How well do MY HSC SUBJECTS SCALE? ATAR EQUIVALENTS OF EXAM MARKS; Easy Explanation! What mark do I need to get? How does scaling work? Do my subjects scale badly?

 
 
Scaling is used to align marks between different subjects as they have varying degrees of difficulty. For example, it is much easier to get a mark of 90 in Maths Advanced than to get 90 in Maths Extension 2 in the HSC, hence Maths Extension 2 will be scaled higher than Maths Advanced. Thus, if the HSC mark is the same for both subjects, the scaled mark of Maths Extension 2 will be higher (significantly!) than that of Maths Advanced. 

Jack Zheng | N° 1

 

We've all seen websites or been to information sessions which go on and on about the scaling of HSC/high school subjects. Afterwards, the scaling process may even seem more convoluted than before. I'm not going to go into all the details of how it works and why you should or shouldn't care about them.

Instead, below are some easy to understand tables of the ATAR equivalents of HSC exam marks of some of the more popular subjects for our own students; they are a guide as to what ATAR result would various raw HSC exam marks get you. You can judge for yourself which subjects scale better relative to their difficulty, how you would like to interpret the information, and whether you think it is important or not.

I hope you'll find what's below quite interesting because I certainly did after noticing the stark contrasts in the scaling of various HSC subjects! You may also notice how the scaling of a subject can substantially change between different years.

These are estimates and are not to be taken as definite results or definite predictions of the scaling of your own HSC results.

 

For an updated version including 2015 marks, click here! Most of the subjects here are included.

English

English Advanced

YearHSC raw exam scoreATAR equivalent
201493%99.95
201184%98.65
201074%96.25
201365%81.20
200953%61.50
 

English Extension 1

YearHSC raw exam scoreATAR equivalent
201079%97.3
201057%86.3
201040%44.1
 

English Extension 2

YearHSC raw exam scoreATAR equivalent
201084%99.1
201042%39
 

 

Mathematics

Maths Advanced

YearHSC raw exam scoreATAR equivalent
201497%99.95
201090%99.2
201377%96.2
200958%81.2
 
YearHSC raw exam scoreATAR equivalent
201181%99.9
201163%98.2
201052%95.5
 
YearHSC raw exam scoreATAR equivalent
201479%99.95
201154%99.3
200945%98.1
 

 

Science

Biology

YearHSC raw exam scoreATAR equivalent
201395%99.9
200981%97.6
201382%91
201174%90.9
 

Chemistry

YearHSC raw exam scoreATAR equivalent
201489%99.75
201078%99.1
200961%92.5
201152%88.2
 

Physics

YearHSC raw exam scoreATAR equivalent
201394%99.95
201487%99.35
201075%97
201156%83.65
 

 

Humanities/Social Science

Business Studies

YearHSC raw exam scoreATAR equivalent
201393%99.2
200982%96.5
200976%87.9
 

Economics

YearHSC raw exam scoreATAR equivalent
201495%99.95
201385%98.15
201470%90.05
 


Jack Zheng | N° 27