What is an ATAR and how is the ATAR calculated using VCE scaling?

Not sure how your ATAR comes together? You’re not alone. Understanding how study scores are scaled and how your final rank is calculated can feel like a lot, but we’ll break it down step by step. From what a study score actually means to how scaling works, here’s what you need to know to feel more confident about your results and what they mean.

The Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) is a number between 0 and 99.95 that shows how you performed compared to other students your age completing Year 12 across Australia. It’s not a score out of 100, but a rank that reflects where you sit among your peers. For example, an ATAR of 75.00 means you’ve ranked higher than 75% of students in your state’s Year 12 cohort.

In Victoria, your ATAR is calculated by the Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC) after you complete the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE). VTAC uses your VCE results from the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) to work out your ATAR. To receive an ATAR, you’ll need to complete at least four VCE studies in an approved combination.

Once your VCE results are finalised, VTAC shares your ATAR with you. If you’ve applied for uni courses, VTAC also sends your ATAR and preferences to the universities you’ve chosen. Each uni sets its own ATAR and entry requirements for its courses.

A study score is a number between 0 and 50 that shows how well you did in a VCE subject (known as a study) compared to everyone else in Victoria who took that subject that year. It’s not a percentage or a simple mark, but a ranking based on your overall results.

Your score is worked out using your raw marks (your actual results) from school-based assessments, like SACs and SATs, and the final external exam. These marks are combined and adjusted to make sure everything is fair, but the final study score itself is all about where you rank compared to others.

Each year, the average study score for every subject is set at 30. If your score is between 23 and 37, you’re in the middle range compared to other students. If you get a 40 or above, you’re in the top 9% for that subject.

After the VCAA calculates your study scores, VTAC scales them depending on how competitive each subject was that year. This scaling helps make sure all subjects are treated equally when working out your ATAR, but it also means your final ATAR can be a bit tricky to predict.

Your ATAR is worked out by VTAC using your scaled study scores from up to six VCE subjects (at least four are required). Here’s how it breaks down:

• your best scaled score from an English subject (English, English Language, Literature or EAL)
• your next best three scaled scores from any other subjects
• 10% of the scaled scores from your fifth and sixth highest subjects (if you have them).

These are added together to give you a number called your aggregate score. VTAC then compares every student’s aggregate to work out where you sit in the overall ranking. That’s your ATAR.

Because of scaling and how study scores combine, predicting your ATARs can be tricky, but don’t worry, we’ve got tools to help. Use our study score calculator to estimate your raw and scaled scores, then head to our ATAR calculator to get a feel for your rank.

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