WHY HSC SCALING MATTERS

BY RICHARD CHUA, FOUNDER OF TALENT 100 AND EDUCATION THOUGHT LEADER

In this article Richard Chua explains how to target and achieve an ATAR. Richard graduated from Sydney Grammar School with a UAI of 100 (ATAR equivalent 99.95). He currently works as a Strategy Associate for Google in Mountain View.

Next week, HSC students will final ly get the i r ATARs - fou r digits wh ch cou d determine what careers and professions they may be doing for the next 20 yea r s. Your ATAR Is your ticket to Uni• versity, so Its important to know exactly how this is calcu lated.

At Talent 100, we've cons istently had more than a quarter of our students achieving ATARs over 99. Last year, we had 7 students who achieved an ATAR of 99.95 This week I'm going to share with you the secrets to t heir success - how to break any ATAR down into smaller, more achievable goals in each of your subjects.

WHAT IS SCALING?

Scaling is the process of standardising marks so that they can be compared across subjects. In scaling marks the UAC will adjust the highest mark, median mark and standard deviation so that al l subjects are directly comparable. The reason it is needed is that without scaling, it would be impossib le to compa re a 95 in Economics with a 95 in Mathematics Extension 2.

ATARVSUAC

The UAC basically converts the averaged HSC Assessment and HSC

Exam ination Marks to their own UAC score through a process o f scollng to o UAC score. Each unit is converted to il score of 50 ond the best 10 units (Including Englis h) are used to calcu late a score of 500. Most students are unawa re t hat the r ATAR is calculated from th is base score of 500. The table be low illustrate the relat onship:

Scaling Graphs

The most important th ing to note is that not al l subjects ore created or scaled equall y. Some subjects that a re considered hard er are obviously sca led h ig her, whilst some subjects i n wh ich it is easy t o sco re high marks will be sca led downwards.

The graph below (fig 1) g ives you a good Indication of how subj ect scales. From the previous t able, you shou ld be able to see if you wanted to score an ATAR of say 99. you would need to score •45/50. Following those marks you can see that you would need to score i n t he top 56% of Maths Ext 2, the top 23% of Maths Ext 1, bu t in t he top 4% of Maths Advanced For simplici ty's sake we've shown what it ta kes to score A TARs of 95, 97 and 99 respectively.

What you now have are the relative benchmarks for performance to score any ATAR. Hence, suppose you were aiming for an ATAR o f 99.00: If you were in the top 20% for Maths Ext 2 but in the top 20% for English. this graph clear ly ind icates that your time will be better spent in English because an improvement to the Top 10% i n English is going to deliver much better gains t han a sim ilar improvement in Maths

HOW DO THE DIFFERENT SUBJECTS SCALE?

At Ta lent 100, we've examined the sca ling of categories of subjects such as Mathematics English, Science and the HumaniUes. When you exa mi ne the scaling graphs, some clear trends emerge: Scaling Graph (fig 1)

STUDY SMARTER, NOT

You now know what ranks you need in each subject to score any ATAR. The next steps are to ensure that you ach eve those ranks.

If you are in Year 9-12, Talent lOO s courses can help you do just that. We've consistently had the best results in the i ndustry s ince 2008. Our courses will help you develop the three skills and resources you need to ace any exam:

1. Understand the theory: We teach i n small g roups of up to 13 to ensure you understand every syllabus dot point.

2. Perfect exam technique: With regular tests and homework set in examination style, we help you trai n your exam technlque on a weekly bas is.

3. Online learning system: Need extra help on a topic? Our classes are supported by the most advanced online learning system ever created for HSC students.

At Ta lent 100, we've helped 1000s of students ach ieve the ir dreams, and we'd like to he p you

For a THREE WEEK free trial, simply call us on 1300 999 100 or you're welcome to visit www.talent-100.com.au

Highest Decision Rules

Scaling Subjects

Source: Report o n the Scaling of t he 2011 HSC (UAC)

You should use this graph to target the UAC score out of 500 you need to achieve your desired ATAR. Th is way, you can be fairly cert ain what ATAR you are heading for well befo re you sit your exams and adjus t your study patterns accordingly. For instance, if you wanted to score an ATAR of 99, you wou ld need 449 or roug hly 45/50 for every subject.

3Uand4U 3U and 4U Maths are by far, the highest sca lingsubjects that are readily accessible students, Because of their high scaling, vou should take the highest level of mathematics that you are capable of. For instance, to be on target for an ATAR of 99+, you only need to be average in 4U Maths, whereas vou would need to be In the top 4% of 2U Maths. Advanced Where possible you should take at least advanced English. The higher &Higher English as a group, scale well above Standard Eng lish. For instance, students who scored in the 25% of Advance receive scores higher than those students who score in the top 1% of standard.

Physics & Physics and Chemistry are the highest scaling sciences, and scale Chemistry significantly better than biology.

Economics& Economics is the best scaling humani ty, and scales just as well Modern History as Physics and Oiem istry. Apart from Economics, the other humanities scale significant y worse • you will need exceptiona l ranks to score an overal l ATAR if you choose humanities

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INDIAN LINK