Lydia Le - Layers of Communication: April 2016

38 Subjects in a Matrix of Top 20 Popular HSC Courses and Students Entries by Sex,

from the Past 10 Years 2006 - 2015, in NSW high schools

Data are available from the

site at

http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/ebos/static/ebos_stats.html

PART 1

1.1-What and How datasets are collected and processed?

1.2-Data Processing and Analytics

The following information illustrating in Figures 1, 2 and 3 shows different glances of 38 Subjects in the Matrix Top 20 Popular HSC Courses and Students Entries by Sex - form the past 10 years 2006-2015, in NSW high schools.

Figure 1: 38 Subjects in the Matrix Top 20 Popular HSC Courses-Ranking by HSC course number [or course code].

Figure 2: 38 Subjects in the Matrix Top 20 Popular HSC Courses - Ranking by HSC course number/code and the total number of students.

Figure 3: 38 Subjects in the Matrix Top 20 Popular HSC Courses - Ranking of 10 year count and subcount-ranked (counted from the most popular to the least popular subjects).

Regarding year count, the processed data above show that English (Standard), Mathematics, Business Studies, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics Extension 1, are consistently ranked among the top six popular subjects over the last 10 years from 2006 to 2015 [10 times]. Further, in terms of ‘sub-count ranked’ of the top 20 popular subject for each year, Figure 3 shows that the smaller number of the sub-count is ranked, the more popular the subject is.

TOP 5 MOST POPULAR HSC SUBJECTS / COURSES
From the process of information above, the following Table 1 and Figure 4 show the Top Five (5) most popular HSC subjects and the total of students from the past 10-year-entries by sex. These are the five preferred subjects that students are more likely to choose and study than other courses:
{select `Course Code`, F3 as `Course name`, sum(Male) as `Total Male`, sum(Female) as `Total Female`, sum(Total) as `Total students` from ['Top 5 SubjectsTop10years$'] group by `Course Code`, F3}

Table 1: Top 5 most Popular HSC Subjects and students entries by sex - from the past 10 years 2006-2015 in high schools in NSW

Figure 4: Top 5 most popular HSC Subjects and student entries by sex,from the past 10 years 2006-2015, in NSW high schools.

The above figures show that the numbers of male students are larger than the numbers of female students in all top 5 popular subjects. Particularly in Physics, male students are dominant over female students. A reminder, in this page these subjects are also called 'the Top 5 most popular HSC Subjects'.

In terms of Performance Bands, through data collected from the BOSTES' site, the following Table 2 shows the Top Five most popular HSC Subjects and their Performance Bands in year 2015 as follows.

Table 2 - The Top 5 most popular HSC Subjects and their 2015 Performance Bands.

[Note: These Top 5 most popular HSC subjects are slightly different from the 2015 top popular HSC courses - See the figure of the 2015 Top 20 popular courses, in Part 2 of this blog's page].

Figure 5: A column graph of the Top 5 most popular HSC subjects and their 2015 performance bands.

In a view of ranking, Table 3 below shows Year 2015 ranking of the top 5 most popular HSC Subjects by performance band.

Concentrating on year 2015 performances, Figure 5 and Table 3 indicate that the English (Standard) course obviously has the smallest number of students presenting in band 6 performance, and Mathematics proves the largest numbers of students achieving their bands 6 and 5 than other courses. At the same time, in band 1, Table 3 indicates that Physics has the largest number; and the second largest number of students in band 1 belongs to English (Standard).

With a snapshot overview on its website, BOSTES (2015) confirms that English (Standard) is categorized as a compulsory course [not by choice]. Noticeably, choices are always linked toward higher performances. In other words, because English (Standard) is not a choice, this explains that although English (Standard) is on the Top of student entries, its performances are at the lower bands understandably.

1.3-My Story
TOP TWO MOST POPULAR HSC SUBJECTS by STUDENT CHOICE
From mentioned information in the Figure 3, Tables 1, and Table 2 above, and with considering English (Standard) is not a choice (BOSTES, 2015), therefore, over the past 10 years, Mathematics and Business Studies are the top two popular subjects by student choice.

A focus on Year 2015 performance of Mathematics and Business Studies courses:

Followings are the pie graphs of 2015 performance band for these two popular subjects. See Figure 6 and 7.

Figure 6 - Mathematics is the top popular HSC subject by Student Choice, in NSW high schools, from the past 10 years 2006-2015.

Figure 7 - Business Studies is the second top popular HSC subject by Student Choice, in NSW high schools, from the past 10 years 2006-2015.

This story of the "Top 2 Most Popular HSC subjects by Student Choice, in NSW high schools" can be read in my Learning Blog

PART 2
2015
Using the power of the SQL software for processing downloaded datasets from the BOSTES' webpage, with results, the following table shows the Total of Student Entries by Sex and the Top 20 popular HSC courses that students are more likely to choose and study than other courses of the 2015 Higher School Certificate, in NSW high schools.
SQL comment:

select top 20 `Course number`, `Long name` as `Board Developed course`, sum(`Total - Male`) as `Total - Male`, sum(`Total - Female`) as `Total - Female`, sum(`Total - Male`)+sum(`Total - Female`) as Total from [EN_SX_2015_12$] group by `Course number`, `Long name` having sum(`Total - Male`)+sum(`Total - Female`) > 0 order by (sum(`Total - Male`)+sum(`Total - Female`)) desc

The above data can be illustrated through two different graphs showing top 20 Popular Board Developed Courses and the Gender of student entries of the 2015 Higher School Certificate, in NSW high schools, as below:

Graph 1-2015 Top 20 popular HSC Board Developed courses that students are more likely to choose than other courses.

Graph 2-The gender of student entries and the 2015 Top 20 popular HSC Board Developed courses that students are more likely to choose than other courses.

In terms of performing bands, Figure 6 shows the column graph of 2015 Top 6 Popular HSC Courses as below. Data sources from the BOSTES' site are available at https://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/ebos/static/BDHSC_2015_12.html

Figure 8: 2015 HSC performance of the Top 6 Popular Courses.

2014

From data on the BOSTES' page, the following table shows the Total of Student Entries by Sex and the Top 20 popular courses that students are more likely to choose and study than other courses - 2014 Higher School Certificate (NSW high schools).

SQL comment:
select top 20 `Course number`, `Long name` as `Board Developed course`, sum(`Total - Male`) as `Total - Male`, sum(`Total - Female`) as `Total - Female`, sum(`Total - Male`)+sum(`Total - Female`) as Total from [EN_SX_2014_12$] group by `Course number`, `Long name` having sum(`Total - Male`)+sum(`Total - Female`) > 0 order by (sum(`Total - Male`)+sum(`Total - Female`)) desc

2013
From data on the BOSTES' page, the following table shows the Total of Student Entries by Sex and the Top 20 popular courses that students are more likely to choose and study than other courses - 2013 Higher School Certificate (NSW high schools).
SQL comment:

select top 20 `Course number`, `Long name` as `Board Developed course`, sum(`Total - Male`) as `Total - Male`, sum(`Total - Female`) as `Total - Female`, sum(`Total - Male`)+sum(`Total - Female`) as Total from [EN_SX_2013_12$] group by `Course number`, `Long name` having sum(`Total - Male`)+sum(`Total - Female`) > 0 order by (sum(`Total - Male`)+sum(`Total - Female`)) desc

2012

SQL comment:

select top 20 `Course number`, `Board Developed course`, sum(`Total - Male`) as `Total - Male`, sum(`Total - Female`) as `Total - Female`, sum(`Total - Male`)+sum(`Total - Female`) as Total from [EN_SX_2012_12$] group by `Course number`, `Board Developed course` having sum(`Total - Male`) > sum(`Total - Female`) order by (sum(`Total - Male`)+sum(`Total - Female`)) desc

2011
From data on the BOSTES' page, the following table shows the Total of Student Entries by Sex and the Top 20 popular courses that students are more likely to choose and study than other courses - 2011 Higher School Certificate (NSW high schools).
SQL comment:

select top 20 `Course number`, `Long name` as `Board Developed course`, sum(`Total - Male`) as `Total - Male`, sum(`Total - Female`) as `Total - Female`, sum(`Total - Male`)+sum(`Total - Female`) as Total from [EN_SX_2011_12$] group by `Course number`, `Long name` having sum(`Total - Male`)+sum(`Total - Female`) > 0 order by (sum(`Total - Male`)+sum(`Total - Female`)) desc

2010

select top 20 `Course number`, `Long name`, sum(`Total - Male`) as `Total - Male`, sum(`Total - Female`) as `Total - Female`, sum(`Total - Male`)+sum(`Total - Female`) as Total from [EN_SX_2010_12$] group by `Course number`, `Long name` having sum(`Total - Male`)+sum(`Total - Female`) > 0 order by (sum(`Total - Male`)+sum(`Total - Female`)) desc

2009

select top 20 `Course number`, `Long name`, sum(`Total - Male`) as `Total - Male`, sum(`Total - Female`) as `Total - Female`, sum(`Total - Male`)+sum(`Total - Female`) as Total from [EN_SX_2009_12$] group by `Course number`, `Long name` having sum(`Total - Male`)+sum(`Total - Female`) > 0 order by (sum(`Total - Male`)+sum(`Total - Female`)) desc

2008

select top 20 `Course number`, `Long name`, sum(`Total - Male`) as `Total - Male`, sum(`Total - Female`) as `Total - Female`, sum(`Total - Male`)+sum(`Total - Female`) as Total from [EN_SX_2008_12$] group by `Course number`, `Long name` having sum(`Total - Male`)+sum(`Total - Female`) > 0 order by (sum(`Total - Male`)+sum(`Total - Female`)) desc