Rank in school?

[Faith-PoweR]

I'm just wondering that which one of these is better to get good marks and high ATAR?
a) ranked the top among weak cohort (low performance school)
b) ranked medium among strong cohort (high performance school)

Can someone tell me how will the final score be affected by your ranking in school?
I know there's many posts discuss about this, but can anyone tell me in a easier way for me to understand please?

[pi]

You can get 99.95 from both.

[Eddiee]

If you're ranked 1 in a weak cohort you have nothing to worry about but your own exam performance, arguably it's even better than scenario b depending on what school we're talking about

[Faith-PoweR]

If you're ranked 1 in a weak cohort you have nothing to worry about but your own exam performance, arguably it's even better than scenario b depending on what school we're talking about

But I heard that your SAC marks will be pulled down if your cohort is weak.
For example, if you got A+ for your SAC, then probably you will get a low A+ in the final calculation of marks.
Is that true?

[Special At Specialist]

If you're rank 1 in your cohort, then you will receive the best exam mark as your SAC mark. Usually, this means you score your own exam mark, since you would usually have to be the best to score rank 1 SAC's. If that is the case (which it usually is), then nothing that anyone else in your cohort scores will affect you. If not, then you'd better hope that the next best person in your class does well on the exam.

As for being medium ranked in a strong cohort, this is probably safer (because you have something to fall back on if you bomb out on the exam), but at the same time, it's much harder to get a 50. If you want to be a really top scorer, you need to aim for rank 1 in SAC's, regardless of the strength of your cohort.

[Faith-PoweR]

If you're rank 1 in your cohort, then you will receive the best exam mark as your SAC mark. Usually, this means you score your own exam mark, since you would usually have to be the best to score rank 1 SAC's. If that is the case (which it usually is), then nothing that anyone else in your cohort scores will affect you. If not, then you'd better hope that the next best person in your class does well on the exam.

As for being medium ranked in a strong cohort, this is probably safer (because you have something to fall back on if you bomb out on the exam), but at the same time, it's much harder to get a 50. If you want to be a really top scorer, you need to aim for rank 1 in SAC's, regardless of the strength of your cohort.

so that means if I am ranked the top one in my weak cohort, I can get top scores with the condition I did very good and better than them in the final exam?
however if I am ranked medium in strong cohort, it'll be not easy to get top scores?

[yearningforsimplicity]

If you're rank 1 in your cohort, then you will receive the best exam mark as your SAC mark. Usually, this means you score your own exam mark, since you would usually have to be the best to score rank 1 SAC's. If that is the case (which it usually is), then nothing that anyone else in your cohort scores will affect you. If not, then you'd better hope that the next best person in your class does well on the exam.

As for being medium ranked in a strong cohort, this is probably safer (because you have something to fall back on if you bomb out on the exam), but at the same time, it's much harder to get a 50. If you want to be a really top scorer, you need to aim for rank 1 in SAC's, regardless of the strength of your cohort.

so that means if I am ranked the top one in my weak cohort, I can get top scores with the condition I did very good and better than them in the final exam?
however if I am ranked medium in strong cohort, it'll be not easy to get top scores?

Being ranked at the top (i.e. 1 or 2, but more preferably first) is important if you go to a school with a 'weaker cohort'. From what I've heard, in stronger cohorts you don't need to be as worried about being ranked first. For the first case, yes it's possible to get a 50 as long as you're ranked 1 in the weak cohort and I think for the second case, you should still be able to get a top score (maybe not 50 but something close to it)

[Somye]

so that means if I am ranked the top one in my weak cohort, I can get top scores with the condition I did very good and better than them in the final exam?
however if I am ranked medium in strong cohort, it'll be not easy to get top scores?

The point being made here is that it can be considered 'safer' going to a strong cohort, as you'd expect a lot of people to do well on the exam, and hence you'd have a high SAC grade regardless. However, if you're middle-ish of this cohort, you'd struggle to get 50ish, just because your SAC (which are your corresponding ranked exam score) will simply not be high enough.
However, as a top rank in a weak cohort, all the pressure is on you, that is, the onus is on you to get the high exam mark for you to get a score that could be around 50, and that you don't have anyone (or a lot of people) to back you up, should you choke on the day