Understanding Study Scores & ATARS

The Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC) will receive results from the Victorian Curriculum & Assessment Authority (VCAA). VTAC will use these scores to determine the Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR) for each VTAC applicant.  The applicant will be notified of that ATAR by VTAC at the same time as the applicant receives his/her subject scores from the VCAA.

As the name suggests, an applicant's ATAR is the percentile ranking of that applicant. It gives the comparative placement of that applicant to all other people of school leaving age on the basis of their Year 12 results.

Process of Determining the Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR)

This is a two-stage process:

• First the normalised study scores for each VCE study are adjusted to reflect differences in the cohort of students taking that study compared to other studies and differences in the difficulty of the VCE studies (scaling).

• Second, the ATAR will be determined by an algorithm to produce an overall percentile ranking of the applicant.

The algorithm will take into account:

• an applicant's study score in English (or EAL); and

• the applicant's best three scores; and

• 10% of the applicant's next two best scores (often referred to as "students' 5th (and perhaps 6th) subject").

Up to six scores may be used and all study scores are adjusted by the comparison process.

Combinations of Studies

All accredited VCE studies, for which study scores have been issued, may be used except that only ONE of each of the following combinations can be used in the 'primary four' (the other may be used as an increment):

Drama / Theatre Studies

Dance / Dance Styles

Art / Studio Arts

General Mathematics / Specialist Mathematics

No more than two Mathematics studies (ie.drawn from either previous or current VCE Mathematics) and no more than two Languages can be included in the 'primary four'. (Other Mathematics and/or Languages can be used as a 10% increment.)

‘Primary four’ refers to studies that will be used first when creating an ATAR. These are English (or EAL), plus the next three highest scoring studies.