Need for consistent internal mark? (1 Viewer)

[Constantine]

I got my first assessment tasks' results back a while ago and for two subjects I didn't perform as well as I usually would. For the five other subjects I'm doing I'm currently in top three but for these two I am in top ten instead and that position is shared with ten or so other people. Also, one of them is English so it will definitely count towards HSC. Last year I finished third in the year for English Advanced against a cohort of two hundred students but right now I am in eighth place.

So yeah, pretty stressed right now because I am aiming for an ATAR of 90+ and I've been told you need to be consistent with your assessment marks for a high ATAR. My teachers tried to comfort me by saying they looked at my marks for last year and they think I will be better in the next three internal assessment (granted, I didn't do as well in those two subjects this time because of some really stupid mistakes) and I will be able to catch up in terms of ranking later on.

My question would be something among the lines of are internal marks important? I've heard they actually do not count and it's rather your final grade rank that really matters. If I'm able to perform as I did before in the next three exams does that mean an ATAR of 90+ is still possible?

Thank you!

 

[Queenroot]

If around 200 people are doing Adv English then I'm guessing you go to a selective/well performing school.
In saying this, your ranks are amazing you're probably looking at an ATAR of 97/98 right now.

Your rank matters, but the gaps between the ranks matter more, and if you are tied with 10 or so more people on a good rank then that's a good sign.

So please relax, take a break and have a kit kat.

 

[Constantine]

My school is actually not in the Top 100 I don't think, despite the fact we have ~250 doing English Advanced. If I do go to one of the top schools then yeah, my current ranking would be more than enough for 90+ but with my own school I'm not a hundred percent confident.

If gaps between ranks matters, does that mean even when I do eventually catch up it won't help that much (where I was within the top five for every single assessment) because the marks I've already lost is final. You can do better but you can't recover the marks lost know what I mean?

Thanks for the reply!

 

[enoilgam]

My question would be something among the lines of are internal marks important? I've heard they actually do not count and it's rather your final grade rank that really matters. If I'm able to perform as I did before in the next three exams does that mean an ATAR of 90+ is still possible?

Thank you!

Internal marks are important, but the scale of them isnt (i.e. 90% may not necessarily be better than a 60% depending on the circumstances). What does matter is your ranks and the relative gapes between you and everyone else.

Also, not doing so well on the first lot of assessments isnt so bad. Ideally, you want to be doing well on all assessments, but considering their weighting - you can make up for lost ground easily in your trials/later assessments.