How study scores work

What is a Study Score?

At the end of the year, for each of your subjects you will receive a study score, between 1 and 50, which demonstrates how well you have done relative to the rest of the students who took that subject in that year.

Generally, scoring above 30 places you in the top 50% of the population, while scoring above 40 places you in the top 8% of the population, and scoring above 45 places you in the top 2% of the population. This is determined by something known as the normal distribution. 

For more information about the normal distribution, click the link below:

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/bell-curve.asp#:~:text=The%20highest%20point%20on%20the,each%20side%20of%20the%20peak.

What is important to remember is that the study score, just like the ATAR, is a relative measure of performance - it's not about how well YOU do, but how well you do compared to everyone else.

How are study scores calculated?

Your performance in a particular subject is denoted by a percentage. This is made up of your exam score, and your MODERATED SAC scores, with each component (called a graded assessment) weighing into this final percentage differently depending on the subject.

SACs (school assessed coursework) are moderated by VCAA to ensure a level playing field across the state, as different schools will have varying SAC difficulties.

Finally, your performance is compared to the rest of the state, and a 'raw' study score is calculated using normal distribution.

How are school SACs scaled?

Some schools will have hard SACs, making it harder to score higher, while some schools will have easier SACs, making it easier to score higher. 

To level the playing field, VCAA compares the overall exam performance of a cohort with the SAC performance. As the exam is standardised, it can be used to determine the SAC difficulty of a certain school, and scale SACs up or down using this information.

How are study scores scaled?

If your RAW study score is a measure of your performance in a subject relative to the rest of the state, this could put some students at a disadvantage.

For example, some subjects are easier and are generally taken by students who are less competitive. It would be easier to attain a higher study score in these subjects as the competition is weaker.

The opposite applies for tougher subjects with stronger cohorts.

To even out this discrepancy, VCAA scales subjects up or down depending upon how competitive the cohort taking the subject is.

How can VCAA determine the 'smartness' of a cohort?

It checks the mean RAW study scores of all students taking that subject.

What that means is, a smarter cohort will obviously have higher raw scores in their other subjects than a weaker cohort.

If the people taking subject 'X' have a mean raw study score of 35 in all their subjects, this indicates that the cohort is competitive, as a study score of 30 is the mean. This means that subject X is going to be scaled up by 5. If a student gets a raw 30 in subject X, it will automatically scale to a 35 study score.

Let's take Media for example. Media scales down by 4 - if a student receives a raw 30, it will scale down to a 26 study score. This indicates that the people taking media across the state have a mean raw study score of 26 in all their subjects, indicating a weaker cohort.

To access the scaling report, click the link below:

https://vtac.edu.au/files/pdf/reports/scaling-report-20-21.pdf