Beginners languages and scaling (2 Viewers)

[__moonriver]

Do Beginners languages scale well for the HSC?

(I know this has nothing to do with Spanish, but I am doing Spanish Beginners for the HSC, so thought I'd post it here).

 

[xxstef]

generally, no.

however if you do well (say, high 90's), the scaling rarely affects you, and even if it does, only very minutely.
usually, the lower your mark, the more it will be affected.

 

[Schoey93]

Spanish Beginners scales better than Spanish Continuers, just to let the OP know!

 

[__moonriver]

Spanish Beginners scales better than Spanish Continuers, just to let the OP know!

How does that work, though? Is it because the students who do Spanish Beginners generally perform better in other subjects than in Spanish Continuers?

I think that's how the scaling system goes, though this particular example with Spanish doesn't make too much sense.

 

[Lazarus]

How does that work, though? Is it because the students who do Spanish Beginners generally perform better in other subjects than in Spanish Continuers?

I think that's how the scaling system goes, though this particular example with Spanish doesn't make too much sense.

That's usually the explanation, yes, but in this case there's a better one.

The real difference in scaling between the two courses (at least in 2008) came from the fact that Continuers was capped at a maximum scaled mark of 47 whereas Beginners had no cap (max 50).

While the students in each course generally had the same overall academic ability (measured by their performance in all their courses), the ability of the students in Beginners was quite variable (more students at the high and low extremes), whereas in Continuers students were clustered more towards the mean.

It was this difference in variability that meant Continuers was capped and that's why the scaling was a bit worse than Beginners last year.

(The rationale for capping is explained here.)

 

[lorieroar]

I'm doing Spanish Beginners for the HSC 2009 and was just looking at the UAC site about scaling... and it had the % of scaled marks for the HSC in 2007 and 08

This is what it was for Spanish Beginners

Scaled Mark: 45 40 35 30 25 20 15 or less
Percentage: 6.8 8.6 14.2 6.2 17.3 14.2 29.0

I didn't get to find out how the scaling affected those people's marks, though. Seeing as the majority of people who did Spanish Beginners in 2008 only got 15 or less, does that mean the scaling is really bad? or really good?

I'm so confused. I thought it scaled really well...

 

[lorieroar]

I'll re-post that info more clearly:

45 | 40 | 35 | 30 | 25 | 20 | 15 or less Scaled mark
6.8 | 8.6 | 14.2 | 6.2 | 17.3 | 14.2 | 29 Percentage

 

[lucyc19]

i don't really understand this - i'm tossing up between spanish beginners and physics... i really don't know. i'm quite good at languages... and physics...

 

[xxstef]

i don't really understand this - i'm tossing up between spanish beginners and physics... i really don't know. i'm quite good at languages... and physics...

well choose the one which you would enjoy the most/think have the least workload!