How to Excel in Internal Assessment - Part 1

Despite all the changes going on in 2020, preparation for HSC Mathematics remains the same. Before we get started it is important to understand that you are in the same boat as the other 75000 Year 12 students. Now, it’s time to jump onto the speedboat.

The best way to think of the HSC is that it is a game. With any game there are certain strategies that will improve your chances of winning no matter what obstacles await. I will share with you these strategies but first a good player needs to understand the rules of the game.

Rules

For each subject:

 HSC mark = 50% internal school mark (after scaling*) + 50% external exam mark (after scaling**)

 *scaling is based on the performance of the school’s Year 12 cohort in the particular subject

**scaling is based on the performance of the NSW Year 12 cohort that undertake that subject compared to English (Advanced + Standard).

Example: if Ext 2 Math students overall do very well in English, the subject will scale well. NESA does not assume a level of “difficulty” for each course as this is subjective.

Internal Assessment

With the newly introduced changes by NESA in terms of assessments, the majority of schools have opted to assess students with:

·       TWO in class exams (covering 1-2 topics)

·       ONE take home assignment

·       ONE Trial exam

A key new change for the weighting is as follows:

“capping the number of formal written examination tasks that mimic the HSC examination to one per course, with a maximum weighting of 30% for the Year 12 course.” –Educational Standards NESA Website 2020

This means that the maximum weighting for trials is now 30% (down from the traditional 35%-50% pre 2019)

During these “internal assessments”, it doesn’t matter what MARK you receive in each assessment. What is actually important is where you stand in terms of rank for each of your subjects. The reason for this is all schools assess their students at a different standard and difficulty in order to DIFFERENTIATE students and determine the final marks and ranks which are sent to NESA. Statistically speaking, student’s marks will form a bell curve.

External Assessment

The final HSC external exam (run by NESA) will account for the other 50% which make up the final HSC mark. This is truly a high stakes test as 50% of your FINAL mark is determined by a 2-3 hour exam!! How well your school does in this exam will determine how much your “internal assessment marks” are scaled before being added to form your FINAL mark.

Strategies

Now that the rules of the game are established, it is time to talk about the strategies. These strategies are geared towards Mathematics and comes from personal experience as a student as well as my experience coaching students through the HSC. You’ll notice the subtle change to first person here as some techniques may seem unorthodox but trust me, there is a method to my madness.

The following tips will provide you with the right guidance in order to MAXIMISE your exam marks, secure a high rank at your school and ultimately IMPROVE your performance in the final HSC exam.

TO BE Continued..

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