What factors influence scaling? (1 Viewer)

[Sparcod]

how is the uai determined? if someone gets uai of 100, is it because he's ranked 1 or what?

 

[A l]

how is the uai determined? if someone gets uai of 100, is it because he's ranked 1 or what?

I would suggest you try this:
http://www.uac.edu.au/pubs/pdf/uaibook-2004-web.pdf
It explains scaling in a clear and understandable way.

In a nutshell, this is what happens to each successive HSC student who wishes to recieve a UAI:
Just after examination and marking, you have the following marks for EACH COURSE:
- School assessment mark (mark the school submits)
- Raw examination mark (mark from external test)

The school assessment mark goes through a process called moderating in which justifications are made to students' marks in every school in correspondance to their ranking. In other words it is a way to stop any school becoming advantaged or disadvantaged over other schools when marks are submitted, due to different standards and marking criteria in each school. However, ranking does not change, it is just a way of making each school "equal". The resultant mark after moderating is called the moderated assessment mark.

Your raw examination mark remains the same and does not change.

The raw examination mark and your moderated assessment mark are combined and converted to a mark out of 50 for each one unit course or a mark out of 100 for each 2 unit course. This is your RAW HSC MARK. This is NOT the mark that is reported to you from the Board of Studies when you recieve your results.

After that the SCALING PROCESS begins. The raw HSC mark gets scaled according to the statistics of that course and the overall state performance. After scaling, that new mark is called the SCALED MARK.

Your scaled marks for each course are taken and YOUR HIGHEST 8 UNITS OF SCALED MARKS PLUS 2 UNITS OF ENGLISH are then added together to form an aggregate out of 500.

Your aggregated mark out of 500 is then compared to other students in the state. The top mark out of 500 gets a UAI of 100.00, the second highest mark out of 500 gets 99.95 and so on.

For each course:
SCHOOL ASSESSMENT MARK --> MODERATING --> MODERATED ASSESSMENT MARK
then
RAW EXAMINATION MARK + MODERATED ASSESSMENT MARK = RAW HSC MARK
after that
RAW HSC MARK --> SCALING --> SCALED MARK
finally (if scaled mark would count in the UAI)
SCALED MARK--> AGGREGRATED (added to other scaled marks) --> UNIVERSITY ADMISSIONS INDEX

Also:

because he's ranked 1 or what?

Using the word "he" is rather discriminative, especially since the majority of people who get a UAI of 100.00 are females.

 

[Sparcod]

are you saying that the uai is out of 500 it is adjusted to 100.
eg. 450/500-->UAI 90.00

 

[A l]

are you saying that the uai is out of 500 it is adjusted to 100.
eg. 450/500-->UAI 90.00

No.
It is the highest marks out of 500 in the state that gets the UAI of 100.00. It is not a percentage count. No one has ever gotten full marks for everything yet meaning that no one has ever got 500/500. Remember UAI is based on ranking, not marks.

 

[Sparcod]

i know someone who last year got first in the state in something, he got a mark of 98. Is that scaled to 100?


and how to exam marks turn into a uai again?

 

[A l]

i know someone who last year got first in the state in something, he got a mark of 98. Is that scaled to 100?

It depends on the course that mark was obtained from. Some courses are capped so that the maximum scaled mark cannot be 100. Usually most courses would have the top mark scaled to 100.
English (Standard) is a special case since it is scaled together with English (Advanced) as a single course and so far the top scaled mark has only come from Advanced students.

and how to exam marks turn into a uai again?

Read the posts above. I've summarised a very detailed process in that post. Please read the content in the link I've provided as well. That should hopefully answer most questions about the processes that are taken to calculate the UAI.

 

[Sparcod]

ive checked out the site and asked people.
scaling is meant to see how well people compare even if they're in different things.
It's like 85/100 in 2u maths is better than 90/100 in general.
am i right?

 

[A l]

ive checked out the site and asked people.
scaling is meant to see how well people compare even if they're in different things.
It's like 85/100 in 2u maths is better than 90/100 in general.
am i right?

There is not enough information to tell in general. The scaling process changes with each successive year.
However, I can tell you that in 2004, an aligned mark of 90 or band 6 is the top 3.86% of the candidature for General Mathematics and an aligned mark of band 5 (minimum mark of 80) in Mathematics 2 unit is the top 41.95% of the candidature. So, theoretically, an aligned mark of 85 would be the top 28.73% of the candidature for Mathematics 2 unit, since 15.50% of the candidature achieved band 6 in 2004. Thus, IN THAT YEAR an ALIGNED mark of 90/100 in General Mathematics can be said to be better than an ALIGNED mark of 85/100 in Mathematics 2 unit in terms of course ranking.
HOWEVER, in terms of scaling, General Mathematics is capped and Mathematics 2 unit is not. So in terms of scaled marks, it is difficult to tell which is better due to lack of sufficient information.

 

[wrong_turn]

what people forget in scaling purposes is the candiature of your subjects.

ie. say in 4u maths and arabic continuers.

the people who do 4u maths overall, nomrally do better in all their other subjects. however, the reason arabic contiuers is scaled so low is beacuse the people who do the subject, don't do well in their othe subjects.

that is what is meant by candiature.it is how well the cohert in each of your subjects do. that is why many extension subjects get scaled up. for example in one year, if all the people who do well in say IT, General maths, ESL do well in every of their subjects. it would too be scaled like 4u maths or latin.

 

[melsc]

i thought those languages got scalled badly coz most of the people who do them are home speakers?

 

[withoutaface]

http://www.boredofstudies.org/community/showthread.php?t=60687

 

[Sparcod]

there are some language courses with only 5 students doing it like latvian extension (i think). What if the best student gets 90 and 2nd best gets 89? How differently will they be scaled and how does canditure affect scaling

 

[wrong_turn]

read the posts before you.

for example in one year, if all the people who do well in say IT, General maths, ESL do well in every of their subjects. it would too be scaled like 4u maths or latin.

 

[Sparcod]

so high scaling does depend on how well you compare against every other student studying that subject.

when someone says that physics has excellent scaling, what does that mean?

 

[wrong_turn]

scaling of a subject is widespread. it depends on the candiature of a subject, depending on how well they do in their other subjects. if everyone in your subject does crap in a particular suc\bject as well in all their other subjects. it is higly likely then that the subject in question woudl then get scaled down.

 

[Sparcod]

why is it that ALWAYS advanced english is scaled better than standard? is it because the advanced students do better?

 

[wrong_turn]

advanced students generally do better. however, the scaling of advanced and standard students is determined in paper 1. paper two is scaled with each individual subject.

explanation: people do better in advanced, simply because the people who do advanced do better in paper 1.

most people who do advanced also do better in all of their subjects in comparison to standard students.

 

[A l]

advanced students generally do better. however, the scaling of advanced and standard students is determined in paper 1. paper two is scaled with each individual subject.

explanation: people do better in advanced, simply because the people who do advanced do better in paper 1.

most people who do advanced also do better in all of their subjects in comparison to standard students.

English (Advanced) and English (Standard) are SCALED AS A COMMON COURSE. This is the only exception to the generalised scaling trend. The reason that English (Advanced) students usually get higher scaled marks than English (Standard) students is simply because they are more capable of obtaining high raw marks due to their personal abilities. It has nothing to do with the scaling system itself.
It is possible for a English (Standard) student to be able to achieve very high scaled marks similar to those of the top English (Advanced) students, but this is very rare in reality although it HAS happened.
If an English (Advanced) student were to switch to English (Standard), he or she would get the same mark or a similar mark to what he or she would have achieved in English (Advanced). Neither English (Standard) nor English (Advanced) are disadvantaged or advantaged in any way from scaling. It all depends on personal abilities and interests.
Paper 1 and Paper 2 are not separately scaled. Paper 1, however it can be said to be the discriminate between English (Advanced) and English (Standard) since they attempt the same paper. The majority of English (Advanced) students should gain an advantage over the majority of English (Standard) in this exam, purely based on personal abilities.
With English (Standard) as the supposedly "easier" course, many would think that the common scaling would be advantageous to talented English (Standard) students because they might score a high mark in Paper 2 and a high mark in Paper 1. This is not true and a standards setting process takes care of this.
Take this example. Both Student A and Student B are theoretically equal and this scenario is theoretical:

Student A: English (Standard)
Student B: English (Advanced)

Student A: Paper 1: 40/45
Student B: Paper 1: 40/45

Student A: Paper 2: *45/55
Student B: Paper 2: **45/55

Student A: Total: 85/105
Student B: Total: 85/105

*NOTE: Student A found Paper 2 of English (Standard) easy, however judges from the Board of Studies determined the raw mark against the marking criteria and guidelines to be 45/55.
**NOTE: Student B found Paper 2 of English (Advanced) difficult, however judges from the Board of Studies determined the raw mark against the SAME marking criteria and guidelines to be 45/55.

Student A and Student B had their Paper 2 shaped by judges from the Board of Studies in determining the raw band cut-offs. This is not part of the scaling process. This removes any variation of difficulty between Paper 2 of English (Advanced) and English (Standard). These judges are also responsible for shaping the raw marks and determining the raw band cut-offs in Paper 1 It could be described as "an aligning of raw marks" but are still "raw marks". This standards setting procedure occurs in every course.

In terms of aligned marks, which have no effect whatsoever on scaling, there is a difference. English (Standard) and English (Advanced) are aligned separately, but are scaled together. Remember that aligned marks are not used for scaling.

It is a common misconception that English (Advanced) is always scaled higher than English (Standard). Refer to the following threads for details:
http://www.boredofstudies.org/community/showthread.php?t=58697
http://www.boredofstudies.org/community/showthread.php?t=54082&page=2&pp=15

 

[Sparcod]

so paper 1 is both for advanced and standard.
what if a standard kid did better than an advanced kid?

 

[A l]

so paper 1 is both for advanced and standard.
what if a standard kid did better than an advanced kid?

Then the student taking English (Standard) would have a better raw mark than the student taking English (Advanced). Read the posts above you and refer to the links provided for details.