Final HSC Mark

[scyouknow13]

If you have a small cohort so your ranking isn't bad but your internal mark is bad, what happens if you get a really high external mark?

[RuiAce]

If you have a small cohort so your ranking isn't bad but your internal mark is bad, what happens if you get a really high external mark?

Your ranking is the supreme factor. The actual value of your internal mark is useless.

The secondary factor after your ranking is your relative mark difference. i.e., were you 5 marks behind rank 1, or 10 marks, or only 2 marks. (Therefore, if 1st place got raw 98 internal and you got 96, it's the same thing as if they got 64 and you got 62.)

So if you get a really high external mark, moderation will easily favour your internal mark anyway. I'll leave the long explanation to Jamon or someone because I don't have time to dig up the guide right now

[jamonwindeyer]

If you have a small cohort so your ranking isn't bad but your internal mark is bad, what happens if you get a really high external mark?

Hey! The absolute value of your internal mark isn't really used by NESA - It's your mark in relation to the rest of your cohort. So if your internal marks are less than ideal, but your class performs well in the final exam, then the poor marks won't have any impact at all! If your rank is good, you increase the chances that a strong result by someone in your cohort will pull you up check this article out for more detail if you like!

Edit: I dug up the guide

[Mary_a]

Hey,

I was just wondering, in regards to the internal mark and external mark, I keep hearing that the person who comes first internally in the cohort gets the top mark in the hsc for the cohort, regardless of whether that was actually their mark.

Is that true? If not does someone mind explaining how the internal and external thing works?

Thank you so much

Mary x

[RuiAce]

Hey,

I was just wondering, in regards to the internal mark and external mark, I keep hearing that the person who comes first internally in the cohort gets the top mark in the hsc for the cohort, regardless of whether that was actually their mark.

Is that true? If not does someone mind explaining how the internal and external thing works?

Thank you so much

Mary x

Let's say we have five people. Persons A, B, C, D and E.

Suppose they got these marks in the internal:
A - 87
B - 84
C - 84
D - 82
E - 75

But suppose they got these marks in the external:
C - 98
A - 94
B - 93
D - 90
E - 88

Person A will get 94 in the externals, but he/she will get 98 for the internals. And note that your final mark is an average of the two.

Only the INTERNAL component gets affected by moderation. The external component is deadlocked.

Note - This is all pre-alignment. This is just the moderation process. Cannot get any more descriptive than Jamon's guide.

[Mary_a]

Let's say we have five people. Persons A, B, C, D and E.

Suppose they got these marks in the internal:
A - 87
B - 84
C - 84
D - 82
E - 75

But suppose they got these marks in the external:
C - 98
A - 94
B - 93
D - 90
E - 88

Person A will get 94 in the externals, but he/she will get 98 for the internals. And note that your final mark is an average of the two.

Only the INTERNAL component gets affected by moderation. The external component is deadlocked.

Note - This is all pre-alignment. This is just the moderation process. Cannot get any more descriptive than Jamon's guide.

Thank you so much! That really clarified thing for me as I wasn't sure which mark would be moderated. I really appreciate it!

Mary x

[stephjones]

Does this mean that if you came say 4th in your school, but got the highest result in the actual exam, you would still only receive the 4th highest exam marks?  sorry haha this is so confusing

[RuiAce]

Does this mean that if you came say 4th in your school, but got the highest result in the actual exam, you would still only receive the 4th highest exam marks?  sorry haha this is so confusing

Note that your external and internal marks are different.

In the EXTERNALS, you'd still be #1.
In the INTERNALS, you'd still be #4.

[sudodds]

Does this mean that if you came say 4th in your school, but got the highest result in the actual exam, you would still only receive the 4th highest exam marks?  sorry haha this is so confusing

When you say exam mark, do you mean external mark or overall hsc mark?
When you get your results you get given three marks, your internal marks, your external marks and your overall HSC mark (an average of the two). Lets say you came 4th, but you got the highest mark in the exam - 95%. The fourth highest mark in the exam from your school was 89%. This would mean that;

internal mark = 89%
external mark = 95%
HSC mark = 92%

Say the student that ranked 2nd in your school got 93%, and that was the 2nd highest mark in the exam. They will receive 93% for all of their marks. So even though their result in the actual exam was lower, they will still come out with a higher mark overall.

Hope this makes sense  It is definitely very confusing!

[Mary_a]

When you say exam mark, do you mean external mark or overall hsc mark?
When you get your results you get given three marks, your internal marks, your external marks and your overall HSC mark (an average of the two). Lets say you came 4th, but you got the highest mark in the exam - 95%. The fourth highest mark in the exam from your school was 89%. This would mean that;

internal mark = 89%
external mark = 95%
HSC mark = 92%

Say the student that ranked 2nd in your school got 93%, and that was the 2nd highest mark in the exam. They will receive 93% for all of their marks. So even though their result in the actual exam was lower, they will still come out with a higher mark overall.

Hope this makes sense  It is definitely very confusing!

Thanks Susie! That makes so much more sense!

Mary x

[stephjones]

Oh okay, thank you guys! That makes so much more sense (:

[rmdb]

When you say exam mark, do you mean external mark or overall hsc mark?
When you get your results you get given three marks, your internal marks, your external marks and your overall HSC mark (an average of the two). Lets say you came 4th, but you got the highest mark in the exam - 95%. The fourth highest mark in the exam from your school was 89%. This would mean that;

internal mark = 89%
external mark = 95%
HSC mark = 92%

Say the student that ranked 2nd in your school got 93%, and that was the 2nd highest mark in the exam. They will receive 93% for all of their marks. So even though their result in the actual exam was lower, they will still come out with a higher mark overall.

Hope this makes sense  It is definitely very confusing!

This is incorrect.

The nth ranked student does not receive the nth highest exam mark for their assessment mark. This would completely defeat the purpose of moderation.

Their assessment mark would reflect how close or far their raw school mark was to first (or to any rank). If the student ranked 2nd had a raw mark quite far from first, their assessment mark would also reflect that. If their raw school mark was just 1% from first, and there was a reasonable spread of exam marks, you can be quite certain that their assessment mark will be the equal to the highest assessment mark (which is also the highest exam mark), even if the 2nd highest exam mark was 10 marks away from first (e.g. highest exam mark = 95, 2nd highest = 85, but the assessment mark for 2nd would probably be at least 94). 

[sudodds]

This is incorrect.

The nth ranked student does not receive the nth highest exam mark for their assessment mark. This would completely defeat the purpose of moderation.

Their assessment mark would reflect how close or far their raw school mark was to first (or to any rank). If the student ranked 2nd had a raw mark quite far from first, their assessment mark would also reflect that. If their raw school mark was just 1% from first, and there was a reasonable spread of exam marks, you can be quite certain that their assessment mark will be the equal to the highest assessment mark (which is also the highest exam mark), even if the 2nd highest exam mark was 10 marks away from first (e.g. highest exam mark = 95, 2nd highest = 85, but the assessment mark for 2nd would probably be at least 94).

For sure! I defs should have mentioned this is in my response, so thanks for contributing For anyone confused, this is why it is better to come 4th but only be 2 marks behind 1st, than 2nd but 10 marks. The relative difference between ranks is definitely taken into account as rmdb said, so for those students that are within quite competitive (I means academically competitive, not "grab you by the neck and strangle you if you beat me in x exam" competitive  ) cohorts where the marks are all very close together (common in smaller classes) your exact rank becomes less important, more so just the area in which you place (top, middle or bottom)

[Mary_a]

For sure! I defs should have mentioned this is in my response, so thanks for contributing For anyone confused, this is why it is better to come 4th but only be 2 marks behind 1st, than 2nd but 10 marks. The relative difference between ranks is definitely taken into account as rmdb said, so for those students that are within quite competitive (I means academically competitive, not "grab you by the neck and strangle you if you beat me in x exam" competitive  ) cohorts where the marks are all very close together (common in smaller classes) your exact rank becomes less important, more so just the area in which you place (top, middle or bottom)

Thanks for the clarification!

Mary x

[stephjones]

Hey! I was also just wondering if whether or not you get a Band 5 or 6 is determined solely by the mark you receive in your final HSC exam? Or is it the accumulation of your results?