Assessment
Course standards
Course standards are comprised of syllabus standards and performance standards. Syllabus outcomes and content form the syllabus standards that describe what students are expected to know, understand and do. Performance standards, including the Common Grade Scale for Preliminary courses, HSC Performance Band Descriptions and Achievement Level Descriptions (for HSC courses with grades only) describe how well students have achieved in relation to syllabus standards. Performance standards are used to report student achievement on NESA credentials.
Common Grade Scale for Preliminary courses
The Loading provides generic, holistic descriptions for performance at each of the 5 grade levels. It is used to report student achievement in Year 11 courses in all NSW schools.
Performance Band Descriptions for Geography
HSC performance band descriptions summarise the knowledge, understanding and skills typically demonstrated by students at each band level in a particular course. NESA uses these holistic descriptions to report a student's overall level of achievement in an HSC course.
Band 6
A student who performs at this level typically:
demonstrates extensive knowledge and understanding of geographical concepts
evaluates responses and management strategies, at a range of scales, for sustainability
synthesises and interprets complex geographical data and information for patterns, trends and relationships, and to support investigation
proposes well-developed explanations for, and responses to, geographical challenges and opportunities, in different and unfamiliar contexts
applies an extensive range of geographical skills and tools to investigate places and environments
plans and conducts sophisticated geographical inquiry, including fieldwork
communicates logically and effectively using precise geographical terms in a variety of forms and contexts.
Band 5
A student who performs at this level typically:
demonstrates thorough knowledge and understanding of geographical concepts
assesses responses and management strategies, at a range of scales, for sustainability
interprets complex geographical data and information for patterns, trends and relationships, and to support investigation
proposes explanations for, and responses to, geographical challenges and opportunities, in different and unfamiliar contexts
applies a range of geographical skills and tools to investigate places and environments
plans and conducts well-developed geographical inquiry, including fieldwork
communicates logically and clearly using appropriate geographical terms in a variety of forms and contexts.
Band 4
A student who performs at this level typically:
demonstrates sound knowledge and understanding of geographical concepts
explains responses and management strategies, at different scales, for sustainability
interprets geographical data and information to show patterns, trends, and relationships, and to support investigation
proposes responses to geographical challenges and opportunities in different contexts
uses a range of geographical skills and tools to investigate places and environments
plans and conducts sound geographical inquiry, including fieldwork
communicates using appropriate geographical terms in different forms and contexts.
Band 3
A student who performs at this level typically:
demonstrates basic knowledge and understanding of geographical concepts
outlines responses and/or management strategies for sustainability
identifies patterns or trends from geographical data and information
proposes basic responses to geographical challenges and/or opportunities
uses geographical skills and tools to investigate places and/or environments
plans and/or conducts geographical inquiry, including fieldwork
communicates using some appropriate geographical terms.
Band 2
A student who performs at this level typically:
demonstrates limited knowledge and understanding of geographical concepts
identifies aspects of management strategies for sustainability
identifies basic geographical data and/or information
identifies responses to geographical challenges and/or opportunities
demonstrates limited use of geographical skills and/or tools
conducts basic geographical inquiry
communicates using basic geographical terms.
Band 1
Performance reported as Band 1 indicates that the minimum standard expected was not demonstrated.