Yeah, the process is a bit crappy, but that's the HSC for you.
Perfect example of the HSC screwing somebody over;
3 people.
John
Matt
Steven
Internal marks:
John 88.6 : whole mark : 89 [1st]
Matt 88.3 : whole mark : 88 [2nd]
Steven 87.4 : whole mark : 87 [3rd]
HSC Mark:
John 50
Matt 100
Steven 85
The marks then undergo moderation, if you were first in the class internally (like John), then you automatically get the Highest HSC Mark as your Internal mark. (it moderates your internal mark), so your new Internal mark gets added with your actual HSC Mark.
Therefore John with get, 100 (highest HSC Mark) and 50 (his hsc mark), his final mark will be 75.
After first place it changes a bit, Matt who came second, will do well, he gets 85 (the second highest HSC mark) and his mark of 100, added together, but because the marks were relatively high he gets moderated down a bit Instead of getting 92.5 he'll get 90. (luckily the HSC took care off him, he was lucky because of steven's excellent mark. That's why people argue good school = good HSC).
Steven, gets completely screwed over though, because of the way it's done.
He did good in the HSC, (all the way throughout), but he'll get 50 as his internal mark and 85 as his HSC mark, together that comes to about 62.5, but the marks are moderated a bit, he'll end up with a 68.
he gets completely screwed over right?
Go Figure.