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Do you guys wish that your whole ATAR was just calculated on your end of year exam? (1 Viewer)

Protract

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The exam at the end of the year, much less stress, and you can just put your whole effort into that end of year exam, and do that much better at it, whereas instead you have to put your effort into exam/assignment, I know Year 12 is supposed to be a lot of work but do you guys every wish that this was the case?
 
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khorne

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Re: Do you guys wish that your whole ATAR was just calculated on your end of year exa

What if you have an off day? You're really an idiot. HSC is a measure of consistency as much as anything else.
 

Shadowdude

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Re: Do you guys wish that your whole ATAR was just calculated on your end of year exa

What if you have an off day? You're really an idiot. HSC is a measure of consistency as much as anything else.
^ That.
 

clissold

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Re: Do you guys wish that your whole ATAR was just calculated on your end of year exa

The exam at the end of the year, much less stress, and you can just put your whole effort into that end of year exam, and do that much better at it, whereas instead you have to put your effort into exam/assignment, I know Year 12 is supposed to be a lot of work but do you guys every wish that this was the case?
No, for the reason below..

What if you have an off day? You're really an idiot. HSC is a measure of consistency as much as anything else.

PS.. love your sig khorne
 

iRuler

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Re: Do you guys wish that your whole ATAR was just calculated on your end of year exa

What if you have an off day? You're really an idiot. HSC is a measure of consistency as much as anything else.
this
 

SpreadTheWord

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Re: Do you guys wish that your whole ATAR was just calculated on your end of year exa

Yeah it sounds appealing, but in reality and in the interest of the students isn't practical. The system as such now, allows the students who continually put in the hard work to recieve their deserved marks. Also you have to think, that through consistent assessments and tests, we will be much more prepared in comparison to sitting one exam.

In addition, through not placing the emphasise completely on the end of year exam, it reduces some of the pressure on the students.
 

Drongoski

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Re: Do you guys wish that your whole ATAR was just calculated on your end of year exa

The exam at the end of the year, much less stress, and you can just put your whole effort into that end of year exam, and do that much better at it, whereas instead you have to put your effort into exam/assignment, I know Year 12 is supposed to be a lot of work but do you guys every wish that this was the case?
I also prefer a single end-of-course exam - no bullshit about scaling & alignment. So much less stress especially for those students not in the top 10% say. For most of us who are just average, it takes us a while to finally understand a new topic. The way it is, for most of you, before you get to understand a new topic each term, you are being led to slaughter.

It's all very nice for and to the advantage of the smarter students but for average people like us (e.g. ATAR of 65) it is hell!

When I did my HSC all exams (prac & theory) were at the end of the course. Basically the same for the International Baccalaureate.
 
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Hermes1

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Re: Do you guys wish that your whole ATAR was just calculated on your end of year exa

yes i support this, especially considering how much prac tests stuff ppl up in the sciences.
 

Riproot

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Re: Do you guys wish that your whole ATAR was just calculated on your end of year exa

I would say yes but only because I hate assignments and I usually start them after midnight the day they're due... If the hsc was comprised of tests for each subject throughout the year that would be fine too.
 

RealiseNothing

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Re: Do you guys wish that your whole ATAR was just calculated on your end of year exa

yes i support this, especially considering how much prac tests stuff ppl up in the sciences.
Couldn't agree more about the prac tests stuffing people up.
 

FTW

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Re: Do you guys wish that your whole ATAR was just calculated on your end of year exa

Couldn't agree more about the prac tests stuffing people up.
really? I did really well in my prac tests...... maybe that's because I suck at physics though...
 

enoilgam

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Re: Do you guys wish that your whole ATAR was just calculated on your end of year exa

No, I prefer having internal assessments. HSC is about consistency and having just one exam count undermines this as many results will not reflect a persons true aptitude in a particular subject
 

Riproot

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Re: Do you guys wish that your whole ATAR was just calculated on your end of year exa

yes i support this, especially considering how much prac tests stuff ppl up in the sciences.
I'm impartial about this because I got 93% in my bio prac test but only 75% in my Chem prac test... So yeah... Although all the rankings got fucked up. A kid coming =2nd is now =5th with me and the kid coming 4th is bow 1st. So yeah... But everyone in the top 6 is really close. With like a percent or 2 between every ranking.
 

kfnmpah

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Re: Do you guys wish that your whole ATAR was just calculated on your end of year exa

I also prefer a single end-of-course exam - no bullshit about scaling & alignment. So much less stress especially for those students not in the top 10% say. For most of us who are just average, it takes us a while to finally understand a new topic. The way it is, for most of you, before you get to understand a new topic each term, you are being led to slaughter.

It's all very nice for and to the advantage of the smarter students but for average people like us (e.g. ATAR of 65) it is hell!

When I did my HSC all exams (prac & theory) were at the end of the course. Basically the same for the International Baccalaureate.
I see your point, and somewhat agree, but the ATAR is a rank, which is used to deem who is "smart enough" to get into high demand university courses. Until someone comes up with a better way of ranking/giving marks to 60,000+ students, we're stuck with scaling and ranking and assessments throughout the year.

It could be worse. Someone correct me if i'm wrong, but does not the VCE consider assessment marks from year 11 and 12?
 

LoveHateSchool

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Re: Do you guys wish that your whole ATAR was just calculated on your end of year exa

Haha put me in the hate pract test boat...only for chem though, bio ones are really easy :)
 
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Re: Do you guys wish that your whole ATAR was just calculated on your end of year exa

Haha put me in the hate pract test boat...only for chem though, bio ones are really easy :)
I have never had a prac test for Bio and only one for chem o.o

Bt srsly i know a heap of people who do smash an assignment and do average in an exam even though they try more than anyone , a girl that did chemistry put in more study time for our yearly prelim exams bt did worse than another chick that was away 3/4 of the year.

Basing our whole 2 years of hard work into one exam would just b cruel , and our assessments are practice for them.
 

cem

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Re: Do you guys wish that your whole ATAR was just calculated on your end of year exa

When I did the HSC we had one exam for each course, except English which had two, at the end of the course - no assessments.

As someone who has been teaching now for over 30 years I would say that we were way better prepared for the exam for one reason and one reason only - we only did exam type activities. For instance in both histories and geography I wrote at least one exam type essay per week (and we only wrote essays - no short responses or mulitiple choice - even the geography skills was an essay as was the English comprehension question - just 5 essays in 3 hours and no reading time, English had two three hour exams and four essays per exam and was on consecutive days, followed by Maths - so my first four days of the HSC went English, English, Maths, Maths and then the weekend.)

Of course in those days only the top 30% or so of students did the HSC and only the top half of that group went to uni but...did we have as good an education in these subjects as you have - I would say no - all we did was read the texts, summarise them and write essays on that content - while you get to develop a range of skills and students who have strengths besides being able to sit exams are able to showcase those skills and get rewarded for them in the HSC.

There are arguments both ways and both sets of arguments are valid.
 

kfnmpah

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Re: Do you guys wish that your whole ATAR was just calculated on your end of year exa

When I did the HSC we had one exam for each course, except English which had two, at the end of the course - no assessments.

As someone who has been teaching now for over 30 years I would say that we were way better prepared for the exam for one reason and one reason only - we only did exam type activities. For instance in both histories and geography I wrote at least one exam type essay per week (and we only wrote essays - no short responses or mulitiple choice - even the geography skills was an essay as was the English comprehension question - just 5 essays in 3 hours and no reading time, English had two three hour exams and four essays per exam and was on consecutive days, followed by Maths - so my first four days of the HSC went English, English, Maths, Maths and then the weekend.)

Of course in those days only the top 30% or so of students did the HSC and only the top half of that group went to uni but...did we have as good an education in these subjects as you have - I would say no - all we did was read the texts, summarise them and write essays on that content - while you get to develop a range of skills and students who have strengths besides being able to sit exams are able to showcase those skills and get rewarded for them in the HSC.

There are arguments both ways and both sets of arguments are valid.

when you say 'only did exam based activites" does that mean you only did theory and practice tests or did you do practical exams, say, for science etc?
 

pony_magician

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Re: Do you guys wish that your whole ATAR was just calculated on your end of year exa

yes i support this, especially considering how much prac tests stuff ppl up in the sciences.
I see this as I know the anatomy of a human body, but I always accidentally kill the patient.
 

cem

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Re: Do you guys wish that your whole ATAR was just calculated on your end of year exa

when you say 'only did exam based activites" does that mean you only did theory and practice tests or did you do practical exams, say, for science etc?
Those who did Sciences only did pracs that could also be explicity examined. So if they did a prac in Physics not only could the theory be examined but the prac itself - the process. You wouldn't have had a 'prac exam' at all - just do the prac, write it up and learn it to answer questions about it. We did nothing that wasn't examinable - from the beginning of Year 11 too e.g. what you call 3 Unit Maths we called 2F (2nd level full course). In Year 11 we did the entire 2S course (2nd level short course) and then in Year 12 we did the rest of the 2F course and then did both the 2S and 2F exams. The 1st level (now 4 unit) course did the 2S course in Year 11 and the 2F course in Year 12 along with the 1st level extra and they did the 2F and 1 level exams - on the Thursday and Friday of week 1 of the exams - English on the Tuesday and Wednesday. Science operated on the same system - no Physics/Chemistry etc but 1st, 2F, 2S and 3rd level Science.

All other subjects had three levels - 1st, 2nd and 3rd with 2nd and 3rd taught in the same class and the same content with only a different level of understanding needed to get the marks. 3rd level courses were marked out of 100, 2nd level out of 130 and 1st level out of 180 (with 240 for the extra level in Maths and Science). If you got 50 marks you past 3rd level (even if you sat 2nd level - if you got between 50 and 64 you got a 3rd level pass). We didn't get marks but only told whether we had passed or failed the subject and at what level we had passed it e.g. I sat 2F Maths but passed Maths with a 2S pass - so I didn't get 90 marks but I did get more then 65. If you didn't sit the higher level even if you got the higher marks you didn't get the pass at that level so someone who sat 3rd level Modern History who got 90 marks didn't get a 1st or 2nd level pass as they had only entered at 3rd level (and they did sit a different exam paper anyway with easier essay questions).
 

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