An ATAR of 35 is an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) of 35.00, which is the lowest reported rank given to a student. It means the student performed better than approximately 35% of their entire age group in Australia.
35: Scoring a 35 places students in the top 23% and is moderately difficult to achieve depending on the subject, often requiring a high B+ to an A on exams. To clarify, 23% of students achieve at least a 35 study score for each subject.
An "okay" ATAR score is subjective but generally starts around 70, which opens doors to many university courses, with scores from 70-89 considered average to strong and allowing access to most fields like arts, science, and business, while 90+ is excellent for competitive degrees like medicine or law. The average ATAR for students aiming for university is around 70, meaning you performed better than 30% of your peers, but an ATAR of 80 means you're in the top 20%.
Study scores calculated by the VCAA will be used by the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC) to calculate the ATAR. The maximum study score is 50. Each year, and for every study, the mean study score is set at 30. A score of 38 or more indicates that you are in the top 15%.
35 IB converts to 89.75 ATAR.
This is competitive for many undergraduate programs and qualifies you for a wide range of courses at Australian universities. It's considered an above-average performance.
What Is a Good IB Score? 45 points – Perfect score, extremely rare and globally recognised. 39-44 points – Outstanding; equivalent to straight A*s at A Level or a 4.0 GPA with strong APs. 35–38 points – Very strong; highly competitive for most top universities worldwide.
Competitive ATAR ~99.75 (2025). Requires UCAT ANZ for Medicine, Dentistry, Oral Health. Very competitive (ATAR ~99.95 for standard places). Provisional entry, very high ATARs required.
Getting a low ATAR isn't the end of the world
Tertiary institutions including universities offer numerous alternative pathways specifically designed for students who didn't get the score they wanted or needed.
The average ATAR is usually around 70.00.
ATARs are calculated in each state to reflect a student's rank against other students in their state. In NSW, the ATAR is calculated and released by UAC. In the ACT, it's calculated by the ACT Board of Senior Secondary Studies, in consultation with UAC, and released by schools.
A poor ATAR is any score below 60.00. With that kind of result, you still may be eligible to attend university.
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.
Yes, you can absolutely go to university without an ATAR by using various alternative pathways like TAFE diplomas, foundation courses, bridging programs, experience-based entry, or STAT tests, as most universities offer multiple routes to entry beyond just high school results, recognizing skills from work, vocational training, or life experience.
Myth 5: The school I attend affects my ATAR
No, the school you attend doesn't feature in the ATAR calculation. The ATAR calculation is based only on the exam and moderated school assessment marks for each of your courses, as provided by NESA; no other information is used.
Subjects that scale up for ATAR typically include advanced mathematics (like Specialist Maths, Maths Methods), sciences (Chemistry, Physics), and certain languages (Latin, French, Chinese SL), because students choosing these subjects often perform strongly overall, leading to adjusted scores that better reflect their high achievement, not just difficulty. High-scaling subjects reward top students, while lower-scaling subjects like Business Management often see a dip, though strong raw scores in any subject always matter most for your ATAR.
Each year, and for every study, the mean (average) study score is set at 30 with a standard deviation of 7. This means that a score between 23 and 37 shows that you are in the middle range of students (approximately 68% of the population); a score of 38 or more indicates that you are in the top 16%.
The ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank) is calculated by your state's tertiary admissions center (like VTAC, UAC) by summing your best scaled study scores from Year 12 subjects (usually your English + top three other subjects + 10% of your fifth and sixth subjects) to form an aggregate, then converting that aggregate into a percentile rank (0-99.95) showing how you compare to your entire year group, adjusted for cohort participation. This process ensures fairness by scaling subjects based on difficulty and cohort performance, meaning a score of 75 means you performed better than 75% of students.
A respectable ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank) depends on your goals, but generally, 80+ is very strong, getting you into most courses, while 90+ is excellent for competitive fields like Law or Medicine, with 70-79 being above average for many other degrees. Essentially, a "good" ATAR is the specific rank that unlocks entry to your desired university course, with higher ranks opening more selective options, but anything above 70-80 offers significant choices.
The hardest universities to get into in Australia are consistently the University of Sydney, UNSW (University of New South Wales), and the Australian National University (ANU), often cited with low acceptance rates (around 30-35%) and high ATAR cut-offs, especially for competitive courses like Medicine, Law, and Engineering. The University of Melbourne also ranks among the most difficult due to its strong reputation and rigorous entry standards, alongside other Go8 (Group of Eight) universities like UQ and Monash.
There isn't one single "number 1" high school, as rankings vary by source and criteria, but James Ruse Agricultural High School (NSW) consistently appears at or near the top, often cited as Australia's best public school based on academic results like the HSC. Other top contenders frequently mentioned include North Sydney Boys/Girls High Schools, Sydney Grammar School, Melbourne High School (VIC), and Perth Modern School (WA), with rankings shifting slightly depending on the year and specific metrics used (e.g., ATAR, university placements).
This means that if your ATAR is too low for your dream course, it might still grant you entry into an institution with lower demand that offers a very similar course, or allow you to take a slightly different route to your end goal.
There isn't a single "lowest ATAR ever" because scores below 30.00 are officially reported as "less than 30" or "30 or less," though theoretically, the lowest possible score is 0.00, with actual offers sometimes going as low as 22 for certain degrees or under special consideration, often through Educational Access Schemes.
There isn't one single #1 hardest school, as rankings fluctuate, but Harvard University, Stanford University, MIT, and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) consistently appear at the very top of lists for lowest acceptance rates (often below 4-5%), requiring exceptional academic performance and unique qualifications from applicants. Caltech is often noted for its intense focus on STEM and tiny class sizes, while Harvard remains the most famous symbol of extreme selectivity.
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