ATAR SCORE ?!?!?!

[Ed_ward]

Hi everyone,

I am from overseas, and everything about ATAR is a bit hard to understand. It is my final year in HS and I don't really know much about it so I have few questions. If you can answer even one, please don't hesitate. Thank you

1. The final study score (SACs + exams) is out of 50?
2. What kind of score you could get if you're ranked 10th in a subject not scaled up?
3. How scaling works?
4. To use ATAR calculators online do we put the study score of the subject or the mark that we got?
5. How can we calculate, approximately obviously, the study score that we could get based on the marks of the SAC's that we've done?
6. What score can you get if you get in the 70s % in all your subjects?

Thank you

 

[Bri MT]

The study score reflects your overall position in the subject relative to your peers, and is out of 50. It's on a bell curve,  so roughly 2% of the people taking that subject will get 45+, roughly 10% get 40+, roughly 25% get 35+ etc.
Your study score is calculated using your scores for GA1, GA2, & GA3. The VCAA website lists what these are and how much each contributes to the final score.
For example,  in biology, GA1 represents Unit 3 SAC performance (worth 20%), GA2 represents Unit 4 SAC performance (worth 20%), & GA3 represents exam performance (worth 60%).

It's important to note that your SAC scores are moderated, and VCAA doesn't care about the percentage mark you get on SACs, rather,  they use your rank and how well your cohort does on the exam.

3. Scaling is applied after everyone's study scores have been calculated.  If most people who are studying subject A get a higher score on their other subjects,  subject A will be scaled up to reflect its difficulty.

4. Generally ATAR calculators use your raw (unscaled) study score prediction. 

They're pretty accurate if you're good at guessing what your study scores will be - but it's difficult to guess those, so I wouldn't spend too much time playing with the calc. 

5. Look at the marking report for your subject in the previous year and see what grades your predicted marks correspond to. 

(There are much better guides than that short description in the technical score discussion section of the forums - if you really want to learn the mechanics I'd recommend looking there)

6. Depends what subjects you're studying & the strength of your cohort

[Joseph41]

Hey Ed_ward!

Really good questions, and some great responses from miniturtle above. Feel free to keep clarifying stuff here, because the VCE system can be pretty confusing. But I also recommend having a read of this thread, which answers some of your queries.