Throughout the past few months I've noticed countless topics and threads with the same (or similar) questions posted:
'If I'm rank one does that mean my exam decides if I get a 50 or not?'
'If I'm ranked 85th can I still get a 40'
'Do rankings really matter so much'
'I failed my first SAC does this mean I'm doomed'
'What happens if my SAC ranking is not good enough'
If those are the questions buzzing inside your mind right now, relax and grab a cookie. Seriously.
Just first up,
don't stress. Your SAC ranking right now means virtually little or nothing as only 10-25% of SACs have been completed for the year so it's by no means fixed. Without further ado, a detailed analysis of what rankings construe and an attempt to answer all questions you have about rankings have been made.
Rankings:
Imagine that we have a cohort of 5 students (Yes, most cohorts are much larger, but for the sake of demonstrating the concept of rankings, i'm only going to use 5.)
Student A: Average 95%,
Rank 1Student B: Average 80%, Rank 2
Student C: Average 65%, Rank 3
Student D: Average 40%, Rank 4
Student E: Average 10%, Rank last/5.
Your teachers submit your SAC averages out of whatever score criteria VCAA requires them to submit as, for example, 95/100 or 190/200 or 285/300, you get the gist. They also submit what is known as your 'Rank' (this is highlighted in bold above (see Rank 1). It is essentially the
ranking or
what place you are within your year, based on your performances in SACs throughout the year. To those of you who believe that this is a competition in your own school, it IS.
Note, do not attempt to sabotage your friends because that just makes you pretentious, self-interested and sets you up for failure later in life. There's more to life than just VCE, trust me, there is
Once your teachers have submitted their SAC rankings and your SAC grades, remember guys, your SAC marks (so whether you got 190 or 195/200) doesn't mean anything at the end, it's just submitted for the purpose of submitting it (rankings are what matters), VCAA looks at your exam grades. In our previous hypothetical scenario (in a common subject like Maths Methods):
Student A: Exam score: 204/240
Student B: Exam score: 236/240
Student C: Exam score: 210/240
Student D: Exam score: 112/240
Student E: Exam score: 80/240
Wait, you say, Rank 1 got a lower score than Rank 2 and 3? And this is just out of 5 students?! What happens now?? SAC scaling lets student B and C do well, right?
Yes, and no. What happens now is VCAA creates SAC scaling according to the respective exam scores of what students obtain. Because Student B got 236/240 on the exam and Rank 1 score in that cohort, a remarkable result, VCAA will scale the Rank 1 SACs to 100/100 (generally). This means that Student A, Rank 1, will now 'take' that 100/100 (and thank Student B, generously for 'carrying' his SAC grades, which is why a lot of schools push for students to help each other on the exam). Guys, if your friends do well on the exam, you get a better result too, win-win!!
Now, you ask, what happens to Student B? What happens to his SAC grade? Unfortunately, Student B would have received a 100/100 if Student A did just as well as him, or if Student C/D/E did better. Student B, being Rank 2, will now receive the 2nd best exam score's scaled SAC equivalent. So now, Student B receives C's SAC score scaled. We see that Student C got 210/240, so that'll probably scale to a 92-95/100 SAC-wise, and so Student B's Study Score would have been affected by around 1-2 Study Scores. Not a big deal, but then again, that's the difference of one rank in this circumstance.
Note: With a larger cohort, these inconsistencies are generally balanced out as the entire top 5-10 students can't all flunk the exam or do unnaturally poorly.
What happens to Student C, D and E then? Student C will receive Student A's exam score's scaled SAC equivalent, which happens to be very close to his own score, so he'll more or less receive the same Study Score.
Students D and E are unaffected because they received the same Exam rank as they did SAC rank.
End result?
Student A: +2 Study Score than what is deserved from the Exam
B: -2
C,D,E: No change
(remember that the numbers are all theoretical, it depends vastly on the subject and SAC weighting. For Maths, SACs-Exam are weighted 33-66, for some subjects it's as much as 60-40 the other way around).
Q: So if I'm rank 1 then nothing matters anymore, right?
Yes, you are the sole factor behind your Study Score. If you full mark your Exam as Rank 1, you will get a 50, no doubt. If you do badly, you may still get an A+ SAC score if others in your cohort do very well. So yes, Rank 1 is always an optimal goal.
Q: If i'm rank 300, can I still get a 50 if I ace the exam?
Right now, rank 300 can easily be clawed to top 20, let's say by the end of the year if you start working hard and committing yourself to your work. A top 20 ranking in a cohort can scale to 95-100/100 SAC-wise, especially for Maths subjects, allowing you to get a 50. If this is at the end of the year, if your SACs only scale to 70/100, you'll be hard pressed to get a 40, let alone a 50. (Those 30 SAC marks is around 10-15 exam marks in Mathematics, very hard to make up). In languages, the difficulty of climbing is exacerbated even more, and you'll probably be hard pressed to get a 35.
Q: If I get an 80% SAC average and 100% on the exam, will I receive the same S.S as someone who got 100% SAC average and 80% on the exam?
Not very likely. Your actual averages mean next to nothing and SACs will generally scale, whether it's up (from tough SACs) or down (from notoriously easy SACs).
Q: I've heard of people coming rank 30 or something like that, acing the exam and getting Study Scores close to 50, why is that?This is a very common question. That rank 30 comes from a super strong cohort where a Rank 30 can scale to something close enough to 95-98/100 and thus, an aced exam leads to a 49/50 S.S. If your SAC scales well from your ranking, your actual ranking doesn't matter anymore.
For all Study Score purposes (excluding bragging rights), Rank 15 = Rank 1 if they all scale to 100/100. Of course, Rank 1 still sounds better (and probably feels better too), but in a practical sense there's no difference.
Q: If I get an 80% SAC average and 100% on the exam, will I receive the same S.S as someone who got 100% SAC average and 80% on the exam?
Not very likely. Your actual averages mean next to nothing and SACs will generally scale, whether it's up (from tough SACs) or down (from notoriously easy SACs).
Q: I'm worried about my ranking right now, what can I do?
You can't change your ranking until the next SAC, so focus on performing your best on that SAC.
Q: I'm doing badly on my 1/2 subject, does this affect my 3/4s?
From a technical sense, no.Unit 1/2 subjects lay the foundation for your 3/4, so it makes good sense to ensure that you have a strong foundation to build upon. However, if you score very badly for your 1/2 subject, you can still receive a high Study Score provided you put in the work between now and when you commence your 3/4.
Q: What happens if I'm ranked last but full marked the exam?
I'm going to assume that you're creating this hypothetical situation from the worst possible SAC scaled score, so that's assuming ranked last in a terrible cohort but somehow 'full marked' the exam.
Firstly, VCAA would probably check you for cheating and go through all their processes because this kind of thing never happens. Then they'd check your past SACs, and so on..
From a mathematical standpoint though, assume your SAC rank scaled to 20/100. If you full marked an exam like English, then you get an exam equivalent of 100/100 (60 scales to 100).
Total score? 120/200. That's enough for 60/100 SACs + 60/100 exam which is similar to a 36/60 exam score (6/10 essays). Probably a 30, 35 if you're really lucky?
For Maths, 20+200/200 = 220/300 which is only 80 + 140/200, so a 40 at best.
Full marking the exam doesn't mean much if your SACs are screwed, but this kind of scenario will most likely never exist in the first place.
Q: If you were rank 2/3 and you perform better than rank 1 in the exam, rank 1 takes your exam mark? is that true??
Let us say that Student B is Rank 2 and achieved 100/100 on his final exam. Student A is Rank 1 but 'only' achieved 95/100 on his final exam.
For the SACs component of the subject, Student A will receive the scaled 100 from Student B, whereas Student B for his SACs will receive a scaled 98 or 99 from Student A's exam performance. It might seem a tad 'unfair' to some, but remember that SACs are an indication of how well you've performed throughout the year, and the exam is just an indication of how well you perform during one exam (or maybe two). In the circumstances of the exam, one poorly answered question is often the difference between a 100 and 95, whereas it takes 4 or 5 poorly answered questions (or more) in SACs to make that difference.
Note: You will
retain your own exam mark. That will never change, it's simply your SAC component of your study score that gets adjusted according to how well your cohort performs.
Summary: Rankings aren't really so mysterious, but the way VCAA operates ensures that every year new Year 11s are oblivious and blind to how they work, making VCE all that more elusive. Hope this was able to inform you more about the process behind SAC rankings and how they affect your study score. Never downplay the importance of SAC rankings in relation to your Study Score, but don't let it overwhelm you either. It is certainly not too late right now to make a change for the better. If you have any further questions please comment or reply to this thread and i'll include the question and answer for future students.
All the best, VCE students
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