Your rank is based on how you went compared to other Year 12 students. So even if your test scores are lower than you'd hoped, if you're still ranked in the top 20% of students, then you'll receive an ATAR of 80. As long as you try your best with what you have, chances are, you'll do better than you expect.
For most people, a good ATAR score is 80.00.
Eighty is the minimum ATAR for entry into most programs at the Australian National University.
17 per cent of students received an ATAR of 90.00 or above, 33.9 per cent received an ATAR of at least 80.00 and 50.3 per cent at least 70.00.
The ATAR is a rank, not a mark. It is a number between 0 and 99.95 with increments of 0.05. It allows us to compare the overall achievement of students who have completed thousands of different combinations of HSC courses. An ATAR of 80.00 places you in the top 20% of your age cohort.
An ATAR is a rank given in increments of 0.05 between 0.0 and 99.95, meaning that a score of 75 puts you in the top 25 per cent of your state. This rank provides an easy method of comparison for institutions when selecting students for course entry.
In general, most students consider an ATAR of below 30 to be bad. This is because the actual ATAR score is not reported for an ATAR less than 30, it is just stated as <30. Still, this ATAR may be good and all that is required for a student who wants to pursue a trade or enrol in TAFE.
What is the lowest ATAR score? While ATARs are all between 0 and 99.95, the lowest rank that actually gets reported is 30.
3. What is the average ATAR score? The average ATAR is usually around 70.00.
The reality is that most students arrive at university with an ATAR of less than 90. It is a rank, and therefore only some students will get 90 and above. The ATAR shows a student's achievement in relation to other students. It's also not a complete sign of "success".
Although an ATAR of 70 places a student in the top 70% of year 12 students overall, it only places them in the top 50% of students who get an ATAR (since certain students will not finish their year 12 studies). It's important to note that the ATAR is not a score, but a rank.
In NSW in 2020, the aggregate required for an 85 ATAR was just above 340. This corresponds to an average scaled score per unit of 34 across 10 units (including two English units).
So, an ATAR of 85 doesn't mean you got an 85% in your exams – it means that you outperformed 85% of the rest of the student population for that year. Tip: A good way to think about the ATAR is to think about a leaderboard in a competitive video game.
All you need to get 70 (pretty much), is get roughly 30 for each subject. So around the C+ and the B mark for exams and SAC's.
For non-rural students who do not qualify for any special access schemes, UNSW Medicine has an official ATAR minimum cut-off of 96.00, and no official UCAT ANZ cut-off exists. However, to have a realistic shot, your scores need to be higher than around ATAR 99.50 & UCAT 92%tile.
An ATAR of 100 is impossible
An ATAR of 80.00 indicates that you sit in the top 20% of your cohort and so on. In order to get a rank of 100 you'd have to have beaten 100 per cent of your cohort…… including yourself.
Ultimately, getting 99 ATAR is no easy undertaking. It requires hard work, dedication, and a willingness to use all of the resources available to you. For those students who are aiming for the top universities, a high ATAR score is essential – and it is within your reach.
In Australia, the lowest minimum ATAR required by a medical program is an ATAR of 90 (Monash University) or adjusted ATAR of 90 (University of Adelaide). If you're a rural student, you could also apply to La Trobe's medical program, which has a minimum unadjusted ATAR requirement of 80.
Like an OP1, getting a 99 ATAR or even that elusive 99.95 ATAR isn't impossible. It's a process that involves a lot of passion for learning and commitment to constant improvement.
Roughly and depending on a range of personal factors, the 85-95 ATAR range is the perfect place to aim for.
Rank, not a score
So an ATAR of 70 doesn't mean you got 70 percent – it means that you're in the top 30 percent of your year group.
Ravenswood student Maria Yang is one of the 48 students in NSW who has received the perfect ATAR of 99.95 in 2022.
The ATAR is an estimate of the percentage of the population that you outperformed. So if you receive an ATAR of 60, it means you performed better than 60% of students that year. The ATAR is a number from 0 and 99.95 in intervals of 0.05. The highest rank is 99.95, the next highest 99.90, and so on.
Ethan Tan, 15, became the youngest student ever to get the highest possible ATAR of 99.95 on Friday. The Cranbrook student is one of only 46 students across the state to have achieved the top ATAR this year, and has his sights set on Cambridge or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for next year.
In NSW, your ATAR is based on an aggregate of scaled marks in 10 units of HSC courses comprising your: best 2 units of English. best 8 units from your remaining units, which can include no more than 2 units of Category B courses.