The HSC is damn confusing!
If you’re sitting in year 10, about to start year 11, you’ve just completed year 11, or you’re one of the amazing mums/dads who give a crap about their child’s last year of school, this post is for you!
In the simplest way possible, Uncle Nathan (me) will be breaking the HSC down to its core components, explaining how these components all link, outlining what’s required to actually get a HSC, and finally revealing a few secrets about how to play the system.
Read on, you won’t regret it…
Table of Contents
What is a High School Certificate?
The High School Certificate (HSC) is a physical document that confirms your achievement of finishing High School to a satisfactory level in the state of NSW.
The HSC is the highest level of accreditation one can receive during their schooling years (finishing in year 12). This doesn’t include extra accreditations received from TAFE such as Certificates and Diplomas.
The HSC is internationally recognised as having completed the highest level of schooling in NSW, prior to attending University. It opens doors for students to continue their studies, prove their employability, or simply feel good about achieving something.
What are the requirements to get a HSC?
The HSC requires students to complete both Year 11 and Year 12 at a NSW school. Over the two years that makeup year 11 and year 12, you must study:
- At least 12 preliminary units
- At least 10 HSC units
- At least 2 units of English
Your eligibility for receiving a HSC is determined by these factors and regulated by the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA).
Most subjects are worth 2 units, so basically, in Year 11 you should be doing at least 6 subjects, and in Year 12 you should be doing at least 5 subjects, with both years including at least 2 units of English (one English subject).
Here is an example of my Year 12 course of study to show you what I mean:
How do the HSC exams and assessments work?
Throughout year 11 and year 12, your school must examine you across your subjects. This is followed by a final external examination (HSC exams) to complete your certificate.
Your school is limited to certain assessment criteria over the two years. For example, they are not allowed to assess you in one subject more than 3 times throughout year 11, and those 3 assessments can’t all be exams.
Simply put, NESA’s rules allow schools to undergo one assessment each term until the HSC exams.
The Prelim year only lasts 3 terms (to allow you to complete four terms of year 12), therefore your school can only assess you 3 times on Prelim content.
The HSC year last 4 terms (plus HSC exams that run for 4 weeks during the 5th term), therefore your school can assess you 4 times on HSC content before the final exams.
Over your prelim and HSC years, your internal assessments may look something like this:
Assessments, Prelims, Trials, HSC, what?
Here’s a quick rundown of what each of these weird and wacky terms mean for those of you who haven’t heard them before:
Assessment Tasks
An assessment task is anything that assesses your knowledge of a subject that you are enrolled in.
Assessment tasks can be take-home tasks where you are required to complete the task in your own time and then submit your work by a certain deadline.
They can be in-class exams, where the task highlights a specific area of content that you will be assessed on and then an exam is held to assess that content on a certain date.
They can be formal exams where all students in the subject take an identical exam at the same time. These usually cover all content, or a large chunk of it.
Prelim Exams
A prelim exam is held for each subject as the final assessment task for that course during your preliminary year (Year 11).
These are typically held as formal exams, assessing your knowledge of the entire year 11 syllabus (learn what a syllabus is here).
Usually, prelims are held at the very end of term 3 and mark the end of your year 11 journey.
Trial Exams
A trial exam is held for each subject as the final internal assessment task for that course during your HSC year.
Trials are made to replicate the HSC exams to give students an understanding of what the real thing will be like. They are forced to study hard, learn how their body reacts to a long exam (typically 3 hours), and figure out what they need to improve on before the HSC exams.
The trials make up a large portion of your internal HSC mark (we will get into this a little further down). For most, the trials are very daunting as they are the first real exams that students have to go through.
Trials mark the end of year 12 for most schools. The focus after trials is graduation and the last few weeks spent with friends before study mode kicks in again.
HSC Exams
The HSC exams mark the end of your HSC journey. Following these exams, you are free from school.
NESA writes the exams, employees people to supervise the exams, and employees teachers across the state to mark the exams.
These make up 50% of your final HSC mark, so for many, the HSC exams are quite scary and can cause a lot of stress.
Uncle Nathans Top Tip: The HSC exams are damn scary, but you will get through them. They will not beat you. They do not own you. They do not define you. Remember that…
What is an ATAR?
Your ATAR is your ranking against all of the other year 12 students that graduated in your year.
It really is that simple.
An ATAR of 99.95 places you in the top 0.05% of students in your graduating year.
A 90 places you in the top 10% of students in your graduating year.
A 50 puts you in the top 50% of students in your graduating year.
You get the picture…
The ATAR stands for Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank. An ATAR is what gets you into Uni before reaching a mature age (25 years old).
Your ATAR is calculated using your HSC marks, but your ATAR is NOT THE SAME AS your HSC mark.
Your ATAR is calculated by the University Admissions Centre (UAC). They use a complex algorithm that takes your final HSC marks and compares them to every other graduating student, weighing the marks according to the difficulty of the subject (this is known as scaling. Learn more about scaling here), in order to arrive at a final rank.
Your ATAR is typically released a few hours after your HSC marks are emailed to you.
You don’t have to get an ATAR. If you aren’t planning on going to Uni in the next 5 or so years, you can simply graduate with a HSC and your HSC marks.
Don’t make the same mistake I made…
If you want an ATAR, you MUST apply for one through UAC well before the end of Year 12.
Being prepared and applying before the deadline (usually before September) is a must! An ATAR should cost you around $70 if you apply at the right time.
Leaving this too late could result in you paying upwards of $150 for your ATAR!
To graduate with your marks alone, don’t apply at all.
How to play the system
Okay, you’ve made it to the fun part. You now understand all the crap that goes into the HSC and you’re ready to learn how to nail your HSC year.
I hate to do this, but there’s one more important process that I have to explain before you get the juicy stuff.
This part is super important so read/watch it twice if you have to!
How your HSC mark is calculated
Your HSC mark is a mixture of your internal ranks and your external marks.
100% at one school could be considered 75% at another. Because of this, NESA moderates your exam marks to then make up your internal mark according to your rank.
NESA looks at your internal RANK instead of your internal MARK. You are then assigned a mark according to your cohort’s performance in the final HSC exams.
Your HSC mark is broken down as follows:
- 50% is your internal mark
Your internal mark is calculated by your rank in relation to the other students in your cohort that take the same subject. This is found after completing the 4 internal assessment tasks set by your school.
- 50% is your raw HSC mark
This video from NESA is a great explanation of how your HSC marks are calculated:
How to beat the game
Finally, we can get into the fun stuff.
An ATAR of 90+ is possible! I did it and I believe anyone can do it using the same method.
The most important thing in year 12 is being consistent throughout the ENTIRE year. You’ll hear every teacher say “it’s a marathon, not a sprint” and they are damn right!
Make sure you take care of yourself over the year, DON’T study too hard, DO party a lot and DO make plenty of memories.
For my guide to smashing your ATAR whilst partying every weekend, check out this post!
Or for a way to cut down your study hours by 80% and still IMPROVE your marks, have a read of this bad boy!
I’m now going to show you my marks because it’s all well and good me saying this stuff, but where’s the proof? Well, here it is:
I graduated in 2019 with an ATAR of 93.95. Here are my HSC marks:
The Secrets
As you can see, I ended up with three Band 6’s and two Band 5’s.
I FLUNKED MY EXAMS. I know it doesn’t look like it, but I was super disappointed with my results. I’m telling you this not to sound like an ungrateful b*tch, but to show you how important your rank is.
The only reason I ended up with the final marks that I did is thanks to my rank.
The only reason my ranks were good was because I tried hard all year.
- After every exam, I would scour through it to find an extra 1 or 2 marks
- I put 110% went every single assessment task (they’re free marks, man)
- Helping my friends was important, but made sure I kept my own marks above theirs so they wouldn’t steal my rank
I know this all sounds very calculated and vindictive, but unfortunately for you to do well, others have to do slightly worse.
The key though is to rally together after trials and make sure your cohort smashes the HSC exams so you all end up with good marks!
Here’s your guide to getting the ATAR of your dreams
Essentially, the HSC is:
- A person vs. person competition up until trials, and then a
- A school vs. school competition after trials.
Follow this guide to succeed in year 12:
- Focus on your rank until trials
- Fight for your internal marks after every assessment/exam
- Ask for feedback, go away, improve, ask again
- Help your friends, but not too much
- Treat trials as if they were the real HSC exams
- Give your entire cohort your notes straight after the trial exams
- Work together to study and smash the HSC exams
- Watch your marks reap the benefits
There you have it, a complete guide to the HSC in NSW.
You are now ready to tackle your last two years of school and walk out the other side with a banging mark (and ATAR) to show for it.
I hope this has been helpful! Please, please, please leave ANY questions you have in the comments section below and I’ll reply on the ASAP.
Until next time,
Uncle N.