The ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank) is a key part of the admissions process for year 12 students across Australia. It compares how every student in the country compares and is a significant factor in gaining admission to university courses. Here, we'll see what it is, how it's calculated, what a good ATAR is, and how ATAR scores affect your university options.
What Is the ATAR?
The ATAR isn't a score, it's how students in secondary education compare across states. It's reported as a number between 0.00 and 99.95 with increments of 0.05.
Thanks to the ATAR, universities across Australia can more fairly compare students from different schools when it comes to admissions.
The whole system was created to standardise academic performance across the country, as different states had different education systems that made comparisons difficult.
How Is the ATAR Calculated?
When every student does the same exam, creating a ranking is simple. You place the student with the best score in first place and the lowest score in last place.
However, this is much more complicated when there are many students taking different exams and even different subjects.
The ATAR is calculated using scaled marks from Year 12 subjects. Here is how it works:
- Subject Selection: During their final years of school, students choose a combination of subjects (such as English, Mathematics, and Science).
- Raw Scores: Marks from exams and assessments (like HSC in NSW or VCE in Victoria) are recorded as raw scores.
- Scaling: The scaling process adjusts raw scores to ensure fairness between subjects. More challenging subjects are often scaled higher.
- Aggregate Calculation: The best-scaled scores are combined to calculate a student's aggregate score.
- Ranking: This aggregate score is converted into a rank between 0.00 and 99.95, determining a student’s position relative to their cohort.
How Does Scaling Affect ATAR Scores?
Scaling is an important part of how the ATAR is calculated and ensures fairness across all students' results regardless of their subjects.
A student's raw marks are scaled up or down depending on the varying difficulty of different subjects, which allows students to take more challenging subjects without worrying about the negative effects on their ATAR.
For example, advanced mathematics will be scaled higher than standard mathematics. This is calculated using the performance of students in this subject and the strength of the students who choose to take the subject.
The same is true for subjects like English extension and physics, which often benefit from positive scaling.
Conversely, subjects like General English and Visual Arts tend to scale down.
This doesn't mean you must choose certain subjects or avoid them based on their scaling. Focus on the subjects relevant to the university courses that you want to do.
Why Isn't the Average ATAR 50?
The ATAR is a rank, and the numbers supposedly indicate where a student ranks against the rest of the country. For example, an ATAR of 80 would indicate that the student outperformed 80% of the country.
Given that, you'd assume that the average ATAR is 50 since the average student performs better than 50% of the country's students.
not 50.00!
However, there are some caveats here. While the ATAR does indicate how a student ranks against other students in Year 12 across the country, this is supposed to represent a theoretical group of students, including those who don't complete Year 12 or aren't given an ATAR.
Since many students leave school before Year 12 and the ATAR only ranks those who complete Year 12, the distribution skews higher, which is why the average ATAR is actually around 70, not 50.
What Is a Good ATAR?
First, let's dispel the myth that a "good" ATAR exists. You have to remember that ATAR scores (though they're technically ranks) aren't about a specific number. Instead, the important number is the one that gets you to meet the entry requirements for the degree you want to do.
Here are the typical ATAR ranges for different degrees.
- ATAR 90+: Considered an excellent result and typically required for competitive degrees like law, medicine, and engineering.
- ATAR 80-89: Very strong performance, qualifying for most courses in fields like business, science, and arts.
- ATAR 70-79: Slightly above average and acceptable for various courses in universities across Australia.
- ATAR 50-69: Meets entry for some tertiary education pathways and foundation programs.
What Is a High ATAR?
Again, a High ATAR is only useful if it gets you onto the course you need. Naturally, being ranked in the top 10% of the national cohort by achieving over 90 will open doors to many university courses, but the main subject areas that typically require more than 90 are:
- Law
- Medicine
- Dentistry
- Veterinary Science
Since this very high ATAR is only necessary for a small percentage of courses, students looking to study arts, humanities, and general education fields won't need to worry too much about getting the very highest ATAR rank.
How Hard Is It to Get a 90 ATAR?
If you are one of the students looking to get onto a course that requires an ATAR over 90, you'll need to outperform 90% of the national theoretical cohort, which means getting high marks across multiple subjects.
How can you do this?
- Strong performance in English (compulsory in most states).
- Excelling in high-level subjects such as Mathematics Extension, Physics, and Chemistry.
- Effective study strategies, time management, and exam preparation.
Given how subjects are scaled, getting this rank will also likely mean that you have to pick some subjects that scale upwards a lot to ensure the upper results are even available to you.
How Many Students Get a 99 ATAR?
A 99 ATAR is understandably rare as it indicates that a student is in the top 1% of the entire cohort. In practice, it's less exclusive than this (though still very impressive).
For example, in Queensland in 2022, 2.52% of students were given an ATAR over 99. Achieving an ATAR of 99 would mean the students had exceptional academic results, performing at the highest level across scaled subjects and state assessments.
What To Do If Your ATAR is Lower than Expected
Getting an ATAR score lower than expected isn't ideal, but it isn't the end of the world. There are still alternative pathways to university that don't require an ATAR or alternative programmes that you can do if your ATAR score doesn't meet the requirements.
Here are just some of the other ways you can get onto your desired university course.
- Pathway Programs: Many universities offer foundation programs that allow students to transition into degree studies.
- TAFE and Vocational Education: TAFE provides practical education and often links to university degrees.
- Bridging Courses: Short courses designed to help you meet entry requirements for specific degrees.
- Adjustments and Bonuses: Some students may receive bonus ATAR points based on school location, disadvantage, or subjects completed. Some adjustment factors are applied automatically while others need to be applied for.
Setting Realistic ATAR Goals
To stay motivated throughout year 12, set realistic ATAR goals. You don't want to just aim for the highest rank; you need to be smart about your studies and ensure you get onto the university course that you're interested in.
- Research Course Requirements: Identify the ATAR scores required for the university courses you’re interested in and aim to meet those thresholds.
- Understand Your Strengths: Reflect on which subjects you're naturally better at and focus on maximising your marks in those areas.
- Consider Scaling: While you shouldn't choose subjects solely for scaling, knowing how different subjects might affect your ATAR score can be helpful.
- Break Goals Into Milestones: Set smaller, achievable study goals throughout the year to track your progress toward your target ATAR.
- Seek Guidance: Speak with teachers, school counsellors, and university admissions offices to ensure your goals align with entry requirements.
Get The Best Possible ATAR
Remember, the ATAR is a fair way to rank your academic performance against other students across Australia who may have taken different exams or subjects across different states.
It helps universities compare students for course admissions but doesn't necessarily define your academic journey. Instead, you should focus on choosing the right subjects for what you want to do, working hard, and aiming for the ATAR, which is a fair reflection of your ability and enough to get you onto your preferred degree.
Many students fall into the trap of trying to game the ATAR system, but instead of wasting your time on that, why not just get help from a private tutor to make sure you perform well on your assessments.
On the Superprof website, you can search for any subject or skill and browse tutors' profiles. Many even offer the first session free, so you can try a few potential tutors before choosing the one that's right for you and your academic ambitions.
Enjoyed this article? Leave a rating!
Loading...
