NSW HSC scaling — 2024

UAC's verbatim 2024 scaling figures for every HSC course with 40+ students. Mean, SD, max, plus the scaled mark at the 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th, and 99th percentile of the course candidature.

Top 12 HSC courses by scaled mean

These courses had the highest scaled means in 2024. A high scaled mean means the candidature was strong on average — typically students who picked these courses also performed well across their other courses.

Course	Students	HSC mean	Scaled mean	Scaled P90	Scaled P50
Mathematics Extension 2	3,544	41.5	43.4	47.9	44.7
Mathematics Extension 1	8,846	40.3	39.6	46.9	41.3
English Extension 1	3,782	42.9	36.2	43.3	36.9
English Extension 2	1,479	41.3	35.8	44.4	36.0
Music Extension	390	45.7	35.8	49.4	35.8
Music 2	659	43.2	34.5	44.6	35.7
History Extension	1,761	40.6	32.9	41.8	33.6
English Advanced	25,397	41.2	32.7	42.4	33.7
Science Extension	753	38.5	32.2	40.9	32.6
Mathematics Advanced	16,559	39.4	32.0	42.5	33.5
Chemistry	9,722	37.3	31.8	43.4	33.7
Economics	5,598	38.9	31.5	42.3	33.4

Lowest-scaling HSC courses

These courses had the lowest scaled means in 2024. Important nuance: a low scaled mean usually means the candidature was mixed — strong students in these courses still get strong scaled marks (look at the P90).

Course	Students	HSC mean	Scaled mean	Scaled P90	Scaled P50
English Studies Exam	1,491	28.5	8.8	16.1	8.1
Mathematics Standard 1 Exam	2,139	35.7	13.4	27.8	11.8
Aboriginal Studies	759	36.3	15.1	34.3	11.9
Industrial Technology	5,959	35.6	17.6	33.2	16.3
Community & Family Studies	9,772	37.5	18.4	33.8	17.4
Agriculture	1,586	36.3	18.6	35.0	17.1
Food Technology	4,262	36.7	18.8	35.9	16.8
English Standard	32,992	35.9	20.1	31.2	19.6

Most popular HSC courses (by candidature, 2024)

Course	Students	Scaled mean	Scaled P90
English Standard	32,992	20.1	31.2
Mathematics Standard 2	31,140	22.8	37.3
English Advanced	25,397	32.7	42.4
Business Studies	19,570	23.5	39.0
Biology	19,044	26.0	39.5
PDH&PE	17,258	22.6	37.6
Mathematics Advanced	16,559	32.0	42.5
Modern History	10,590	25.2	39.5
Legal Studies	10,209	25.0	39.8
Community & Family Studies	9,772	18.4	33.8
Chemistry	9,722	31.8	43.4
Mathematics Extension 1	8,846	39.6	46.9

How UAC scaling works (in 60 seconds)

NESA gives UAC the raw HSC marks. UAC standardises them and then runs an iterative algorithm: the scaled mean of each 2-unit course is set equal to the average academic achievement of that course's candidature, where each student's academic achievement is their average scaled mark across all courses. Iteration converges; out come the scaled means and SDs.

Practical upshot: there is no "hidden multiplier" applied to a course. A course's scaled mean rises if more strong students pick it; falls if weaker students pick it. UAC recomputes from scratch every year.