If you got a 40+ for English, click here!

[iNerd]

A 15 - 20 ranking is a bit low I'd say... but this system is mostly fair, in my opinion, and if you ARE working your ass off.. your hard work will be rewarded. In all cases, hard work will be rewarded. Those who do extremely well in the SACs, but bum out in the exam, will not be at an advantage.

The exam is the key point of difference - it is the exam that truly demonstrates a student's ability.

SACs are only a slight indication... look at the different factors that make SAC scores so unreliable:
- SAC topics being given a week before the actual SAC
- biased teacher marking (but I guess they are cross-marked)
- the fact that every school has different SAC topics
- etc.

You will do well, in my opinion, if you go hard at the exam!

Thats a generalisation, not necessarily the truth
A girl at my school stays back after school at least 3.5 hours everday studying hard, does all homework; everything she is told....
and then bam!!!! psych mid year = B (not what she thought she deserved)

I'm sure there are inumerous examples of people working extremely hard and then being let down

hmm. psych is a tricky one because if you don't follow really specific guidelines on how to write your answers you won't do well. So all the study in the world doesn't guarantee a good score in psych. There are many other subjects where this is not the case, but psych assessors are the most pedantic people. Also some textbooks are wayyy better than others. I know the heinemann one leaves out a lot of information why the grivas textbook is really really good. So you could know your textbook back to front but if its not a good one then that also affects your score.

Very true. Grivas & Carter are the gods of Psychology; any other book puts you at a disadvantage. It is often said you should learn things conceptually and then write an answer down in the exam but in Psychology rote-memorisation of key terms is absolutely necessary and should not be avoided.

[LinusX]

Same for Bio

[phanphy]

I got a 9, 8.5 and a 7 (low A+) for the exam, but still managed a 44.
Ranked in the top 10 or so in school, there still is hope!