Post-UCAT Discussion 2020

[Sokka]

14000 iirc

That’s ANZ, I think he means Australia only

 

[requiem]

14000 iirc

I believe thats throughout the ANZ region, not just AUstralia

 

[whys]

As if Monash didn't look at VIC school leavers a *bit* more preferentially already lmao

I agree, but bridging the gap isn't just for med, but for all vic students who are applying to any course interstate and many vic students have experienced a lot of disadvantages due to covid stuff happening. Not our fault Monash allocates more places for vic students, we can only take advantage of that.

 

[someday]

I agree, but bridging the gap isn't just for med, but for all vic students who are applying to any course interstate and many vic students have experienced a lot of disadvantages due to covid stuff happening. Not our fault Monash allocates more places for vic students, we can only take advantage of that.

Correct me if I’m wrong since I’m not 100% sure on how this works, but since Victorian students’ ATARs are a rank compared to other Victorians who were all somewhat equally disadvantaged from covid (and if not, then EAS comes into play), the effects of covid shouldn’t be something that interstate unis have to be too concerned about for victorians should it?

 

[whys]

Correct me if I’m wrong since I’m not 100% sure on how this works, but since Victorian students’ ATARs are a rank compared to other Victorians who were all somewhat equally disadvantaged from covid (and if not, then EAS comes into play), the effects of covid shouldn’t be something that interstate unis have to be too concerned about for victorians should it?

For courses where interstate applicants compete with non-interstate applicants, then Victorians would be disadvantaged if they are not given some sort of compensation for their circumstances that puts them on an 'equal' playing field for a place offer.

 

[ucatboy]

For courses where interstate applicants compete with non-interstate applicants, then Victorians would be disadvantaged if they are not given some sort of compensation for their circumstances that puts them on an 'equal' playing field for a place offer.

But since ATAR is your performance relative to your peers within your STATE, if all Victorians were hit hard by lockdowns and school closures, your ATAR should not change by much, since everyone was affected. ATAR isn't a raw score, it's a rank, so if everyone does badly in Victoria due to school closures and other educational disruptions, aggregate to ATAR conversions should drop to reflect that overall dip in performance.

Now if we talk about how much each Victorian student was affected, then that's an entirely different can of worms.

 

[whys]

But since ATAR is your performance relative to your peers within your STATE, if all Victorians were hit hard by lockdowns and school closures, your ATAR should not change by much, since everyone was affected. ATAR isn't a raw score, it's a rank, so if everyone does badly in Victoria due to school closures and other educational disruptions, aggregate to ATAR conversions should drop to reflect that overall dip in performance.

Now if we talk about how much each Victorian student was affected, then that's an entirely different can of worms.

Hmm... true. Then I have no idea what Daniel Andrews and James Merlino were going on about!

 

[dande]

Hmm... true. Then I have no idea what Daniel Andrews and James Merlino were going on about!

im pretty sure that announcement was more like how each student will be individually assessed to see how COVID impacted. im not 100% sure but from what i've heard, teachers give a study score prediction from pre and post COVID and from that if it dropped a lot then that student may have their study score appropriately adjusted (no clue how exactly this works. im not sure anybody does).

 

[dotwingz]

It seems they’re reworking the bonus system to account for individual differences in Covid impact and implementing this into the actual study scores. Wow

Struggling year 12s claim ‘huge win’

Victorian year 12s who will now be “individually assessed” for their VCE scores and ATAR rankings say the new changes are a “huge win” for the class of 2020.

www.news.com.au

 

[JL538]

“We’ll look at things such as school closures, we’ll look at things such as long absences. We’ll look at things, for example, such as significant increase in family responsibilities as a result of Covid-19 and we’ll, of course, consider the mental health and wellbeing of students during this period.”

"At the end of the school year, The VCAA will consider a range of data alongside exam results, including a student’s expected achievement levels before the impact of coronavirus, school assessments completed prior to remote and flexible learning, the general achievement test, and a range of statistical analyses to calculate final results."

Ah shit does that mean we have to actually try in the GAT this year

 

[requiem]

“We’ll look at things such as school closures, we’ll look at things such as long absences. We’ll look at things, for example, such as significant increase in family responsibilities as a result of Covid-19 and we’ll, of course, consider the mental health and wellbeing of students during this period.”

"At the end of the school year, The VCAA will consider a range of data alongside exam results, including a student’s expected achievement levels before the impact of coronavirus, school assessments completed prior to remote and flexible learning, the general achievement test, and a range of statistical analyses to calculate final results."

Ah shit does that mean we have to actually try in the GAT this year

Yeah, the GAT will be the most important it has ever been this year and will be used even more heavily for SAC scaling due to the ambiguity around online SACs. Also, I don't understand how they can individually assess like 60,000 students, it doesn't seem feasible. Imo, schools will be assessed overall instead of the students themselves.

 

[A1]

so if everyone does badly in Victoria due to school closures and other educational disruptions, aggregate to ATAR conversions should drop to reflect that overall dip in performance.

Not necessarily so.
The HSC/VCE marks process goes through several adjustment steps even before getting subject-scaled for ATAR.

1) Your school-assessment marks are moderated to reflect your school-cohort's HSC/VCE exam performance
2) Your moderated school-assessment marks are then combined with your own exam marks to give preliminary HSC/VCE marks
3) The whole state's preliminary HSC/VCE marks are then ALIGNED with previous years' marks to give actual HSC/VCE marks
(These steps are carried out by the state Schools Board/Authority)

4) The actual HSC/VCE marks are subject-scaled, by the TAC, into aggregates for ATAR ranking,

Step 3) is to equalise a year's marks to previous years' to even out any variations like more difficult exams in a particular year, or currently COVID disruptions etc. I think the overall aggregates will be pretty much similar.

 

[TKAO]

“We’ll look at things such as school closures, we’ll look at things such as long absences. We’ll look at things, for example, such as significant increase in family responsibilities as a result of Covid-19 and we’ll, of course, consider the mental health and wellbeing of students during this period.”

"At the end of the school year, The VCAA will consider a range of data alongside exam results, including a student’s expected achievement levels before the impact of coronavirus, school assessments completed prior to remote and flexible learning, the general achievement test, and a range of statistical analyses to calculate final results."

Ah shit does that mean we have to actually try in the GAT this year

Could someone explain what the GAT is compared to VCE? What's the point of it? Is it basically like a year 12 version of the NAPLAN? Or is it more like a selective academic test like what they have in NSW?

 

[JL538]

Could someone explain what the GAT is compared to VCE? What's the point of it? Is it basically like a year 12 version of the NAPLAN? Or is it more like a selective academic test like what they have in NSW?

It's usually meant to predict your exam scores if you miss exams for any reason.

 

[requiem]

Could someone explain what the GAT is compared to VCE? What's the point of it? Is it basically like a year 12 version of the NAPLAN? Or is it more like a selective academic test like what they have in NSW?

Yeah, you could liken it to NAPLAN, except it isn't as structured. There's two writing tasks and 70 multiple choice questions which relate to maths, logical puzzles and science sort of, as well as some reading comprehension. As jdog said, its used to form a derived exam score, but it is also used to standardise the internal assessments we do in school.

 

[Achiever]

Anyone saw the UK interim deciles? They just came out and 90th percentile is at 2910! Admittedly, there is still 15,000 more candidates to sit the test.

 

[Scorpion]

What was their 90th last year, out of interest? Guess it wasn't just us getting higher scores this year.

 

[hazell]

What was their 90th last year, out of interest? Guess it wasn't just us getting higher scores this year.

2800 was the 90th percentile last year for the uk

 

[razzagod101]

for local victorians, what is the round 1 interview cutoff for ucat most likely going to be for UCAT? any rough predictions?

 

[TKAO]

for local victorians, what is the round 1 interview cutoff for ucat most likely going to be for UCAT? any rough predictions?

Doubt we would be able to give an accurate prediction. However, going off previous invite data 2020 Entry Interview Invites - Collated (DATA ONLY) it appears slightly higher than a 90th was the lowest reported that didn't have a monash guarantee. Before that the year before had a lowest reported of 80th 2019 Entry Interview Invites - Collated