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 Mathematics Advanced
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, understanding and skills appropriate to the course
integrates and applies mathematical concepts, skills and techniques consistently and accurately in a range of familiar and unfamiliar situations
selects and applies a wide range of strategies to solve a variety of multi-step mathematical problems
constructs and analyses mathematical models to solve problems in a variety of situations
communicates reasoning and justification effectively, using appropriate mathematical language, notation, diagrams and graphs.
Band 5
A student who performs at this level typically:
demonstrates thorough knowledge, understanding and skills appropriate to the course
integrates and applies mathematical concepts, skills and techniques accurately in familiar and unfamiliar situations
selects and applies a range of strategies to solve a variety of multi-step mathematical problems
constructs and analyses mathematical models to solve problems
communicates reasoning and justification using appropriate mathematical language, notation, diagrams and graphs.
Band 4
A student who performs at this level typically:
demonstrates sound knowledge, understanding and skills appropriate to the course
uses mathematical concepts, skills and techniques in familiar and some unfamiliar situations
selects and uses strategies to solve mathematical problems
interprets mathematical models to solve problems
communicates reasoning and justification using mathematical language, notation, diagrams and graphs.
Band 3
A student who performs at this level typically:
demonstrates basic knowledge, understanding and skills appropriate to the course
uses mathematical concepts, skills and techniques in familiar situations
solves simple mathematical problems
interprets some mathematical models
communicates reasoning using mathematical language, notation, diagrams and graphs.
Band 2
A student who performs at this level typically:
demonstrates elementary knowledge, understanding and skills appropriate to the course
uses some mathematical concepts, skills and techniques to solve simple familiar problems with limited accuracy
uses some mathematical language, notation, diagrams and graphs.
Band 1
Performance reported as Band 1 indicates that the minimum standard expected was not demonstrated.