools getting this kind of data anyways (with its publication for 'flexing' on newspapers or whatnot, requiring permission), and if you are going to give all that information on performance, what difference would telling them the ATAR students received make? (assuming the calculating of ATAR using the fore-mentioned methods is possible)

 

[jimmysmith560]

@jimmysmith560 (Don't know why, but couldn't quote you cause of something containing a 'link' with my limit being 0? But anyways)

If your school receives your HSC marks, can't they just calculate your ATAR? Similar to how people can use an ATAR calculator, or they could use aggregate/data to calculate your ATAR anyways. Is this possible, or does it work differently? I never understood the point of schools getting this kind of data anyways (with its publication for 'flexing' on newspapers or whatnot, requiring permission), and if you are going to give all that information on performance, what difference would telling them the ATAR students received make? (assuming the calculating of ATAR using the fore-mentioned methods is possible)

You should hopefully be able to include links in your messages soon. Keep posting!

While schools could try to do that (assuming that they have such capacities in the first place), it is unlikely that they will be able to determine exactly what an individual student's ATAR would be based on their HSC results, let alone entire cohorts. Keep in mind that schools are not UAC. It is also common for schools to request particular students (such as high achieving students) to inform them of their ATARs for things such as award ceremonies. This was also the case of my school back when I did my HSC.

One benefit of schools accessing HSC results (other than sharing them publicly to celebrate student achievement) is to inform them of areas where teacher performance is favourable as well as areas where improvement to the quality of teaching may be needed. For example, if a school determines that the HSC results of its Physics cohort are mostly favourable, the school will become aware that it is delivering the Physics course at a high standard. Conversely, if a school determines that the HSC results of its Physics cohort are mostly (and perhaps unexpectedly) unfavourable, this could signal a problem that needs to be addressed by the school in relation to its quality of education with respect to Physics.

 

[Nedom]

You should hopefully be able to include links in your messages soon. Keep posting!

While schools could try to do that (assuming that they have such capacities in the first place), it is unlikely that they will be able to determine exactly what an individual student's ATAR would be based on their HSC results, let alone entire cohorts. Keep in mind that schools are not UAC. It is also common for schools to request particular students (such as high achieving students) to inform them of their ATARs for things such as award ceremonies. This was also the case of my school back when I did my HSC.

One benefit of schools accessing HSC results (other than sharing them publicly to celebrate student achievement) is to inform them of areas where teacher performance is favourable as well as areas where improvement to the quality of teaching may be needed. For example, if a school determines that the HSC results of its Physics cohort are mostly favourable, the school will become aware that it is delivering the Physics course at a high standard. Conversely, if a school determines that the HSC results of its Physics cohort are mostly (and perhaps unexpectedly) unfavourable, this could signal a problem that needs to be addressed by the school in relation to its quality of education with respect to Physics.

Understood. Thanks for the explanation. Never would've thought of that, cause could never see my school spending money or effort into improving performance instead of the thousands of miscellaneous and non-beneficial trash that the principal splurges on (e.g. a big metal board thing hung up against a wall in a part of the quad that nobody looks at, and is not 'motivational' in any way)