Specialist Math scaling

[Asx4Life]

I think the question is: Is spesh really that hard of a subject to get scaled up 11. I honestly think that the effort you need to put in to get a 30 in spesh is lesser than the effort needed to get a 41 in another subject. But that's just me.

[jane1234]

I think the question is: Is spesh really that hard of a subject to get scaled up 11. I honestly think that the effort you need to put in to get a 30 in spesh is lesser than the effort needed to get a 41 in another subject. But that's just me.

Agreed. But hey, I'm not complaining

[Zebra]

yeah I agree ^ ^
biology raw 41 > spesh raw 30
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<increase in difficulty

[nemolala]

yeah our vce coordinator mentioned something of the like, she got an email that she forwarded to us. have a read if its relevant I got bored half way


In April 2011 VTAC commissioned Professor Tim Brown,the original architect of the current scaling process for VCE studies, and Mr Bob Edwards, former Executive Officer, ACT Board of Senior Secondary Studies to undertake the technical review. The review found that since the current scaling method was introduced in 1994, the proportion of students completing one or more VCE studies while in Year 11 has grown from 16% to 53%. In 2010 approximately 4,000 Year 12 students receiving an ATAR had completed two or more studies in Year 11, almost 10% of the ATAR cohort. The current scaling
methodology does not make use of this information. The review also found that since 2007, when the VCAA removed the limit on the number of mathematics studies that can be counted towards the VCE, enrolment patterns in mathematics have changed. There has been a 21% increase in students completing Further Mathematics, but the number completing Specialist Mathematics has decreased by 16% and the number completing Mathematical Methods has decreased by 6%. Over the same period, the number of students completing all three VCE mathematics has increased incrementally from fewer than 50 to over 700.
There have also been changes in the scaling outcomes for mathematics. The scaled mean for Specialist Mathematics has gradually decreased from 41 to 38 since 2006 and Further Mathematics has increased by 1, from 27 to 28. Mathematical Methods has remained relatively stable. In light of these changing enrolment patterns and scaling outcomes, the review recommended that:
• The scaling population should continue to comprise students with at least four study scores including an English, but it should be expanded to include all studies completed in the previous year, rather than limiting it to one, as is currently the case. This will increase the number of students and study results contributing to the scaling outcomes.
• The scaling of mathematics should be simplified so that it scales all three mathematics concurrently against each other rather than the two-step pairwise scaling between Further Mathematics and Mathematical Methods and between Mathematical Methods and Specialist Mathematics.
There are now sufficient numbers of students completing the three mathematics studies to use a modified form of the standard scaling method that is used for all other studies.
Modelling undertaken as part of the review suggests that the scaled mean of Specialist Mathematics would increase by about three, but there would be no observable changes to other studies.
VTAC will implement these changes in December 2011 for the scaling of VCE studies for the calculation of the 2011 ATAR.
There will be transition arrangements for current Year 12 students who completed studies in Year 11 in 2010 and which were scaled using the 2010 procedures. These students will have their 2010 scores re-scaled using the revised procedure and will receive the higher of the two scaled scores for the calculation of their 2011 ATAR.

[abeybaby]

Just to add my 2 cents, I have no idea.

[Natters]

I think the question is: Is spesh really that hard of a subject to get scaled up 11. I honestly think that the effort you need to put in to get a 30 in spesh is lesser than the effort needed to get a 41 in another subject. But that's just me.

eh im not entirely sure... id say when you put it next to subjects like chemistry and methods 11 might be too high, but id say a 30 in specialist is a lot harder to get than a 43 in further (it goes down 2 most years)
no joke i could have passed a further exam with ease in grade 4...

[sophie.tran999]

Does it mean this yr exam will be more difficult than last yr?

[acinod]

Does this mean we have to try harder for Spesh or can we work less?

I assume we can work less on Spesh because technically if we get an extra study score in all our other subjects (or just get a higher score for English) then we still get a higher ATAR?

[thushan]

Does it mean this yr exam will be more difficult than last yr?

Not necessarily. Again, scaling is to do with competition rather than the difficulty of the subject. Example - in my opinion biology was a much harder subject than methods (i did both last year) and physics and chem, but bio stays at 30 whereas methods goes to 35, chem 34 and physics 32.

[Natters]

a couple of my friends are doing bio this year and finished methods last year, they say bio isnt much harder than p.e. and is much easier than methods, so it's just opinion based i guess. it's probably why getting the scaling right is such a hard job

@ acinod please stop working now

[tony3272]

Depends on how well they want to do. I don't do bio myself, so take this with a grain of salt. Many people rote learn material for bio and end up with average scores. In order to do really well you need to understand the course very well conceptually, and need to be able to adapt your thinking.

With methods, it's hard to start out, but easy to excel.

[Zebra]

Does it mean this yr exam will be more difficult than last yr?

Not necessarily. Again, scaling is to do with competition rather than the difficulty of the subject. Example - in my opinion biology was a much harder subject than methods (i did both last year) and physics and chem, but bio stays at 30 whereas methods goes to 35, chem 34 and physics 32.

BIO IS FUCKING RIDICULOUS

[Truck]

While Spec may be conceptually harder than further, the fact is further has more competition, to get 43+ you need to really be up there amongst the TOP further students and getting top scores which aren't always easy, so you'd need to be spamming practice exams to pull that kind of score on the exam and perfecting your techniques throughout the year.

A MUCH greater proportion of spec students on the other hand will get 30+, meaning that you wouldn't have to study as hard to get a RAW 30... sure it's CONCEPTUALLY harder but in terms of scoring if you can understand the concepts of both subjects then it's easier to get the 30 in spec as it requires far less work.

This is why kids who have the capability to do Spec and then make the misguided decision that it's "easier to do better in further" are largely incorrect. If you are able to understand Specialist you should do it because doing Further gives you no advantages, if anything it puts pressure on you to be "perfect" throughout the year doing relatively dull and uninspiring Maths.

[Nokiacharger]

Think of it this way, is has been unfair for those who took spesh in the last couple of years as it didn't scale by as much as it should have been scaling by. They are correcting it to make it fair.

so does this mean there have been several illegitimate 99.95'ers meaning scholarships to medicine, law, etc. were wrongly handed out?

this has terrible consequences for many people who may have been border line. Such a frightfully blatant mistake on their part.

Frightfully?

Do you realise in many countries, there is mass corruption with high school scores and you can literally and easily buy your way into university. By comparison, getting 99.90 when it should have been 99.95, 0.05 difference, doesn't seem all that bad.

Frightfully.

[Jdog]

Think of it this way, is has been unfair for those who took spesh in the last couple of years as it didn't scale by as much as it should have been scaling by. They are correcting it to make it fair.

so does this mean there have been several illegitimate 99.95'ers meaning scholarships to medicine, law, etc. were wrongly handed out?

this has terrible consequences for many people who may have been border line. Such a frightfully blatant mistake on their part.

Frightfully?

Do you realise in many countries, there is mass corruption with high school scores and you can literally and easily buy your way into university. By comparison, getting 99.90 when it should have been 99.95, 0.05 difference, doesn't seem all that bad.

Frightfully.

I think in instances such as these, you have to appreciate the context of the comment.