Raw exam mark: the mark awarded to the exam response
A raw examination mark comes from marking your exam response. Exam papers and marking guidelines can differ from year to year, so NESA uses standards setting to align raw exam marks to the achievement standards for the course. The raw mark itself is not the same thing as the reported HSC mark.
Aligned and reported HSC marks: the NESA results stage
Alignment places exam results in relation to the course performance standards. Separately, NESA moderates school assessment marks so they can be compared across schools. For most examined courses, the reported HSC mark is the average of the exam mark and moderated assessment mark. The result notice shows the course assessment, exam and HSC marks.
The exact reporting pathway depends on the course and whether it has a formal HSC exam. Check the course-specific NESA information when applying a general explanation to a particular subject.
Worked example: a reported mark is not a scaled mark
Suppose a student in a typical examined 2-unit course receives a reported assessment mark of 84 and a reported exam mark of 88. This hypothetical pair gives an HSC mark of 86: (84 + 88) ÷ 2. The example explains the reported average only. It does not say which raw exam mark produced the 88, or which scaled mark UAC would use.
Keep the labels with the numbers when comparing tools. “HSC mark 86 out of 100” and “scaled mark 40 out of 50 per unit” are different measures, even though both might appear in discussions of the same course. The second number here is illustrative; it is not a conversion from 86.
Scaled mark: a UAC calculation input
UAC uses raw HSC marks provided by NESA for scaling and ATAR calculation. Scaled marks help combine results from different course patterns. They are not the aligned HSC marks shown on your results notice, and they are not generally reported to students as individual course marks.
When reading a calculator, look for the label beside each number. If it does not say whether the value is raw, reported HSC or scaled, do not assume it is comparing like with like.
A raw HSC mark is also different from a raw exam mark. UAC’s 2025 scaling report explains that the raw HSC mark combines the raw examination mark and the raw moderated assessment mark. UAC scales this combined raw result. The aligned marks reported to students do not let you reconstruct that input exactly.
UAC 2025 scaling report: marks used in ATAR calculations · Which units of scaled marks count towards your ATAR?
Sources and editorial notes
Founder of ATAR Forecast. These guides explain school ranks, HSC results and the assumptions behind the forecasting tool, with links to NESA and UAC sources. These guides explain the process; NESA and UAC remain the official authorities.
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An experimental estimate, not an official ATAR calculation.