The elusive 99.95 ATAR is something a lot of people strive for but few achieve.
One Flinders student, Laura Webb, achieved the highest possible ATAR of 99.95 (one of only 33 students in Queensland)
The ATAR is a rank calculated based on high school results in Australia, ranging from 0.00 to 99.95, indicating a student's relative position to all other students in the same age group.
An ATAR of 100 is impossible.
Parramatta High student Ved Khanolkar said his mum and dad were “left speechless” after he scored an ATAR of 99.5.
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 median ATAR was 70.15 this year, slightly higher than in 2019.
An ATAR score of 70 out of 100, for example, means you are in the top 30 percent for academic achievement in your cohort. Only 30 percent of people around your age completed secondary education and achieved better grades.
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. The lowest automatically reported rank is 30.00, with ranks below 30.00 being reported as 'less than 30'. Find out more about how ATARs are calculated.
ATAR scores are between 0 and 99.95, meaning a student can score 0.
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.
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.
Ravenswood student Maria Yang is one of the 48 students in NSW who has received the perfect ATAR of 99.95 in 2022.
Approximately 500 students will get a 99 ATAR in states like Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland. Approximately 100 students score a 99 every year in Western Australia, South Australia and Tasmania, while approximately 40 students achieve this in the ACT.
54,308 students were eligible for an ATAR. This is 533 fewer than in 2021. 48 students received the top ATAR of 99.95. Of these students, 19 were female and 29 were male; they came from a mix of government and non-government schools and studied a wide range of courses.
For instance, to score an ATAR of 95, you would need to score in the top 16% of Physics and 18% of Chemistry, but you need to be in the top 8% of Biology.
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.
Failing a subject aside from your English will not make you ATAR ineligible – but be careful about tertiary prerequisites, as you must pass a subject if you are using it as a prerequisite. If your English is not one of your five strongest results, the other five stronger results will be used in determining your ATAR.
As the ATAR is a percentile, a 99.95 ATAR means that you are in the top 0.05% of your state. Likewise, an ATAR of 99 means that you are in the top 1% of your state. Generally an ATAR of 99+ is considered as competitive for entry into Medicine (dependent on performances in the UCAT and Interviews).
Because the ATAR is a rank and not a score, the top number you can get is 99.95, meaning you have done better in Year 12 than 99.95% of all the Year 12 ATAR eligible students in your state. In order to get a rank of 100 you'd have to have beaten 100 per cent of your cohort…… including yourself, which is impossible.
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.
Your Year 11 grades do not count towards your ATAR! Essentially, the ATAR is a percentile number that's calculated using your HSC Marks — aka, your Year 12 marks.
But it's also determined by a complex scaling system that is beyond your control. An ATAR score of 60 doesn't mean you got 60 per cent as a grade. It actually means you're in the top 40 per cent of your year group. Similarly, an ATAR score of 90 means you're placed in the top 10 per cent of your year.
To qualify for an ATAR a student needs five General subjects or four General subjects plus one Applied subject or one completed VET qualification.
Each year, and for every study, the mean (average) study score is set at 30 with a standard deviation of 7. This means that a score between 23 and 37 shows that you are in the middle range of students (approximately 68% of the population); a score of 38 or more indicates that you are in the top 16%.