Lazarus wrote on July 10th, 2003 01:15 PM:
Bits and pieces of what you said is correct.
Your internal marks are sent to the Board. The purpose of your internal mark is to demonstrate your level of performance in comparison with the rest of your class - i.e. your ranking and the relative differences between you and the other students.
As different teachers in different schools have different styles of marking, internal marks need to be 'moderated' to ensure that no student is advantaged or disadvantaged. The moderating process assigns students a new assessment mark based on their relative internal position (as shown by the internal marks) and based on the performance of the class as a whole on the HSC exam. In the case of Extension 2, the exam is the major work.
Your rank is never irrelevant. There are a number of threads in the UAI/HSC Marks forum that explain the moderating process in detail.
As you are ranked first, your moderated assessment mark will be set equal to the top major work mark for your class (regardless of who achieves it). Your exam mark will be the mark you receive for your major work. Your HSC mark will be the average of those two marks, and will determine the band you fall into.
I hope that's made things a little clearer for you; feel free to send another message if not.
Best of luck,
James.