ATAR

ATAR stands for Australian Tertiary Admission Rank.

Students who wish to gain an HSC that gives them entrance to University, need to gain a sufficiently high standard of achievement, when compared with all other students in the State. The process that ranks students on HSC performance for University entrance is done by the University Admission Centre (UAC). The rank a student receives is known as the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR).

The ATAR is a rank awarded to students across NSW and ACT to indicate where they are ranked compared to all students that began Year 7 in their cohort of peers. An ATAR of 99.95 is the highest rank achievable and indicates that a student with this rank is in the top group of students. ATAR results are transferable nationally and will allow students to apply to Universities across Australia.

In order to receive an ATAR, a student must satisfy the University requirements. These requirements are listed as follows:

Rule 1 – Eligibility for an ATAR

To be eligible for an ATAR a student must complete at least ten units of HSC Board Developed Courses including at least two Units of English. The Board Developed Courses must include at least three courses of two Units or greater and at least four subjects.

Rule 2 – Calculation of the ATAR

The ATAR will be based on an aggregate of scaled marks in ten units of HSC Board Developed Courses comprising:

The best two Units of English, and The best eight Units from the remaining Units.

Note that the ATAR is calculated based on a ‘per Unit basis’. If it is to the student’s advantage to count only one Unit of a 2 Unit subject, then UAC will do so. In this way, if a student does particularly well in a one Unit subject such as Extension History, this Unit will count and possibly only one Unit of a lower scoring two Unit subject.

Important Notes:

A subject is the general name given to an area of study. A course is a branch of study within a subject. A subject may have several different courses, for example, with the subject English the courses include English Studies, English Standard, English Advanced, HSC English Extension 1, etc. A student studying 4 units of HSC English, 4 units of HSC Maths and 2 units of another HSC subject such as History would only be doing three subjects and so is ineligible for an ATAR with this arrangement of subjects. The student would also be ineligible for an HSC, as an HSC also requires students to be studying four subjects.

Optional HSC exams

An optional written examination will be offered for the HSC for various subjects such as VET courses e.g. Hospitality, Construction, Automotive. The courses English Studies and Maths Standard 1 also have optional HSC examinations. If students want the results from these courses to be available for inclusion in the calculation of their ATAR, they must undertake the optional written examination.

Life Skills courses are designed for students who need a specialised level of study during Secondary School. While HSC Life Skills courses are Board Developed Courses, they do not count towards the ATAR.

It is not necessary to obtain an ATAR. Most students in NSW however, choose a pattern of study that enables them to receive an ATAR. If a student wants to go to University straight after school, then it is advisable to choose a pattern of study that will receive an ATAR as this is a common pathway to University

Students should note that, except for English Studies, Maths Standard 1 and VET Courses, 50% of their ATAR is based on marks gained in School HSC Assessment Tasks and 50% on the actual HSC Exam Marks. For English Studies, Maths Standard 1 and VET Courses, UAC uses the optional HSC examination result towards the ATAR calculation.