What are your ATAR stories?

[rodero]

For HSC students, I guess we have a bit more predictability when receiving our ATARs, since we get our HSC marks the day before. I popped them into the ATAR Calculators and was mostly getting within the high 96, which was amazing for me. All I ever expected was a 90+ to get into UTS Business. I wanted to go to UNSW for Commerce so badly, but I never dared think I'd get the ATAR, needing a 94.3 minimum + bonus points.

To see that I not only got into my dream course, but actually exceeded the requirement was such a great feeling. I'm so glad that I filmed myself reacting to it because I will cherish that moment forever. It was great to see that my friends had achieved great ATARs as well! I instantly got myself ready and headed off to school one more time, where the cohort all got together with teachers as a celebration. We were told that our cohort had been the best the school had ever had - we jumped more than 50 places in the school rankings, and we were crowned the best Catholic high school in Sydney.

My teachers also showed me where I got my marks in each subject. Can you believe I got 1/3 for the Legal Studies short answer on common law? I thought I smashed that one. For English, I was surprised to see 19/18/17 for my modules. It had been my weakest subject by far all year and it's surprising that with some effort, it became my best in the HSC, with an examination score of 93.

That same day I celebrated with my parents by going out for lunch. The deal was that if I beat my sisters 88, my dad would pay for most of my schoolies. Since I managed to surpass it by so much, he got me a brand new laptop for uni - a laptop that's been on my wishlist for ages!

[Thebarman]

Between the final exams and receiving my atar, I wasn't too stressed out or worried. I had already secured an early entry spot at my second preference uni, and my first preference course at another uni only required 80. That whole time (and for most of the year really), I believed that I could get into the course. My goal had always been to achieve an atar above 80, but my ultimate dream was 92 (I even stuck a poster up on my wall which said 'Atar Goal 92' and left it there until about a month ago). It's only in the few days before the hsc results were released that I became extremely worried and lost faith in myself. The continuous emails from UTS telling me to fill out an optional questionnaire which could get me into the course if I didn't get the required atar only elevated my worries (a questionnaire that in the end I didn't fill out). During this time, I began to think about my internal marks, especially my trial marks, and began to believe that I wouldn't be close to my goals (our school marks quite harshly, to the point where my raw internal math mark was in the low 60s, but the scaled assessment mark was 84). At this point, I had no idea whatsoever to expect.

So hsc results day comes around, and mum wakes me up to try and find out what I got. Still dreading my marks, I decide to not look at them yet. It's only half an hour later that I finally work up the courage to log in and check my marks. I was absolutely stunned and blown away; all my expectations had been surpassed. After processing it, I immediately ran downstairs to let mum and dad know how I went. The rest of the day was spent looking up how friends had gone, and binge watching Dark. I also used a few atar calculators to try and guess what my ranking would be. Most said I could place anywhere between 90 - 92, but I didn't want to get my hopes up just in case.

When atar day rolled around, I got an email half an hour before results were due from UTS, telling me I had achieved guaranteed entry into any IT or engineering course of my choice. Guaranteed entry is for those who achieve 90+. So UTS ultimately ruined the surprise  . Either way, I screamed when I finally saw that I had achieved 92.05, and frantically called up family and friends. The rest of the day was spent getting completely and utterly lost in the city with a friend

[Joseph41]

Bump for the new year! Would love to hear some more stories.

[beatroot]

I actually remember typing out my thoughts about my ATAR in my HSC journey journal last year so I'll just add it in the spoiler below !

Spoiler

"What'll It Be?"
a post-ATAR post by Bea

I woke up today with a throbbing headache at 8:43am and first thing I did was check the HSC 2017 Discussion page on Facebook to check out the pre-ATAR memes. Though it came to my surprise when people said that the ATARs were already out. I was planning to get ready and to film my reaction but realised that my shift started in one hour so I had to get this ATAR out of the way. I typed in my student number and my pin and came out my ATAR of

bea's atar lol

89.50 lol. My HSC marks are in my signature lol

At first I was a bit disappointed because the ATAR calculators said I could get 90+. After reading my ATAR, my headache got worse. I called my parents and they were a bit sad at first because of how close the ATAR was but they didn't mind because they already knew I got into the film school I've always wanted to get into. Afterwards I took a shower, ate leftovers from last night and put on my work uniform. I walked into work with the worse headache in the world. I took a tablet of panadol, though the headache never went away.

Thirty minutes into my shift, I was fixing a display when I overhead a conversation between my boss and another co-worker in an aisle next to mine. I heard them say the words 'HSC' and knew they were going to ask me about it. They walked past me a second later and my boss said "Hey Beatrice. Apparently your HSC marks are out?". I told them my ATAR and they started congratulating me. Although, I was like "I was close to getting that 90+". I pretty much told every co-worker about my ATAR as a way of explaining why I had the worse headache in the world. The pharmacist recommended me Nuromol. Took about two hours for Nuromol to sink in. The headache was finally gone. But the thought of being so close to a 90 never went away.

As soon as I finished work, I called up my friend (who went to my school's morning tea) to ask how everyone went. Our school didn't get into the top 100 (as expected but I was really hoping to get into the top 100 like our 2015 cohort), therefore scaling didn't really favour anyone. However, all the teachers were super excited to see everyone again and congratulate us on our performance, regardless of ATAR or HSC marks. A couple of my friends got 90+ ATARs and I feel like such a proud mum. I'm also proud of those who got a Band 6 and everyone in general. I haven't got the confirmation letter but I'm pretty sure I will be invited to my school's high achievers assembly next year (thank you my Band 6 in Visual Arts and my ARTEXPRESS 2018 selection!). I hope that my achievements and the other achievements of my fellow high achievers can inspire the girls at my school. Good luck to my school's 2018 cohort. I'm confident that they will get amazing ATARs and can beat our school's ranking for this year (I don't mind them beating us. They're a lovely cohort)

Looking back now- I realise now that your ATAR don't mean anything. No one at university gives a shit about it. The only time I've had people mentioning their ATARs is when they discover that I'm on AN and they're like 'that's that thing that gives out free HSC lectures right?'. I know I was disappointed at first when I got my ATAR. It's like 'damn if I actually studied that one dot point in Ancient History' or 'if I actually dedicated more time in the MC for Maths' or something. One small thing could have raised my ATAR to a 90+. I could've been recognised as a 90+ student at my school's high achiever's assembly rather than 'another chick who got a Band 6 for Visual Arts'. I think it was more of the pride and glory that came with being recognised as a 90+ student that I craved for rather than the ATAR itself (I didn't need an ATAR for film school). But at the end of the day- it really didn't matter because I already got accepted into my first preference (film) two weeks before ATARs were released. I'm just glad I got higher HSC marks that I expected (especially Society & Culture).

Wishing everyone the best with ATAR results day

[fantasticbeasts3]

I thought I posted here last year, but here we go :-)

As most of you know, in NSW we get our HSC results and ATARs one day after each other. For results, I had put my phone on aeroplane mode and had planned on sleeping in to make sure I didn’t see my results. At 7am I woke up to go to the bathroom and couldn’t sleep again because of the results anticipation. My hands were shaking and I couldn’t type my email and password to log into my email account.. then the first email pops up with my results, and I honest to goodness screamed. The first thing staring me in the face was a 94 in Legal and I was so incredibly happy about that. The rest wasn’t as good, but putting my marks into ATAR calculators made me sure I wouldn’t get my first UAC preference.

ATAR day was the following day. I had a morning tea at school, but I slept in lol. We were supposed to tell our pastoral care teachers our ATARs and I almost forgot to check before going to school 😂 But when I did check, I was happy but also disappointed because I didn’t get into my first preference, even with bonus points. I was 0.55 off. To this day, I’m disappointed I didn’t put more effort into maths which would’ve gotten me over 90, but at the end of the day I’m where I want to be. I ended up getting my first preference which is the most important thing! No one really asks you about your ATAR, and I’ve only been asked once by a teacher after getting my ATAR.

I hope your results are what you want them to be, and if not, there are tons of pathways to get to where you want ❤️❤️

[Joseph41]

Would love to hear some stories from the recently graduated Class of 2018! 🎓

[ItsYaBoyd]

Although I am a massive stress head, with the exam period literally being the worst experience of my life, I was surprising not nervous in the lead up to the release of ATARs. The night before I went out with some friends for dinner, and ended up going to a nightclub until around 2:30am before coming home, and sleeping through that 7am release time.

Going into exams I set some pretty unrealistic goals for myself, saying I wanted a 99.9 with high 40s in English and like 45 in spesh. I mean, these results weren't actually unreasonable for me given the work I had put in during the year, SAC rankings and my prep for exams. But having pretty severe performance anxiety, this pressure I put on myself became way too much for me to bear, and I ended up panicking during the English exam, and before the spesh tech free. As you can see from my scores below, I still did pretty well in both, but I do wonder how I would have gone if I didn't have such issue with exams.

With all this in mind, I was fairly sure I was going to get around the scores that I received for those subjects and the others that I did in the lead up to ATAR release, which was probably why I wasn't too concerned. What I wasn't sure about was my score in French, which was probably what carried my ATAR to what I got. With a LOTE, or indeed any high scaling subject, it can be very difficult to predict where you will stand coming out of the exam. 45 was my dream at the beginning of the year and when I saw that I was so incredibly happy, and the ATAR I got was much higher than I expected because of that.

So what have I learned from this? Whilst I could say "don't stress and you'll do fine", for people like me who suffer anxiety, not stressing is not always an option. Of course, do everything you can to manage that stress, see a psychologist, eat well, get enough sleep, do some meditation. But in the end for me, I knew it would affect my scores and I was prepared for that. In any case, while aiming for a 50 or a high 99s ATAR is great, be wary of the pressure you put on yourself. Unless you are some sort of genius, a 50 in a subject and a high 99s ATAR does come down to how you feel on the days of your exams and how well the exams suit you.

And if you miss that ATAR goal? It's probably been said a million times before, but there are SO MANY different pathways into courses. Even if you miss the ATAR by a large amount, it's likely that you can do even just one semester to a year of another course before transferring into the course of your dreams. Don't let the number stop you from doing what you want to do, that's not how it works.

[DrDusk]

Mine was quite boring. I was 100% confident that I would get the required atar for my course and so I stared off into space thinking about this new chapter of my life(uni) the whole night and awaited the sunrise, and well I got what I needed =)

[Joseph41]

It's getting to that time of year again. 😬 Anybody else have ATAR stories?

[hums_student]

I was in Iraq with my history teacher and two classmates when ATARs came out. My history teacher was also the school principal so he got our results before Dec 14th and he wasn't going to tell us until after the official release, but couldn't control himself and told us our history study scores (but made us wait for the other subjects and the ATAR). We nagged him for hours on end and bribed him with anything we could buy from the Iraqi night markets but he refused to budge.

Anyway due to time zones results came out at 3am for us - the three of us students pulled an all nighter and had a planking contest until results came out. I specifically remember that I was in the toilet when the app finally loaded. I saw ATAR first because I just wanted to get it over and done with. My prediction was in the low/mid 90s so when I saw my actual ATAR my first feeling was confusion - I thought I logged into someone else's account. While I was over the moon with my ATAR I was quite disappointed in my study scores as I had gotten two raw 39s, including chem which I thought was a safe 40+.

Following that, the first thing I did was call my parents and sister. My mum actually cried when I told her my scores. I think that phone call was the highlight of my VCE - for most of my life I was "the dumb sibling" and my parents had no expectations of me. But then during that phone call they told me that they were proud of my achievements and my efforts and that was so much better than getting the ATAR itself.

[Jimmmy]

Well, I guess I can say mine now can't I? 

The night before, I just watched some junk TV (which is a rarity for me, I usually barely watch TV at all), and went to bed around 1am as I knew I was going to overthink things in bed if I went any earlier.

Woke up around 6:40, which was about when I would've wanted to. I went into the living room to grab my phone and turn it on, as I could access my email from there and was going to wait for the raw scores to come through before checking the ATAR. I went back to bed and turned on my emails around 6:45, and saw that I'd received one from VCAA around 6:40 and honestly thought it was a hoax, but it looked similar to the one I got last year so did a double take. I took a few deep breaths, messed around on my phone and surfed the web for a few minutes before finally mustering up the courage to check them. When I finally did, I was shocked again and thought it was a joke...again. My English Language score was a fair few points better than expected after what I considered to be a torrid examination, but the others all seemed below what I was hoping for, but better than I expected (bar Legal, that was awful  ).

Considering it was 6:55 at this point, I raced to the ATARNotes ATAR calculator and plugged in the numbers, and got a mid 95, which I was content with as I was expecting low 90s after a sub-par exam period, including some sickness. When they finally came out, to see a number in the 96s was, at the time, felt phenomenal. I was expecting higher before exams, and my SAC marks indicated as much, but to come out with that after a pretty horrendous October/November was very relieving, and I knew I was going to get into the course I hoped for at the beginning of the year, so that was all I really needed despite all other factors at play.

From what I've seen, it's the number that causes the most stress, and I'm glad that number is long behind me (and the Class of 2019!).

Afterward, I was just in sheer neutrality for the next few hours, watched some TV around midday, grabbed lunch with a few friends, then went to school to catch a few teachers. Afterward, I went and played some cricket and went home late that night.

I was in Iraq with my history teacher and two classmates when ATARs came out. My history teacher was also the school principal so he got our results before Dec 14th and he wasn't going to tell us until after the official release, but couldn't control himself and told us our history study scores (but made us wait for the other subjects and the ATAR).

I'm stunned....since when do principals get scores/ATARs before the 7am opening? I've been told that nobody at our school receives information about our scores except the teachers of each subject, and that comes out about an hour after we get it.

[Bri MT]

I'm stunned....since when do principals get scores/ATARs before the 7am opening? I've been told that nobody at our school receives information about our scores except the teachers of each subject, and that comes out about an hour after we get it.

There was some drama a few years back about schools inviting students for a release day lunch if they got 90+. The thing is, the invitations went out before ATARs were announced...

I'm not sure if things have changed but schools definitely used to get ATARs in advance

[Sine]

I'm stunned....since when do principals get scores/ATARs before the 7am opening? I've been told that nobody at our school receives information about our scores except the teachers of each subject, and that comes out about an hour after we get it.

Pretty sure principals get scores early, either the day before or if scires are out on a monday the friday before.

[Joseph41]

Bump! For those who have graduated, what were your ATAR stories? What were your experiences?

Class of 2020, what are you expecting to happen/what are you expecting it to be like on the day?

[fun_jirachi]

Noticed I haven't added to this :|

I pulled an all-nighter (feigning nervousness iirc, but actually just not wanting to sleep) - waiting for results. I was pretty happy when the final marks came out early in the morning (and NESA slid into my DMs ) but I was pretty cooked by about 9am. I remember going to a friend's house to find out ATARs together, just constantly hitting refresh on UAC. Bit of a bummer in the end considering that all the different ATAR calculators we used projected higher results for the both of us, but I stayed for lunch and caught the train home. Turns out I was even more tired than I thought after 36 hours of no sleep because I overshot the station I was supposed to change trains at by about 12 stations and upon going back the other way to change trains, nearly overshot again. All in all a wild ride