Why is excelling in English crucial to your ATAR?

It is essential to breakdown how scaling and ATAR works because it affects every student in high school. Additionally, it should be in the back of the minds of younger students and parents when undertaking those important subject choices throughout years 7-10.

What is the Purpose of Scaling?

The purpose of scaling is to provide students with a level playing field so that students are not advantaged or disadvantaged by choosing a particular HSC course over another.

Scaling allows for a student’s marks in one subject to be compared to a student’s marks in another subject. This is extremely important in the HSC because out of the approximate 55,000 students that take the HSC every year, there are 25,625 (2021) different course combinations with 18,492 (2021) of those combinations being taken by only one student.

One great way to think about the purpose of scaling is to think of it in terms of currency exchange. Just like how $1 AUD is not equal to $1 USD, 1 mark in 4 Unit Mathematics is not equivalent to 1 mark in 2 Unit English Advanced. In fact, 1 mark in 4 Unit Mathematics is ‘worth’ more than 1 mark in 2 Unit English Advanced because of scaling.

And most importantly, scaling is based on an unbiased mathematical model and cannot be explained simply but you must trust it.

Why do different courses scale better than others and does this affect your rank?

Courses scale differently because they reflect the strength of the competition in a course. This means that if a course has a high scaled mean, the ability of the students in that course is high and thus, they will be rewarded with higher ATARs on average than students in courses with a low scaled mean.

Courses such as 4 Unit Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry are famously known for ‘scaling well’ and ‘scaling better than English’ because in truth, they do. This is because the cohort of these subjects is more competitive and thus, success in these subjects is rewarded handsomely despite raw marks being low on initial inspection. However, just because a subject doesn’t scale as well as another, doesn’t mean it restricts you from getting a high ATAR. Ranking highly in your subject internally at you school and externally in your subject cohort will result in you not being dragged down from the negative effects of scaling.

Furthermore, it is also important to remember that scaling has no effect on your rank – an essential step in determining your ATAR which in itself is an overall rank.

How can an English Tutor drastically help your ATAR so you can avoid being dragged down?

It is a fact that English doesn’t scale as well as subjects such as 4 Unit Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry. An 80 in English Advanced will not be as beneficial to your ATAR as a 80 in Chemistry. The 80 in chemistry will be scaled up a lot more than the 80 in English Advanced and thus, a low English mark can seriously affect your overall ATAR.

On top of this, your ATAR must include your 2 best units of English and thus, doing well in English is a must. This is where an English tutor is essential. Having an English Tutor who is an ex-high achiever with high level Band 6’s or State Ranks allows you to drastically improve your internal and external English ranking. This improvement is important because if you are at the top end of your English cohort, you will not be dragged down and scaled negatively as the mathematical scaling model allows for the top students to be negligibly affected by the negative effects of scaling.

Moreover, it is important to realise that students need to invest more time in English rather than ‘harder’ subjects such as Physics and Chemistry because these subjects will inherently scale well because of the strong cohort in contrast to the weaker English cohort.

Overall, I hope this article has given you a greater understanding of HSC scaling and ATAR and the importance of achieving high-end results for English.

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