There are three different scaling procedures in the HSC - moderating, scaling and aligning.
We begin with these marks:
RAW SCHOOL ASSESSMENT MARK
RAW EXAMINATION MARK
The moderating procedure transforms your raw school assessment marks so that they are on the same scale as your raw examination (or major work) marks. The moderating procedure takes into account the rankings of students and the relative differences between them, as demonstrated by their raw school assessment marks. The new moderated mark is calculated with reference to the distribution of raw examination marks for that class. (For an example, see
this thread and
www.boredofstudies.org/moderate.php.)
We now have:
INITIAL MODERATED ASSESSMENT MARK
RAW EXAMINATION MARK
[* See note at end.]
Those two marks are averaged (which is permissible because they're on the same scale) to produce your raw HSC mark.
We now have:
RAW HSC MARK
Scaling is applied to your raw HSC mark, which has the effect of making those marks comparable between different courses, and this produces your scaled HSC mark.
We now have:
SCALED HSC MARK
The scaled HSC mark is then available for inclusion in your UAI.
[* The process diverges here. The initial moderated assessment mark and the raw examination mark are also 'aligned' to the performance bands (in exactly the same way), and are reported to you by the Board as your assessment and examination marks. These marks are also averaged to produce an HSC mark. None of these aligned marks are used in your UAI. ]
You should also refer to
this flowchart for further clarification... although it needs updating.
Originally posted by whiterabbit
Can someone (who knows what they're talking about) tell me if/how scaling applies?
It's not fair to not scale at all, and to just take the raw mark - what if you have a harsh teacher?
...but on the other hand...
How do you scale when you're being assessed on two entirely different things (process / product)?
Or is it one of those ranking things again?
just curious...