Hi, Azurelies!
That doesn't put you at an advantage, but don't be upset about it! It just means you need to work a little bit harder during the trial-HSC period to compensate for your internal. Look forward; plan ahead of time; get as much feedback from your teachers before the holidays. Since you go to a top 5 school, you'll most likely be pulled up by the rest of your cohort. So, 97 or a 98 is still in the game!
The way your HSC marks are determined involve two factors:
1. Your internal ranking and subsequent mark difference.
This just means that NESA doesn't care about the
actual mark you get internally, because that gets weighted and moderated by NESA. All they care about are your internal rankings, which is the position against the rest of your cohort, and the mark difference between the person in first place. Everything else, such as actual mark, will get scaled.
2. External mark.
The second important factor is your external mark. This is the 'raw' mark you get after sitting your HSC exam, so whatever you get in the HSC exam is counted as 50% of your final HSC mark. This is actually where the scaling and moderation of your internal ranking takes place.
Process of scaling and moderationMain article: FROM ASSIGNMENT TO ATAR: HOW YOUR MARKS ARE CALCULATEDThe process is actually pretty simple to grasp. The person placed first and last in the cohort will receive the highest and lowest external mark to be their final internal mark. Your own external is yours to keep; no one can touch that. From here, your rankings and internal mark difference will be the scaling factor to how much you've been pulled up or dragged down. So, even if you don't do well internally, just bring up your HSC external exam and a 97 or a 98 can be achieved!
Myself, I actually screwed up my trial exams pretty badly and my estimated ranking are well and truly in the middle of the cohort. So, I'm planning to smash the HSC exams in order to boost my final ATAR. It will be tough, but it is achievable.