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I went through a phase where I submerged myself in a number of them... though I still haven't read The Vampire Lestat. I thoroughly enjoyed the world she created. I haven't found another quite so compelling... something to do with the timelessness of it all. I'm pretty sure his name is...

If a student 'dumbs down', it doesn't mean that they're taking an 'easy' course - it means that they're taking a course with a less able candidature. This makes it easier for them to beat other students, and hence to obtain a high ranking in the course. Imposing a maximum scaled mark, which...

Exactly. :)

A lot of courses are capped when it comes to scaling... maximum scaled marks are imposed. In those courses, the top mark won't be 100% irrespective of whether or not the top raw mark was 100%.

A raw mark of 100% might not end up as a scaled mark of 100%, but it will always become an aligned mark of 100%.

That was the case in 2001, though the cut-offs obviously vary each year. It can also go the other way - see, for example, English Extension 1, where a range of 16 raw marks was compressed to a range of 5 aligned marks.

Scaling and aligning are completely separate. You really shouldn't talk about one 'neutralising' the other. (But you're otherwise correct.)

Unless you're doing Mathematics Extension 2, they're just counted as 1-unit courses.

Yes, they do. It's a very similar process. The Board has published details of the process on their website: http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/hsc/hsc_update_2002_06.html In short, the judges compare the exam responses from the current year to responses from past years (using the Board's...

Yes, exactly. Raw marks obviously aren't comparable between years, because examination papers vary in difficulty. Aligning them to a set of standards that remains constant across different years compensates for this.

I wouldn't be surprised if you managed 93+.

The difference between them is negligible. http://www.boredofstudies.org/scaledmeans.php

Yes. A natural consequence of this is that the performance of different HSC candidatures can also be compared across different years (within their respective courses). This could be used to highlight trends which might indicate that students are continuously improving in English, for example...

You need to attain a raw mark of 100% in order to receive an aligned mark of 100. Whether or not a raw mark of 90% is aligned up or down depends on the judges' determination of the raw band cut-offs. Yes, this is possible. It means the former. The Board's terminology can be confusing...

It's not us... I wish we could do that. :P

No. The tests don't 'merge' into some kind of super test. There are simply sets of tests that need to be satisfied. You begin with reasonable foreseeability of a class of persons - and this test is always the same irrespective of the particular negligence action. Then you proceed to...

That's right. :)

Point conceded.

Whilst the work remains your own, submitting it to the Board gives them a non-exclusive licence to reproduce the work in their own publications. This doesn't limit your rights in any way.

No standards packages were created for 2003. Packages from the other years are (temporarily) available here: http://www.boredofstudies.org/mirror/