What is an ATAR?
ATAR stands for Australian Tertiary Admission Rank, and it’s different to your VCE or HSC result. As the name says, it’s a rank, not a score. The ATAR is a number between 0 and 99.95 that measures your Year 12 results against other students in your age group.
Universities use the ATAR as a minimum entry requirement for various courses, alongside other criteria such as portfolios, auditions, interviews and more – depending on the course.
How is the ATAR calculated?
Your ATAR is calculated by adding up to six scaled study scores. In Victoria, that means:
- the VTAC scaled study score in one of:
- English
- English Language
- Literature, or
- English as an Additional Language (EAL)
- scaled study scores from your next three top scoring subjects
- 10% of the fifth and sixth scores that are available.
Next, you’re ranked in order of your aggregate score, with a percentage rank assigned in a way that distributes all eligible students across a 100-point scale. That rank is converted to an ATAR, which tells you what percentage of students you outperformed.
So, for example, if you get an ATAR of 80.00, that means you did better than 80% of your age group.
But there’s also scaling.
To keep things fair, so nobody is disadvantaged based on what they chose to study, scores are scaled. This is basically because competition is tougher in some Year 12 subjects, and universities need an overall measure of the performance of students in all studies and all combinations.
Scaling can get complicated, but the important thing to remember is you won’t be punished or rewarded for selecting a certain subject. It all balances out.
What if I have a low or no ATAR?
Fortunately, a high ATAR isn’t the only way to get into the university course you want. At RMIT, there are still pathway options, including Guaranteed Pathways. By studying a certificate or diploma first, you can pathway into your dream degree without an ATAR requirement. Just add the vocational course to your VTAC preferences like any other course. If you’re not planning on getting an ATAR, RMIT has options for unscored VCE and vocational major students.
RMIT also offers a range of equity access schemes that are designed to assist students who have faced disadvantages in their education by considering personal circumstances and providing additional support or adjustments. They can consider factors such as financial hardship, illness, disability or being from a rural area.
Didn't get the ATAR you needed?
Our pathways offer alternative routes for you to pursue your desired Bachelor's degree, even if you didn't achieve the ATAR you needed.
Find a course by ATAR
Search for courses by their ATAR requirement with our ATAR Course Finder and see what your study options at RMIT could look like.
