Your rank is based on how you went compared to other Year 12 students. So even if your test scores are lower than you'd hoped, if you're still ranked in the top 20% of students, then you'll receive an ATAR of 80. As long as you try your best with what you have, chances are, you'll do better than you expect.
The Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) is a number between 0.00 and 99.95 that indicates a student's position relative to all the students in their age group (ie all 16 to 20 year olds in NSW). So, an ATAR of 80.00 means that you are 20 per cent from the top of your age group (not your Year 12 group).
17 per cent of students received an ATAR of 90.00 or above, 33.9 per cent received an ATAR of at least 80.00 and 50.3 per cent at least 70.00. The median ATAR was 70.15 this year, slightly higher than in 2019.
Your ATAR is a rank, not a percentage
An ATAR is a rank given in increments of 0.05 between 0.0 and 99.95, meaning that a score of 75 puts you in the top 25 per cent of your state. This rank provides an easy method of comparison for institutions when selecting students for course entry.
For example, four scaled study scores of 35 (including an English subject) and two scaled study scores of 31 (each contributing a 3.1 increment) yielded an aggregate of 146.2 and an ATAR of 85.
For most people, a good ATAR score is 80.00.
Eighty is the minimum ATAR for entry into most programs at the Australian National University.
It's based on overall HSC results and is designed to be a predictor of your first-year performance at university. So an ATAR of 70 doesn't mean you got 70 percent – it means that you're in the top 30 percent of your year group.
The ATAR is a number from 0 and 99.95 in intervals of 0.05. The highest rank is 99.95, the next highest 99.90, and so on. The lowest automatically reported rank is 30.00, with ranks below 30.00 being reported as 'less than 30'. Find out more about how ATARs are calculated.
In general, most students consider an ATAR of below 30 to be bad. This is because the actual ATAR score is not reported for an ATAR less than 30, it is just stated as <30. Still, this ATAR may be good and all that is required for a student who wants to pursue a trade or enrol in TAFE.
Approximately 500 students will get a 99 ATAR in states like Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. Approximately 100 students score a 99 every year in Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania, while approximately 40 students achieve this in the ACT.
The highest ATAR that you can achieve is 99.95, which effectively means that a student ranked better than 99.95% of students in their cohort. 3. What is the average ATAR score? The average ATAR is usually around 70.00.
VCE students receive their ATAR results
Teia and Gemima Herft were among 50,000 Victorian students who woke up at 7am to learn about their well deserved scores. "It feels like Christmas morning, it's very exciting," Teia said. After 13 long years of schooling, 39 students achieved the highest possible rank of 99.95.
It is reported with a range from 99.95 for the highest ranked students down to 30.00. For example, a student with an ATAR of 85.00 indicates a performance better than 85% of the population eligible to be in Year 12 or in the top 15% in relation to all the students who started school at the same time.
As the ATAR is a percentile, a 99.95 ATAR means that you are in the top 0.05% of your state. Likewise, an ATAR of 99 means that you are in the top 1% of your state. Generally an ATAR of 99+ is considered as competitive for entry into Medicine (dependent on performances in the UCAT and Interviews).
A 98 ATAR is an excellent score, and it is certainly high enough to apply for medicine at most universities in Australia and New Zealand.
In fact, a study of students at Victoria University showed many low-ATAR students achieved high marks in their first year, particularly when they were appropriately supported by the university to succeed.
That said, to get an ATAR of 90 you must score in the top 5%, so that might be enough to answer your question. It SHOULD be “hard”, for it to be worth anything anyway. As for choosing subjects, choose what you enjoy, as you'll then be prepared to put in the required effort to do your best and maximise your score.
What is the ATAR for Medicine in NSW and Canberra? For students wishing to study medicine in New South Wales, they will need to achieve an ATAR above 90 and in most cases in the mid-90s or even higher.
Parramatta High student Ved Khanolkar said his mum and dad were “left speechless” after he scored an ATAR of 99.5.
For example, a student with an ATAR of 85.00 indicates a performance better than 85% of the population eligible to be in Year 12 or in the top 15% in relation to all the students who started school at the same time.
Finally, the scaled scores are added together (as described below) to generate an aggregate, which is judged against the aggregates of all other students in the state on a bell curve, producing the ATAR ranking.
The Mature-age Entry Scheme is an entry pathway for students who haven't completed any tertiary study or who did not receive an ATAR, or if it was below 70.
For example, if you get an ATAR of 89.00, you performed better than 89% of other Year 12's in your state and potentially across Australia. Universities use the ATAR as a way of determining which Year 12 school leavers they'll offer university places to.