Two students studying the same subject, at two different schools, can end up being marked very differently depending on how strictly or generously their teacher grades. One teacher might rarely give full marks, while another gives them out more freely for similar quality work. If those marks were used exactly as they were given, students could be advantaged or disadvantaged simply based on which school they attend. Grade moderation is the process schools and state education authorities use to stop that from happening.
Moderation in the junior years
In Years 8 to 10, moderation usually happens inside the school rather than through a state authority. If a subject has several classes running at once, each with a different teacher, the school needs some way of making sure all those teachers are marking to the same standard.
This typically happens through:
- Teachers marking a shared set of sample responses together before returning results
- Faculty or subject-area meetings where marking is compared and discussed
- Common rubrics or marking guides used across all classes for the same task
- A second teacher checking a sample of marked work
It’s a less formal process than what happens in the senior years, and you won’t usually see or hear about it directly. But it’s happening in the background of most common assessment tasks, and it’s part of why a school can report a consistent result across multiple classes studying the same subject.
Moderation in the senior years
Once you reach Years 11 and 12, your results start counting toward a formal certificate, and in most cases, an ATAR. At this point, moderation becomes an official process run by a state or territory authority rather than something managed only within the school.
Across the country, this generally happens in one of two ways. Some states use statistical moderation, where a school’s assessment marks are mathematically adjusted based on how that school’s students perform in an external exam. Others use a standards-based review, where samples of marked student work are checked by external assessors against a fixed set of criteria, without any statistical adjustment. A few states use a mix of both.
The exact process depends on where you go to school, so here’s how it works state by state. Note: information is accurate as of September 2026 – but states regularly change these processes so check directly if you want the specifics
New South Wales
In New South Wales, the Higher School Certificate (HSC) mark for most courses is made up of two parts: 50% school assessment and 50% exam. The NSW Education Standards Authority moderates the school assessment component using statistical moderation.
Each school’s group of assessment marks for a course is adjusted so that its overall distribution lines up with how that same group of students performed in the HSC exam, using three anchor points from the exam results to guide the adjustment. Importantly, this doesn’t change a student’s rank within their own school. If a student earned the highest school assessment mark in their course, they’ll still hold that position after moderation, even if the actual number changes.
Victoria
In Victoria, most VCE subjects combine School-Assessed Coursework (SACs) with external exams. SAC scores are set and marked by teachers, using tasks and guidelines set out in the VCAA study design.
The VCAA then applies statistical moderation, aligning each school’s SAC scores with how that school’s students performed in the exam for the same subject. The General Achievement Test (GAT), a test all VCE students sit covering literacy, numeracy and general knowledge, can also be used as an extra reference point in this process. As in NSW, this adjusts the scale a school’s marks sit on, not the order students are ranked in within it.
Queensland
Queensland uses a different model to NSW, Victoria and WA. Rather than adjusting marks statistically, the Queensland Curriculum and Assessment Authority reviews the quality and consistency of teacher judgements directly.
Before an assessment task can be used, it must be endorsed, or approved, by the QCAA. Once students complete the task and teachers mark it using an Instrument-Specific Marking Guide, schools submit a sample of marked student work for confirmation. Trained QCAA assessors compare these samples against the marking guide to confirm that a teacher’s judgements match the standard applied elsewhere in the state, adjusting them if they don’t.
Western Australia
Western Australia’s ATAR courses use statistical moderation, similar in principle to NSW and Victoria. The School Curriculum and Standards Authority adjusts each school’s assessment marks to align with how that school’s students performed in the external WACE exam for the same course.
A student’s final combined mark for most ATAR courses is calculated as the average of their exam mark and their moderated school mark, preserving their rank within the school, the same principle used in NSW and Victoria. General and Foundation courses in WA work differently, relying on an Externally Set Task rather than statistical moderation of the full assessment program.
South Australia
South Australia’s senior secondary certificate, the SACE, splits Stage 2 subjects into 70% school assessment and 30% external assessment. Rather than a statistical adjustment, the SACE Board uses sample-based moderation.
Teachers select samples of student work at different grade levels and submit them to the Board. A moderator reviews these samples against the subject’s performance standards, which describe what an A, B, C, D or E grade actually looks like, and confirms or adjusts the school’s grades based on that comparison. Stage 1 moderation, which applies earlier in senior schooling, is currently limited to English and mathematics subjects.
Tasmania
In Tasmania, senior secondary courses are accredited and moderated through the Office of Tasmanian Assessment, Standards and Certification. Rather than statistical adjustment, TASC relies on consensus-based moderation meetings.
Twice a year, teachers bring samples of student work to moderation days, comparing their marking against shared criteria and standards with teachers from other schools teaching the same course. Where a school has only one teacher of a subject, or very few students enrolled, it’s recommended they partner with another school to take part in this process together, so their marking can still be checked against a wider group.
Australian Capital Territory
The ACT works differently again. There are no external subject exams for most courses, results are based entirely on continuous school-based assessment across the two years of senior secondary study.
To keep this fair across colleges, the ACT Board of Senior Secondary Studies runs a Structured, Consensus-based Peer Review process. Twice a year, teachers present samples of student work from their courses, and teachers from other colleges review that work against the system-wide achievement standards. A separate exam, the ACT Scaling Test, is used later to help scale results across colleges for ATAR purposes, but it’s a distinct process from the moderation of individual grades.
Northern Territory
Senior secondary students in the Northern Territory complete the NT Certificate of Education and Training. It uses SACE Board subjects and assessment arrangements, and grades for school-assessed work are moderated by SACE Board appointed moderators, following the same processes described in the South Australia section above.
Why moderation matters for you
Moderation exists so your result reflects a standard that applies beyond your own classroom, not just your own teacher’s marking style. It’s checked either against how your school group performed in an external exam, or against a fixed set of criteria reviewed by assessors outside your school.
You don’t need to do anything differently because of moderation. The best way to get a result that reflects your ability is the same as always: understand what the assessment task is asking for, follow the marking criteria your teacher gives you, and ask your teacher directly if you’re ever unsure how a task will be marked. If you want to understand exactly how your state’s process affects your results, your school’s senior years coordinator can talk you through it in more detail.
Moderation is one part of how your senior results come together. If you want to understand what happens after that, including how those results turn into your ATAR, we’ve broken that down here.
