There are different ways that NESA does this:
- They consider decimals. Generally speaking, different Assessment Marks and Examination Marks can lead to an identical overall HSC mark. For example, a student who received 99 as their Assessment Mark and 100 as their Examination Mark will technically achieve 99.5 as their overall HSC mark, though NESA rounds up such marks. In this case, the student’s overall HSC mark would be 100. Of course, another student may have scored 100 as both their Assessment Mark and Examination Mark, which also results in 100 as their overall HSC mark. In such a case, if both students were to place among the top achievers in the state, the latter will likely place higher based on the decimal difference.
- NESA can also consider raw marks (state ranks are based on the overall HSC marks, which are comprised of aligned components). They may take an average of a student’s Examination Mark and Assessment Mark before alignment to performance bands, each to two decimal places.
- In the case of an Extension course like Mathematics Extension 1 or Mathematics Extension 2, NESA can consider student marks in other subjects within the same subject area. For example, if a state rank is being determined for Mathematics Extension 1, NESA can consider the student’s performance in Mathematics Extension 2 (and vice versa) or Mathematics Advanced if the student does not take Mathematics Extension 2.
These approaches are official as per NESA. There are other methods that NESA may apply, although they are not confirmed, including:
- Considering responses for individual HSC exam questions. This is likely for more complex cases, where students can be differentiated based on the quality of their approach to answer a particular question(s).
- Other elements, such as handwriting, although I personally doubt this one.
I hope this helps!
