Aggregate
After the scaling process is complete, it is now possible to add the scaled marks together. To determine the aggregate, 10 units of ATAR courses are chosen comprising:
. the best 2 units of English
. the best 8 units from the remaining courses, which can include up to 2 units of Category B courses
Basing on Alex's scaled marks, his aggregate is calculated as follows:
Scaled Total
Course mark Unit mark
English Advanced 41.8 2 83.6
History Ext. 45.4 1 45.4
Maths Ext. 2 42.8 2 85.6
Economics 42.5 2 85.0
Maths Ext. 1 37.2 2 74.4
Modern History 24.9 1 24.9
Aggregate 10 398.9
ATAR Percentile
With the aggregate calculated, the ATAR percentile which shows the position of the student relative to his ATAR cohort (i.e. Year 12 students eligible for an ATAR) is determined. Following is a table of the ATAR percentile corresponding to some selected aggregate in 2012 (as shown in Report of the Scaling of the 2012 NSW HSC by BOS):
Aggregate ATAR Percentile
450.0 98.8
400.0 91.1
350.0 77.0
300.0 60.1
250.0 42.9
200.0 26.7
150.0 13.7
As can be seen from the table, Alex's aggregate of 398.9 is close to the 91.1-percentile. His actual ATAR percentile may have been calculated as 90.9 (i.e. Alex's position in the HSC is higher than 90.9% of all other students).
Year 7 Percentile
Next, the Year 7 percentile which shows the position of the student relative to his Year 7 cohort is determined. This is done by incorporting the number of students who had started Year 7 study at the same time with the student but do not complete their study in Year 12. From the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), a comparison can be made between the size of the Year 12 cohort in 2012 and that of the Year 7 cohort in 2007. Statistics shows that there are early school leavers of 6,739. As these 6,739 students virtually receive no marks in the HSC, it can be expected the Year 7 percentile would be higher than the corresponding ATAR percentile (i.e. the student's performance will be better than more other students including the early school leavers). Following is a table of the Year 7 percentils corresponding to the ATAR percentile in 2012 (as shown in Report of the Scaling of the 2012 NSW HSC by BOS):
ATAR Percentile Year 7 Percentile
99.0 99.4
90.0 94.1
80.0 88.2
70.0 82.1
60.0 76.0
50.0 69.6
40.0 62.8
30.0 55.3
20.0 46.5
15.0 41.5
As can be seen from the table, Alex's ATAR percentile of 90.9 is close to 90.0 (corresponding to a Year 7 percentile of 94.1). His actual Yeat 7 percentile may have been calculated as 94.24 (i.e. Alex's position in the HSC is higherr than 94.24% of all other students starting Year 7 together with him).
The ATAR
The final step for calculating the ATAR is just to truncate the Year 7 percentile to the nearest 0.05. In so doing, Alex's ATAR is 94.25.
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Friday, August 23, 2013
HSC and ATAR (8 of 10) - Scaling of HSC Marks
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
Marks in different courses are usually not comparable due different nature of the courses. Let's get some idea from Alex's HSC marks and his performance against other students in his Economics and Mathematics Extension 2 courses (from Alex's HSC result and the statistics on percentiles in Table A3 in the Report of the Scaling of the 2012 NSW High School Certificate):
HSC
Course Unit mark Percentile
Economics 2 89 90
Maths Ext. 2 2 84 48
As can be seen, while Alex's HSC marks for Economics and Mathematics Extension 2 only differ by 5 (89 vs 84), his position in Economics is much higher than that in Mathematics Extension 2 (90-percentile vs 48-percentile) when compared against other students. (i.e.Despite similar marks, Alex's performance in Economics is better than 90% of all other students in Economics while his performance in Mathematics Extension 2 is only better than 48% of all other students in this course). This implies that most students taking the Mathematics Extension 2 course perform very well while those taking Economics do less well comparatively. In other words, the strength of performance of the course candidature in Mathematics Extension 2 is higher than that of Economics. As such, similar marks in different courses do not necessarily mean similar performance due differences in strength of students in each course. As the ultimate determination of ATAR is to rank the students according to their academic performance (i.e. academic strength) for selection to universities, marks from different courses cannot be simply added together as an aggregate to derive the ATAR. Some form of adjustment called scaling must be carried out to convert marks from different courses (HSC marks) into marks in a common scale (scaled marks) based on the strength of performance of the course candidature before they can be compared and added. As an analogy, we cannot add apple to orange. But instead, we can convert them into a common scale (called fruit) before meaningful addition can take place.
Calculating scale means and standard deviations of ATAR courses
The scaling process first converts the HSC marks of all courses to marks on a 1-unit basis. Then it calculates the scaled mean and scaled standard deviation of each course to reflect the strength of the course candidature.
Take Mathematics Extension 2 as an example. There are 3,454 candidates in 2012. Each of these 3,454 students may take a number of other courses in the HSC examination. e.g. Student A may also take Economics, English Advanced, Maths Ext. 1, Modern History and History Extension. Student B may also take English Advanced, English Ext. 1, Legal Studies, Maths Ext. 1 and Physics, and so on. The scaling process takes the HSC marks of all the courses taken by all these 3,454 students as a sample. Thus this sample contains all the HSC results of all the students taking Mathematics Extension 2, and hence represents the strength of performance of all the candidates in this course. The mean and the standard deviation of this sample are then determined as the scaled mean and scaled standard deviation of Mathematics Extension 2. In conjunction, the scaled maximum mark and various percentiles are also determined from the sample.
Following is an extract of some ATAR courses from Table A3 in the Report on the Scaling of the 2012 NSW High School Certificate, which shows their calculated scaled means, standard deviations, maximum marks and various percentiles.
It should be noted that:
1. scaled mean - As students taking harder courses tend to perform better in their other courses, HSC marks in the sample for harder courses like Mathematics Extension 2 is expected to be relatively higher and so does the scaled mean. Hence, the larger the scaled mean, the better the scaled marks will be on average.
2. scaled standard deviation - The standard deviation indicates the spread of marks which deviates from the mean. Marks in courses with a low scaled standard deviation are generally closer to the scaled mean. Hence, there is less variation in scaled marks in different percentiles (e.g. in Mathematics Extension 2, scaling for P50 is not too different from that of P90. Student with a fair ranking can also have a reasonably good scaled mark). On the other hand, marks in courses with a high scaled standard deviation are more wide-spread. Only marks in higher percentile are better scaled while those in lower percentile will be poorly scaled (e.g. in Modern History, scaling in P50 is much poorer than that of P90. Student has to achieve a high ranking in order to have a good scaled mark)
Scaling individual HSC marks
Alex's HSC mark for Economics is 89 which is 44.5 on a 1-unit basis, and falls close to the 90-percentile (P90). His scaled mark is then expected to be close to 42.6. The scaling process may have calculated his scaled mark to be 42.5. Likewise, scaled marks for Alex's other courses are calculated in similar manner. Alex's scaled marks would have been calculated from the corresponding HSC marks as follows:
HSC scaled
Course mark 1-unit mark
Economics 89 44.5 42.5
Englisg Advanced 90 45.0 41.8
Maths Ext. 1 78 39.0 37.2
Maths Ext. 2 84 42.0 42.8
Modern History 75 37.5 24.9
History Ext. 47 47.0 45.4
In like manner, all students' HSC marks are scaled accordingly and ready to be aggregated for the determination of ATARs.
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
Marks in different courses are usually not comparable due different nature of the courses. Let's get some idea from Alex's HSC marks and his performance against other students in his Economics and Mathematics Extension 2 courses (from Alex's HSC result and the statistics on percentiles in Table A3 in the Report of the Scaling of the 2012 NSW High School Certificate):
HSC
Course Unit mark Percentile
Economics 2 89 90
Maths Ext. 2 2 84 48
As can be seen, while Alex's HSC marks for Economics and Mathematics Extension 2 only differ by 5 (89 vs 84), his position in Economics is much higher than that in Mathematics Extension 2 (90-percentile vs 48-percentile) when compared against other students. (i.e.Despite similar marks, Alex's performance in Economics is better than 90% of all other students in Economics while his performance in Mathematics Extension 2 is only better than 48% of all other students in this course). This implies that most students taking the Mathematics Extension 2 course perform very well while those taking Economics do less well comparatively. In other words, the strength of performance of the course candidature in Mathematics Extension 2 is higher than that of Economics. As such, similar marks in different courses do not necessarily mean similar performance due differences in strength of students in each course. As the ultimate determination of ATAR is to rank the students according to their academic performance (i.e. academic strength) for selection to universities, marks from different courses cannot be simply added together as an aggregate to derive the ATAR. Some form of adjustment called scaling must be carried out to convert marks from different courses (HSC marks) into marks in a common scale (scaled marks) based on the strength of performance of the course candidature before they can be compared and added. As an analogy, we cannot add apple to orange. But instead, we can convert them into a common scale (called fruit) before meaningful addition can take place.
Calculating scale means and standard deviations of ATAR courses
The scaling process first converts the HSC marks of all courses to marks on a 1-unit basis. Then it calculates the scaled mean and scaled standard deviation of each course to reflect the strength of the course candidature.
Take Mathematics Extension 2 as an example. There are 3,454 candidates in 2012. Each of these 3,454 students may take a number of other courses in the HSC examination. e.g. Student A may also take Economics, English Advanced, Maths Ext. 1, Modern History and History Extension. Student B may also take English Advanced, English Ext. 1, Legal Studies, Maths Ext. 1 and Physics, and so on. The scaling process takes the HSC marks of all the courses taken by all these 3,454 students as a sample. Thus this sample contains all the HSC results of all the students taking Mathematics Extension 2, and hence represents the strength of performance of all the candidates in this course. The mean and the standard deviation of this sample are then determined as the scaled mean and scaled standard deviation of Mathematics Extension 2. In conjunction, the scaled maximum mark and various percentiles are also determined from the sample.
Following is an extract of some ATAR courses from Table A3 in the Report on the Scaling of the 2012 NSW High School Certificate, which shows their calculated scaled means, standard deviations, maximum marks and various percentiles.
1. scaled mean - As students taking harder courses tend to perform better in their other courses, HSC marks in the sample for harder courses like Mathematics Extension 2 is expected to be relatively higher and so does the scaled mean. Hence, the larger the scaled mean, the better the scaled marks will be on average.
2. scaled standard deviation - The standard deviation indicates the spread of marks which deviates from the mean. Marks in courses with a low scaled standard deviation are generally closer to the scaled mean. Hence, there is less variation in scaled marks in different percentiles (e.g. in Mathematics Extension 2, scaling for P50 is not too different from that of P90. Student with a fair ranking can also have a reasonably good scaled mark). On the other hand, marks in courses with a high scaled standard deviation are more wide-spread. Only marks in higher percentile are better scaled while those in lower percentile will be poorly scaled (e.g. in Modern History, scaling in P50 is much poorer than that of P90. Student has to achieve a high ranking in order to have a good scaled mark)
Scaling individual HSC marks
Alex's HSC mark for Economics is 89 which is 44.5 on a 1-unit basis, and falls close to the 90-percentile (P90). His scaled mark is then expected to be close to 42.6. The scaling process may have calculated his scaled mark to be 42.5. Likewise, scaled marks for Alex's other courses are calculated in similar manner. Alex's scaled marks would have been calculated from the corresponding HSC marks as follows:
HSC scaled
Course mark 1-unit mark
Economics 89 44.5 42.5
Englisg Advanced 90 45.0 41.8
Maths Ext. 1 78 39.0 37.2
Maths Ext. 2 84 42.0 42.8
Modern History 75 37.5 24.9
History Ext. 47 47.0 45.4
In like manner, all students' HSC marks are scaled accordingly and ready to be aggregated for the determination of ATARs.
Wednesday, August 14, 2013
HSC and ATAR (7 of 10) - Determining the ATAR
Not all HSC courses contribute to the calculation of ATAR. Only Board Developed courses (Category A and Category B) can contribute to ATAR (hence called ATAR courses). To be eligible for an ATAR, a student must complete satisfactorily at least 10 units of ATAR courses including at least:
. 2 units of English
. 8 units of Category A courses
. 3 ATAR (Category A or B) of 2 units or greater
. 4 subjects
The ATAR is calculated based on the aggregate of 10 units of ATAR courses comprising:
. the best 2 units of English
. the best 8 units from the remaining units, which can include up to 2 units of Category B courses.
The process of determinating the ATAR is as follows:
ATAR courses: HSC mark
|
scaling
|
scaled mark
|
sum all ATAR-eligible courses
|
aggregate
|
rank among all ATAR-eligible students
|
ATAR percentile
|
rank among Year 7 cohort
|
Year 7 percentile
|
truncate
|
ATAR
We shall walk through the process in details with Alex as an example.
. 2 units of English
. 8 units of Category A courses
. 3 ATAR (Category A or B) of 2 units or greater
. 4 subjects
The ATAR is calculated based on the aggregate of 10 units of ATAR courses comprising:
. the best 2 units of English
. the best 8 units from the remaining units, which can include up to 2 units of Category B courses.
The process of determinating the ATAR is as follows:
ATAR courses: HSC mark
|
scaling
|
scaled mark
|
sum all ATAR-eligible courses
|
aggregate
|
rank among all ATAR-eligible students
|
ATAR percentile
|
rank among Year 7 cohort
|
Year 7 percentile
|
truncate
|
ATAR
We shall walk through the process in details with Alex as an example.
Sunday, August 4, 2013
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.
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.
Saturday, July 27, 2013
HSC and ATAR (5 of 10) - Moderation of Assessment Marks
Assessment Mark
For each HSC course Alex undertakes in Year 12, he completes the required assessment tasks as mandated by the school. Once the assessments are complete, the school submits the total assessment mark (called raw assessment mark) together with the rank order in his year group for each course to the Board of Studies (BOS):
Raw
Course Unit assessment mark Rank
Economics 2 80/100 15
English Advanced 2 90/100 1
Maths Ext. 1 2 75/100 8
Maths Ext. 2 2 85/100 4
Modern History 2 72/100 38
History Ext. 1 45/50 2
As different schools may use different programs of assessment tasks and have slightly different marking criteria, all school-submitted assessment marks are moderated by BOS in order to maintain fairness across schools. While the raw assessment marks might be influenced by individual schools, the HSC examination is used as a common scale to allow schools to be compared fairly as all students sit together in the open examination. The moderation process re-distributes the total raw examination marks of each HSC course obtained by the individual school during the HSC examination to all its students according to the students' performance in school (i.e. according to the ranking and their relative performance of each student in the school assessment). The process may sound complicated, but let's illustrate using Alex and his High School in one HSC course as an example.
Assuming Alex's class in Year 12 in his High School has 6 students (just hypothetical for simplicity), their raw assessment marks together with the rank order in the English Advanced course are submitted by the school. Their raw examination marks in the English Advanced course are also extracted from the HSC examination:
Raw Raw
Course assessment mark Rank examination mark Rank
Alex 90 1 76 3
Ben 78 2 92 1
Charles 75 3 80 2
Dylan 58 4 60 4
Edward 55 5 50 6
Frank 40 6 51 5
Total 396 409
Mean 66 68
The moderation process works as follows:
1. the top raw assessment mark is adjusted to equal to the top raw examination mark (92).
2. the bottom raw assessment mark is adjusted to equal to the bottom raw examination mark (50)
3. the mean of the raw assessment marks of the school is adjusted to equal to the mean of the raw examination mark of the school (68)
As such, the moderated assessment marks for the English Advanced course of Alex's school are as follows:
Moderated
assessment mark Rank
Alex 92 1
Ben 77 2
Charles 74 3
Dylan 59 4
Edward 57 5
Frank 50 6
Total 409
Mean 68
Note that:
1. the total moderated assessment mark of the school is equal to the total raw examination mark of the school (409), i.e. the total raw examination marks of the school is re-distributed as the moderated assessment marks of the school
2. the rank order of each student in the school assessment is maintained, i.e. Alex remains 1st and Ben remains 2nd, and so on in the raw assessment is the same as those in the moderated assessment
3. the relative performance between students is also maintained, i.e. the relative gaps between Alex/Ben, Ben/Charles etc in the raw assessment are the same as those in the moderated assessment.
The process is then repeated for all other courses Alex undertakes, and Alex's moderated assessment marks are calculated as follows:
Moderated
Course Unit assessment mark
Economics 2 85/100
English Advanced 2 92/100
Maths Ext. 1 2 74/100
Maths Ext. 2 2 80/100
Modern History 2 70/100
History Ext. 1 44/50
After moderation, the school assessments (the assessment marks) are now on the same scale as the HSC examination (the examination marks), and are deemed fair across all schools. To cater for the difference in students' performance in different year, the moderated assessment marks are further aligned to the performance bands according to the current year's cut-offs similar to the alignment process of the raw examination marks. Alex's reported assessment marks are then calculated as follows:
Reported
Course Unit assessment mark
Economics 2 92/100
English Advanced 2 96/100
Maths Ext. 1 2 80/100
Maths Ext. 2 2 88/100
Modern History 2 76/100
History Ext. 1 47/50
For each HSC course Alex undertakes in Year 12, he completes the required assessment tasks as mandated by the school. Once the assessments are complete, the school submits the total assessment mark (called raw assessment mark) together with the rank order in his year group for each course to the Board of Studies (BOS):
Raw
Course Unit assessment mark Rank
Economics 2 80/100 15
English Advanced 2 90/100 1
Maths Ext. 1 2 75/100 8
Maths Ext. 2 2 85/100 4
Modern History 2 72/100 38
History Ext. 1 45/50 2
As different schools may use different programs of assessment tasks and have slightly different marking criteria, all school-submitted assessment marks are moderated by BOS in order to maintain fairness across schools. While the raw assessment marks might be influenced by individual schools, the HSC examination is used as a common scale to allow schools to be compared fairly as all students sit together in the open examination. The moderation process re-distributes the total raw examination marks of each HSC course obtained by the individual school during the HSC examination to all its students according to the students' performance in school (i.e. according to the ranking and their relative performance of each student in the school assessment). The process may sound complicated, but let's illustrate using Alex and his High School in one HSC course as an example.
Assuming Alex's class in Year 12 in his High School has 6 students (just hypothetical for simplicity), their raw assessment marks together with the rank order in the English Advanced course are submitted by the school. Their raw examination marks in the English Advanced course are also extracted from the HSC examination:
Raw Raw
Course assessment mark Rank examination mark Rank
Alex 90 1 76 3
Ben 78 2 92 1
Charles 75 3 80 2
Dylan 58 4 60 4
Edward 55 5 50 6
Frank 40 6 51 5
Total 396 409
Mean 66 68
The moderation process works as follows:
1. the top raw assessment mark is adjusted to equal to the top raw examination mark (92).
2. the bottom raw assessment mark is adjusted to equal to the bottom raw examination mark (50)
3. the mean of the raw assessment marks of the school is adjusted to equal to the mean of the raw examination mark of the school (68)
4. basing on 1-3 and the statistics of all the raw examination marks of all the students in the school, a concave-up quadratic curve for the moderated assessment marks of all the students in the school is established:
5. individual student's moderated assessment marks are then determined (can be read off) from the above quadratic curve from their raw assessment marks
5. individual student's moderated assessment marks are then determined (can be read off) from the above quadratic curve from their raw assessment marks
As such, the moderated assessment marks for the English Advanced course of Alex's school are as follows:
Moderated
assessment mark Rank
Alex 92 1
Ben 77 2
Charles 74 3
Dylan 59 4
Edward 57 5
Frank 50 6
Total 409
Mean 68
Note that:
1. the total moderated assessment mark of the school is equal to the total raw examination mark of the school (409), i.e. the total raw examination marks of the school is re-distributed as the moderated assessment marks of the school
2. the rank order of each student in the school assessment is maintained, i.e. Alex remains 1st and Ben remains 2nd, and so on in the raw assessment is the same as those in the moderated assessment
3. the relative performance between students is also maintained, i.e. the relative gaps between Alex/Ben, Ben/Charles etc in the raw assessment are the same as those in the moderated assessment.
The process is then repeated for all other courses Alex undertakes, and Alex's moderated assessment marks are calculated as follows:
Moderated
Course Unit assessment mark
Economics 2 85/100
English Advanced 2 92/100
Maths Ext. 1 2 74/100
Maths Ext. 2 2 80/100
Modern History 2 70/100
History Ext. 1 44/50
After moderation, the school assessments (the assessment marks) are now on the same scale as the HSC examination (the examination marks), and are deemed fair across all schools. To cater for the difference in students' performance in different year, the moderated assessment marks are further aligned to the performance bands according to the current year's cut-offs similar to the alignment process of the raw examination marks. Alex's reported assessment marks are then calculated as follows:
Reported
Course Unit assessment mark
Economics 2 92/100
English Advanced 2 96/100
Maths Ext. 1 2 80/100
Maths Ext. 2 2 88/100
Modern History 2 76/100
History Ext. 1 47/50
Friday, July 19, 2013
HSC and ATAR (4 of 10) - Alignment of Examination Marks
Result of each HSC course is determined by Board of Studies (BOS) based on 50% from the HSC examination and 50% from the school assessment tasks.
Examination Mark
Alex undertakes a set of HSC courses and sits for the HSC examinations. The marks he obtains for each course from the examinations (called raw examination marks) are as follows:
Course Unit Raw exam mark
Economics 2 78/100
English Advanced 2 76/100
Maths Ext. 1 2 69/100
Maths Ext. 2 2 70/100
Modern History 2 68/100
History Ext. 1 47/50
To cater for the difference in students's performance in difference years, the cut-off marks (the minimum marks in the current year) in each performance bands are set by BOS as mentioned in previous blog. Alex's raw examination marks are then aligned to the performance bands based on current year's cut-offs, e.g. The current year's cut-off marks of 2-unit courses for Band 5 is 74 and for Band 6 is 82. With Alex's raw examination mark of 78 for Economics (which is half way between Band 5 and Band 6), Alex's mark for Economics after the alignment (called the reported examination mark) would be reported as 85. Likewise, Alex's raw examination mark of 76 for English Advanced is 1/4 above Band 5, and is aligned and reported as 83 accordingly. The process is repeated for each course that Alex undertakes, and the reported examination marks are then calculated as follows:
Course Unit Reported exam mark
Economics 2 85/100
English Advanced 2 83/100
Maths Ext. 1 2 75/100
Maths Ext. 2 2 80/100
Modern History 2 74/100
History Ext. 1 46/50
Examination Mark
Alex undertakes a set of HSC courses and sits for the HSC examinations. The marks he obtains for each course from the examinations (called raw examination marks) are as follows:
Course Unit Raw exam mark
Economics 2 78/100
English Advanced 2 76/100
Maths Ext. 1 2 69/100
Maths Ext. 2 2 70/100
Modern History 2 68/100
History Ext. 1 47/50
To cater for the difference in students's performance in difference years, the cut-off marks (the minimum marks in the current year) in each performance bands are set by BOS as mentioned in previous blog. Alex's raw examination marks are then aligned to the performance bands based on current year's cut-offs, e.g. The current year's cut-off marks of 2-unit courses for Band 5 is 74 and for Band 6 is 82. With Alex's raw examination mark of 78 for Economics (which is half way between Band 5 and Band 6), Alex's mark for Economics after the alignment (called the reported examination mark) would be reported as 85. Likewise, Alex's raw examination mark of 76 for English Advanced is 1/4 above Band 5, and is aligned and reported as 83 accordingly. The process is repeated for each course that Alex undertakes, and the reported examination marks are then calculated as follows:
Course Unit Reported exam mark
Economics 2 85/100
English Advanced 2 83/100
Maths Ext. 1 2 75/100
Maths Ext. 2 2 80/100
Modern History 2 74/100
History Ext. 1 46/50
Saturday, July 6, 2013
HSC and ATAR (3 of 10) - Determining the HSC Result
A student's achievement in the HSC consists of the results in each of the HSC courses they study. The achievement of each course is determined and reported by the Board of Studies (BOS) with 50% based on the open HSC examinations and 50% based on the assessment tasks completed in individual school in Year 12. The process of determining the HSC result of each course is as follows:
HSC course: HSC examination Assessment tasks
| |
| submitted
marked by school
| |
raw raw
examination mark assessment mark
| |
| moderation
| |
| moderated
| assessment mark
| |
alignment alignment
| |
HSC mark: reported reported
| examination mark assessment mark
|
Performance band
Before we walk through the process of determining the HSC result, we first give some explanations of the performance band standards defined by BOS.
Performance Band Stardards
Performance of the achievement is measured against standard performance bands. Marks obtained for each course are divided into bands and each band aligns with a description of a typical performance by a student within that mark range. For 2-unit courses, there are 6 performance bands (1-6) with Band 6 being the highest level of performance. For Extension courses, there are 4 performance bands (E1-E4) with Band E4 being the highest. The standard Performance Bands and the corresponding mark ranges defined by BOS are as follows:
2-unit courses
Band 1 2 3 4 5 6
Mark range 0-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 80-89 90-100
Extension courses (except Mathematics Extension 2)
Band E1 E2 E3 E4
Mark range 0-24 25-34 35-44 45-50
Mathematics Extension 2
Band E1 E2 E3 E4
Mark range 0-49 50-69 70-89 90-100
As students' performance in the HSC may be different in different years due to differences in examination papers and marking criteria etc., a procedure is used to enable the raw examination marks awarded each year to be aligned to the standard performance bands. BOS looks at critical information each year like statistical data and student responses to produce a set of cut-off marks for each performance band. e.g. Based on current year's student performance, BOS may set 82 to be the minimum mark required for Band 6, 74 for Band 5, and so on. The cut-off marks for the standard performanc bands for 2-unit courses in the current year may be set as follows:
2-unit courses
Band 1 2 3 4 5 6
Cut-off 0 45 55 64 74 82
Extension courses (except Mathematics Extension 2)
Band E1 E2 E3 E4
Cut-off 0 20 32 40
Mathematics Extension 2
Band E1 E2 E3 E4
Cut-off 0 45 60 80
We shall walk through the process of determining the HSC result with the example of Alex in the current year HSC.
HSC course: HSC examination Assessment tasks
| |
| submitted
marked by school
| |
raw raw
examination mark assessment mark
| |
| moderation
| |
| moderated
| assessment mark
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alignment alignment
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HSC mark: reported reported
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Performance band
Before we walk through the process of determining the HSC result, we first give some explanations of the performance band standards defined by BOS.
Performance Band Stardards
Performance of the achievement is measured against standard performance bands. Marks obtained for each course are divided into bands and each band aligns with a description of a typical performance by a student within that mark range. For 2-unit courses, there are 6 performance bands (1-6) with Band 6 being the highest level of performance. For Extension courses, there are 4 performance bands (E1-E4) with Band E4 being the highest. The standard Performance Bands and the corresponding mark ranges defined by BOS are as follows:
2-unit courses
Band 1 2 3 4 5 6
Mark range 0-49 50-59 60-69 70-79 80-89 90-100
Extension courses (except Mathematics Extension 2)
Band E1 E2 E3 E4
Mark range 0-24 25-34 35-44 45-50
Mathematics Extension 2
Band E1 E2 E3 E4
Mark range 0-49 50-69 70-89 90-100
As students' performance in the HSC may be different in different years due to differences in examination papers and marking criteria etc., a procedure is used to enable the raw examination marks awarded each year to be aligned to the standard performance bands. BOS looks at critical information each year like statistical data and student responses to produce a set of cut-off marks for each performance band. e.g. Based on current year's student performance, BOS may set 82 to be the minimum mark required for Band 6, 74 for Band 5, and so on. The cut-off marks for the standard performanc bands for 2-unit courses in the current year may be set as follows:
2-unit courses
Band 1 2 3 4 5 6
Cut-off 0 45 55 64 74 82
Extension courses (except Mathematics Extension 2)
Band E1 E2 E3 E4
Cut-off 0 20 32 40
Mathematics Extension 2
Band E1 E2 E3 E4
Cut-off 0 45 60 80
We shall walk through the process of determining the HSC result with the example of Alex in the current year HSC.
Friday, June 28, 2013
HSC and ATAR (2 of 10) - HSC Courses and ATAR Courses
The High School Certificate (HSC) is a certificate awarded to High School leavers and issued by the NSW Board of Studies (BOS). It marks the completion of 13 years of schooling (K-12), presents a profile of the student's academic achievements and is the gateway to further tertiary education and employment.
To be eligible for an HSC, a student must:
. complete satisfactorily at least 12 units of HSC courses in the Preliminary year (Year 11) and at least 10 units of HSC courses in the HSC year (Year 12)
. complete satisfactorily assessment tasks mandated by the individual school for each course
. sit for the HSC examinations with the rest of the state in the HSC year.
The HSC courses to be selected must include:
. 2 units of English
. at least 6 units of Board Developed courses
. 3 courses of 2 units or greater
. 4 subjects (A subject is an area of study which may have several different courses. e.g. within the subject English, courses include English Standard, English Advanced, English Extension 1 and English Extension 2).
HSC courses are mostly worth 2 units (100 marks) while some, including Extension courses are worth 1 unit (50 marks), indicating relatively the amount of effort and time needed to be spent in the course. As a general guideline, a 1-unit value represents class time of approximately 2 hours per week (60 hours per year). Examples of non-extension 1-unit and 2-unit courses include.
Course Subject Unit
Studies of Religion I Studies of Religion 1
Studies of Religion II Studies of Religion 2
Extension Courses
In general, extension courses are of 1-unit value (except Mathematics Extension 1 and Mathematics Extension 2). They must be taken in conjunction with the corresponding 2-unit courses. In addition, some other rules also apply:
1. there are 3 2-unit English courses: English (ESL), English (Standard) and English (Advanced). However, English Extension 1 (1-unit) has to be taken in conjunction with English (Advanced) only. English Extension 2 (1-unit) has to be taken in conjunction with English (Advanced) and English Extension 1.
2. there are 2 2-unit Mathematics courses: General Mathematics and Mathematics. However, Mathematics Extension 1 has to be taken in conjunction with Mathematics only. Mathematics Extension 2 (which is the only extension course with 2 units) has to be taken in conjunction with Mathematics Extension 1.
Mathematics Extension 1, when taken with Mathematics (2-unit) is regarded as 1 unit. When taken with Mathematics Extension 2 (2-unit), it is regarded as 2 units.
3. there are 2 2-unit Music courses: Music 1 and Music 2. However, Music Extension (1-unit) has to be taken in conjunction with Music 2 only.
4. History Extension (1-unit) can be taken in conjunction with either Ancient History (2-unit) or Modern History (2-unit).
5. The Language Extension courses (1-unit) e.g. French Extension etc. have to be taken in conjunction with the corresponding Language Continuers courses (2-unit) e.g. French Continuers etc.
HSC courses are either Board Developed courses or Board Endorsed courses.
Board Developed courses are set and examined by the BOS, which also contribute to the calculation of the ATAR (hence also known as ATAR courses). They are classified as either Category A or Category B courses. Category A courses are academically intensive which require in-depth knowledge to provide sufficient background for tertairy studies. Category B courses do not provide an adequate background for tertiary studies, but they can contribute to the ATAR when combined with Category A courses. Examples of Board Developed courses (ATAR courses) in 2013 include:
Category A courses
Course Subject Unit
Agriculture Agriculture 2
English Standard English 2
English Advanced English 2
English Extension 1 English 1
English Extension 2 English 1
Legal Studies Legal Studies 2
Category B courses
Hospitality Hospitality 2
Human Services Human Services 2
Board Endorsed courses are courses developed by schools, TAFE or universities and endorsed by the BOS to cater for areas of special interests not covered in Board Developed courses. They count towards the HSC, but do not count towards the calculation of ATAR. Examples of Board Endorsed courses in 2013 include:
Course Subject Unit
Advertising Media Advertising Media 2
Desktop Publishing Desktop Publishing 2
To be eligible for an ATAR, a student must complete satisfactorily at least 10 units of ATAR courses including at least:
. 2 units of English
. 8 units of Category A courses
. 3 ATAR courses (Category A or B) of 2 units or greater
. 4 subjects.
In order to continue the study for tertiary education, a student has to select the required numbers of units of ATAR courses of his interest for study in Year 11 and Year 12, complete satifactorily assessment tasks for each course and sit for the open HSC examinations in Year 12 with the rest of the state.
To be eligible for an HSC, a student must:
. complete satisfactorily at least 12 units of HSC courses in the Preliminary year (Year 11) and at least 10 units of HSC courses in the HSC year (Year 12)
. complete satisfactorily assessment tasks mandated by the individual school for each course
. sit for the HSC examinations with the rest of the state in the HSC year.
The HSC courses to be selected must include:
. 2 units of English
. at least 6 units of Board Developed courses
. 3 courses of 2 units or greater
. 4 subjects (A subject is an area of study which may have several different courses. e.g. within the subject English, courses include English Standard, English Advanced, English Extension 1 and English Extension 2).
HSC courses are mostly worth 2 units (100 marks) while some, including Extension courses are worth 1 unit (50 marks), indicating relatively the amount of effort and time needed to be spent in the course. As a general guideline, a 1-unit value represents class time of approximately 2 hours per week (60 hours per year). Examples of non-extension 1-unit and 2-unit courses include.
Course Subject Unit
Studies of Religion I Studies of Religion 1
Studies of Religion II Studies of Religion 2
Extension Courses
In general, extension courses are of 1-unit value (except Mathematics Extension 1 and Mathematics Extension 2). They must be taken in conjunction with the corresponding 2-unit courses. In addition, some other rules also apply:
1. there are 3 2-unit English courses: English (ESL), English (Standard) and English (Advanced). However, English Extension 1 (1-unit) has to be taken in conjunction with English (Advanced) only. English Extension 2 (1-unit) has to be taken in conjunction with English (Advanced) and English Extension 1.
2. there are 2 2-unit Mathematics courses: General Mathematics and Mathematics. However, Mathematics Extension 1 has to be taken in conjunction with Mathematics only. Mathematics Extension 2 (which is the only extension course with 2 units) has to be taken in conjunction with Mathematics Extension 1.
Mathematics Extension 1, when taken with Mathematics (2-unit) is regarded as 1 unit. When taken with Mathematics Extension 2 (2-unit), it is regarded as 2 units.
3. there are 2 2-unit Music courses: Music 1 and Music 2. However, Music Extension (1-unit) has to be taken in conjunction with Music 2 only.
4. History Extension (1-unit) can be taken in conjunction with either Ancient History (2-unit) or Modern History (2-unit).
5. The Language Extension courses (1-unit) e.g. French Extension etc. have to be taken in conjunction with the corresponding Language Continuers courses (2-unit) e.g. French Continuers etc.
HSC courses are either Board Developed courses or Board Endorsed courses.
Board Developed courses are set and examined by the BOS, which also contribute to the calculation of the ATAR (hence also known as ATAR courses). They are classified as either Category A or Category B courses. Category A courses are academically intensive which require in-depth knowledge to provide sufficient background for tertairy studies. Category B courses do not provide an adequate background for tertiary studies, but they can contribute to the ATAR when combined with Category A courses. Examples of Board Developed courses (ATAR courses) in 2013 include:
Category A courses
Course Subject Unit
Agriculture Agriculture 2
English Standard English 2
English Advanced English 2
English Extension 1 English 1
English Extension 2 English 1
Legal Studies Legal Studies 2
Category B courses
Hospitality Hospitality 2
Human Services Human Services 2
Board Endorsed courses are courses developed by schools, TAFE or universities and endorsed by the BOS to cater for areas of special interests not covered in Board Developed courses. They count towards the HSC, but do not count towards the calculation of ATAR. Examples of Board Endorsed courses in 2013 include:
Course Subject Unit
Advertising Media Advertising Media 2
Desktop Publishing Desktop Publishing 2
To be eligible for an ATAR, a student must complete satisfactorily at least 10 units of ATAR courses including at least:
. 2 units of English
. 8 units of Category A courses
. 3 ATAR courses (Category A or B) of 2 units or greater
. 4 subjects.
In order to continue the study for tertiary education, a student has to select the required numbers of units of ATAR courses of his interest for study in Year 11 and Year 12, complete satifactorily assessment tasks for each course and sit for the open HSC examinations in Year 12 with the rest of the state.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
HSC and ATAR (1 of 10) - University Entry and ATAR
This series of blogs on HSC and ATAR tries to give an easy-to-understand explanation on the various processes of determining the HSC result and calculation of ATAR based on the understandings from various documentations from the NSW Board of Studies (BOS) and Universities Admission Centre (UAC).
Every year, over 50,000 Year 12 students in NSW finish their high school studies, sit for an open High School Certificate (HSC) examination and apply through the UAC for admissions to universities to begin their tertiary education. As spaces for university entrance are usually limited, entries to some particular courses in particular universities are very competitive. As such, UAC has to rank the applicants using their Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) to allow selections to take place.
ATAR is a number between 0.00 and 99.95 with increments of 0.05. It is a rank (not a mark) that indicates the position of a student in the HSC in relation to all other students of his same year group. e.g. A student with an ATAR of 80.25 indicates that his performance in the HSC is better than 80.25% of all students in his same year group.
Admission to particular courses in a particular university is subject to selection on the basis of ATAR. In general, student has to achieve a minimum ATAR (called the ATAR cut-off) in order to be considered for admission. To give some idea, the ATAR cut-offs of some courses in the University of New South Wales in 2013 are as follows:
Course ATAR cut-off
Arts 78.00
Actuarial Studies 97.00
Commerce 96.30
Economics 93.00
Combined Law 99.65
Science 83.05
As shown above, a student has to achieve an ATAR of at least 99.65 before he can be considered for admission to study for Combined Law degrees in the University of New South Sales, i.e. his performance in the HSC has to be better than 99.65% of all other students.
The ATAR is calculated by UAC from the HSC result provided by BOS, and is based on the student's academic achievement in the HSC (consisting of 50% from HSC examinations and 50% from school assessments) in relation to that of all other students.
HSC Result
HSC examinations -----------> ATAR
School assessments
BOS UAC
Every year, over 50,000 Year 12 students in NSW finish their high school studies, sit for an open High School Certificate (HSC) examination and apply through the UAC for admissions to universities to begin their tertiary education. As spaces for university entrance are usually limited, entries to some particular courses in particular universities are very competitive. As such, UAC has to rank the applicants using their Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) to allow selections to take place.
ATAR is a number between 0.00 and 99.95 with increments of 0.05. It is a rank (not a mark) that indicates the position of a student in the HSC in relation to all other students of his same year group. e.g. A student with an ATAR of 80.25 indicates that his performance in the HSC is better than 80.25% of all students in his same year group.
Admission to particular courses in a particular university is subject to selection on the basis of ATAR. In general, student has to achieve a minimum ATAR (called the ATAR cut-off) in order to be considered for admission. To give some idea, the ATAR cut-offs of some courses in the University of New South Wales in 2013 are as follows:
Course ATAR cut-off
Arts 78.00
Actuarial Studies 97.00
Commerce 96.30
Economics 93.00
Combined Law 99.65
Science 83.05
As shown above, a student has to achieve an ATAR of at least 99.65 before he can be considered for admission to study for Combined Law degrees in the University of New South Sales, i.e. his performance in the HSC has to be better than 99.65% of all other students.
The ATAR is calculated by UAC from the HSC result provided by BOS, and is based on the student's academic achievement in the HSC (consisting of 50% from HSC examinations and 50% from school assessments) in relation to that of all other students.
HSC Result
HSC examinations -----------> ATAR
School assessments
BOS UAC
Monday, June 3, 2013
Vincent (Starry Starry Night)
Vincent Van Gogh - Starry Night
Beauty + Beauty = Beauty
Released in the 1971 album 'American Pie', 'Vincent' is a song written by Don McLean as a tribute to Vincent Van Gogh. The song is also known by its opening phrase, 'Starry Starry Night', as reference to Van Gogh's famous painting 'Starry Night'.
Vincent Van Gogh (1853 - 1890) was a Dutch painter. Van Gogh produced some 900 paintings in his life, notable for their beauty, emotions and colours. Despite his talent, Van Gogh remained poor and virtually unknown throughout his entire life. Rumour had it that he sold only one painting during his life as his work was largely unrecognised at that time. Perhaps it was this that caused him to fall into an abyse of depression in the later part of his life which eventually led to his gunshot suicide. Van Gogh died at the age of 37.
'Starry Night' was the painting produced by Van Gogh a year before his death when he was suffering heavily from his mental illness.
Don Mclean (born 1945) is an American singer and songwriter. Don wrote the song and lyrics of 'Vincent' in 1971 after reading the biography about the life of Vincent Van Gogh. Next year in 1972, the song became the No. 1 hit single in the U.K. 'Vincent' not only demonstrates Don's admiration for the work of Van Gogh, but also lingers on the facts that the painter's work was not appreciated and the artist killed himself to free from the suffering of his deteriorating mental health.
Don reached the climax of his career with the album 'American Pie' in 1971, and 'Vincent' is one of the hits in the album.
For several years, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam played the song daily. A copy of the sheet music is in a safe beneath the museum, along with a set of Van Gogh's paint brushes, the hat he wore while painting Starry Night and various other items.
Now please relax and enjoy Don Mclean's music and Vincent Van Gogh's paintings.
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