I disagree with the fact that the board of studies has manipulated marks.
The marks that you receive on your HSC and preliminary HSC transcript are the percentage scores you received in each final HSC exam and your overall individual school result.
Here's how it works:
The HSC exam is worth 50% of your final mark and the interim school result is worth 50%. Combined together, these marks form your HSC result. That mark is the exact mark that you get, except that it is presented as a percentage, not a fraction. Here's a little example to demonstrate.
John is a year 12 student and is studying for the NSW Higher School Certificate (HSC). His subjects are presented below and the marks that he achieved for his individual subjects are also shown.
Biology- 73%
Chemistry- 91%
Advanced english- 76%
Economics- 87%
Legal studies- 88%
PD/H/PE- 65%
His average result for interim school classes will be calculated as:
73 + 91 + 76 + 87 + 88+ 65 X 100%
600
Thus his result is:
480 X 100%
600
= 80%
However, it is important to remember that the school result is worth 50% of John's HSC mark, he still needs to do the exam to pass the HSC (unless very special circumstances arise, in which his HSC mark will be 80).
But John will do his exams and in December his exam results are:
Biology- 89%
Chemistry- 75%
Advanced english- 88%
Economics- 95%
Legal studies- 91%
PD/H/PE- 82%
John's exam mark is calculated as follows:
89 + 75 + 88 + 95 + 91 + 82 X 100%
600
Thus his result is:
520 X 100%
600
= 87% ( to the nearest 1 percent)
John's final HSC mark is calculated as
Individual HSC school result + individual HSC exam result
2
(presented as a percentage)
Thus:
(80/100) + (87/100) / 2 = (0.8 + 0.87) / 2
His final HSC mark is: 84% (to the nearest 1 percent)
Now, all student's HSC results are placed into the board of studies database and students positions are calculated. depending on how many people got a higher mark than John and a lower mark than john will depend on what his uai is.
This is the reason that it takes so long to receive your UAI from the BOS. Staff must punch in uai results to the database, which is very time consuming. This is where errors most likely occur. If they punch in a students result incorectly into the system it may make the difference between a whole uai point. John, who was going ot get a UAI of 90 may now get a uai of 89.99 or 90.01, depending on the luck in John's favour.
But overall, it doesn't matter. University's have the choice as to whether or not they increase or decrease the uai for their courses. It depends on supply of course positions. The more students wishing ot gain entry to a course with limited course positions, the more likely the UAI entry mark will increase.
I hope this explains the marking process, because after studying the HSC and completing my first year of Psychology, I have a fairly good understaning on how the system works. And, as far as i am concerned, there is no conspiracy in the BOS.
Good luck to all out there!
Bobby 2004.:wave: