UAI & Scaling

• What is a UAI?
• How is the UAI calculated?
• Features of a UAI
• How does scaling work?
• Scaling and Subject selection

What is a UAI?

UAI stands for Universities Admission Index and is a number between 0.00 and 100.00 with increments of 0.05. UAIs provide a measure of overall academic achievement in the NSW HSC (or equivalent) that assists universities in ranking applicants for university selection. It is calculated by the universities and released by the UAC. It is given to NSW HSC students who indicate they wish to be notified of their UAI.

How is the UAI calculated?

Firstly, subjects marks are scaled to account for different degrees of difficulty. The best 10 units, including 2 units of English, are then selected from the scaled marks. These subjects are added to give an aggregate out of 500 and each person’s position is determined. The position is then determined as a percentage between 0.00 and 100.00.

For more information, visit the UAC website.

Features of a UAI

• UAIs are an assessment of rank, not performance.
• A UAI of 100 does not mean a student got everything right.
• A UAI of 50 does not mean the student averaged 50% in each subject, only that they got a better score than half the other students.

For more information, visit the UAC website.

How does scaling work?

• The scaling process takes raw marks provided by the Board of Studies and estimates what these marks would have been if all courses had been studied by all students.
• The scaling algorithm is designed to encourage students to take the courses for which they are best suited and which best prepare them for their future studies; the underlying principle is that a student should neither be advantaged nor disadvantaged by choosing one HSC course over another.
• Scaling modifies the mean, the standard deviation and the maximum mark in each course. Adjustments are then made to the marks of individual students to produce scaled marks, which are the marks the students would have received if all courses had the same candidature.
• Although scaled marks are generally different from the raw marks from which they are derived, the ranking of students within a course is not changed.

For more information, visit the UAC website.

Scaling and Subject Selection

Scaling enables universities to accurately compare and rank students for entry into university. It creates an even playing field for all HSC candidates, allowing universities to properly and fairly compare students who have studied different HSC subjects.

Don’t choose subjects that are seen as being ‘scaled highly’ or ‘scaled up’, subjects that are beyond your ability or subjects you don’t like. If you can’t cope with the subject you won’t perform well, regardless of how it is scaled.

While it is important to know about scaling, remember that because each year of students is different, the scaling each year is also different. The most important thing to consider when choosing your subjects is to pick things that you are good at and that are related to what you want to work towards in the future.

For more information, visit the UAC website.

For more information on subject selection please click here.

Last reviewed: 3 January, 2007