Ranks matter a fair bit. This mainly because the Baord of Studies does this fhecked up thing called moderating, and this even more fhecked up thing called aligning.
For example.
Tom, Dick and Harry were the only people at Kellyville High to study Physics (just a ridiculous example, sorry if you're actually in this situation
).
Their internal assessment marks were:
Tom - 78/100
Dick - 96/100
Harry - 85/100.
Now as you can see, Tom did pretty damn shit.
Their EXAM marks wore:
Tom - 95/100 (Had a major cram session the night before the exam.)
Dick - 65/100 (Got pissed the day before the exam and halfway through he had to run to the toilets and puke 'cos he was hungover.)
Harry - 91/100 (Crammed with Tom.)
SO, the final MODERATED internal assessment marks would be:
Tom - 65/100
Dick - 95/100
Harry - 91/100
(In this case, Harry is lucky enough to get his own external exam mark for his assessment mark.)
And in the end we have something lke this (aligned marks).
Tom - 62/100, 98/100, Aligned HSC mark (approx.) = 80
Dick - 98/100, 62/100, Aligned HSC mark = 80
Harry - 93/100, 93/100, Aligned HSC mark = 94 (as he's in the top band, he's mark would probably get bumped up just a little bit).
So there you have it - that's why ranks matter. You always gets the highest external exam mark as your internal assessment mark, and then it gets either bumped up or knocked down during the aligning process. I guess I could have just said that at the start, but heck, I love examples! LOL
