HSC Vocabulary

ATAR: The Australian Tertiary Admission Rank is a rank between 0 and 99.95 – please note that only ATARs over 30 will be reported. ATAR gives a rank of overall academic achievement compared to other students state-wide in the HSC, which is used by universities to rank applicants for university placement.  Some university courses also require a portfolio, interview or questionnaires for application.

Board Developed (Board Examined) Courses:  NESA sets the syllabus for these courses and will examine them.  Universities divide these subjects into Category A and Category B according to their perceived academic rigour.

Content Endorsed Courses:  These courses are developed by NESA to cater for wide candidature. They are not externally examined and have only an unmoderated assessment mark from the school recorded on the HSC Record of Achievement.  Results in these courses are not eligible for inclusion in the calculation of the ATAR.  There are no Content Endorsed Courses offered at WCCS.

Course:  Courses are subjects that may be of one or two-year duration and may be of one or two unit value (most are two).  Two-year courses usually have a Year 11 and a Year 12 component.  One-year courses may count as Year 11 or Year 12 courses.

HSC:  Higher School Certificate.

KLA:  Key Learning Areas, which include:

·   Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA)

·   English                                

·   Human Society and its Environment (HSIE)

·   Languages                                       

·   Mathematics

·   Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE)

·   Science                    

·   Technologies (TAS/ICT)

·   Vocational Education and Training (VET)

Each subject offered comes from one of these KLAs.

NESA: The NSW Education Standards Authority (previously the Board of Studies), was created by the NSW Government to sustain and improve the already high standards of achievement in NSW schools.

RoSA: The Record of School Achievement is for students who are eligible to leave school for employment or further education before completing the Higher School Certificate. The RoSA is based on school-based assessment and will be cumulative, showing a student’s achievement until the time he or she leaves school. This includes grades for Years 10 and 11. These grades can be used by UAC for early entry applications into university.

TVET Courses:  Joint Secondary Schools/TAFE courses that may be Board Developed (Accounting, Electronics Technology, and Tourism Sector Services) or, more likely, Board Endorsed Courses.  You can check with the school and/or TAFE as to the status of individual courses.

Unit:  60 hours class time used to achieve the objectives and outcomes of each unit of a course.  Each unit equates to four and a half periods per fortnight of classes at WCCS.  Most courses are two unit courses, which equals 120 hours per year (two unit courses receive a result out of 100). 

Vocational Courses (VET):  These are dual accredited with the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) as well as NESA. Vocational courses are offered in a number of Industry Frameworks including Entertainment, Hospitality and Construction.

These are competency-based courses, which means that students work to develop the competencies, skills and knowledge described in each unit of competency contained in the syllabus. To be assessed as competent in a VET course, students must demonstrate to a qualified assessor that they can effectively carry out the various tasks and combinations of tasks listed to the standard required by the appropriate industry framework.  There is no mark awarded in competency-based assessment, instead, students are assessed as either ‘competent’ or ‘not yet competent’ in individual units of work.  When students achieve a unit of competency it is signed off by the assessor in a student log book.

Competency-based assessments are used to determine the vocational qualification that a student will receive. This qualification may vary from a Certificate I to Certificate III depending on the depth of study attempted, the number of units devoted to the subject and, of course, the success of the student in the studies.  See page 44 for more details.

Year 11 Studies:  This refers to the set of modules that must be completed before HSC work may commence, during Year 11.  No Year 12 work may commence before Term 4 of the year that the Year 11 studies began.