Is it true that your rank in a subject determines your exam mark? (1 Viewer)

Shinitakunai

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I have been reading about info concerning how the external exam mark operates. So far, it appears to me that if you are ranked first in a subject you will get the highest exam mark even if the mark is not YOURS but someone who genuinely did better on the HSC. To me, that appears quite corrupt and unfair as I go to a rural school where only around three people get above 90's in their marks (one of them is me) and we constantly fluctuate in ranks because of how similar and competitive we are.

For example: If I get 93 as my internal mark, student A gets 94 and the other has 95. Then on the HSC I get a 97 and the other two get 89 and 90...do they seriously get to keep my exam mark while mine gets scaled down to a band 5 or JUST band 6?

tf
 

blyatman

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That is correct. I don't see how it's unfair (let alone corrupt); how else are you going to calibrate your school marks given that every school has different assessments? The alternative is that school marks don't matter, in which case 100% of the HSC is decided by your exam mark.

If you and the other 2 students are more or less very similar, then you're all very likely to perform equally well in the exam and hence your school marks will likely be similar as well. Sure, its POSSIBLE that both of them crap out, but in reality that event is highly unlikely. By similar logic, you could also argue that the HSC mark should be worth nothing since it's possible that top students who ace their school assessments end up crapping the bed in the HSC exam due to stress. Like, yeh, it's possible, but 99% of the time that doesn't happen.

The system isn't perfect, but it's pretty good and it works. It's not likely to change unless someone proposes a better solution that is fair and practical (e.g. state-wide standardized testing for every single assessment, while fair, is not very practical).
 
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iStudent

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Not exam mark, but assessment mark (HSC = exam mark (from actual HSC exam) + assessment mark (from your rank in school).

Somewhat accurate. If you guys did get 93 94 95 (which is quite close), it sort of depends on how the rest of the class did. In your exam, I'd expect 1st to get 97, 2nd perhaps 94-5 and 3rd perhaps 92-3.

You wouldn't get 89 - also depends on how the rest of the class did but generally when they redistribute the exam mark scores to your class they try to consider the gaps between marks - so if your mark is close to the person who came 1st, expect a decent assessment mark :)
 

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