Do ranks average out ??? (1 Viewer)

[Bank$]

Hi i just received some of my 1/2 yearly exams back. I came 1st in chemistry with a deviation of 8marks from 2nd place but to my horror i came last in 4unit maths (class of 4) where 3 of us were extremely close (1-3% deviation) and the guy that came 1st was like 20% ahead.
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My question is:
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Does my 1st position in chemistry buffer out my 4th (sounds better that last lol) in 4 unit maths ???
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Also would the BOS feel sorry for me as I barley came last lol ? that is I didn’t come last by a huge gap so I wont get “scaled down” as much ?<O</O
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And my final question: Is 4/4 considered the same by BOS as 118/118 ?
<O</O

Thanks in Advance,
Justin

 

[williamc]

Hi i just received some of my 1/2 yearly exams back. I came 1st in chemistry with a deviation of 8marks from 2nd place but to my horror i came last in 4unit maths (class of 4) where 3 of us were extremely close (1-3% deviation) and the guy that came 1st was like 20% ahead.
</O
My question is:
<O</O

Does my 1st position in chemistry buffer out my 4th (sounds better that last lol) in 4 unit maths ???
<O</O

Also would the BOS feel sorry for me as I barley came last lol ? that is I didn’t come last by a huge gap so I wont get “scaled down” as much ?<O</O
<O</O

And my final question: Is 4/4 considered the same by BOS as 118/118 ?
<O</O

Thanks in Advance,
Justin

1) No your 1st position in Chemistry doesn't "buffer" out your lower mark in 4 unit maths. Both subjects are scored and calulated differently. The only way in which they buffer out each other is if you end up with a scaled mark of 90 for chem and 70 for 4 unit(you don't find out your scaled marks btw) and for a total aggregate they would equal 80.
2) No Bos wouldn't feel sorry for you. Although, as the gaps between the ranks 2-4 were relatively insignificant, assuming it stays teh same all year there woudl only be a small different in your moderated internal assessment mark. Scaling has nothing to do with internal assessments.
3) Seen as the same for BOS. Although, i personally believe you are in a better place at 4/4 than 118/118. At 118/118 you have to rely on more peopel to do well in the hsc exam to ensure you end up with a decent internal mark. With 4/4 and the gaps between the ranks being close as long as everyone performs well in the HSC your moderated internal mark would be good.

 

[Bank$]

cheers bro,

one more thing just say that i get the highest in my school for 4u externals, then do i take the 1st assessment mark ?

srry if it sounds farfetched but i have heard things like this

EDIT: oh btw what are the definitions of moderated and scalling in BOS terms, to make simple what are they lol ?

 

[williamc]

cheers bro,

one more thing just say that i get the highest in my school for 4u externals, then do i take the 1st assessment mark ?

srry if it sounds farfetched but i have heard things like this

EDIT: oh btw what are the definitions of moderated and scalling in BOS terms, to make simple what are they lol ?

1)No you would recieve the highest hsc exam mark(external). Remember after the trials your rank for internals does not move.
2) Moderated: The school sends in raw assessments marks and rank into BOS, BOS then moderates(changes) the marks according to how your grade does in the HSC exam. BOS moderates assessments to accomadate for the easier/harder assessments set by some schools.
Aligned: Refers to marks achieved in the hsc exam. Before the exam is sat, a group of coordinators get together and determine what raw mark satisifes each course band. Possibe (although unliekly) for everyone to get a band 6. This aligned mark (the mark you actually recieve) does not have an affect on your UAI.
Scaled: BOS sends UAC the students raw exam marks the UAC then scales this mark to determine a UAI for the student.

 

[pLuvia]

2) Your moderated assessment mark has nothing to do with your raw marks, it is calculated using your HSC exam marks they don't take any of the raw marks into account except for the relative gaps between each rank+mark

 

[williamc]

2) Your moderated assessment mark has nothing to do with your raw marks, it is calculated using your HSC exam marks they don't take any of the raw marks into account except for the relative gaps between each rank+mark

Obviously they have to moderate A mark, they can't moderate a rank. This is how i see it:

School sends in a RAW assessment mark and rank. With the mark itself have no significance at all, just the rank, and the gap between ranks. The grade sits the exam and the person with the 1st rank is expected to come first. The BOS moderates the raw assessment marks given to them by the school accoriding to how the year group does in the HSC exam(as it is a level playing field).

Anyway just how i saw it.. or read it.. or unless of course you weren't correcting me but merely stating..

 

[cem]

1)No you would recieve the highest hsc exam mark(external). Remember after the trials your rank for internals does not move.
2) Moderated: The school sends in raw assessments marks and rank into BOS, BOS then moderates(changes) the marks according to how your grade does in the HSC exam. BOS moderates assessments to accomadate for the easier/harder assessments set by some schools.
Aligned: Refers to marks achieved in the hsc exam. Before the exam is sat, a group of coordinators get together and determine what raw mark satisifes each course band. Possibe (although unliekly) for everyone to get a band 6. This aligned mark (the mark you actually recieve) does not have an affect on your UAI.
Scaled: BOS sends UAC the students raw exam marks the UAC then scales this mark to determine a UAI for the student.

Small correction - the aligning is done AFTER the exam is sat as part of the marking process. I have done it for a couple of years for Modern History.

During the marking process some of the markers spend a couple of sessions working with the marking guidelines actually being used, the Performance Descriptor Bands and the exam question itself to determine the cut-offs. The reason they do it then rather than before is that when the papers have been sat the SMs read some of the responses and adjust the marking guidelines, if necessary, to account for the interpretation made by the students. It also means that those setting the cut-offs can have actual responses from the year to use to check that the mark they have assigned is really the one they want. e.g. when I did it we were saying that we felt that one cut-off should have been 14/25 (not for a 5/6 cut-off mind you) but when we read a couple of responses at the 14/25 mark we felt that we were too low for that cut-off and raised our cut-offs by 1 or 2 marks each. If we hadn't had the examples of what was really getting the mark we would have had a cut-off that really didn't reflect the Performance Descriptor Bands.

 

[williamc]

Ahh ok thanks that makes more sense. Im assuming you can't give out any specfic details to do with aligning but i was wondering on a general note whether the amount a mark is aligned up has lowered in past years meaning a higher raw mark is required for the same aligned mark.

 

[cem]

Ahh ok thanks that makes more sense. Im assuming you can't give out any specfic details to do with aligning but i was wondering on a general note whether the amount a mark is aligned up has lowered in past years meaning a higher raw mark is required for the same aligned mark.

The experience that I have had is that the marks remain within a very close range from year to year but that when a syllabus changes, such as happened with Modern History last year, the marks will correspondingly change to reflect the change within that paper.

The whole idea behind this is that a mark of say 90% this year is the same as 90% last year or next year.

This wasn't the case in the past when marks were scaled to a bell curve but now the standard is theoretically the same from year to year.

NB - the recommended aligned marks made by the judges are just that - recommendations. The BOS does reserve the right to change the recommendations after the judges have done their work. Whether they have done so I simply don't know as we have never had that feedback. We have simply been thanked for our work (and paid for it of course) and sent on our way.

 

[Bank$]

one last question---

does a band 6 in standard english = a band 6 in 4u maths

 

[helper]

No, the subject performance descriptors are not comparable between subjects.

 

[Bank$]

k, thanks