What is the Higher School Certificate (HSC)?
The HSC is the highest educational award in New South Wales schools in Australia. It is awarded to students who have satisfactorily completed secondary school. Students are eligible for the HSC by meeting HSC course requirements and by sitting the HSC examination.
The HSC is managed by the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA). NESA takes the raw marks and aligns them to performance bands to calculate HSC marks, which is your performance in each HSC course.
By completing the HSC, students can receive an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR). The ATAR calculation process is managed by Universities Admissions Centre (UAC). The UAC scales raw HSC marks and uses the scaled marks to calculation ATARs.
The ATAR is used to apply for university entry.
