Data glossary

A | C | E | M | P | S

A

ATAR eligibility

ATAR eligibility rules are determined by the Universities Admissions Centre (UAC). NESA advises schools and students of their eligibility for an ATAR on behalf of the UAC when they are enrolled in their HSC courses.

C

Changes to the reporting period

COVID-19 affected schooling during 2020 and 2021. This may have had an effect on the participation and performance of students.

HSC Board Developed Course with substantial syllabus revisions, new courses and discontinued courses:

Year	Course(s)	Status
2019	English Standard, English Advanced, English EAL/D, English Extension 1, Mathematics Standard 2, Biology, Chemistry, Earth and Environmental Science, Physics	Revised Syllabus
2019	English Studies (with optional examination), Mathematics Standard 1 (with optional examination), Investigating Science, Science Extension, Persian Continuers, Chemical World Science Life Skills, Earth and Space Science Life Skills, Investigating Science Life Skills, Living World Science Life Skills, Physical World Science Life Skills	New courses
2019	Arabic Beginners, Indonesian in Context	Discontinued
2020	Mathematics Advanced, Mathematics Extension 1 and Mathematics Extension 2	Revised Syllabus
2020	Metal and Engineering	Discontinued
2021	Japanese and Literature, Malay Background Speakers, Maltese Continuers	Discontinued
2021	Construction Curriculum Framework: Qualification CPC20211 Construction Pathways	Superseded Qualification
2022	Construction Curriculum Framework: Qualification CPC20220 Construction Pathways. Students who commenced the Construction course in Year 11 2021 and completed the course in Year 12 2022 were required to transition to the new qualification. These students were issued with two separate qualifications. The apparent spike in qualifications issued in 2022 is due to these transition arrangements.	New Qualification

Courses, types of

There are many options available for students in terms of the types of HSC courses they can study.

The courses available for the HSC cater to the different interests, future goals and chosen pathway to university, employment or further studies of students.

Different types of courses include:

Board Developed HSC general education courses, including those with practical and performance examinations. The practical works submission dates and performance examinations are in Term 3.
VET courses where students can receive a Certificate or Statement of Attainment under the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) in addition to their Higher School Certificate. Board Developed VET courses include an optional HSC examination that may be included in an ATAR.
Life Skills courses, designed for students with disability who are unable to access the regular course outcomes. These courses do not have external examinations.
Endorsed courses, catering to the learning needs of students in specific areas of need not served by Board Developed Courses. These include content endorsed courses available for delivery by any school, school developed courses endorsed for specific schools, VET courses and University developed courses to extend high achieving students.

E

Eligible for the HSC award

To qualify for the HSC students must satisfactorily complete a Year 11 pattern of study comprising at least 12 units and a Year 12 pattern of study comprising at least 10 units. Both patterns must include at least:

6 units from Board Developed Courses
2 units of a Board Developed Course in English
3 courses of two units value or greater (either Board Developed or Board Endorsed Courses)
4 subjects.

You can find additional details regarding the rules, requirements, and procedures for the Higher School Certificate on the Assessment Certification Examination (ACE) website.

M

Merit Lists

NESA recognises students’ high achievement in courses by the publication of Merit lists on the NESA’s website.

Distinguished Achievers – The school reported is the student’s main school. In some cases, the student may have studied the course(s) at another school.
Top Achievers – Reports the student(s) who achieved one of the highest places in an HSC course or VET examination and also achieved a result in the highest band (Band 6 or Band E4).

The maximum number of places in the Top Achievement list for each course varies according to the candidature of the course as outlined in the following table.

Course candidature	Maximum places in Top Achievers
Greater than 10,000	20
From 1,001 to 10,000	10
Less than or equal to 1,000	5

P

Performance bands

Student performance in each HSC course is measured against defined standards. Performance Band Descriptors for each course describe what a student at each standard typically knows, understands and can do and are unique to each course.

Exceptions to this are English Studies, English Standard and English Advanced where results are reported against a common standard. HSC marks for each course are aligned to the performance band that describes typical performance by a student within that mark range.

For a 2-unit course, Band 6 indicates the highest level of performance, and the minimum standard expected for any course is Band 2.

Band 6 = 90-100 marks
Band 5 = 80-89 marks
Band 4 = 70-79 marks
Band 3 = 60-69 marks
Band 2 = 50-59 marks
Band 1 = 0-49 marks.

For 1-unit extension courses, Band E4 indicates the highest level of performance:

Band E4 = 45-50 marks
Band E3 = 35-44 marks
Band E2 = 25-34 marks
Band E1 = 0-24 marks

In this data:

Top Band – refers to Band 6 or E4.
Top 2 Bands – refers to Bands 6 and 5, or E4 and E3.
Top 3 Bands – refers to Bands 6, 5 and 4, or E4, E3 and E2.
Above Minimum Expected Standard (MSE) – refers to all results above Band 1 or E1.

The denominator for calculating percentages is the total number of completions in all HSC courses with external examinations. For the disaggregations by gender, location and SES, the denominator is the total number of completions in all HSC courses with external examinations in each reported category.

Performance within a specific course can be compared over time. Performance cannot be compared across different courses. The distribution of results across performance bands is determined by the actual performance of students in that course. There is no pre-defined distribution for each course. The distribution can change from year to year.

Where fewer than 0.5% of the candidature, or where no student received a particular result, it is shown as 0. The percentages may not add to 100 due to rounding.

Band Distribution proportions are not provided in the tables below where the course candidature is 25 or less.

S

Socio-economic status (SES)

The socio-economic status (SES) reported is the ABS Index of Relative Socio-economic Advantage and Disadvantage, which forms part of the Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA) structure. The SES is grouped into 4 Quartiles:

Quartile 1 – representing the lowest or most disadvantaged 25% of SES localities
Quartile 4 – the highest or most advantaged 25%.

Students were allocated into quartiles based on their home address. The student address provided to NESA is not necessarily the place of usual residence as defined in the Census.

Student address data is coded to the most recent SES distribution available. For students in 2019 to 2022, the SES quartile is based on SEIFA 2016. For students in 2023 the SES quartile is based on SEIFA 2021.

Students with an address outside Australia or where the address could not be geocoded are reported as ‘unknown’.

HSC facts and figures data glossary