Learn to use the HSC Standards Packages

For almost all HSC subjects, the Board of Studies has standards packages publicly available for students to read http://arc.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/go/hsc/std-packs/. We recommend students look at the standards packages for their subjects – they will give you an idea of the quality required for a band 6 response. Standards packages are particularly useful for humanities subjects like HSC English where your expression and writing style also come into play. Get a feeling of what’s acceptable expression, and details like general paragraph length, the way literary techniques are referenced, how often a text is quoted and the length of quotes etc. Even if technically your knowledge is as good as anyone’s, a poorly structured essay (where you use poor expression, or reference the text in superficial ways or spend too much time on insignificant points etc) will mean the difference between a band 4/5 and a band 6.

Familiarity with the standards packages will also help with subjects like HSC Chemistry, Physics, Biology and the social sciences (Economics, Business Studies etc). In the case of the HSC Sciences, they give you fresh ideas of novel, acceptable ways of structuring your answer. Some questions can be fully answered in terms of a table or as a dot-point list (e.g. identify / outline questions). Also note the details featured in diagrams / graphs – full marks are given to students that remember details such as labelling the axes, or drawing a line / curve of best fit properly (ignoring outliers in appropriate situations) and being able to justify the choices made.

HSC sciences – always refer to the syllabus

HSC sciences like Chemistry, Physics and Biology, are prescriptive by nature. This means the syllabus tells you exactly what you need to know, content wise, and does a great job at that. While studying for these subjects, it’s always a good idea to have the syllabus in front of you, printed or on your computer screen. The dot-points give you a clear picture of what you need to know, and the scope to which you need to know each aspect of the course. For example, if a dot-point requires you to merely identify the qualitative aspects, this means you only need to be able to name the aspects it’s referring to, and qualitative means you won’t be required to do calculations on them.

Another reason is some syllabus dot-points are worded as if they are paraphrased exam questions. This is particularly true for dot-points requiring you to ‘Discuss the impacts on society of…” or “Assess the environmental impact of…”. You very well might get an exam question, worth around 7 marks, that basically asks you to demonstrate your entire understanding of one of those dot-points if they ask you in a general way.

Be careful for internal assessments however, as school teachers are known to set exam questions that are dubious in terms of whether they fit within the scope of the syllabus, so you must also cross reference your own materials with the notes given by your school teacher to make sure all gaps are covered.

HSC Maths – only do exam questions

When it comes to maths, exam questions and textbook questions aren’t the same. The former type are often are structured as a compound question with several subparts. Exam question are often designed with deeper consideration, and incorporates more unique aspects of mathematics (e.g. in Maths Extension 2 question 7 and 8). In contrast, textbook questions can get repetitive and give you a false sense of security. Because textbook questions lack variation in style, once you master the several types of questions it contains and are able to do its exercises, this does not mean you’ve experienced all types of questions an exam can throw at you, particularly if you go to a school that has a talented maths department.

There’s a limitation on the types of questions for each topic an exam can throw at you. If you do Maths Extension 1 and 2, it also takes great effort and skill to design a truly novel and unique maths question at that level. As an industry insider (yes I’m a teacher) I can tell you that many schools simply take exam questions from past papers of other schools. When I did my HSC Maths Extension 2, I actively sought out past trial papers from top private and selective schools for practice before my HSC trials. What I noticed was in one year, say 2002, there would be a question in school A’s paper, then in the next year, say 2003, there would be an identical question in school B’s paper. So it’s a good idea as a student to use past papers as practice – there’s definitely more exam papers worth doing than your time would permit, that’s why I recommend only do exam papers instead of textbook questions.

I spoke with a teacher who works at a top Sydney selective school about how their teachers set exam questions for their year 12 students – “We get exam questions from schools that are out of NSW – resources we know typical students don’t have access to”. So while exam questions are definitely recycled, they aren’t always from sources you’d expect. But it’s still worthwhile doing exam papers for practice, purely for the sake of familiarising yourself with the general style of exam questions which you can’t get from any old textbook.

The subjects you choose in year 10 determine how much you will benefit from the process of scaling. Briefly, scaling refers to the process by which raw assessment marks (e.g. from your internal exams and external HSC exams) are converted into scaled marks, which are marks on a common scale that allows the degree of achievement in different subjects to be compared against one another in a statistically fair way. The scaling process is undertaken by the UAC and the result of this process – your aggregate scaled mark (out of 500) – is the sole determinant of your ATAR. Therefore we can safely say that HSC scaling is a big deal if you intend on scoring a high ATAR.

In order to maximise the positive effect of HSC scaling, one must choose courses that are ‘scaled high’ – or in technical terms, have a high scaled mean. The scaled mean for a subject is an important statistic, which tells us the average scaled mark obtained by the subject’s cohort. The higher this statistic for a subject, the higher the subject is scaled generally. Scaled means are publicly available in Table A3 published each year by the UAC.

For full technical details on how the scaling process works, see our article on the topic: http://www.duxcollege.com.au/hsc-scaling-i-49.html

So why is subject selection important

It’s important to get your subject selection right the first time, because there’s limited to no chance to change after you’re well into year 11. Also the beneficial effect of scaling could be huge, or could be non-existent, depending on which subjects you chose. If your goal is to maximise your ATAR, you should also consider the scaling of a subject on top of whether you think you’ll enjoy it. The general rule is to select subjects you’ll be good at, amongst the subjects that offer a scaled mean of 29/50 or above.

What are some good subjects?

Have you noticed a pattern with graduates that score an ATAR of 99+? A significant portion of them do a combination of the following subjects:

• English Advanced
• Maths Extension 1
• Maths Extension 2
• Physics
• Chemistry
• Biology
• Economics
• Modern history
• History Extension
• English Extension 1
• English Extension 2

What these subjects all have in common is that their scaled mean is all above 28/50 (most are around 30, with the best scaling from Maths Ext1 and Ext2 which goes as high as 45/50).

These subjects have higher scaled means due to the way in which the scaling process works. Year after year, the candidature of these subjects does comparatively better than their peers who do other subjects, including compulsory 2 units of English, which is used as a common scale to compare. What this means is that a high scaled mean often indicates higher subject difficulty, due to the fact that those students who do high-scaling subjects tend to do comparatively better than their peers in other subjects.

However, when it comes to advising students on what subjects to choose for year 11, we always advise students to go for as many of the aforementioned subjects as possible – so long as they can handle them.  For example, a student with aptitude and interest in maths should always choose Maths Ext 1 in year 11 – this opens the possibility to take up Extension 2 in year 12, which has a massively positive scaling effect (the majority of ATAR 99+ graduates have completed the Extension 2 course). If a student absolutely hates maths, that’s OK – choose some sciences and some humanities subjects (e.g. English Extension 1 and Modern History with History Extension, or Economics). Many graduates with a combination of humanities and social sciences have scored 99+ without having done any level of maths! What’s important is the ability to understand your own strengths and weaknesses, and choosing decently-scaled subjects based on this understanding.

HSC coaching is an interesting phenomenon, in that it is a symptom of the extremely competitive HSC environment, where students compete for limited places in highly sought after University courses. The fact that an ever-increasing portion of students who score a high ATAR have received some sort of HSC coaching during their senior study makes HSC coaching a self-fulfilling requirement of success to many. What this means is more and more students are finding that they need to attend some sort of HSC coaching service (whether it be private or class tuition) just so they can keep the playing field level with their peers at school. Of course, there are always students who manage to score a high ATAR without any outside assistance, but those remain of the minority.

However, just because HSC coaching is self-fulfilling, this does not discredit the many tangible benefits it brings to young HSC students. Of course, students gain a direct benefit with extra study and exposure to coursework, however there are often additional, less direct benefits of coaching that are often overlooked.

HSC Coaching Provides a Structured Course Schedule

This is one area that many schools, particularly public schools in disadvantaged areas, suffer from (sometimes even selective schools!). Schools often cram the teaching of several difficult topics in a short amount of time after the school’s HSC trial exams are finished. For example, in Maths Extension 2, later topics like Mechanics and Harder 3 Unit are given a fraction of the attention they require, because the faculty could not teach the early part of the course fast enough. Students from such schools have the mindset of “damage minimisation” for the topics that were neglected at school – they are left in the exam struggling to piece together the information from vague memory, because the class teacher had rushed through it so fast to fit it all in the last few weeks before the HSC exams.

Another example is science subjects like HSC Physics and Chemistry – the majority of schools decide to have their internal HSC trials after teaching 3 of the core modules, leaving the last Option topic to be taught in the weeks after the trials. However, in these final few weeks before the HSC exams, teachers also need to allocate time to review the entire course, and students probably have other subjects to worry about before time runs out. The net effect is that the Option topic is often rushed and poorly covered by schools.

An organised HSC coaching / tutoring company will be able to teach the course content in advance of the pace at schools, avoiding the need to rush through and neglect the final topics / modules of a subject in the last few weeks before the HSC exams. You may be wondering, if HSC coaching companies can teach at a faster pace, why don’t schools do this in the first place? The answer is because the students who attend HSC coaching are generally of higher calibre, and can cope with the faster pace, whereas schools need to teach at a pace suitable for the entire class, which may contain lower calibre students, or students who simply don’t care.

HSC Coaching Exposes Students to Healthy Competition

Many students who attend a class tuition type of HSC coaching find that they can mingle with peers outside of their school. The more advanced students often feel unchallenged by their peers at school, and find that high assessment ranks within the school are not difficult to achieve. The benefit of meeting peers outside of school is that students who attend HSC coaching tend to care more about their HSC success and share the goal of ATAR maximisation. By mingling and associating with like minded and higher calibre peers outside of school, HSC coaching can prevent a student from settling in his or her comfort zone from being unchallenged at school.

HSC Coaching Forces Students to Work More in their Critical Final Years of High School

HSC students, still young and relatively inexperienced, often lack the self-discipline to maintain a healthy work ethic necessary for success. While they should have been taught good values, like the importance of setting goals and working hard to achieve them, they still need external forces to keep them on the path to future success.

A quality HSC coaching service will impose a balanced workload on students, and provide a framework for students to set their own goals and work hard throughout the year in achieving them.

For example, the weekly requirement to leave the house and attend classes outside of school to study keeps students’ minds focused on the goal at hand – it is a constant reminder of what their goals are for year 11 and 12, and what they are working towards (entry into a sought-after University course). Being constantly challenged by moving through coursework at a faster pace keeps students focused, and on the ball. When their first exams come, it would seem like revision to tutored students, allowing them to achieve above and beyond the class standard. Early success builds self esteem, sets a precedent of high achievement for the student early in the year, and allows him or her to gather momentum for continued success.

So those are some of the indirect benefits of HSC coaching. What students and parents need to realise is that the overall benefit of HSC coaching is not simply limited to extra study, but also the indirect benefits discussed above.

In all HSC subjects, exam questions are always phrased using the same keywords. For example, you would have seen questions beginning with: “Describe the relationship between…”, “Outline the features of…”, “Compare the perspectives of…”, “Critically evaluate the implications of…” etc.

ALL the questions you encounter in the HSC would be phrased using one of the words in the HSC Glossary of Terms. In order to excel in all your exams, it is essential that you deeply familiarise yourself with the meanings of these ‘HSC words’. For example, know exactly what “Explain” requires you to do; know the difference between ‘Evaluate’ and ‘Assess’; know the difference between ‘Describe’ and ‘Outline’. Knowing the meaning of each word, and what each requires you to do is essential to getting full marks for your answers, especially for longer essay-type responses.

A good place to start is to read the Marking Criteria published for each past HSC exam.

The Marking Criteria

The Marking Criteria for past HSC exams is published every year for every subject. This is an invaluable resource as it lists out the exact criteria on which marks were awarded for each type of question. For example, in science exams (e.g. Physics, Biology or Chemistry) pay close attention to the 7-8 mark ‘Evaluate’ or ‘Analyse and assess’ questions – the marking criteria for these provide valuable information on what HSC markers award marks for. The difference between a 6/7 mark response and a 7/7 mark response is usually very subtle.

Minor details matter

A mark can be lost for a minor detail that the HSC marker was looking for, therefore thorough knowledge of the content (including background information) is necessary for high marks.

For example, Question 23 in the Chemistry 2008 is a typical Haber-Process question for 4 marks: “Using Le Chatelier’s principle, justify the choice of temperature and pressure conditions used to optimise the yield in the Haber process.” For full marks, students needed to identify typical temperatures and pressures used in a modern Haber plant, in addition to answering the question. This may seem confusing at first, since the question could be addressed without needing any real-life examples, but for full marks, the HSC markers required a mention of actual typical temperatures and pressures.

As you read more Marking Criteria, especially for the longer questions, you will familiarise yourself with exactly what the HSC markers are looking for, even if it does not seem obvious at first.

Read sample answers

The Marking Criteria also features sample ‘ideal responses’ that are of a full-mark standard. Read through these and pay close attention to what information they contain. Notice how each sample answer addresses the Marking Criteria for that question, and become familiar with how information can be incorporated to satisfy the Criteria.

Notice also the options available to you in how to structure your answer. For example, in science exams, there’s really very little restriction on what format your response takes, as long as it contains the information the HSC markers are looking for. Just because the writing space in the exam booklet is in dotted lines, this does not mean you are limited only to words in constructing your response. You will notice that even the official sample answers often use tables and diagrams in addition to text. Knowing this fact already puts you ahead of most students.

Practice them!

Apart from reading the Marking Criteria, the best way to familiarise yourself with different ‘HSC words’ is to practice. You should take every opportunity to do more practice exams, particularly actual past HSC papers, as well as exam-style questions. You should have your practice responses looked at by someone experienced, either by a good teacher, or a good HSC tutor.

In class, pay attention to the teacher when he/she discusses the requirements of different keywords. If this topic never comes up in class, request that it be covered before your exams. Ask your teachers if you are unsure about any detail, such as the subtle differences between words that appear synonymous.

Just remember that knowing how to approach different questions is a very important aspect of HSC success, and thus should not be neglected in your study!

Appendix: HSC Glossary of Terms

Source: Board of Studies

Note: merely memorising the definitions of each keyword is not useful enough. Ideally, you should do practice exams, or exam-style questions, and have them marked by someone experienced. At the least, you should read through Marking Criteria and sample responses, and note how each keyword was addressed.

Account, Account for: state reasons for, report on. Give an account of: narrate a series of events or transactions

Analyse: Identify components and the relationship between them; draw out and relate implications

Apply: Use, utilise, employ in a particular situation

Appreciate: Make a judgement about the value of

Assess: Make a judgment of value, quality, outcomes, results or size

Calculate: Ascertain/determine from given facts, figures or information

Clarify: Make clear or plain

Classify: Arrange or include in classes/categories

Compare: Show how things are similar or different

Construct: Make; build; put together items or arguments

Contrast: Show how things are different or opposite

Critically (analyse/evaluate): Add a degree or level of accuracy, depth, knowledge and understanding, logic, questioning, reflection and quality to (analysis/evaluation)

Deduce: Draw conclusions

Define: State meaning and identify essential qualities

Demonstrate: Show by example

Describe: Provide characteristics and features

Discuss: Identify issues and provide points for and/or against

Distinguish: Recognise or note/indicate as being distinct or different from; to note differences between

Evaluate: Make a judgement based on criteria; determine the value of

Examine: Inquire into

Explain: Relate cause and effect; make the relationships between things evident; provide why and/or how

Extract: Choose relevant and/or appropriate details

Extrapolate: Infer from what is known

Identify: Recognise and name

Interpret: Draw meaning from

Investigate: Plan, inquire into and draw conclusions about

Justify: Support an argument or conclusion

Outline: Sketch in general terms; indicate the main features of

Predict: Suggest what may happen based on available information

Propose: Put forward (for example a point of view, idea, argument, suggestion) for consideration or action

Recall: Present remembered ideas, facts or experiences

Recommend: Provide reasons in favour

Recount: Retell a series of events

Summarise: Express, concisely, the relevant details

Synthesise: Putting together various elements to make a whole.

In this article, we’ll take a brief look at what extracurricular activities you can do in high school that would help you with things like scholarships, entry into Medical College or while searching for a job later on.

Worthwhile Extracurricular Activities in High Schoolextracurricular-activities

Sports
As a high school student, the best activity to be involved in for most people is to get into some sort of sporting activities. Sports are an excellent to list on your resume, as it communicates several things to your interviewers:

• You can work in a team (most sports are team-based)
• You are competitive (that’s a great trait to demonstrate for things like scholarships and jobs)
• You are a well-rounded individual (that is to say, you’re not just into computer games or Facebook)

The important thing here is to choose a sport that you truly enjoy. Do more than just play the sport – enter competitions, tournaments etc. This gives you more to talk about in an interview, other than merely saying “Oh I play soccer every weekend”. The point is to separate yourself from the rest – if you stand out, you will have a greater chance of success.

School related positions

High school students can also opt for school-related events or position. If you’re the School Captain, that’s an excellent portfolio. But even if you are not, try to be a School Prefect or an SRC representative. These positions convey that you possess leadership skills – a trait that is very favourably looked upon by interviewers for scholarships, entry into medicine or jobs.

Besides these, volunteer for as many things as you can at school which allows you to take responsibility for something. For example, if you’re good with computers, try to volunteer to help manage the school’s computer networks. If you have a knack for audio equipment, volunteer to help set up the audio equipment for the school hall for each event (e.g. dances, Talent Quests, general assembly’s etc).

Achievements

Extremely competitive activities such as joining the Maths, Chemistry, Physics or Biology Olympiads reflects very well on your abilities in these subject areas, as well as your ability to manage your time effectively. For things like academic scholarships and jobs that require related skills, such activities are worthwhile, should there arise an opportunity.

One-off activities

You can also consider participating in one-off volunteering / fund-raising events, such as things like “40-hour famine” or those like “Duke of Edinburgh” awards. Keep in mind that these are often of lower significance to your resume than on-going activities, or achievements mentioned above. Only do these if you really enjoy them.

During the HSC

You should be more careful about how you spend your time in year 12th. Generally, it is a good idea to pause most of your extracurricular activities once year 12th starts (i.e. end of term 3 of year 11), since HSC is most important at this time. If you can intelligently manage time with your management skills (which is also very important), you can easily choose to continue doing all activities related to school duty.

Of course, the advantage with working harder in the holidays, is that it lightens the load later on in the HSC year. Given that you have 6 weeks of holidays in the summer, it is probably wise to spend 3 or so weeks preparing for your HSC. Every bit of extra preparation translates to results in the HSC, since you only have a year. Once school starts, you may find the pace very fast, and everything examinable is taught once only before the teacher moves on.

So how can you prepare for the year ahead? Study ahead, of course.

This is one of the examples of how successful students study differently from average students. By learning ahead, you gain familiarity of the topics and content that would be taught to your peers for the very first time later in the HSC year. Shortly after this event, the exam comes. So who would do better? The student who has seen the same material before, has experienced and overcome the common pitfalls and challenges, and has had plenty of opportunity to ask their teacher relevant questions before the exam? Or the student who let it all go during the holidays, and had a great time, then learnt the content for the first time at a rush-pace prior to the exams?

Of course, it is perfectly OK to relax during the Holidays – after all, it’s holidays! But now is early January, you’ve already had a couple of weeks to enjoy the Christmas and New Year festivities. You’re now well-rested, relaxed and refreshed. It’s time to get seriously serious!

What can I do in my holidays, on my own?

During the holidays, you’re all on your own. Most likely, your friends are still partying, and probably your teachers too. Tutoring colleges are closed, (except those few running holiday courses), and everyone’s still on holidays. So whatever self-study you do, it would have to be something you can do by yourself.

Luckily, for most students, teachers and tutoring helps most AFTER you’ve done some self-reading. With some self-discipline and solid effort, core content can be learned on your own.

For science subjects

Read a GOOD textbook.

For Chemistry, pick up a copy of Conquering Chemistry, or Chemistry in Contexts, and read as much as you can. For Physics, you can’t go wrong with Jacaranda, or Macquarie. As a guideline, completely revise the first module (you would have done this at school in term 4, 2009) and read the entire second module. If you have our notes from term 4, re-read all of them too! Avoid the Excel ones as they are a bit superficial in depth.

Don’t worry about practice questions yet, but make sure you UNDERSTAND concepts

At this early stage, don’t get too caught up with practice questions. Do one or two per section to test your knowledge, then move on. Remember, you have other subjects to study for! The most important thing is to UNDERSTAND the concepts. For example, make sure you KNOW how Lenz’s law works, how those right-hand push/palm/grip rules work, etc.

Read the syllabus and reconcile it with what you’ve read in textbooks

After you’ve read the textbooks, read through the syllabus for the modules you studied, and make sure every dot-point in those modules have been covered by what you’ve read. It’s a good idea to do this after you read the textbooks, as textbooks often give you richer background information necessary to understand the full picture of certain concepts. However you can choose to read the syllabus before you start reading textbooks.

For mathematics

Do exercises off a good textbook

Mathematics is really a practice game. The more practice you get, the more experienced you become. There are only so many ways a maths question can be designed for any topic area, and the more experience you have, the less likely you will be caught unaware in the exam. Simple, really, but success in maths requires dedication, which is easier said than done.

Good textbooks are Fitzpatrick (for 2U and 3U), Cambridge, and don’t forget the forgotten classics like Coroneos (excellent for 4 unit harder questions).

For English

Read your texts in advance

Find how what novels you need to read, and read through them these holidays. This subject is probably the easiest to study ahead for, as it involves a leisure activity (for some) – reading!

Just be aware of the thematic considerations that are relevant to your module as you read through your texts.

Whether you do 2 unit maths, maths extension 1, or maths extension 2, doing well in HSC mathematics requires a similar strategy. In this article, we will briefly look at what makes a successful HSC maths student, as well as some exam preparation techniques which would be relevant to students today, as most have their all-important HSC trials and HSC exams coming up in the next few weeks.

Seeing connections between HSC topics
The most common characteristic shared by successful HSC maths students is their ability to see connections and patterns between the various topics of maths. This is important, as many questions are not worded in an immediately straightforward manner.
For example, a 4 unit (Extension 2) question may initially appear to be an integration question, but in part b or c, knowledge of polynomial roots or complex numbers needs to be used. Similarly, such questions involving a mesh of different topics are also common in 2 unit math and 3 unit (Extension 1).

Practice makes perfect

Training for mathematics is much like training for sports. Your core skills ultimately comes down to how much practice you have had. There is a limited number of ways an exam can ask you questions. If you have gone through two or three complete (reputable) HSC maths textbooks, good chances are that you have seen most of the ways questions can be asked.

Therefore, doing well in HSC maths, regardless of what level of maths you do, comes down to simple practice. This piece of advice is the most simple to describe and understand, but the most difficult to implement and follow through. The key is to set yourself an ongoing goal – decide how much exercises or hours you can do every day or week, then persevere.

Build up a habit for the long run and stick to it. Focus on sustainability, rather than studying for the short term. For example, if you can get into a simple habit of studying just an hour, purely dedicated to mathematics, on each school night, this would be so much more useful than being highly motivated for a period of a few weeks prior to exams, but being unmotivated throughout the year.

Convert real facts into a mathematical problem

Longer, more difficult maths questions tend to be phrased as a problem question. There is no rule of thumb as to which topics can be phrased in a long-worded question – any topic can be presented this way. However, some topics tend to have a greater abundance of such worded problems. For example, in maths Extension 1, there’s Applications of Calculus, which includes things like projectile motion and Newton’s Law of Cooling. In maths Extension 2, there’s even more! (Mechanics, volumes, conics, complex numbers and most of Harder 3 unit – to name a few).

Some students find it difficult to convert a worded scenario or problem into a mathematical / numerical problem. The issue is that students are mostly taught to think in terms of numbers and algebraic expressions, but only occasionally (or for some, rarely) get to practice on real-world worded problem questions. A good maths student would have had plenty of practice at synthesising complex worded facts into a numerical problem, especially by the time they need to prepare for their HSC trials and HSC exams.
In terms of good preparation, it is good to pay close attention to questions which are long, have multiple parts and represent mathematics in some real-world application. Doing these questions (and asking your tutor / teacher questions if necessary) will give you adequate preparation.

Avoid over-relying on your calculator

This point is not talked about much, probably because it is not raised often. But I’d like to shed some light on the issue. Pulling out your calculator for every arithmetic operation (e.g. you need to add single digit coefficients together) wastes your exam time, and increases the risk of pressing something wrong. In the end, for the more simple operations (e.g. adding / multiplying single or even double digits) is simply done faster in your head, than with a calculator.

I remember, not long ago while supervising an exam at university, I saw a first-year student take out his calculator and press 2 + 2 =. Maybe I have a strange sense of humour but I found the incident funny and memorable. However this does highlight a current issue for some HSC students. For some students, it has come down to total reliance on their calculator for all arithmetic calculations, even simple ones that ought to have been done mentally without a doubt.

I always tell my students, you can do an entire Extension 2 exam without touching your calculator. Most of the more advanced students know this. To minimise the incidence of human error, again, this comes down to practice. In everyday life, whenever you come across a situation where you need to add / multiply / subtract or even divide, (e.g. when shopping, or on the train, or at school etc) you should do the math in your head. Break the instinct of moving to grab your calculator. Think of the brain as like a muscle – the more mental exercises you give it, the better it will become.

How will the ATAR affect me? The ATAR is a similar (but not identical) rank-based scale used to differentiate student performance for the purpose of university admissions. Like the UAI, the ATAR is a rank-based index, meaning the same rules of HSC scaling would apply under the ATAR.

Students should remember that just like under the UAI system, it is your rank relative to other HSC students which determine what ATAR / UAI you will receive. That is, based on your aggregate mark (out of 500), your percentile position will be calculated, and this will be directly converted into an ATAR. As a result, the number will change when converting from UAI to ATAR, however your rank remains the same. As a result, university ATAR cut-offs for all courses will be converted to match the previous equivalent rank cut-off.

For example, say Bachelor of Commerce at UNSW has a UAI cut-off of 90.00. Say this translates to a rank cut-off at the 8,800th student from the top rank. The ATAR cut-off would be adjusted to match the rank, and not be converted according to some arbitrary process. E.g. according to UAC’s published UAI to ATAR conversion table, a UAI of 90 converts to an ATAR of 90.80.

Converting from UAI to ATAR score

Read UAC’s full conversion table here.

Because both the UAI and the ATAR are rank-based scores, they are directly comparable to previous years’ UAI scores. So if you have an older brother or sister and want to best them in the HSC, the implementation of the ATAR system won’t affect that! Notice that the highest attainable ATAR is 99.95 (instead of a UAI of 100). As a result, UAI’s near 100 (above 99.7) are converted to a slightly lower ATAR score, and all UAI’s lower than 99.2 are converted to a slightly higher ATAR. For the vast majority of students, this makes their university entrance score look slightly better! However, again we remind you that your rank is not affected by these changes, and therefore the difference in numbers between the ATAR and UAI make no difference to you.

Scaled marks versus HSC marks

A commonly misunderstood concept is the relationship between HSC marks and scaled marks. HSC marks are the marks the Board of Studies awards you, and appear on your Record of Achievement. These marks determine which performance band you fall in (e.g. Band 6 or E4) for each of your HSC subjects. These marks measure how well you did according to the subject’s requirements. E.g. if you received a Band 6 in English Advanced, it means your performance satisfied all the criteria required by the HSC English syllabus to achieve a Band 6. However, in any year, any amount of HSC students can get a Band 6. For example, in a particularly smart year, a higher proportion of students may receive Band 6 in English Advanced. It is not how well you do in your subject, but rather, how well you do relative to other students which determine your UAI. Here’s where your scaled marks come into play.

Your scaled marks will NOT be shown to you at the end of your HSC, as you will only be shown your HSC marks (aligned marks, to be precise). Ironically, it is your scaled marks which are the most important determinant to your UAI. Scaled marks are calculated by the UAC (not the BOS) under a totally different process. Basically, these marks measure your performance relative to other students. (For a more technically accurate discussion on scaled marks and what they mean, as well as the mathematics behind UAI calculation, please read our article on the mechanics of HSC scaling) Remember, your HSC marks are a measure of how well you did in your subject, but your scaled marks measure how well you did relative to other students. It is your scaled marks which are used to calculate your UAI, not your HSC marks.

Through the process of scaling, the UAC converts your raw examination marks (the actual marks you received in your external and moderated internal assessment) into scaled marks. These scaled marks are then added up to arrive at your aggregate mark (students refer to this as your ‘aggregate’) out of 500. The UAI is simply a percentile rank of your aggregate, which is the total of your scaled marks in your top 10 units.

How can knowledge of HSC scaling help me?

Understanding the process allows you to plan your HSC, to an extent, in such a way as to make scaling work to your advantage. For example, if you enjoy maths, you should choose Maths Extension 2 in order to take advantage of its enormous scaling effect. Similarly, if you enjoy science, you should take Chemistry and Physics, as they scale relatively well.

In other words, comparing subjects in terms of their scaling effect can assist you with your decision as to which subjects to take for your HSC. In order to quantitatively compare the scaling effect of different courses, you will need to get familiar with reading statistics published by UAC. The rest of this article will highlight the important things to note.

Reading ‘scaled means’

Firstly, what are ‘scaled means’? The scaled mean for each subject is the average scaled mark received by all students who took that subject for that year. For example, in 2008, the scaled mean for Maths Extension 2 was 43 out of 50. This means that among the Maths Extension 2 students in 2008, the average of their scaled marks was 43 out of 50. This subject has traditionally been one of the highest scaled subjects available for the HSC. In terms of reading these scaling statistics, generally the higher the scaled mean, the higher the scaling effect.

Each year, the UAC publishes a scaling report which contains important scaling statistics for all HSC subjects eligible to contribute to a UAI. For more information, read about UAC scaling statistics. In the report, there is an important section called Table A3, which is a table setting out the scaled means of all subjects.

To illustrate the effect of scaling, in 2008, a Maths Extension 2 student only needs to be in the top 46% out of all Maths Extension 2 students to get a scaled mark of 45 out of 50 (or 90/100). A Maths (2 unit) student would need to be in the top 3% out of all Maths (2 unit) students in order to achieve the same result. These facts are read off the UAC scaling report. In the 99th percentile, a Maths (2 unit) student receives a scaled mark of 46.1 out of 50. In the 75th percentile, a Maths Extension 2 student receives a scaled makr of 46.2 out of 50. Arguably it is easier to be above average in Maths Extension 2 than to be near the top of the state in Maths (2 unit). This is the main benefit derived from choosing high scaling subjects.

Effect on UAI calculation

Simply put, the higher the total of your scaled marks, the higher your UAI will be. Sometimes when students choose subjects with lower scaled means, do spectacularly in their HSC (e.g. receive Band 6 for all of their units) but receive a UAI that is lower than what they had expected.

For example, if you did English Standard, IPT, Legal Studies and Biology, and scored 90 in all of your subjects, your UAI would be around 94 in 2008. While this is in no way a poor UAI, if you received the same HSC (aligned) marks for English advanced, Maths Extension 1 & 2, Chemistry and Physics, your UAI would be in the vicinity of 99. Again this is because of the scaling effect across different subjects. While all subjects are different and some will be more difficult than others, the best approach to dealing with HSC scaling is to choose the subjects you are interested in, while giving consideration to the scaling effect of your choices. (For more information, read our article on HSC subject selection)

In fact, the rational way to allocate study time is to allocate more time to the higher-scaled subjects, as they will be more beneficial to your UAI than lower-scaled subjects. Historically English Advanced has a scaled mean of around 30, which is practically equal to the scaling of HSC Chemistry and Economics in the past several years. These trends are not expected to change significantly year to year, so we can expect the same for at least the near future. If you’re a student who does English Advanced and Maths Extension 2, you should definitely focus more of your time on your mathematics subjects, given that both Maths Extension 1 and Extension 2 counts for 2 units each. Keeping in mind that the scaled mean for Extension 1 is around 39-40 in recent years, and that of Extension 2 is around 43-44, this makes these subjects unparalleled in terms of scaling power, and definitely deserves more attention than English.

That is not to say you should neglect English either. Treat it as you would any other subject. There is nothing special about English, except for the fact that it is the only compulsory subject in the NSW HSC, because of the way scaling works and UAI is calculated, which requires a common denominator for comparison. However this mere fact does not affect the individual student. There are rumours and misinformation floating around over student forums and by word of mouth, but the simple fact of the matter is that English is just like any other subject and is given no preferential treatment when it comes to UAI calculation. Therefore if this is the case, English should not be given any special treatment by students either. What this means is you should split your time equally as you would any other subject that scales similarly (e.g. Chemistry, Economics).