QCE: What is the ATAR?

[Joseph41]

Hey! There will be a bit of confusion of the coming weeks months years about the new ATAR system for QCE. I just wanted to make this thread to give a really basic overview of what the ATAR is and why/how it is used. We'll be coming at you with more detailed explanations in time (including things like how the ATAR is actually calculated). To try to make things clear, I'm going to try to use pretty short-and-sharp language.

If you have any questions at all, feel free to drop them here!

What is the ATAR?
(1) Stands for "Australian Tertiary Admission Rank".
(2) Is a number between 0 and 99.95.
(3) Has increments of 0.05. So it would go, say, 65.00, 65.05, 65.10 etc. An ATAR of 65.03, for example, does not exist.
(4) The highest ATAR is 99.95.
(5) It's a percentile rank, not a "score". An ATAR of 80.00 doesn't mean you've averaged 80 on your assessments.
(6) Instead, it suggests you've outperformed 80% of your competition.
(7) Replacing the OP as of 2020.
(8.) Single statistic used to indicate overall performance at QCE level.
(9) Can be used as a tool for tertiary admission (getting into different uni courses etc.).
(10) Comes from a combination of your subject scores.

Change from OP
The Overall Position system did its job, but had some pretty big issues. If nothing else, it was different to pretty much the rest of Australia, which didn't make heap of sense. Some basic changes from the OP system:
(1) Students receive an ATAR (see above), not an OP.
(2) There will be no more QCS Test.
(3) There is a new "inter-subject scaling" system. You shouldn't worry too much about this at this stage.
(4) It is now compulsory to study English.
(5) There will be external assessment, contributing 25-50% of your total mark for a subject.
(6) The ATAR is much more specific than the OP - there are many more possible results at the end of Year 12.
(7) The new system will see some subjects re-named.
(8.) It will also see some quite large changes to subject syllabuses.
(9) The changes might mean you will have fewer resources readily available to you (but don't worry - we'll be here!).
(10) QCE results will be more easily comparable to those of other states.

Some of these changes will be quite considerable, but don't worry: we've got you covered.