How much will Methods scale by this year?

[Nujabes]

Any thoughts?

[Mayesy]

I'm thinking that because many people did not finish the last question on both SA and ER, the bar will be set lower, maybe for higher scaling?

[smartypants234]

Back to normal I reckon, early starters got it lucky

[Mayesy]

Back to normal I reckon, early starters got it lucky

What do you mean early starters?

[shadows]

I'm pretty sure scaling has nothing to do with difficulty of exam (that's why cutoffs vary, not so much scaling) vcaa 06 was extremely easy but scaled similarly to other years.
Same thing could be said for spesh. It scaled very well last year but the exam was pretty standard.

I think it increased last year because the methods cohort was stronger than usual? Maybe it has something to do with no mid years in other subjects affecting math cohort. (Since scaling is calculated by how a cohort does in relation to their other subjects)

Lol don't worry about it too much, you wont know till results day.

[keltingmeith]

Scaling depends more on how well you do relative to your other subjects.

It's how VCAA discern from an "easy" and a "hard" subject.

[nikegod]

It will scale probably 6-7 like every other year. Like others have said, it doesn't matter how hard the exam is, and VCAA is already worried about a drop in the number of students undertaking methods and specialist. In order to slow this decrease, they increase scaling so that the course is more attractive. The government and a lot of unis have put pressure on VCAA to ensure that it is producing enough students headed in the STEM direction or at least with adequate skills for engineering degrees etc.

This means that the already high scaling that comes from the cohort's performance is made more stable, as no real downward movement is likely to occur in the short-term.

[thushan]

It's a formula calculated by VCAA depending on how well Methods students do in their other subjects.

You only scale over 50 if VCAA determines that scaled mean + 2 x scaled standard deviation is greater than 50; they push the bar over 50 to prevent so much crowding occurring at the 50 level after scaling.