1995 Higher School Certificate Results: Press Release
From Board of Studies Press Release, Tuesday, 9 January 1996
The wait is over for the state's 60,000 Higher School Certificate students who receive their HSC results and Tertiary Entrance Rank (TER) today.
This year 13 students have received a TER of 100, one less student than 1994, reflecting the fewer number of students choosing to opt for a TER. There are nine females in this group which represents an increase of three over 1994. There are four males, representing a decrease of five from 1994. Six of the students are from government schools and seven from non-government schools. The overall top student is Ms Sally Yue from Abbotsleigh, Wahroonga.
President of the Board of Studies, Mr Sam Weller, said females continued to dominate the merit lists in the Higher School Certificate.
"Girls have topped twice as many courses as males, particularly in languages, and when specifics of the top 5000 are released tomorrow they will show that the majority of the places have been taken by females," he said.
"The average TER for girls is 54.05 compared to 46.15 for boys for all schools across the state.
"The overriding reason for the dominance of girls in the
Higher School Certificate merit lists this year is the inclusion
of one unit of English and one unit of humanities* in the calculation
of the TER. Girls have always performed better than boys in English
and in the humanities areas and this has been confirmed in the results
for the 1995 HSC.
(Humanities subjects include Languages other than English, Human
Society and Its Environment, Personal Development/ Health/ Physical
Education and Creative Arts.)
"An analysis of the students' results has shown that the changes to the TER are essentially responsible for this phenomenon. Girls did not, in fact, perform better across the whole of the HSC than in previous years. This seems to indicate that the significant improvement of female performance in the HSC that we have witnessed over the past five years may have plateaued."
The Board of Studies commenced a study in late 1995 to examine possible explanations for the improved performance of females. Mr Weller said the Board would not just look at the statistical analysis of the trends but undertake a thorough examination of the curriculum to ensure that no group of students was being advantaged or disadvantaged.
Mr Weller said other trends arising from this year's Higher School Certificate are the increasing number of students undertaking studies on a part-time basis and a significant number of students choosing not to take a pattern of study that will give them a TER.
"Students planning to undertake university studies must choose a number of courses that will contribute to a TER. An increasing number - 4870 students compared to 3322 in 1994 - have opted to take a pattern of study that meets their career aspirations better than a TER. This could have included a number of vocational education courses offered through their school or local TAFE college.
"This year there were 4922 students who chose to accumulate their Higher School Certificate under the Pathways model whereby they can undertake their HSC studies over a five-year period. Clearly this option has been greatly welcomed by the students and I expect the trend to continue," Mr Weller said.
Students seeking clarification of their results and their TER can contact the Board of Studies on 13-11-12 (toll-free). Bi-lingual support will be available in Vietnamese, Cantonese, Mandarin, Turkish and Arabic.
Mr Weller congratulated the students on their achievement and said today marked the culmination of twelve years of dedication and hard study.
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