• Congratulations to the Class of 2024 on your results!
    Let us know how you went here
    Got a question about your uni preferences? Ask us here

Why does Physics align so badly? (1 Viewer)

studyingnow123

New Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2023
Messages
6
Gender
Male
HSC
2023
from rawmarks.info apparently physics aligns worse than way easier subjects like CAFS and business studies, how is this even possible? Is it some sort of mistake. Like last year 89 -> 90 in physics, but 82 -> 90 in business.

how does this even make sense when physics is considerable harder than business?
 

goodcat911

......
Joined
Jun 25, 2022
Messages
164
Gender
Male
HSC
2024
hsc exam for physics aligns less than hsc exam for business studies. this is either because of the difficulty of the external test (different to difficulty of subject; i.e physics is harder than business studies as a subject, but physics hsc test is easier than business studies hsc test) or because of the strictness of marking (business studies marking may be more strict than physics marking). Alignment is only important for raw marks, and it gets balanced in later process called scaling, which is based on the difficulty of the subject compared to other subjects. for example, an aligned mark of 90 in physics will likely be scaled higher than an aligned mark of 90 in business studies.
 

carrotsss

New Member
Joined
May 7, 2022
Messages
4,475
Gender
Male
HSC
2023
1. It was piss easy
2. It still scaled much better - all that alignment does is make marks nicer and it is skipped in the true scaling process, but marks between subjects are not comparable, a 90 aligned in physics is worth much more than a 90 aligned mark in cafs
 

Trebla

Administrator
Administrator
Joined
Feb 16, 2005
Messages
8,402
Gender
Male
HSC
2006
Alignment has nothing to do with difficulty of one subject vs another. It is more to do with whether you meet certain standards/criteria for a certain HSC mark band. This is done so that the marks are comparable between years for the same subject.

Don’t confuse alignment with scaling. They are two completely independent non-comparable processes applied on the same raw mark.
 

wizzkids

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2016
Messages
340
Gender
Undisclosed
HSC
1998
RE: rawmarks.info
If you are seeing large normalisation adjustments being applied to Business Studies examination and small normalisation adjustments being applied to Physics examination, all that is saying is Business Studies examination from year-to-year is quite inconsistent, and Physics examination from year-to-year is quite consistent. That is actually a good thing for Physics examination. That's all it is saying.
You don't get a bunch of "free" marks in the HSC.
 

nonya2000

Active Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2024
Messages
403
Gender
Male
HSC
2024
1. It was piss easy
2. It still scaled much better - all that alignment does is make marks nicer and it is skipped in the true scaling process, but marks between subjects are not comparable, a 90 aligned in physics is worth much more than a 90 aligned mark in cafs
Nope the physics test in 2022 wasn't at all easy, it's same difficulty between every year, they both have easy and hard questions.
 

nonya2000

Active Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2024
Messages
403
Gender
Male
HSC
2024
hsc exam for physics aligns less than hsc exam for business studies. this is either because of the difficulty of the external test (different to difficulty of subject; i.e physics is harder than business studies as a subject, but physics hsc test is easier than business studies hsc test) or because of the strictness of marking (business studies marking may be more strict than physics marking). Alignment is only important for raw marks, and it gets balanced in later process called scaling, which is based on the difficulty of the subject compared to other subjects. for example, an aligned mark of 90 in physics will likely be scaled higher than an aligned mark of 90 in business studies.
Some autistic person decided business studies required more brain cells than physics (it doesn't)
 

nonya2000

Active Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2024
Messages
403
Gender
Male
HSC
2024
Alignment has nothing to do with difficulty of one subject vs another. It is more to do with whether you meet certain standards/criteria for a certain HSC mark band. This is done so that the marks are comparable between years for the same subject.

Don’t confuse alignment with scaling. They are two completely independent non-comparable processes applied on the same raw mark.
exactly... and the 2022 paper wasn't much harder so therefore it should align similar to 2023 and 2021, not have a raw mark = aligned mark. How tf can cafs align better too? normally the dumber subjects align the worst.
 

carrotsss

New Member
Joined
May 7, 2022
Messages
4,475
Gender
Male
HSC
2023
Nope the physics test in 2022 wasn't at all easy, it's same difficulty between every year, they both have easy and hard questions.
that’s just not true lol, anyone who has done the paper can tell you that
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Users: 0, Guests: 1)

Top