Question about the cohort's performance in exams

[Sayf44]

Let's say there's a class of 5 doing a subject where their scores are:
Student 1 -  SAC: 98         Exam: 96
Student 2 -  SAC: 95         Exam: 93
Student 3 -  SAC: 84         Exam: 52
Student 4 -  SAC: 83         Exam: 42
Student 5 -  SAC: 70         Exam: 28

Will the very poor performance by the last 3 students in the exams, given their relatively good performance in sacs, have a negative impact on students 1 and 2?

[Professor Polonsky]

Yes for student 2, probably not for #1.

For sufficiently large cohorts (which 5 isn't), the performance of every student in your quartile will affect you. In smaller cohorts, I think it's fair to assume that (apart from the top and the bottom students) other ranks will have some affect on your moderated SAC result.