~ ReNcH ~
!<-- ?(°«°)? -->!
I was just thinking about why SAM might be inaccurate and I realised why SAM may be spitting out UAIs higher than true UAIs (I'm not sure if my ideas are correct though).
1. Aligned marks are given as whole numbers, which means they are rounded up or down e.g. 44.5 will be reported as 45. So, when you take into account that an 80 may actually be 79.5 and that a 94 might actually be a 94.4, then this could alter the SAM UAI by ~0.05-0.25, thus making it appear either inflated or deflated (once you total up about 5 or 6 subjects)
2. In calculating an HSC mark, an average of the exam mark and assessment marks are taken. But both the exam mark and assessment mark are reported as whole numbers, and may have been rounded up.
As an example, a person gets the following result:
Exam mark: 86 --- Assessment mark: 83 --- HSC mark: 85
If you take into account that 85.5 rounds to 86 and 82.5 to 83 then this could be the real situation (hypothetically):
Exam mark: 85.5 --- Assessment mark: 82.5 --- HSC mark: 84
From this example, you can see that whilst you may think you received 85, if you consider the rounding up of marks, you may only have got 84 - when you do this for about 10-12 units, it could significantly change the UAI that is estimated by SAM.
*Note: it can also work in your favour i.e. if your marks happened to have been rounded down.
Anyway, that's my two cents. But I'll need Lazarus to confirm (or deny) that what I'm saying is actually true.
Btw. I didn't know whether this thread should belong in this section or the SAM section, so mods - feel free to move it
1. Aligned marks are given as whole numbers, which means they are rounded up or down e.g. 44.5 will be reported as 45. So, when you take into account that an 80 may actually be 79.5 and that a 94 might actually be a 94.4, then this could alter the SAM UAI by ~0.05-0.25, thus making it appear either inflated or deflated (once you total up about 5 or 6 subjects)
2. In calculating an HSC mark, an average of the exam mark and assessment marks are taken. But both the exam mark and assessment mark are reported as whole numbers, and may have been rounded up.
As an example, a person gets the following result:
Exam mark: 86 --- Assessment mark: 83 --- HSC mark: 85
If you take into account that 85.5 rounds to 86 and 82.5 to 83 then this could be the real situation (hypothetically):
Exam mark: 85.5 --- Assessment mark: 82.5 --- HSC mark: 84
From this example, you can see that whilst you may think you received 85, if you consider the rounding up of marks, you may only have got 84 - when you do this for about 10-12 units, it could significantly change the UAI that is estimated by SAM.
*Note: it can also work in your favour i.e. if your marks happened to have been rounded down.
Anyway, that's my two cents. But I'll need Lazarus to confirm (or deny) that what I'm saying is actually true.
Btw. I didn't know whether this thread should belong in this section or the SAM section, so mods - feel free to move it
Last edited: