"Obsession with ATAR is leading students astray, chief scientist says"

[Joseph41]

Australia’s Chief Scientist has attacked the national scoring system for university entry, arguing it discourages high school students from taking on difficult subjects for fear of getting a lower score.

Dr Alan Finkel said Australian universities’ intense focus on the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank as the bar for acceptance was setting students up to perform poorly once they reached tertiary education.

Full story here.

Thoughts? Look like Dr Finkel is doubling down on comments from last year.

[Sine]

Full story here.

Thoughts? Look like Dr Finkel is doubling down on comments from last year.

I don't really know where I stand on this right now - a few mixed feelings. As for him "arguing it discourages high school students from taking on difficult subjects for fear of getting a lower score" I reckon one could argue the exact opposite with students going for high scaling subjects even if they don't like the subject or need it just for the sake of the score. It is probably likely both are true for different populations.

I do like the recognition of prerequisites being important. E.g. I'm pretty sure in the past Swinburne didn't even need methods for someone to do Engineering. However, now the prerequisite required is a 20 in methods. Which for context means you are at the 7th percentile (7 per cent below you) and given 3-4% don't even turn up for the exam it is not great.

[DrDusk]

I would be inclined to say that people who choose easier subject for a higher atar wouldn't have done well in them anyway.

They say that for example students are opting to choose Standard math over Advanced Math which has led to a large decline over the past few years, but I mean most of the people with a brain know Standard has a cap when it comes to atar contribution and so most people I knew were trying to get into advanced.