HSC bands explained: Band 1 to 6 and E1 to E4

HSC bands and the marks for each

For most ATAR courses NESA reports four things on your Record of Achievement: an exam mark, a school assessment, an HSC mark and a performance band. The band comes from the HSC mark. Here are the mark ranges, as set out in UAC's report on the 2025 HSC.

Mathematics Extension 2 is the exception: it is marked out of 100, and students who take it have both their Extension 1 and Extension 2 results reported with four bands on the 100-point scale.

How your HSC mark is made

Your HSC mark in a course is the average of your exam mark and your school assessment mark. Both have been aligned to NESA's published standards and rounded to whole numbers. Your school's marks are first moderated using the raw exam marks of its students, so that assessments from different schools can be compared, and the order of its students is kept. Then they are aligned to the standard.

The band descriptors, which describe typical achievement at each standard, are written for each course. The band you receive is not a rank. NESA says the percentage of students in any band depends only on how many students enrolled in that course perform at the standard set by the descriptor, with no predetermined percentages.

How many students reach each band

The share in each band differs across courses and years. These are the 2025 percentages for courses we cover, from UAC's Table A2. Band 1 is the remainder.

Mathematics Advanced is where the gap shows most: 23 per cent of its 16,809 students reached Band 6, against 7 per cent in Biology. In Mathematics Extension 2, 41 per cent of its 3,844 students reached E4, 43 per cent E3 and 14 per cent E2, with a median HSC mark of 87. A Band 6 in two courses can mean quite different positions, which is one reason NSW scales marks before the ATAR. See HSC scaling explained.

Bands are not your ATAR

The band tells you the standard. The ATAR is a rank of your overall position, worked out from raw marks and scaled, and the share of students in Band 6 has no effect on it. The median HSC mark in most 2-unit courses is between 70 and 80, while the median ATAR in 2025 was 70.75. How the rank is built is covered in the ATAR in NSW.

Use today's paper to see where you sit

The marks above are out of 100, so your percentage on a paper gives a rough place on the band scale. Sit today's Year 12 Maths, Year 12 Physics, Year 12 Chemistry or Year 12 Biology paper. It is a short timed paper of 8 questions worth 25 to 35 marks, not a full HSC exam. The results page shows a predicted grade from A to E using typical cut-offs of its own, not NESA's. Keep a few papers in one course to see a pattern before you read too much into one mark. Our subject guides cover the courses in more detail: HSC Maths, HSC Physics, HSC Chemistry and HSC Biology.

Common mistakes about HSC bands

• Thinking Band 6 is the top 10 per cent. There are no set percentages. In 2025, 23 per cent of Mathematics Advanced students reached Band 6 and 7 per cent in Biology.
• Mixing up Extension marks. Most Extension courses are out of 50, with E4 starting at 45. Mathematics Extension 2 is out of 100, with E4 starting at 90.
• Reading a band as a subject ranking. A Band 5 in one course and a Band 5 in another are the same standard, not the same position.
• Expecting a band to set your ATAR. Your ATAR comes from raw marks, which are not printed on your Record of Achievement.

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