What Is an HSC Raw Marks Report? A Student Guide

You can see your HSC examination mark on your Record of Achievement, but that number doesn’t tell you exactly how many marks you received for each question. If you want to see how your examination was marked, you can request an HSC Raw Marks Report from the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA).

An HSC Raw Marks Report lists the raw mark allocated to each examination question and your total raw examination mark for that course. It gives you a more detailed breakdown of your exam performance, before your raw examination mark is aligned with the course standards and reported on your HSC results.

However, there is an important distinction: a Raw Marks Report is not a re-mark of your examination. It shows the marks you were allocated, not a second assessment of your answers.

01What does an HSC Raw Marks Report contain?

NESA’s HSC Raw Marks Report service provides two main pieces of information for each course:

• Question-by-question marks: The raw mark allocated to each examination question.
• Total raw examination mark: Your overall raw mark for the examination in that course.

For example, if you sat the HSC Mathematics Advanced examination, your report would show the raw marks allocated to the individual examination questions and your total raw examination mark.

This is useful because your final examination mark doesn’t show how your marks were distributed across the paper.

However, the report does not include everything you might expect.

The distinction is important. The report focuses specifically on your examination marking. It does not provide a complete breakdown of your school-based assessment or your overall HSC results.

If you want to see what you actually wrote in the examination, NESA offers a separate HSC Examination Responses service.

02Raw marks vs reported HSC marks: What’s the difference?

Imagine sitting a Mathematics examination and receiving marks for every question. You add them together and calculate your total.

That gives you an idea of how many marks you earned on the examination paper itself.

However, the number eventually reported on your HSC Record of Achievement serves a different purpose.

NESA reports your examination performance against the achievement standards for that course. This means your raw examination mark and your reported examination mark are not necessarily the same.

Here is how the different marks fit together.

For most Board Developed courses with an external HSC examination, your Record of Achievement displays your assessment mark, examination mark, HSC mark, and performance band.

There are some course-specific exceptions, so the exact reporting arrangements depend on the course.

Why can your raw examination mark differ from your reported examination mark?

The key is understanding what each number measures.

Your raw examination mark represents the marks allocated to your responses on that particular examination.

Your reported examination mark represents the standard of achievement demonstrated in that examination.

NESA uses a process called standards-based alignment to determine the reported examination mark. This accounts for differences in examination papers and marking standards between years.

Consequently, a raw examination mark of 70 does not automatically become a reported examination mark of 70.

There is no universal conversion table that you can use to turn a raw mark into a reported HSC examination mark.

For a more detailed explanation of how this works, read tutorgum’s guide to HSC Marks, Performance Bands and ATAR: What Each Means.

03How can you use your Raw Marks Report?

The most useful part of a Raw Marks Report is the question-by-question breakdown.

Rather than looking at your examination result as one large number, you can identify which questions contributed most to your final raw examination mark.

This gives you a more specific starting point if you want to understand your examination performance.

04Which NESA service should you request?

NESA offers three separate services that are particularly relevant if you have questions about your HSC examination results.

They serve different purposes, so it is worth choosing the correct one.

1. HSC Raw Marks Report

This is the service to request if you want a question-by-question breakdown of your examination marks.

It provides the raw marks allocated to each examination question and your total raw examination mark.

Importantly, the report includes a Results Check if you have not already ordered one.

2. HSC Results Check

A Results Check is useful if your examination result seems inconsistent with your expectations and you want to confirm that your marks were processed correctly.

NESA checks matters such as:

• Whether the system accurately recorded the marks intended by the markers.
• Whether questions you attempted were incorrectly recorded as non-attempts.
• Whether digitally scanned responses were correctly captured and linked to the right student, course, and question.
• Whether your multiple-choice responses were correctly recorded.

A Results Check does not involve a re-mark of your examination responses.

It checks the processing and recording of your results rather than reconsidering the academic judgement made by the markers.

3. HSC Examination Responses

This service allows you to request a copy of your responses for each written HSC examination you undertook.

It is particularly useful if you want to compare what you wrote with the relevant marking guidelines.

However, there is an important limitation: the copy contains your written responses only. It does not include the marks allocated by the markers.

If you want both your responses and your question-by-question marks, you need to request the relevant services separately.

05How do you request an HSC Raw Marks Report?

You can request a Raw Marks Report through your NESA Students Online account.

The process is:

1. Log in to your Students Online account.
2. Navigate to the Results Services section.
3. Select the HSC Raw Marks Report service.
4. Choose the course for which you want the report.
5. Review the applicable fees and submit your request.
6. Access your report through your Students Online account once it has been processed.

NESA states that orders are delivered to your account within 20 working days.

If you need help accessing your results or your Students Online account, see tutorgum’s guide to How Do You Access Your HSC Results? NESA and UAC Guide.

How much does a Raw Marks Report cost?

As of 9 November 2026, NESA lists the following fees:

A Raw Marks Report includes a Results Check if you have not already ordered one.

Therefore, if you are ordering both services for the first time, the combined cost is $35 per course for most subjects, or $57 per course for English Standard and English Advanced.

If you have already ordered a Results Check, the additional Raw Marks Report costs $11 per course.

When can 2026 HSC students request a report?

NESA currently lists the following dates for students completing the 2026 HSC:

Make sure you download or save your report before your Students Online account closes.

These dates and fees are specific to the 2026 HSC cohort. Students from later cohorts should check NESA’s current Results Services for Students page before ordering.

06Does your Raw Marks Report tell you how your ATAR is calculated?

Not by itself. There is one more distinction worth understanding.

The raw examination mark in your Raw Marks Report is not the only raw mark used in the ATAR calculation.

According to UAC’s October 2025 technical report, the raw marks used in the ATAR scaling process include:

• Your raw examination mark.
• Your raw moderated school assessment mark.

UAC calculates a raw HSC mark using the average of these two components:

\[ \text{Raw HSC mark} = \frac{ \text{Raw exam mark}+ \text{Raw moderated assessment mark} }{2} \]

The Raw Marks Report gives you information about the first component, your raw examination mark. It does not reveal your raw moderated school assessment mark.

This means you cannot use your Raw Marks Report alone to reconstruct your complete raw HSC marks or calculate your exact scaled marks and ATAR.

The important distinction is that NESA and UAC use different processes to report HSC achievement and calculate university admission rankings.

If you want to understand how your HSC marks, performance bands, scaled marks, and ATAR relate to one another, read HSC Marks, Performance Bands and ATAR: What Each Means.

07Questions and solutions

Question 1

A student receives a Chemistry Raw Marks Report. It lists the raw marks allocated to each examination question and their total raw examination mark.

Does this report also contain the student’s school assessment task marks?

Solution 1

No. An HSC Raw Marks Report contains examination marks only.

It shows the raw marks allocated to individual examination questions and the total raw examination mark for the course.

School assessment marks are separate. For most Board Developed courses with an external HSC examination, the student’s Record of Achievement displays a moderated assessment mark alongside their reported examination mark, HSC mark, and performance band.

The tempting mistake is to assume that a report containing the word ‘raw’ must show every raw component of the HSC. It does not.

Question 2

A student receives a raw examination mark of 71/100 in a fictional two-unit HSC course. Their Record of Achievement shows a reported examination mark of 79/100.

The student believes the reported mark should also be 71 because that is the number of marks they earned in the examination.

Explain why this reasoning is incorrect.

Solution 2

The reported examination mark does not need to equal the raw examination mark because the two figures represent different measures of achievement.

The raw mark of 71 represents the marks allocated to the student’s examination responses.

The reported mark of 79 represents the standard of achievement demonstrated in the examination after NESA’s alignment process.

NESA uses course-specific standards to determine the reported examination mark. These standards account for differences between examination papers and marking processes.

Therefore, the difference between 71 and 79 does not automatically indicate a marking error.

The important point is that a raw examination mark is not a direct percentage conversion into a reported HSC examination mark.

Question 3

A student sits an examination containing optional questions of potentially different difficulty.

After receiving their Raw Marks Report, they add together the marks shown for their completed questions. Their calculation gives a total of 38, but the reported raw examination total is 40.

Does this difference automatically mean that NESA has incorrectly recorded their marks? Explain what the student should investigate.

Solution 3

No. A difference between a student’s simple addition and the official raw examination total does not automatically indicate an error.

NESA’s examination marking process allows for question weighting and optional-question scaling where required.

Optional-question scaling can adjust initial raw marks to account for differences in difficulty between optional examination questions. Question weighting may also affect how individual marks contribute to the overall examination total.

Consequently, the final raw examination mark may not always be the result of simply adding the question marks without considering these adjustments.

The student should first check the examination structure and whether any relevant weighting or optional-question adjustments apply.

If they still suspect that their marks were incorrectly processed, they can request an HSC Results Check.

This checks whether their marks were recorded correctly, but it does not involve a re-mark.

Question 4

A student wants to investigate their Physics examination result.

They have three specific goals:

• Find out how many raw marks they received for each examination question.
• Obtain a copy of what they wrote in Question 6.
• Check whether their written response was correctly scanned and linked to the right examination question.

Which NESA services should they request, and what does each service provide?

Solution 4

The student needs the HSC Raw Marks Report, HSC Examination Responses service, and HSC Results Check to address all three concerns.

Raw Marks Report: This provides the raw marks allocated to each examination question and the total raw examination mark.

Examination Responses: This provides a copy of the student’s written examination responses, allowing them to inspect what they actually wrote in Question 6. It does not contain the marks awarded by the markers.

Results Check: This verifies that the student’s examination responses and marks were correctly processed, including whether scanned responses were linked to the correct student, course, and question.

There is an important detail when ordering these services: the Raw Marks Report includes a Results Check if one has not already been ordered. The Examination Responses service also includes a Results Check if one has not already been ordered.

The student should therefore check whether a Results Check has already been completed before paying for overlapping services.

Neither the response copy nor the Raw Marks Report is a re-mark of the examination.

Question 5

Two students complete the same HSC course in the same year.

Their Raw Marks Reports show identical examination results, and both have a raw examination mark of 36 on the one-unit scale used in UAC’s scaling calculations.

However, the raw moderated school assessment marks supplied to UAC are different:

• Student A: 40
• Student B: 32

Assume these figures are hypothetical and all marks are expressed on the same one-unit scale.

Calculate each student’s raw HSC mark.

Then explain why their identical Raw Marks Reports do not necessarily mean they have identical raw HSC marks, scaled marks, or ATAR outcomes.

Solution 5

Student A has a raw HSC mark of 38, while Student B has a raw HSC mark of 34.

Although their Raw Marks Reports are identical, the two students have different raw HSC marks because UAC uses both the raw examination mark and the raw moderated school assessment mark.

Step 1: Identify the formula.

The raw HSC mark is calculated as the average of the raw examination mark and raw moderated school assessment mark.

\[ \text{Raw HSC mark} = \frac{\text{Raw exam mark}+ \text{Raw assessment mark}}{2} \]

Step 2: Calculate Student A’s raw HSC mark.

Student A has a raw examination mark of 36 and a raw moderated school assessment mark of 40.

\[ \begin{aligned} \text{Raw HSC mark} &=\frac{36+40}{2}\\ &=\frac{76}{2}\\ &=38 \end{aligned} \]

Step 3: Calculate Student B’s raw HSC mark.

Student B has a raw examination mark of 36 and a raw moderated school assessment mark of 32.

\[ \begin{aligned} \text{Raw HSC mark} &=\frac{36+32}{2}\\ &=\frac{68}{2}\\ &=34 \end{aligned} \]

Step 4: Interpret the results.

Both students have identical raw examination results, but their raw HSC marks differ because their raw moderated school assessment marks are different.

The tempting conclusion is that identical Raw Marks Reports must produce identical raw HSC marks.

That conclusion overlooks the second component of UAC’s calculation.

The Raw Marks Report only provides information about the raw examination component. It does not reveal the raw moderated school assessment mark.

Therefore, the report alone cannot establish a student’s complete raw HSC mark, scaled marks, or ATAR.

It also does not follow that the two students must receive different ATARs. An ATAR depends on the wider scaling and aggregation process across the student’s eligible courses.

This is the most important distinction to remember: a Raw Marks Report is a report of your raw examination marks, not a complete report of every raw mark used in your HSC and ATAR calculations.

Once you understand that distinction, you can use the report for its intended purpose: examining your question-by-question examination performance and deciding whether you need a Results Check or a copy of your written responses. Your Record of Achievement and ATAR then provide the next layer of information about your overall academic results.