Medals are awarded based on student’s meeting various tiers of eligibility requirements, which include:
- Students with the top score in each year level and subject;
- Students must sat the assessment in the year level in which they are currently enrolled at school.
- Students must have sat the relevant ICAS assessment in the official sitting window; and
- the Student’s result must be judged as sufficiently meritorious for them to be eligible for a medal.
To expand on each of the requirements above :
- A student within the locale does need to be awarded the top score. As a reminder the award levels are as follows and there is generally more than one award mark achieved in each brand, in particular this should be noted for High Distinction (HD) – where there could be a scoring range, so while a student may have received an HD it does not mean they are the top scorer and therefore they shouldn’t assume that they are.
| ICAS Assessments Awards | Percentile categories for awards |
|---|---|
| High Distinction | The top 1% of participants |
| Distinction | The next 10% of participants |
| Credit | The next 25% of participants |
| Merit | The next 10% of participants |
| Participation | All remaining participants |
- Any student whose participation in ICAS is not during the official sitting window, is automatically ineligible for medals in order to preserve the integrity of the test / competition and equality for all other students who participate. Please note there may be specific situations where an alternative sitting is approved and students are still eligible, but these MUST be pre-approved by ICAS Assessments and are rare.
- Award scores for each award level achieved vary between locales each cycle and due to this, medal eligibility is also reviewed to ensure the scores are sufficiently meritorious. What this means is that students need to achieve a score that is above the average of a previous equivalent difficulty paper’s distinction cut off score from all locales, not just their own. For example, a student in Indonesia achieved the top score in Indonesia in a year level/subject and was awarded a High Distinction and a student in Australia who sat the same year level/subject achieved the same score but based on their locale (Australia) they were awarded a Credit which is an indicator that they may have not have achieved the required common distinction cut off score for that year level/subject to be awarded a medal in Indonesia. Winning a medal is prestigious and must be sufficiently meritorious to be obtained, hence, a student with the top score in a locale may not be eligible to be awarded a medal.
