What grinds your gears ?

[My Chumps]

Cheers guys. I'm not too disheartened, just a little disappointed. The more I think about it though the more I realise it doesn't really matter, it's just about that first preference.

I really don't get it though. Can someone explain my English mark? I thought it was my strongest subject but ended up getting my worst mark in it. I got:

Unit 3 SAC's: A
Unit 4 SAC's: B+
Exam: B (butchered the last section in the exam, I know it)

And still only got a 32  :-[

Like what the hell. If C is the average then C = 30. So how does getting three marks well above the average only leave me with a mark two above it?

Because your SAC marks aren't marked by the exam markers, they're marked by your teachers.
This is my understanding of it:
In one school they could mark really harshly. So everyone there gets C's or lower. Then in the exam, all those people get an A. VCAA will be all like, "oh hey, these guys are actually good, were just marked harshly, let's raise their score"

Then in another school, everyone could be getting A's. And in the exam, no-one gets above a C+, and VCAA think, "these people weren't marked harshly enough at their school, we'll bring their study score down a bit"


I don't know how accurate that is, but that's how I understand it.

Yeah, I understand that reasoning, but a B in the exam is still a result worthy of a 35ish (C = 30, A = 40 approx). So even if they scale back my SAC marks based on my exam performance it still shouldn't dip down THAT far.

[GoLions]

Cheers guys. I'm not too disheartened, just a little disappointed. The more I think about it though the more I realise it doesn't really matter, it's just about that first preference.

I really don't get it though. Can someone explain my English mark? I thought it was my strongest subject but ended up getting my worst mark in it. I got:

Unit 3 SAC's: A
Unit 4 SAC's: B+
Exam: B (butchered the last section in the exam, I know it)

And still only got a 32  :-[

Like what the hell. If C is the average then C = 30. So how does getting three marks well above the average only leave me with a mark two above it?

Because your SAC marks aren't marked by the exam markers, they're marked by your teachers.
This is my understanding of it:
In one school they could mark really harshly. So everyone there gets C's or lower. Then in the exam, all those people get an A. VCAA will be all like, "oh hey, these guys are actually good, were just marked harshly, let's raise their score"

Then in another school, everyone could be getting A's. And in the exam, no-one gets above a C+, and VCAA think, "these people weren't marked harshly enough at their school, we'll bring their study score down a bit"


I don't know how accurate that is, but that's how I understand it.

Yeah, I understand that reasoning, but a B in the exam is still a result worthy of a 35ish (C = 30, A = 40 approx). So even if they scale back my SAC marks based on my exam performance it still shouldn't dip down THAT far.

I can't even remember, is your exam score a comparison against others, or more like a raw score? I remember in I.T. I got an A+ in unit 3, A+ in unit 4, A in the exam. My raw score was 39, scaled was 34.

[Justin Bieber]

I got an A+ in the English exam and only got 36 raw if I remember because my sac marks got scaled up to like B+ or something (after averaging C's). No idea how they work it out with tens of thousands of students involved in the system, and doubt we'll know with Davey getting A+'s and still a pretty average scaled score for IT :o.

[elephants]

Haha don't worry lads, ATAR is complete bs.

Like everyone above me said, no-one gives a shower what your ATAR was when you get to uni, in fact, I think I have been asked once the whole year I was there and that was by some drunk girl. Naturally I told her I got 110 (impossible) and she was stunned, pretty sure she wanted to marry me.

If you were there and sober it was what Nige would describe as a 'top lel' ;D

[Nige]

Haha don't worry lads, ATAR is complete bs.

Like everyone above me said, no-one gives a shower what your ATAR was when you get to uni, in fact, I think I have been asked once the whole year I was there and that was by some drunk girl. Naturally I told her I got 110 (impossible) and she was stunned, pretty sure she wanted to marry me.

If you were there and sober it was what Nige would describe as a 'top lel' ;D

8) 8) 8)

But yeah, English was probably my best subject all year and my practice exam would have got me 41 (roughly)... Ended up getting 31 on the actual exam (properly butchered it under pressure).  :P

[PowerBug]

Sucks to be you peeps, not forced to do English in Yr 12 in SA. 8)

[Nige]

A study score of 25 or greater is a prereq here for a number of Uni courses from memory.

[Ringo]

Can understand your querying the system My Chumps.

When I did Senior (Grade 12) in Qld we all had the same exam and I had never failed English in my life and like you was one of my better subjects.  When the results were published I was extremely disappointed to see I had only received a 3 (At that time Grades were 1 - 7 with seven the highest) especially when you needed a minimum of 4 to get into uni courses,

Had the option of questioning the result which I did after paying the required fee of $6 (this was in late 60's so a reasonable expensive fee),  End result I eventually received an apology and my grade mark went to a 5 with the excuse that they failed to mark a complete question as I went into the next book with the essay. Too late though to get into uni courses at that time but a blessing in disguise as I went straight into the work force in Banking.

[Ziplock]

Can understand your querying the system My Chumps.

When I did Senior (Grade 12) in Qld we all had the same exam and I had never failed English in my life and like you was one of my better subjects.  When the results were published I was extremely disappointed to see I had only received a 3 (At that time Grades were 1 - 7 with seven the highest) especially when you needed a minimum of 4 to get into uni courses,

Had the option of questioning the result which I did after paying the required fee of $6 (this was in late 60's so a reasonable expensive fee),  End result I eventually received an apology and my grade mark went to a 5 with the excuse that they failed to mark a complete question as I went into the next book with the essay. Too late though to get into uni courses at that time but a blessing in disguise as I went straight into the work force in Banking.

good call for the remark... that's pretty ridiculous.

[My Chumps]

Cheers guys. I'm not too disheartened, just a little disappointed. The more I think about it though the more I realise it doesn't really matter, it's just about that first preference.

I really don't get it though. Can someone explain my English mark? I thought it was my strongest subject but ended up getting my worst mark in it. I got:

Unit 3 SAC's: A
Unit 4 SAC's: B+
Exam: B (butchered the last section in the exam, I know it)

And still only got a 32  :-[

Like what the hell. If C is the average then C = 30. So how does getting three marks well above the average only leave me with a mark two above it?

Because your SAC marks aren't marked by the exam markers, they're marked by your teachers.
This is my understanding of it:
In one school they could mark really harshly. So everyone there gets C's or lower. Then in the exam, all those people get an A. VCAA will be all like, "oh hey, these guys are actually good, were just marked harshly, let's raise their score"

Then in another school, everyone could be getting A's. And in the exam, no-one gets above a C+, and VCAA think, "these people weren't marked harshly enough at their school, we'll bring their study score down a bit"


I don't know how accurate that is, but that's how I understand it.

Yeah, I understand that reasoning, but a B in the exam is still a result worthy of a 35ish (C = 30, A = 40 approx). So even if they scale back my SAC marks based on my exam performance it still shouldn't dip down THAT far.

I can't even remember, is your exam score a comparison against others, or more like a raw score? I remember in I.T. I got an A+ in unit 3, A+ in unit 4, A in the exam. My raw score was 39, scaled was 34.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure the exam is a raw score. I dunno, it was just a bit annoying. I was hoping for 38ish and expecting 35+, but ended up with that. Awell.

Yeah, rough with the IT. Scaling can be such a pain in the arse sometimes. My friend got Out Door and Environmental Studies scaled down from a 38 to a 32.

Can understand your querying the system My Chumps.

When I did Senior (Grade 12) in Qld we all had the same exam and I had never failed English in my life and like you was one of my better subjects.  When the results were published I was extremely disappointed to see I had only received a 3 (At that time Grades were 1 - 7 with seven the highest) especially when you needed a minimum of 4 to get into uni courses,

Had the option of questioning the result which I did after paying the required fee of $6 (this was in late 60's so a reasonable expensive fee),  End result I eventually received an apology and my grade mark went to a 5 with the excuse that they failed to mark a complete question as I went into the next book with the essay. Too late though to get into uni courses at that time but a blessing in disguise as I went straight into the work force in Banking.

Wow Ringo, you don't hear about that sort of thing very often!
I'm not really debating my actual exam mark, I don't think I did very well in the exam to be honest, it's just the scaling that I'm confused about.

[Nige]

The absence of the dream girl/or man thread.

[Jay]

The absence of the dream girl/or man thread.

WHAT? :'(

[Nige]

The absence of the dream girl/or man thread.

WHAT? :'(

I'm pretty sure it's gone. I couldn't find it.

To cheer us all up, here's some Anna Kendrick.

[GoLions]

The absence of the dream girl/or man thread.

[Nige]

The absence of the dream girl/or man thread.