ATARMAxxing
← All subject scaling
HSC Year 12 · New South Wales

Drama Scaling HSC 2026: Does It Scale Up or Down?

HSC Drama scales down in New South Wales. Drama scales down. In UAC's Report on the Scaling of the 2025 NSW Higher School Certificate (Table A3), the 3,191-student candidature averaged an HSC mark of 40.8 out of 50 per unit but a scaled mark of 24.0 — the median scaled mark was 23.4 against a median HSC mark of 41.0.

Does HSC Drama scale up or down?

Drama scales down in New South Wales.

Drama scales down. In UAC's Report on the Scaling of the 2025 NSW Higher School Certificate (Table A3), the 3,191-student candidature averaged an HSC mark of 40.8 out of 50 per unit but a scaled mark of 24.0 — the median scaled mark was 23.4 against a median HSC mark of 41.0. UAC does not publish a per-subject raw-to-scaled conversion for this course in a form we can quote exactly, so there is no figure on this page — the direction above is sourced from the UAC scaling report linked below, and should be read as directional rather than numeric.

You can't change the scaling. You can change the raw mark.

Scaling is decided by your cohort, after the exam, and nothing you do moves it. The raw mark is the only part of this you control — and the Drama hub is 20 full-length model exams with mark-by-mark answer guides, revision notes, practice questions and flashcards, built for exactly that.

Preview Drama free →UAC ATAR calculator

The hub shows a sample revision note extract, one full exam question with its worked answer and the complete list of every exam and note title — no account needed to look around. Unlocking Drama for life is $20 once, or $50 for any three subjects. See what's included →

What Drama actually asks of you

The written paper allows 5 minutes reading time and 1 hour 30 minutes working time for 40 marks, with no multiple choice. Section I (20 marks) is Question 1, one mandatory extended response that applies to both Australian topics, Dramatic Traditions in Australia and Contemporary Australian Theatre Practice; you answer it from the two plays you studied and your own experiential learning. Section II (20 marks) prints seven questions, Questions 2–8, one for each Studies in Drama and Theatre topic; you answer the one on the topic you studied. NESA suggests about 45 minutes and about six booklet pages (around 800 words) for each. Both questions are marked holistically in five bands (17–20 down to 1–4) on knowledge and understanding relevant to the question, a point of view backed by supporting evidence, and a sustained, logical and cohesive response. The Group Performance (8–12 minutes, three to six students, three criteria each out of 10) and the Individual Project are practical components marked separately and are covered here in notes only.

The Drama exam is Thursday 22 October 2026, 1:55 pm (1 hour 35 minutes (5 minutes reading plus 1 hour 30 minutes working)). Source: HSC timetable.

The 5 areas of study you are examined on

From the NESA Drama Stage 6 Syllabus (2009) with the Course prescriptions for Drama 2025–2027, examined in the 2026 and 2027 HSC.

  • Australian Drama and Theatre (Core Study)
    You study ONE of two topics and at least two of its plays. Topic 1, Dramatic Traditions in Australia, sets Norm and Ahmed, The 7 Stages of Grieving, The Cake Man and The Removalists: New Wave realism alongside First Nations theatre. Topic 2, Contemporary Australian Theatre Practice, sets Fangirls, The Visitors, Single Asian Female and Neighbourhood Watch. The Section I question is written to suit both topics, so prepare to argue about staging, space, character, image and audience response from either list.
  • Studies in Drama and Theatre
    You study ONE of seven topics: The Voice of Women in Theatre (one List 1 and one List 2 play), Approaches to Acting (two of Viewpoints, Lecoq, Meyerhold and Grotowski), Verbatim Theatre (two plays plus your own verbatim piece), Black Comedy (two plays from different countries), Multi-Discipline Theatre (Lepage and Ex Machina or McBurney and Complicité, plus your own piece), Significant Plays of the 20th Century (two of Brecht, Ionesco, Kaufman and Hansberry) or Japanese Traditional and Contemporary Theatre (Noh, Kabuki or Bunraku with Tadashi Suzuki). The Section II question tests the topic's rubric through your experiential learning.
  • Elements, styles and essay craft
    Markers reward precise drama vocabulary (the elements of drama, the elements of production, forms, styles and conventions) used to explain how a staging choice produces an audience response. Experiential learning counts as evidence when you write a workshop as a live theatrical moment rather than describing a warm-up.
  • Group Performance
    A piece of original theatre, 8–12 minutes long, devised and performed by three to six students from one topic on the 2025–2027 list. Each student is marked individually out of 10 on performance skills, sustaining and developing role or character, and structure and dramatic coherence.
  • Individual Project
    One project in critical analysis, design, performance, scriptwriting or video drama, negotiated with your teacher at the start of the HSC course and submitted with a 300-word rationale. Critical analysis (director's folio) and design projects must use a play from the Individual Project text list. Logbooks for both practical components are kept at school and do not count towards the external mark.

Full Drama study-design guide →

How scaling works in New South Wales

In New South Wales, NESA reports an HSC mark for each course, but the ATAR is not built from those marks. UAC takes the raw examination and assessment marks and scales each course separately, so that a mark means the same thing no matter which course it came from. A course whose students perform strongly across everything else they study is scaled up; a course whose students perform less strongly elsewhere is scaled down. UAC then adds your best 10 units of scaled marks: the best two units of English, which are compulsory, plus the best eight remaining units. That aggregate is ranked statewide and reported as an ATAR. Scaled marks are usually lower than HSC marks, and the statewide average scaled mark is close to 25 out of 50.

Source: official UAC scaling report (PDF). Last checked 2026-08-18.

What scaling is not

Scaling is not a difficulty rating and it is not a bonus. It compares how the students in one subject performed across every other subject they took, so a subject scales down because of its cohort, not because of the paper. The consequence is practical: you cannot scale your way out of a weak result. The only lever you control is the raw mark, and the fastest way to move that is full-length timed practice against the real exam format.

HSC Drama practice examsUAC ATAR calculator

Questions

Does HSC Drama scale up or down?

Drama scales down. In UAC's Report on the Scaling of the 2025 NSW Higher School Certificate (Table A3), the 3,191-student candidature averaged an HSC mark of 40.8 out of 50 per unit but a scaled mark of 24.0 — the median scaled mark was 23.4 against a median HSC mark of 41.0. We do not publish a scaled figure for this course, because UAC does not release a per-subject conversion we can quote exactly. The UAC scaling report is the authority.

How does subject scaling work in New South Wales?

In New South Wales, NESA reports an HSC mark for each course, but the ATAR is not built from those marks. UAC takes the raw examination and assessment marks and scales each course separately, so that a mark means the same thing no matter which course it came from. A course whose students perform strongly across everything else they study is scaled up; a course whose students perform less strongly elsewhere is scaled down. UAC then adds your best 10 units of scaled marks: the best two units of English, which are compulsory, plus the best eight remaining units. That aggregate is ranked statewide and reported as an ATAR. Scaled marks are usually lower than HSC marks, and the statewide average scaled mark is close to 25 out of 50.

Should I choose Drama because of how it scales?

Scaling adjusts a whole cohort, not one student, so choosing a subject you will struggle in because it scales up is usually a worse trade than doing well in one that scales down. Check the prerequisites for the course you want first, then your interest and workload, and treat scaling as a tie-breaker. Scaling is also recalculated every year, so the figures in any report describe a past cohort rather than the year you are sitting.

Keep going