Hi guys - I'm new - and lost on this forum! - and totally intimidated - Pls be kind!!
I really need a reliable answer...
I've read everything under the sun on HSC Moderated Assessment Marks and I feel I get how it all works. But I can't answer my own questions - if anyone else can, I'll kiss ur feet - Tnx in advance.
1. Is it better to come say top 30 in a selective high school (SS), or to come 1st in a comprehensive high school, assuming you would have gotten the same external HSC exam mark regardless of which school you attended?
2. In scenario 1, does being with a stronger cohort, like in a SS, mean you will receive a higher moderated assessment mark?
3. If you are an above average student, but not a top student, will you get higher moderated assessment marks if you are with a SS cohort or a comprehensive school cohort?
4. Basically, I keep hearing different things about how your moderated assessment mark is influenced by your school cohort's performance on the external exams and I'm concerned that if I'm not the 'top' student and 'granted immunity' from what my cohort does, and if I'm 'just above average' in some subjects, then the tail end of my cohort can bring my moderated assessment marks 'down'. Is this true?
5. And in the real world, how much difference does it really make to your ATAR if all comprehensive school students are exposed to the same statistical process? Because the proportion of SS and elite school kids is so low in comparison to comprehensive school kids, does the cohort bias benefit that the SS kids receive, get 'cancelled out' by the volume of non-elite private/SS kids doing the HSC? I hope my question makes sense.
6. Last one. Also, at schools where they offer the IB and HSC - if the best and brightest students do the IB, does this affect the HSC moderated assessment Mark for the kids doing the HSC bce their mean would go down cf what it wouldve been had the IB students done the HSC?
Thank you so much for your help.