Ranking in the HSC

Your teachers may by now have told you how every little bit of assessment or examination counts in Year 12. HSC® Exam is very competitive, however chances are you will have friends that ask for help, or perhaps you might need a hand with something that you feel a peer may address more clearly than a teacher might. Although you might not want to sabotage your friends in the hopes that their mark will suffer so that yours may prevail, it’s worth bearing in mind that rank goes a long way in the HSC® Exam.

With all of the intricate and complex details that are considered when determining your HSC® Exam marks and ATAR, one thing is certain: your rank leading up to the HSC® Exam exams is crucial. The one thing to acknowledge is that whoever in your year or cohort is ranked 1st internally will automatically be allocated the highest HSC® Exam mark in your cohort, even if it is someone else who actually scores it. So, let’s say you are ranked 1st internally, that is, in all your assessments, assignments half yearlies and trials but someone else, who is ranked 18th for instance, performs better in the HSC® Exam exam and earns the highest mark at 98%. Since you were ranked 1st internally, that 98% will be automatically be allocated to you. The same goes for 2nd, 3rd, and so on. The student ranked 2nd will automatically be allocated the second highest mark in the HSC® Exam for your year group. The student ranked last may perform well in the HSC® Exam exam, and you, as 1st, may score 5% hypothetically as the lowest mark, but that 5% will be allocated to the lowest ranking student.

This isn’t to say that you should then dismiss HSC® Exam preparation and “wing” your HSC® Exam exam in the hopes that another student will pull through and score a really high mark that will be allocated to you- for this might not be the case. You could be on a 95% internal mark, and the highest mark in the HSC® Exam exam may be a 60. You would then get that 60, which drags down your overall mark. It’s safe to say that you wouldn’t naturally want to rely on someone else’s mark as your own anyway, because you would inherently want the mark that you yourself have worked for. The satisfaction of scoring the highest mark as a result of your own hard work is far greater than the safety of relying on another student’s mark.

Essentially, this blog isn’t designed to “tell’ you to be ranked 1st or you’re doomed; this certainly is not the case. Rather it means that if you do want to rank 1st in your actual HSC® Exam exam, HSC® Exam preparation is not enough, you also have to maintain your position as 1st throughout your HSC® Exam year internally will ensure the best chance of your highest mark possible come HSC® Exam exam time.