When my results came out in the papers in the 1970s they came in school order with each students surname, initials, student number and each subject listed. If the subject wasn't listed then you failed that subject and if English wasn't mentioned then not only did you fail English but also failed to get an HSC. There were no marks or grades as all we were told was whether we had actually passed the course at the level we had attempted it or whether we had passed if sufficiently to pass it at a lower level. All courses had three levels, with both Maths and Science having 4 levels and if you failed say the
2nd level of the course (these days the normal 2 Unit course) you might have done well enough to get a
3rd level pass (say a General/Standard but in every course). There was also a 1st level course more like the old 3 Unit courses than the modern Extension course in History anyway. I was in the last group to have the levels (and a fully external SC in every subject such as Latin, French, Commerce etc). The year after me they went to the Unit system.
There were only about 30,000 students that year, although the full SC results were also published the year we did that with the same procedure.
I don't know when they changed that system but sometime between 1975 and 1991 when I started teaching High School.
They also published university results in the papers as well in those days - privacy laws changed all that.
I have the paper somewhere.
