Weak cohort LOL (1 Viewer)

studygirl118

Member
Joined
Mar 28, 2017
Messages
146
Gender
Female
HSC
2018
Hi! I have a question about the whole moderation process. our teachers keep talking to us about the importance of working together as a cohort as our marks impact each other and has made me feel anxious as there are many people in my subjects who don't do too well. Is there any way that my marks won't be moderated down? like if i get a high rank / high HSC mark will that counteract any negative moderation effects?

Asking this especially since my school doesn't do the best (ranked 300+ and 400+ last year) two of my teachers even said that there was no band 6s in their Year 12 classes because the cohort's performance overall dragged everyone's marks down. and idk i don't have much faith in my cohort tbh
 
Last edited:

BLIT2014

The pessimistic optimist.
Moderator
Joined
Jul 11, 2012
Messages
11,592
Location
l'appel du vide
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2014
Uni Grad
2018
If you rank one in your subjects, then you will not be impacted by your cohort.
 

captainhelium

water enthusiast
Joined
Mar 24, 2016
Messages
160
Location
Tokyo
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
2017
If you don't want to get affected by moderation at all, I guess you'll have to be rank 1.

However, if you're ranked like 2nd or 3rd, then you'll reduce the effects of moderation if you keep the gap between the person who's first relatively small. Remember that moderation not only counts your rank, but also the relative gaps between each rank.

For example, in Chemistry I tripped on my trials and I slipped from 1st to 2nd. However, the gap between me and first place was like 1% and so for some reason my moderated school mark was actually the same as my HSC exam mark in the end.

If the gap between 2nd place and 1st place was big, then the moderation process would affect rank 2 much greater.
 
Last edited:

darkk_blu

Member
Joined
Jan 31, 2018
Messages
68
Gender
Male
HSC
2018
The HSC scales people in your cohort by taking the very top scorer and the lowest scorer and spreading everyone out in between, what your teachers mean by working together is that people in the middle will have their marks skewed so if they help the people at the very bottom, it will reduce the amount you will get dragged down, this is why schools like James Ruse encourage Year 12 students to help the people at the very bottom as it will ultimately boost their school's ranking.

As a result of this scaling within your school, the people at the very top aren't affected as much so they will focus on keeping their position while the people in the middle should help others in order the mitigate the severeness of their downward scaling. Despite how I made people at the top sound like they should be ruthless, they might want to consider helping people at the bare minimum just in case they lose their top position. If you don't want to deal with helping others, try come first in your school.

But in reality, HSC sin't everything in your life, there are other pathways too, you might consider moving schools but you might hurt yourself as you may lose friends or possibly rank really low in your new school. In the very end, the factor of utmost importance is doing your very best so you can tell yourself you have no regrets even if you end up with just a pass. I was also very troubled by the fact that my school was ranked really low but being somewhat scared or agitated made me continually climb in school ranks through Preliminaries and as the pressure creeps on you as the HSC closes in, you will find yourself working harder. And I will emphasise that the feeling of regret after slacking off during this crossroad in your life is much more painful that getting just a ATAR in the 70s after working your butt off. Good luck, I hope this helps.
 

D94

New Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2011
Messages
4,426
Gender
Male
HSC
N/A
Say you don't get first but get a high rank such as 3rd or 4th, does that mean you get less moderated down?
"High rank" is only relative to a lower rank, but it doesn't actually show how close or far your marks are from 1st. The closer your school mark is to first, the higher your moderated mark will be. You could be 3rd, but if you're 20% away from first, and 20th rank is 25% away from first, you're not actually that good even though your rank might seem like you're a high achieving student.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top