school ranks affecting atar (1 Viewer)

iJimmy

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how greatly does a school's rank affect someone's atar? Can someone differentiate between these two examples in regards to what their atar estimate may be considering school rank only:

student 1, school rank 500

English Advanced - 5/50
Business Studies - 5/50
Economics - 5/50
Legal Studies - 5/50
PDHPE - 5/50
Biology - 5/50

student 2, school rank 5

English Advanced - 5/50
Business Studies - 5/50
Economics - 5/50
Legal Studies - 5/50
PDHPE - 5/50
Biology - 5/50
 
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5 and 500 is a huge gap. But in a top 5 school you would be in a selective school so if you were ranked 5th internally, you would get 98-99 ATAR but if you were a 500 school you might be anywhere between 88-94.
 
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To answer your question, your school rank effects your ATAR slightly because how well your school is ranked depends largely on your cohort and how well each cohort does in a particular subject. If you all do good, you all get scaled up together but if the ranks and marks are all over the place, some will get dragged down.
 

williamdaft

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student 2 goes to school rank 5 - much stronger cohort than student 1. the student will receive the 5th highest mark for his/her assessment mark (50% of your hsc mark - the other 50% is the exam mark - what you get actually in the hsc exam). Since the cohort of a 5th rank school is so much superior than a 500th rank school, his/her assessment marks will almost certainly be higher than the assessment marks fed to student 1. Basically, the students get fed the 5th highest mark from their class for the assessment mark, you achieve the exam mark, and the two average you get your hsc mark.
School rank won't matter if this years cohort of the 500th rank school did extremely well, it's just how well your cohort does, and you get fed the 5th highest mark for all subj. for those examples you gave.
Hypothetically, the 500th rank school student 1 can get a higher atar than the 5th rank school student 2 but it is extremely unlikely due to the probable strength of the cohort of student 2.

Also, B.Sc (Adv.) 95.00@UNSW .. SAME GOAL!!! high five :)
 

iJimmy

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student 2 goes to school rank 5 - much stronger cohort than student 1. the student will receive the 5th highest mark for his/her assessment mark (50% of your hsc mark - the other 50% is the exam mark - what you get actually in the hsc exam). Since the cohort of a 5th rank school is so much superior than a 500th rank school, his/her assessment marks will almost certainly be higher than the assessment marks fed to student 1. Basically, the students get fed the 5th highest mark from their class for the assessment mark, you achieve the exam mark, and the two average you get your hsc mark.
School rank won't matter if this years cohort of the 500th rank school did extremely well, it's just how well your cohort does, and you get fed the 5th highest mark for all subj. for those examples you gave.
Hypothetically, the 500th rank school student 1 can get a higher atar than the 5th rank school student 2 but it is extremely unlikely due to the probable strength of the cohort of student 2.

Also, B.Sc (Adv.) 95.00@UNSW .. SAME GOAL!!! high five :)
great response, cleared it up greatly, +1. GL on Bsc. hope we both get it :D
 

iJimmy

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Also is Adv. Maths a major in the Bcom/Bsc course?
 

williamdaft

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Also is Adv. Maths a major in the Bcom/Bsc course?
yeah kinda..
For commerce I can major in : Accounting
Business Economics
Business Law
Business Strategy and Economic Management
Finance
Financial Economics
Human Resource Management
Information Systems
International Business
Management
Marketing
Real Estate Studies
Taxation

and for Bsc (adv. Maths) I can major in:
Applied Mathematics
High-Performance Students Plan (by invitation only)
Pure Mathematics
Quantitative Risk (requires approval)
Statistics

here's more info of what my goal is: http://www.asb.unsw.edu.au/futurest...ebachelorofscienceadvancedmaths.aspx#2=Degree structure
:)
 

iJimmy

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are there any astrophysics type majors?
 

iJimmy

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hmm, im keen on astrophysics but idk if their are many job prospects.
 

D94

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School rank will not affect your ATAR. That scenario has absolutely nothing to do with school rank. It is the quality of the candidature and student that determines their ATAR. There is no reason for a student in a school that was placed 500th on an already dodgy ranking system to not be able to do as well as someone in a 5th ranked school.

Anyone who claims school rank is a factor when UAC determines your ATAR clearly does not understand the system. In fact, school ranks are unofficial, and are not officially backed up by BOS. But even if they were official, it is the rank for the previous year's cohort, not the current cohort.

It is reasonable to assume the student in the 5th ranked school will do better than the student in the 500th ranked school because it is also reasonable to assume the quality of the current cohort is not sub-par compared to the previous year's cohort. But this in no way implies the actual school rank determines their performance. The students in the 5th ranked school still needs to do well in the HSC exam. If they don't, they will do crap.
 

brent012

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There is no reason for a student in a school that was placed 500th on an already dodgy ranking system to not be able to do as well as someone in a 5th ranked school.
This. I knew someone who went to a rural school ranked in the late 500s where a girl ended up getting two state ranks a couple of years ago, she had a predicted atar of 99.95 - no idea if she got it.
 

enoilgam

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School rank will not affect your ATAR. That scenario has absolutely nothing to do with school rank. It is the quality of the candidature and student that determines their ATAR. There is no reason for a student in a school that was placed 500th on an already dodgy ranking system to not be able to do as well as someone in a 5th ranked school.

Anyone who claims school rank is a factor when UAC determines your ATAR clearly does not understand the system. In fact, school ranks are unofficial, and are not officially backed up by BOS. But even if they were official, it is the rank for the previous year's cohort, not the current cohort.

It is reasonable to assume the student in the 5th ranked school will do better than the student in the 500th ranked school because it is also reasonable to assume the quality of the current cohort is not sub-par compared to the previous year's cohort. But this in no way implies the actual school rank determines their performance. The students in the 5th ranked school still needs to do well in the HSC exam. If they don't, they will do crap.
This pretty much sums it up. School ranking has NO effect on a person's ATAR, but the quality of ones cohort does. That's why we ask for a school rank when giving out estimates.
 

iJimmy

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what if you are first in all your subjects from a shit school, what will be the affect on your atar?
 

nerdasdasd

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If you go to a shit school be first, or you will be in shit.

If you are ranked last you are screwed anyway, if you are first ... NICE!
 

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