The Australian Tertiary Admission Rank, commonly known as the ATAR, is a crucial component in the tertiary education journey. It serves as a ranking system that reflects a student's overall academic performance in their final years of secondary education, providing a standardised measure for university admissions.
The ATAR (Australian Tertiary Admission Rank) is a percentile rank rather than a mark, indicating a student's position relative to their peers within the same age group for a given year.
It provides a standard measure of a student's overall academic achievement in comparison to other students who may have studied different subject combinations. The ATAR helps tertiary institutions select applicants for their courses by indicating each student's position relative to their peers.
It is expressed on a 2000-point scale, ranging from 99.95 at the highest to 0.00, with increments of 0.05. ATAR scores are reported in descending order, starting from 99.95 and decreasing by 0.05 down to 0.00. Scores below 30 are reported as “30.00 or less."
Your ATAR is calculated based on an aggregate of scaled results from your five best ATAR eligible inputs. At Deception Bay State High School, we strongly encourage students to complete five General subjects plus one completed Certificate III to maximise ATAR calculations while also ensuring QCE attainment.
The key steps in the ATAR calculation process are:
- QCAA provides QTAC with the student’s subject results (Units 3 and 4 only) and completed VET qualification/s.
- The subject scaling process is undertaken.
- The best five scaled subject results (from eligible inputs) are added together.
- Students are placed in a descending order of merit based on their best subject aggregate.
- Determine how many students are to be in each of the 2000 ATAR bands (based on the Queensland Year 12 population). For example, if the Queensland Year 12 population is approximately 60,000 students, then approximately 30 students will be placed in each ATAR band.
- Assign students to each ATAR band. The top 30 students are assigned ATAR 99.95, the next 30 students are assigned 99.90, and so on.
In order to receive your ATAR, students must register in the ATAR Portal through QTAC. This needs to be completed prior to the end of Year 12.
At Deception Bay State High School, our ATAR students access the curriculum in the compression model.