Originally posted by abdooooo!!!
what i mean is if say the 4u math exam this year is really easy so everyone performs well then wouldn't 4u math canditures be advantaged this year compared to last year?
No. The 'difficulty' of the exam has nothing to do with scaling - and standardising all marks to a common scale removes any variance in the difficulty of examinations anyway.
Originally posted by abdooooo!!!
since you are counting internal performance... right?
I don't know what you're referring to by 'internal performance' - or, perhaps, more accurately, if you're referring to what I think you're referring to, I have no idea why you're doing so. The moderating process places raw assessment marks on the same scale as raw examination marks. These initial moderated assessment marks can therefore be seen in the same light as raw examination marks. They are averaged with the raw examination marks in order to produce raw HSC marks. Only the raw HSC marks are used in the scaling process.
Originally posted by abdooooo!!!
like this chem situation if everyone got good chem notes... everyone will more likely get a better mark then otherwise possible... then does that mean chem scaled average is raised according to the system that you described?
No, because the improvement applies to the entire candidature for the course. For simplicity, let's say that every single student receives 10 marks higher than they would have had no notes been shared. This doesn't matter, because the relative differences between students haven't changed, and the effect of the 10 mark bonus is removed when marks are standardised anyway.
Originally posted by abdooooo!!!
but hsc exams vary in terms of difficulty every year... so wouldn't that mean an easier exam will get a higher scaled average?
It is true that they vary in terms of difficulty every year. However, as already explained, this has nothing to do with scaling.
Originally posted by Xayma
Assuming that this years chem scores equaly as well in all other subjects and the only variable was the exam then the scaled mark should be the same.
That's correct.
Originally posted by abdooooo!!!
man im so confused of how this can workout stastistically 
Yes, it's very difficult to conceptualise. It is perhaps easier to think of the scaling as being determined by the performance of a candidature over all
other courses, but in reality, it is determined by the performance of a candidature over
all courses.
Originally posted by abdooooo!!!
edit: unless i am wrong in assuming that making an exam easy is the same as giving good notes to everyone to help make the exam easy for the students.
You are not.
Originally posted by abdooooo!!!
but is there any simple explaination you can give for comparing against yourself? ie how do you raise the chem averaged scale by deriving it from the raw of the chem exam???
You have to remember that there are generally over 18,000 unique combinations of courses every year. There are students in your own courses who are not in your other courses, and who are also taking very different combinations of courses.
The most effective way to augment the scaling for your own courses is to ensure that, on average, the students who take them do well, on average, over all of their courses. 'Doing well' in a course refers not to the attainment of particular marks, but to being placed ahead of other students in terms of relative differences.
Originally posted by Xayma
It should be true assuming that all other exam marks are equal (ie even for people who dont do chemistry) since it would indicate that the exam was harder.
Again, incorrect. See above.
