Cactus said:
lukebennet said:
i think it is mostly to do with the fact that since the new course was introduced in 2001 the standard of responses has improved somewhat. more people ar recieving band 6 results in some subjects and the scaling of subjects by the UAC seems to go down because more people are getting above certain marks. This means that one year an average of 95 for all subjects would get 100 uai but now you need about 97 average to get 100. i think it is just a bit more competitive
Again, the UAI is a rank and if the people are generally doing better in the HSC, the UAIs should remain the same. Maybe if the people in the top ranges were doing better and everyone else doing the same or worse, then your statement would be true.
Mr Bennet is, more or less, correct.
Whilst the scaling for most courses really hasn't changed (which was the part where he went wrong), it does seem that these days students need to achieve higher HSC marks in order to score the same UAI as a student from a previous year.
But this is to be expected if more students are scoring higher marks - or if, as lukebennet said, the standard of responses is improving.
If in one year (for some hypothetical courses) the average HSC mark is 65, and you score all 65s, you'll get an average UAI. If the next year the average mark is 75, and you score all 65s, you're clearly ranked below average, and so you should receive a below average UAI.
If the whole HSC cohort continues to gain higher and higher aligned marks from one year to the next, individual students are also going to have to keep attaining higher and higher aligned marks in order to achieve the same ranking within the whole group.
UAIs aren't getting lower - students' marks are getting higher. Increased competition.
I remember reading an articulate that postulated that the Board might consider introducing a 'Band 7' if student performance indicates that the standards should be raised. It'll be interesting to see whether this eventuates over the coming years.