Is it possible to get an ATAR of 90 or above with low-scaling subjects?

[SaskiaRose]

Hi everyone,

I was just wondering if it is even possible for someone (ie. me) to get an ATAR of 90 or above doing the following subjects:

English (Standard)
General Mathematics
Study of Religion
Japanese
Business
Food and Nutrition

I've always dreamed of getting an ATAR starting with a 9 (pretty nerdy thing to dream of haha) but when I chose these subjects (particularly the low-scaling ones) I really wasn't aware of the whole scaling thing and basically now that I'm learning more about scaling... I'm having some serious regrets. 😭 And the worst thing is I'm in grade 12, so I'm locked into these subjects and unable to swap. My biggest regret is food and nutrition. I've heard its one of the lowest-scaling subjects and I don't even like it that much. To be honest, I only really picked it because of my friends. Worst mistake ever!! I used to be quite a high achieving student with As in nearly all subjects, but now I'm extremely worried that my uneducated subject choices have cost me a high ATAR. I really don't mean to sound boastful or anything, but I'm just not used to not getting high results and its giving me some real anxiety.

Basically, if I were to get raw scores in the 90s for all of my subjects, would it even be possible to get an ATAR of 90 or above considering the low-scaling subjects I'm doing? I just need to know eek.

Thank you so much!!!

[Sine]

I'm not a 100% expert on the QCE system but the short answer is yes you can still get an ATAR of 90 regardless of subjects

Also from what I know a scaling report for QCE has still not been reported yet given the new system so know one really knows whether subjects are high/low scaling (scaling down etc),

[PhoenixxFire]

Hey,
I got a 90 with almost entirely subjects that scaled down (only bio scaled up, and only by about .5). I did one of the lowest scaling subjects in vce - it scaled down by about 6.5 points (vce is out of 50). It definitely is still possible!

[Joseph41]

Hey Saskia,

Welcome to ATAR Notes! Some quick notes/thoughts in addition to the excellent posts above:

→ The whole point of the scaling system through QCE is to level the playing field. Scaling doesn't "reward" or "punish" you for choosing certain subjects, even though it might seem like that (I feel you - all but one of my subjects (VCE) scaled down, and I was salty through grade 12 haha). The basic idea is that without scaling, some students would be disadvantaged by doing subjects where it's harder to score well in. If you're interested, you can read a bit about it here.

→ With that in mind, yes, it is definitely possible to achieve a 90+ ATAR with those subjects.

→ As Sine mentioned, it's difficult to even know at this stage which subjects will scale up and which subjects will scale down. Although trends occur over time, scaling each year depends solely on student performance from that year.

I know it's hard, but honestly, I think the best thing you can do in order to get a great ATAR is to try to forget scaling as much as possible, and focus on things you can change, such as effort, and the ways you're studying. Naturally, though, please ask more questions about scaling and the QCE system if you have more!

Welcome again to the community - great to have you here.

[SaskiaRose]

Wow thank you all so so much!! You have no idea how much I appreciate all of you guys right now ahaha❤️. You've literally just lifted so much anxiety off of my shoulders.

And thanks so much for the warm welcome Joseph, I've been on ATAR Notes for over a year now but only just made my first post now lol. Definitely looking forward to getting more involved this year!

Thanks again guys! 😄

[Joseph41]

Wow thank you all so so much!! You have no idea how much I appreciate all of you guys right now ahaha❤️. You've literally just lifted so much anxiety off of my shoulders.

And thanks so much for the warm welcome Joseph, I've been on ATAR Notes for over a year now but only just made my first post now lol. Definitely looking forward to getting more involved this year!

Thanks again guys! 😄

No stress! Obviously you can't just walk to a 90+ ATAR with no effort, haha, but scaling won't make it impossible to do well.

Looking forward to seeing you around.