How do the internal ranks work?

[Hello0there]

Hey, sorry if this has already been answered before on her but I searched it and can't find a straight answer. I wanted to know how the internal and HSC mark interact.

What exactly is stopping someone who's ranked first in all their internals from just not studying for the HSC at all? If they're going to take the top person's HSC mark?

Is there some kind of limit? Like if you're more than 5 points away you can't take the person who came first in the test's mark?
Sorry if this comes across as a little dumb, but I honestly can't get a straight answer.

Thanks!

[kauac]

Hey, sorry if this has already been answered before on her but I searched it and can't find a straight answer. I wanted to know how the internal and HSC mark interact.

What exactly is stopping someone who's ranked first in all their internals from just not studying for the HSC at all? If they're going to take the top person's HSC mark?

Is there some kind of limit? Like if you're more than 5 points away you can't take the person who came first in the test's mark?
Sorry if this comes across as a little dumb, but I honestly can't get a straight answer.

Thanks!

Hi...
The reason why you can't get a straight answer is because it is a super duper complicated process!  I will attempt to explain some of the basic methods NESA uses to determine your marks.

So the overall HSC mark consists of an average of two other marks: 1. HSC exam mark. 2. HSC assessment mark.

You have probably calculated your HSC assessment mark for each of your subjects, but NESA doesn't just use the straight assessment mark entered by your school. It's a super complicated process, where they use ranks, and the gaps between ranks, to end up with your final HSC assessment mark, contributing 50% towards the overall HSC mark.

The HSC exam mark is a moderated version of the raw mark you get in the HSC exam. So, I'm pretty sure that you get the HSC exam mark that you scored in the exam, fair and square. Ranks can impact the assessment mark, but not the exam mark. Thus, just because someone is ranked one does NOT mean they will get the highest overall HSC mark, especially if they perform poorly in the HSC exams.

Hope this provides a bit of clarity.