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'.
An ATAR of 100 is impossible
Because the ATAR is a rank (not a percentage or mark) and it's measured in increments of 0.05 the highest ATAR you could get is 99.95.
"In other words, it's not entirely possible because a rank of 100 means you have beaten 100 per cent of your cohort, including yourself. "The highest is 99.95 because ATARs are in increments of 0.05. If we had an ATAR at every decimal place, we could have had a maximum rank of 99.99."
The average ATAR usually sits at around 70.00. Why is this? Although an ATAR of 70 places a student in the top 70% of year 12 students overall, it only places them in the top 50% of students who get an ATAR (since certain students will not finish their year 12 studies).
The ATAR is calculated in increments of 0.05, with the highest score being 99.95. 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.
An ATAR of 75 is hard to get when you consider that only one in four people manage to do it. You can interpret this score as saying that 75 percent of people in the age cohort either didn't get an ATAR or scored lower. Only 25 percent, or one-quarter, of people did better.
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 reality is that most students arrive at university with an ATAR of less than 90. It is a rank, and therefore only some students will get 90 and above. The ATAR shows a student's achievement in relation to other students. It's also not a complete sign of "success".
What is the lowest ATAR score? While ATARs are all between 0 and 99.95, the lowest rank that actually gets reported is 30.
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.
Ravenswood student Maria Yang is one of the 48 students in NSW who has received the perfect ATAR of 99.95 in 2022.
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.
3. What is the average ATAR score? The average ATAR is usually around 70.00.
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'.
The short answer is: No. Your Year 11 grades do not count towards your ATAR! Essentially, the ATAR is a percentile number that's calculated using your HSC Marks — aka, your Year 12 marks. This uses your final HSC marks and your Year 12 internal assessment grades.
Roughly and depending on a range of personal factors, the 85-95 ATAR range is the perfect place to aim for.
Ethan Tan, 15, became the youngest student ever to get the highest possible ATAR of 99.95 on Friday. The Cranbrook student is one of only 46 students across the state to have achieved the top ATAR this year, and has his sights set on Cambridge or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for next year.
For instance, to score an ATAR of 95, you would need to score in the top 16% of Physics and 18% of Chemistry, but you need to be in the top 8% of Biology. Students who have fair numeracy should definitely consider taking Physics and Chemistry.
Like an OP1, getting a 99 ATAR or even that elusive 99.95 ATAR isn't impossible. It's a process that involves a lot of passion for learning and commitment to constant improvement.
In Australia, the lowest minimum ATAR required by a medical program is an ATAR of 90 (Monash University) or adjusted ATAR of 90 (University of Adelaide). If you're a rural student, you could also apply to La Trobe's medical program, which has a minimum unadjusted ATAR requirement of 80.
A Quick Word On ATAR Scaling
Based on historical data, Chemistry and Physics scale slightly higher than Biology while Economics scales better than Legal Studies and Business Studies. Ancient History tends to scale down compared to Modern History.
In NSW in 2020, the minimum aggregate required to score an ATAR of 90 or above was approximately 370, corresponding to an average scaled score of 37 per unit across 10 units.
Rank, not a score
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.
Almost every participant who achieved an ATAR above 90 ensured that they completed extra study on school nights, with 80% of students who achieved a 99+ consistently doing over 2 hours per night and over 4 hours on weekends.
NSW universities are admitting students with ATARs as low as 30 into some of the state's top tertiary degrees, a Fairfax Media investigation into confidential university data has revealed.