HSC Legal Studies

HSC Legal Studies is exactly how much of the law I've ever studied

Legal Studies doesn’t get a lot of press, from what I can tell. It’s not the most popular subject in the HSC, like Business Studies. It doesn’t get the attention Maths and English get because they’re Maths and English. It doesn’t have a terrible reputation for scaling, nor does it have the most stellar reputation. I don’t think there’s any perception of surplus or deficit in what it does to scaling. It just is.

Legal Studies has a strong candidature from year to year and it attracts students from a fairly wide range of academic achievement.

The proportion of students studying Legal Studies has slightly increased from 2007, although the general trend in enrolments over the last few years has been one of slight decline. Still, with over 13% of HSC students studying Legal Studies, it’s a subject with a strong candidature. The proportion of Band 6 scores has risen fairly significantly, from around 9% in 2007 to 15% in 2024. It looks to me like the increase in Band 6 scores has really just been Band 6 eating up what used to be high Band 5 scores, but we need to see the change in scaling to get a sense of that.

Here are all HSC scores achieved in Legal Studies in 2024, from Band 2 up.

Band 6 scores don’t really taper off until after 93, then the number of the highest scores achieved diminishes quite quickly. Fewer than 3% of the state achieved 95 or more. The distribution of scores overall is a little odd, but the HSC doesn’t require subjects to follow a normal distribution of scores, so we get to see all kinds of things.

Scaling in Legal Studies

Here’s a look at how Legal Studies has scaled over time, comparing HSC scores to ATAR contributions.

Each dot represents an HSC score from 0-100. Each dot is coloured by Band. Red scores are Band 1s, yellows are Bands 2 and 3, blues are bands 4 and 5 and pink dots on the right are Band 6 scores. The left most pink dot is the first Band 6 score, so an HSC score of 90. How far across to the right a dot is shows what that HSC score was worth to a student’s ATAR.

The change in the scaled value Band 6 scores looks a little less pronounced to me here than the change in band achievement above. This may indicate that there has been an increase in the proportion of higher achievers choosing Legal Studies, or, a decrease in the proportion of lower achievers. Or a combination of both. But there’s not a lot in it, either way.

Here’s what all scaling in HSIE subjects looked like in 2024, according to my estimates.

HSIE subjects tend to scale pretty similarly and be marked by NESA at fairly similar standards. Economics and Aboriginal Studies stand out as otherwise, but others are fairly similar. Legal Studies sits right in there with the others. That’s just a benign thing about HSIE subjects. In scaling terms, they’re a little boring, but that’s just because they’re similar and predictable. I like it that they’re boring in those terms.

When we zoom in to just the implications of Band 6 achievement in HSIE subjects, there’s variation, but it’s far from extreme.

Here’s a simplified look at band achievement in Legal Studies in 2024.

Here’s what Legal Studies scaling looked like in 2024, compared to HSC scores.

The straight line is HSC scores. The blue dots off the green line are those HSC scores as ATAR contributions. Sometimes people talk about when subjects scale up and down. This shows what they mean by that. But it’s not a good way to think about the HSC. Where a blue dot is in relation to the straight line doesn’t represent positive or negative contributions to ATARs. It’s just that HSC scores are linear, but how they scale is not.

Legal Studies scales fine. I’ve never heard it referred to as a particularly high or low scaling subject. There’s no reason to think that any ATAR aspiration will be hurt by students choosing to study Legal Studies. There are no obscenely high highs and no frighteningly low lows.

Here’s what all HSC scores meant as ATAR contributions, by my estimations, in 2024.

And here’s the same thing, but using ATAR contributions as a starting point rather than HSC scores. So the same as the chart above, but in reverse. This shows the lowest HSC scores required in 2024 to achieve different ATAR contributions.

Legal Studies - Boringly Wonderful

Legal Studies is a great subject. I think the subject matter is interesting and there are lots of good reasons for it to be considered by a large number of students across the state. Like many subjects, the potential areas of study and focus are broad, so students need teachers who understand the priorities of the subject well to guide them through it.

For students who are interested, be they the highest potential achievers, or otherwise, Legal Studies is a great option and there’s nothing inherent to the subject in terms of the mechanics of the HSC and scaling, or their implications, that should give anyone pause to take on Legal Studies in their pattern of study.