What happens to your ATAR if you fail a subject or get an N-award?

[exhausted]

This may be the dumbest thing to do for the HSC but I'm just curious because no one I've asked seems to know the answer.
Basically, at my school Studies of Religion is compulsory but I don't want to do it and it's a bit late to move schools. If it's true that they only include your 10 best units for your ATAR, my theory is that if I just do real bad in SOR and worry about my other subjects then I could still get a good ATAR since they only count your best 10? I'm an A grade student so I do get top marks for the other 5 subjects. Again, it's a theory hence why I'm asking about it.
So my question is, if I were to fail everything in SOR, given I complete my other 5 subjects with good marks, what will happen regarding my ATAR? Also, what would be the difference regarding my ATAR if I completed the work for SOR but failed, or if I just didn't complete my work at all? And am i still eligible for a HSC and an ATAR?
Also another question, what would happen if someone didn't turn up for a HSC exam if they already failed the subject anyway or just got an N-award?

[Chemystery]

 I know someone in my music 1 class who failed music (didn't give doctors certificate for trials and didn't show up to Aural written exam) and still got a mark so I'm wary about this too!

How many units does SOR count for? I don't have it at my school, and I understand what you're thinking though! My entire speculation really revolves around SOR being compulsory as if it is compulsory in the English sense, failing it would probably determine you not receiving an ATAR, but then again it isn't compulsory at all schools so it shouldn't be so crucial for your ATAR, very confusing!

Is there any chance you can put in minimal effort for SOR and still relatively pass? Have you spoken to your teachers about this?

[RuiAce]

How many units does SOR count for?

1 or 2, depending on which version you take.

This may be the dumbest thing to do for the HSC but I'm just curious because no one I've asked seems to know the answer.
Basically, at my school Studies of Religion is compulsory but I don't want to do it and it's a bit late to move schools. If it's true that they only include your 10 best units for your ATAR, my theory is that if I just do real bad in SOR and worry about my other subjects then I could still get a good ATAR since they only count your best 10? I'm an A grade student so I do get top marks for the other 5 subjects. Again, it's a theory hence why I'm asking about it.
So my question is, if I were to fail everything in SOR, given I complete my other 5 subjects with good marks, what will happen regarding my ATAR? Also, what would be the difference regarding my ATAR if I completed the work for SOR but failed, or if I just didn't complete my work at all? And am i still eligible for a HSC and an ATAR?
Also another question, what would happen if someone didn't turn up for a HSC exam if they already failed the subject anyway or just got an N-award?

Just put in minimal effort so that you don't have to suffer the N-award.

But yes, SOR does not have to count if you perform better in 10 other units (including at least 2 units of English). Your ATAR will be calculated off those 10 units only.

[jamonwindeyer]

This may be the dumbest thing to do for the HSC but I'm just curious because no one I've asked seems to know the answer.
Basically, at my school Studies of Religion is compulsory but I don't want to do it and it's a bit late to move schools. If it's true that they only include your 10 best units for your ATAR, my theory is that if I just do real bad in SOR and worry about my other subjects then I could still get a good ATAR since they only count your best 10? I'm an A grade student so I do get top marks for the other 5 subjects. Again, it's a theory hence why I'm asking about it.
So my question is, if I were to fail everything in SOR, given I complete my other 5 subjects with good marks, what will happen regarding my ATAR? Also, what would be the difference regarding my ATAR if I completed the work for SOR but failed, or if I just didn't complete my work at all? And am i still eligible for a HSC and an ATAR?
Also another question, what would happen if someone didn't turn up for a HSC exam if they already failed the subject anyway or just got an N-award?

Beyond your schools consequences (which COULD be refusal to let you graduate or something, I'm not sure), BOSTES will only count your best 10 units. So you'd be fine. Buuuut you shouldn't do that, you should do the work (N-Awards and stuff just aren't nice, they don't look good for a graduating student), and if you do, SOR has a pretty high chance of counting towards your ATAR! It scales fairly nicely, and it's not too hard either! If you work hard you could get a nice mark and improve your ATAR - If you have to do it, might as well do it right

If someone didn't show up to a HSC Exam and didn't have a good reason, they'd fail the unit(s). If they did have a good reason and could prove it, they'd get an estimate from their school

[sudodds]

hey! I was in the same predicament as you. Studies of Religion was compulsory, and I thought about doing the same thing that you did - focus on smashing my other subjects and neglect SOR. However the thing is..... SOR is actually pretty easy to do well with minimal effort (at least for myself and a heap load of other people that I have spoken to). I did the bare minimum for SOR, studying only the night before for both HSC and trials, and I came away with a 47/50. And I was definitely not the only person that managed to obtain this mark while doing next to nothing so its not like I was just some SOR genius (unlike elyse who's lectures you should defs check out in July if you do decide to try in SOR ) Now I'm not recommending only studying the night before cos that probs wasn't my finest moment last year (I blame the fact it was on the same day as history extension), but just trying to demonstrate how relatively easy this subject is in comparison to others + it actually scales pretty well!

If you fail SOR it doesn't have to count towards your ATAR, but I know that a lot of people (including myself) thought it wouldn't count, and then another subject didn't go as planned and it did. Don't go crazy and spend hours upon hours studying for SOR if it's not something that you're interested in, but you might as well give it a go. Alternatively, does your school let you drop SOR after trials? My school did so you can maybe discuss that with your teacher as an option if you really don't want to sit through the classes. As long as you have 10 units of atar-applicable subjects (some tafe/VET courses don't go towards an atar so be wary of that if you study any of those), then you will still be eligable for an atar, and say you study 12 units but fail two, you can still get a really good one granted the other subject marks are high.

I'm not 100% sure about this, but you shouldn't skip an exam even if you don't think it should count towards you atar unless you formally unenroll. I'm pretty sure this can cause issues in regards to your other subjects/HSC.

[exhausted]

Right, forgot to add it's a 2-unit course so I'm currently doing 12 (bio, chem, eng adv, ipt, math, sor II) However they spoke of bringing in the 1 unit for the people like me who just don't care. They've never done it before but this year probably half the grade if not more really don't care about SOR.
I know it's easy marks the teachers keep telling me but I genuinely hate it so much that I can't put effort into something I just don't care for.
The thing is if I just do minimal effort and aim to just pass, if I put in a little too much effort, it could accidentally count towards my ATAR hence why I thought to just fail everything instead because in the end, in theory, it wouldn't count towards my ATAR anyway. If they drop me down to 1 unit which is looking likely, it's going to be a bit harder to do minimal effort without accidentally getting a good mark and contributing to my ATAR if that makes sense.
I know it would come in handy if I bombed out another subject but I'm feeling fairly confident in everything else.
So it seems the way to go is just do minimal work and avoid an N-award?

[jamonwindeyer]

it's going to be a bit harder to do minimal effort without accidentally getting a good mark and contributing to my ATAR if that makes sense

Is there a scenario where getting a good mark is a bad thing? Like, that's win win!

[sudodds]

Right, forgot to add it's a 2-unit course. So I'm currently doing 12. However they spoke of bringing in the 1 unit for the people like me who just don't care. They've never done it before but this year probably half the grade if not more really don't care about SOR.
I know it's easy marks the teachers keep telling me but I genuinely hate it so much that I can't put effort into something I just don't care for.
The thing is, if I just do minimal effort and if I put in a little too much effort it could accidentally count towards my ATAR, hence why I thought to just fail everything instead. If they drop me down to 1 unit which is looking likely, it's going to be a bit harder to do minimal effort without accidentally getting a good mark and contributing to my ATAR if that makes sense.
I know it would come in handy if I bombed out another subject but I'm feeling fairly confident in everything else.
So it seems the way to go is just do minimal work and avoid an N-award?

Why is it such a bad thing that it counts towards your ATAR? UAC only takes into account your 10 best units, so you get the highest ATAR possible from your combination of marks and subjects, so if SOR counts then thats not going to negatively impact you Its up to you in the end, but I still think you should give it a go even if you dislike the subject. If you get the option to do one unit I'd take it, its way less work than two unit - I did SOR1 and I felt like I hardly ever had religion haha! We only had 3 assessments (including trials!)

[exhausted]

Is there a scenario where getting a good mark is a bad thing? Like, that's win win!

Yes because if I do really bad in SOR but then one or 2 assessments I do well, it's going to bring my mark up and I don't want to risk it going towards my ATAR if I'm not putting in the effort. If it's going towards my ATAR I'm going to put every effort in to aim as high as possible because if I don't do that and it counts towards my ATAR, I'm going to get a lower ATAR than I would have without it

[jamonwindeyer]

Yes because if I do really bad in SOR but then one or 2 assessments I do well, it's going to bring my mark up and I don't want to risk it going towards my ATAR if I'm not putting in the effort. If it's going towards my ATAR I'm going to put every effort in to aim as high as possible because if I don't do that and it counts towards my ATAR, I'm going to get a lower ATAR than I would have without it

SOR will only count if it will give you a better ATAR than your other units; they take the best units. So if SOR counts, that means you've performed better in SOR than in another subject - Which it sounds like you are pretty confident that won't happen!

In complete honesty, the energy it will take to try and play the system will definitely just be better spent doing your SOR assignments, doing really well, then studying a night or two before your Trial and HSC. It's not a super hard subject and the Band 6 mark range is quite easy to access if you are in that high mark range for other subjects (aka, SOR won't pose issues if other subjects aren't posing issues).

There is no possible way that SOR counting is a bad thing unless you get a very underwhelming result in another subject, in which case, it would have been better to work hard on SOR just as much as others. The extra unit(s) are/is a fantastic backup