HSC and ATAR (6 of 10) - The HSC Result

For each couse undertaken for HSC, a student received 3 marks: the examination mark (after alignment), the assessment mark (after moderation and alignment) and the HSC mark. The HSC mark is simply the average of the examination mark and the assessment mark to provide a 50-50 weighting between the two. The HSC mark then determines the performance band into which a student's performance falls.

An example of Alex's HSC result as reported in his Record of Achievement is as follows:
                                   Exam  Assessment    HSC Performance
Course               Unit     mark      mark          mark    band
Economics            2     85/100    92/100          89         5
English Advanced  2     83/100    96/100          90         6
Maths Ext. 1         2     75/100    80/100          78          4
Maths Ext. 2         2     80/100    88/100          84          5
Modern History     2     74/ 100   76/100          75          4
History Ext.           1      46/50      47/50           47        E4

As an illustration, Alex's HSC mark (89) for Economics is the average of the reported examination mark (85) and the reported assessment mark (92). The HSC mark (89) falls in the mark range of 80-90 and hence falls in performance band 5.

If the HSC courses are eligible for an ATAR, the University Admission Centre (UAC) will calculate the ATAR for the student and use it as the ranking among all applicants for selection for admission in particular courses in particular university.