The ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank) is a rank between 0 – 99.95 and is calculated using an aggregate of scaled marks consisting of 10 units of your HSC subjects:
- The best 2 units of English
- The best 8 units from your remaining subjects (including up to 2 units of Category B courses)
HSC marks indicate your performance against bands, while the ATAR ranks you among the entire cohort across NSW for the year.
How your ATAR is calculated:
- School assessments are used to assign your rank and assessment mark in each subject.
- NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) determines your HSC mark using your raw HSC exam mark and assessment marks from school.
- University Admission Centre (UAC) then scales each subject out of 50 to compare across each subject.
- UAC determines each students’ mark out of 500
- The ATAR is your percentile score and is rounded to the nearest 0.05.
Note that your mark is also scaled so that a student who undertakes a certain HSC subject is neither advantaged not disadvantaged. As English is compulsory, it plays an important role in calculating your ATAR. A mark in the top 30% for Advanced English is similar to a scaled mark in the top 1% for Standard English. This principle can be applied across Mathematics and other HSC Electives. For instance, if you are good at Maths, you should opt for Maths Extension 1 or Extension 2, however if you choose General Maths, you must ace it!
In terms of Sciences, Chemistry and Physics scale slightly higher than Biology. For humanities, Economics scales better than Legal Studies and Business Studies; and Modern History sales higher than Ancient History. Keep in mind, that students should not depend on scaling, as naturally if you do not perform well in the ‘high scaling’ subject, scaling will not save you!
*Disclaimer: The Brain strives to keep information up to date, but does not guarantee the accuracy or reliability of the information. Any errors in the information that are brought to our attention will be corrected as soon as possible.
