Login

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.

March 28, 2024, 09:54:10 pm

Author Topic: QTAC ATAR Report 2020 - Summary and Key Takeaways (including scaling results)  (Read 13004 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Joseph41

  • Administrator
  • Great Wonder of ATAR Notes
  • *****
  • Posts: 10823
  • Respect: +7477
Hi everybody! As you may or may not know, QTAC has just made the ATAR Report 2020 available. The report covers a range of things based on the 2020 cohort - the first to be eligible for an ATAR - including things like inter-subject scaling and ATAR calculation.

I've read through the report (as is my wont), and thought I'd put together a quick summary and a few key takeaways I found interesting for those who are less inclined to read through the whole thing. Note that everything here in this thread is merely my interpretation of QTAC's report.

You can find the report here, and more on QTAC's website here.

2020 QLD YEAR 12 COHORT
The 2020 cohort was the first to be eligible for an ATAR after the shift from the OP system (more about the QCE ATAR system here). The cohort consisted of 49,667 students, of whom 47,027 (26,042) were part of the scaling cohort, and 26,042 (~52.43%) were deemed eligible for an ATAR. Students can "qualify" in a number of different ways based on their QCE subject selection and program. The break-down in 2020 was:

5 General subjects: 72.49%
4 General subjects and 1 Applied subject: 16.1%
4 General subjects and 1 VET course: 11.4%

🚨  Note that there are other factors that come into consideration for ATAR eligibility further to the number of subjects you study. For an overview of all things technical/behind-the-scenes QCE, these guides are a great place to start: What is the ATAR? | How is the ATAR calculated? | How does QCE inter-subject scaling work? 🚨

2020 INTER-SUBJECT SCALING RESULTS
To my knowledge, this is the first time data have been released for 2020 QCE inter-subject scaling. You can find results for very many subjects in the report (pages 12-14), but here is a very quick overview of a not-completely-random-but-also-not-selected-for-any-particular-reason selection of subjects:

BIOLOGY:
Spoiler
64.00 raw (25th percentile) > 58.48 scaled
73.00 raw (50th percentile) > 76.12 scaled
81.00 raw (75th percentile) > 86.82 scaled
87.00 raw (90th percentile) > 87.00 scaled
94.00 raw (99th percentile) > 95.54 scaled

CHEMISTRY:
Spoiler
67.00 raw (25th percentile) > 73.97 scaled
77.00 raw (50th percentile) > 88.77 scaled
85.00 raw (75th percentile) > 94.72 scaled
91.00 raw (90th percentile) > 97.07 scaled
97.00 raw (99th percentile) > 98.39 scaled

ENGLISH:
Spoiler
53.00 raw (25th percentile) > 54.20 scaled
64.00 raw (50th percentile) > 70.89 scaled
76.00 raw (75th percentile) > 84.26 scaled
86.00 raw (90th percentile) > 91.16 scaled
97.00 raw (99th percentile) > 95.50 scaled

GENERAL MATHS:
Spoiler
55.00 raw (25th percentile) > 47.66 scaled
64.00 raw (50th percentile) > 60.86 scaled
72.00 raw (75th percentile) > 71.44 scaled
80.00 raw (90th percentile) > 80.10 scaled
90.00 raw (99th percentile) > 87.94 scaled

MATHS METHODS:
Spoiler
57.00 raw (25th percentile) > 77.12 scaled
69.00 raw (50th percentile) > 88.78 scaled
80.00 raw (75th percentile) > 94.53 scaled
88.00 raw (90th percentile) > 96.83 scaled
97.00 raw (99th percentile) > 98.30 scaled

PHYSICS:
Spoiler
67.00 raw (25th percentile) > 72.68 scaled
76.00 raw (50th percentile) > 87.40 scaled
85.00 raw (75th percentile) > 94.76 scaled
92.00 raw (90th percentile) > 97.44 scaled
98.00 raw (99th percentile) > 98.63 scaled

PSYCHOLOGY:
Spoiler
66.00 raw (25th percentile) > 56.31 scaled
75.00 raw (50th percentile) > 73.22 scaled
83.00 raw (75th percentile) > 84.21 scaled
89.00 raw (90th percentile) > 89.90 scaled
96.00 raw (99th percentile) > 94.05 scaled

SPECIALIST MATHS:
Spoiler
60.00 raw (25th percentile) > 84.50 scaled
73.00 raw (50th percentile) > 94.12 scaled
84.00 raw (75th percentile) > 97.55 scaled
91.00 raw (90th percentile) > 98.61 scaled
97.00 raw (99th percentile) > 99.15 scaled

SO BASED ON SCALING, WHAT SUBJECTS SHOULD YOU STUDY?
Oop - bit of a trick question!

I explain this in more detail here, but I am still of the opinion that, for the most part, potential scaling should not impact your QCE subject selection. Ultimately, scaling does not "reward" or "punish" you for studying certain subjects - it simply levels the playing field to ensure that results across subjects can be accurately compared.

In any case, QTAC has noted that students who received a 99.95 ATAR in 2020 - the highest possible result - collectively studied 16 different General QCE subjects. There's no set configuration of subjects that will guarantee high marks and, indeed, no set configuration of subjects that will guarantee low marks.



So - what do you all think? Any surprises? Any thoughts?

Please let me know if you think I've made an error or misinterpreted something, as it's very possible! :)
« Last Edit: March 11, 2021, 11:19:01 am by Joseph41 »

Oxford comma, Garamond, Avett Brothers, Orla Gartland enthusiast.

JerryMouse2019

  • MOTM: NOV 19
  • Forum Obsessive
  • ***
  • Posts: 210
  • I love Spider-Man :)
  • Respect: +113
Can someone please tell me what this means for my subjects and ATAR?
QCE Class of 2021: English | General Maths | Business | Economics | Legal Studies | Digital Solutions

“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy” – Dale Carnegie

Bri MT

  • VIC MVP - 2018
  • Administrator
  • ATAR Notes Legend
  • *****
  • Posts: 4719
  • invest in wellbeing so it can invest in you
  • Respect: +3677
Can someone please tell me what this means for my subjects and ATAR?

In short:

Not much.

If you want to use this information to predict scaling for your subjects you can (& better than guessing or going from other state data) but knowing this stuff or not won't make a difference to your ATAR calc.

I would not recommend acting differently based on the info in the report.

Daniel15

  • is awesome
  • Victorian
  • Forum Leader
  • ****
  • Posts: 600
  • Maintainer of the ATAR Calculator
  • Respect: +28
The annoying thing with QTAC's scaling report is that so far they haven't released any data around the mapping from TEA to ATAR like the VCE and HSC scaling reports have, which is frustrating for use cases like the ATAR Calculator.
Estimate your ATAR (ENTER)! VCE ATAR Calculator

2005: Cisco CCNA Units 1+2
2006: Info Systems [39 → 36.93]
2007: Specialist [33 → 43.13], Methods [39 → 44.48], Physics [34 → 37.38], English [23 → 19.91], Chem [26]
ENTER: 84.95

2008-2011: Professional Software Development, Swinburne Uni.