Does Going to a 'Normal' School Disadvantage Me?

This is a common question of many students who wonderwhether attending a 'normal' non-selective government school would disadvantagethem in any way in their HSC.

The short answer is:there is no technical reason why you should be disadvantaged as a result ofattending a 'normal' school.

However there may be other factors that can affect thecorrect answer to this question.

The system istechnically fair

The way in which your ATAR / UAI is calculated istechnically fair. It implements statistical methods of scaling to equateachievement levels in different HSC subjects on a common scale, in the form ofscaled marks. The process of scaling for different subjects is the same, andapplies in the same way to all students attending all schools.

But what about your internal marks? The component of yourHSC that is assessed from internal school assessments are calculated from your rank at school. That is, how well youdid (as a rank, not a mark) relative to your peers at school. The process thatconverts your school rank for each subject into a scaled mark is called theprocess of moderation.

Basically, with moderation, your internal HSC assessmentcomponent is mapped to your school rank for each subject, from the pool ofexternal marks. For example, suppose Amanda, a Chemistry student, comes 5thoverall in Chemistry within her school. Her external HSC exam mark was 92/100,which was the 2nd highest in her school. The 5th highest external exam mark inher school was 84/100. Then for Amanda's overall HSC mark, it would consist of50% of her own mark of 92/100, and 50% of the 5th highest exam mark (becauseher rank was 5 th in Chemistry), which was 84/100. This leads to an overallmark of 88/100. However, note that in fact, this is an approximation only(Amanda would actually receive a mark close to 84/100 for her internalcomponent, as there is an adjustment made due to the fact that marks distributionsare not the same across different schools).

Basically, what this means is regardless of whether yourschool is considered 'good' or 'bad', your end result should not be affected,since your internal component is solely based on your school rank. If you dosignificantly better than your peers in a 'normal' school, your ranks would be1t or close to 1 st for all your subjects. In this situation, you would end upreceiving your own external HSC exam mark as your internal component.Effectively, this means that those students passing from any institute couldcount their final HSC exams for their final assessment. Now, other than therisk of placing too high weighting on the final exams, there is no inherentdirect source of unfairness in this system - that is, you are not being 'pulleddown' in a direct way by your peers in a 'normal' school.

However, as we see certain schools perform well year afteryear, there must be other factors in play, despite the system being technicallyfair.

The positive effectof being in a competitive environment

Schools that tend to do well consistently (e.g. look at thelist of the top 50 schools in NSW) would have a culture of academic excellence.From this culture, students in these schools are more focused on their studies.Students have an amazing effect of pushing each other, motivating each otherand the mutual competition drives students in these schools to high standards.

What can I do?

If you find you go to a school where students are notprimarily interested in doing well in their HSC, you should firstly identifythe few of your peers that are keen to do well, and form working relationshipswith them. Study together, motivate each other, share notes etc. These thingsare mutually beneficial, and the healthy competition you get from each otherwill be beneficial to your marks.

Another suggestion is to find a quality tutoring service andattend their classes. Reputable tutoring colleges will have no problemattracting bright students who are keen to do very well in their HSC. Studentscan benefit from the structured environment a class offers, and being able tolearn at the same level as other bright students will be beneficial to yourmarks.

The quality ofteachers and teaching

Generally speaking, students at 'good' schools receive abetter learning experience. This is due to a number of factors. For example, in'bad' schools, teachers need to spend more class time on classroom management(managing the disruptive students, making sure their behaviour is acceptableetc), leaving less time for actual teaching. Disruptive students also pull theclass behind in terms of schedule, as teachers are forced to move at a slowerpace to cater to all students.

The extreme example is that in particularly 'bad' schools, teachersare so fed up with disruptive students that their motivation to teachdiminishes, and these situations despite being very unfortunate, are quitecommon.

Generally speaking, many teachers gravitate towardstransferring to the 'good' schools, mainly because the easier classroommanagement (less need to manage disruptive students) provides a more pleasantworking environment for them. Now, this does not apply to all teachers, but itis likely to be true on a wide scale. Such teachers represent a migration ofquality teaching from the 'bad' schools to the 'good' schools, as theirtransfer requests to the DET are granted over time.

This leads onto the second point of teacher retention.Retention rates tend to be highest at well-off private schools or high-rankingselective schools. Most teachers working at such schools are happy where theyare, and would not seek to leave their post until they retire. However,retention rates at other schools tend to be lower for various reasons that wewill not go into. For example, how many times have you noticed 'good' teachersleaving for another (often higher ranked, or private) school?

However, this is NOT to say that there are no 'good'teachers in 'normal' schools. There are countless dedicated teachers out therethat do not work at high-ranking selective or well-off private schools, andthey are rightly well respected for the good work they do.

What can I do?

This problem is a tricky one to solve or avoid. If you findthat there are no good teachers for certain subjects you are taking, we reallysuggest seeking a tutoring service, or even a good private tutor. Reputabletutoring colleges will always have high quality teachers as part of theiracademic staff.

Conclusion

Although the technical details of the scaling and moderationprocesses are inherently fair, and that there are no direct sources ofdisadvantage to students attending schools that are neither high-rankedselective or private schools, there are other factors that may cause adisadvantage in real terms. While not every student can have the luxury ofbeing surrounded by other hard working bright peers that push and motivate eachother to do well, this effect could be emulated by attending a reputabletutoring college, or by seeking like-minded individuals at school. Students andparents should also consider seeking a tutoring service if they feel that theirschool teacher is not offering adequate support.

But most importantly, don't leave it until too late! Everyassessment in year 12 counts to your HSC and UAI / ATAR, so make sure youreceive adequate support from day one of year 12, at the very least!