What are your ATAR stories?

[justaloser]

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?

I woke up at easily 6:30am or so, then realised that I would unfortunately have to wait. So I hung out in the living room whilst my parents were sleeping listening to music and playing video games mindlessly to pass the time. I had a very "Let's get it over with" sort of vibe, I was just frankly sick and tired of the VCE and results and numbers. I was constantly alt-tabbing between Gmail and Reddit and Discord seeing if anyone else was up, not nervous but just impatient ("It is what it is").

My parents however were my complete antithesis: they were giddy and when my results came out, it was like winning the lottery for them, God bless their souls, because they were jumping up and down and screaming. I was just really relieved that I hadn't failed the VCE, because I had forgotten to do 10+% on my first Methods exam and Chemistry and English were such wildcard subjects that I really, really didn't know if I was even going to crack 90.00. Plus I was interested in med so there was that. I was just all in all very relieved that it was over (well not really, there was still the possibility of interviews for medicine which I was excited for more than ATAR) and was physically and mentally too tired to really react.

After getting my results I think I went down to school to talk to teachers about results. The school yard was empty, it was rather cold and grey for a December day. It felt like such a bleak way to end high school, but that experience is more vivid to me than the end-of-year events. There weren't any other Year 12 students in sight except for another friend who had decided to turn up as well, we said our hellos, and that was that.

Most of my teachers actually had more faith in me than myself! My Chem teacher in particular told me she wasn't surprised, which shocked me because I wasn't really top-scoring but still pulled out a decent study score. It was also rather awkward talking to my Spec teacher who I was quite close with because I got a 29 study score (I didn't study for Specialist).

[The Cat In The Hat]

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

I have expectations probably 10 or more ATAR points lower than my parents, so... this could be interesting. We'll see who's right! It being... a particular special day for me... I don't want it to mess it up too, so the pressure's on more. And the course I want to get into is competitive. We'll see!
I also have teeny tiny I'd-like goals that I don't think I've got, but I'd love to top Heidi's scores for English or Texts... sadly, I'm probably not even gonna get 40s in either, let alone mid-40s... Heidi is too smart for me
-updated post-ATAR/offers-
Well as I kinda expected and kinda didn't, my ATAR was neither spectacular (especially in a family of almost all 90+'s) nor awful. I can't remember, I may have got the lowest ATAR in the family, I may not, but it don't matter one tiny bit, 'cause ATAR was there as a way to get into the course I wanted and well I got in, so I don't really care. At the time, of course, I was somewhat nervous, but it was very anticlimactic; I went out for the day with my brother (who is also on AN) and my parents told most of the family. My ATAR story was fairly ordinary. One subject I was shocked and incredibly delighted about (Methods, you saved the day) as I'd expected ~27 raw and got 34, raw. Another subject I was shocked and quite disappointed by was Texts; I'd hoped for high 30s/40, then it ended up being fairly mediocre at 34. The teacher'd been expecting mid-high 40s, but I'd never really believed that in any case. Revs was precisely on-point where I'd predicted; predicted 32, guess what I got. English was a bit lower than I'd hoped, but given my terrible exam performance I was reasonably happy. (But 13/20 for an essay on a book I knew inside out? Still annoyed.) It's rather heartening to know that if I'd done decently on the exams I could've done significantly better on all my subjects (except Methods because that exam pair I was happy with).

I was more concerned about getting my offer; great, I'd got an ATAR of 85.00 which is an okay sort of score (for my incredibly high-scoring family, think heids sort of level), but the course I wanted required probably about 91.5 (ended up first round offers required 92+ selection rank for 2021 entry) so I was fairly convinced I wouldn't get it. Thought I was hallucinating on the day when I first saw it! They obviously decided that major surgery at the start of the summer holidays beforehand was rather detrimental. (spoiler alert: it was)

So my ATAR story was fairly boring. There. Now you have it.

[XD12345]

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

Class of 2020 student right here. So far I have roughly 1 week left until I get my atar. I have actually called into work and requested to have the 19th off because I would have started at 7am and probably would not be able to focus. I was worried that I would check my atar and Not do well and then end up not working to the best of my abilty, so I decided to just have the whole day off. I’ve basically been doing everything to distract myself, I’ve read through the entire course units and structure for my dream course which is only making me more nervous. I’m planning on staying up distracting myself until I pass out the night before (that way I don’t have to lay in bed building scenarios in my head). I’ve talked to other people who are doing something similar, and it’s becoming more and more nerve-wrecking.

I’ve read through dozens of forum pages on a range of websites of people telling their own atar stories and how it’s affected them. I’ve been counting down the days since November, but now, I’ve started counting down the actual hours until atars are released. When posting this, I only need to wait 165 more hours (roughly)!



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[Joseph41]

Bump! Those in the Class of 2020 and earlier - what are your ATAR stories?

And if you're currently waiting on results or soon will be, what are you planning for ATAR release? How are you expecting the day to go?

[ConFinCMC]

Bump! Those in the Class of 2020 and earlier - what are your ATAR stories?

And if you're currently waiting on results or soon will be, what are you planning for ATAR release? How are you expecting the day to go?

Thanks for resurfacing this, it would probably be best to bring it back for another year.
The night before I got my results last year, I wasn't really nervous or anything. I thought I had what I needed, which was a 20 in English and an ATAR above 50. I just woke up at about 9 or 10AM and just scrolled onto the website.
When I saw all those low numbers, I kind of just thought, well damn, time to get a job, I guess.

But then I remembered that the Careers Office at school was open still, and they were offering help to any students who needed to change course or seek advice about universities. My careers teacher stepped me through about an introductory course at a university in Ballarat, which can be a gateway to being even better as a student in general.
After that, I went home, changed my preferences and heard back from friends who got very good scores (while I'm happy for them, I was a little bummed out to hear that I was the only one in my friend group who didn't get the scores they wanted), then I had KFC for dinner and passed out on the couch after a movie marathon at about 2AM.

So, the moral of the story is to always have a backup plan, no matter how sure you are of your scores, be mindful of your resources, even after school is finished, they can give advice and never overestimate or underestimate yourself.

My university course starts in February and I'm super excited for it. Can't wait!

[rkjthguakj]

I remember going over to a friend's house really early in the morning to open our ATAR's with friends. I wasn't ready to face my parents no matter what it was.

Coming from a high performing school (median ATAR in 2020 was a 93) and with high achieving friends, I had set a high goal for myself, despite not exactly being a stellar student, at roughly mid to high 90s ATAR. To my demise, I received an ATAR short of a mid-90s. In the face of my high achieving friends who had ALL received 98 ATARs, I didn't want to show my disappointment. It was disappointing to receive study scores a lot lower than I had anticipated - I was expecting a low 40s for English only to find out I bombed Section C with an 11/20.

Sure it was disappointing in the moment, but within the next month, it didn't even matter as I had received my first preference course anyways and am really happy with where I'm heading in university. As cliche as it is, there are always pathways if you're willing to put int he work, no matter how disappointing your ATAR is.

[Billuminati]

Class of '18 here. I stayed up late all night on results eve although I was well aware that I'm out of the med race since I failed a section on the UMAT and scored abysmally on it overall. I was hinging on a 98+ as that's the required ATAR for a Monash biomed scholarship and I was nervous about trying to prove my abusive French teacher wrong about me not being capable of getting a 40. To make time past faster, I decided to play some GTA CTW and when I got bored of that, I played a few Danganronpa 2 class trials for the first time.

When results came in, I was mad for getting 47 scaled in French which was definitely under a 40 raw. Looked like my excuse for a "teacher" gets to give me the finger after all

I was also panicking when I saw my chem scaled score cuz I remembered that a 40 raw should scale to 44 and my scaled score was only 43.8, which might mean I got under 40 for it. It was a relief that VCAA decided to round my score up. I could've sworn I scored very well on the exam, but when I ordered the statement of marks, apparently it's marked more harshly than I thought

Despite the horrible exam 1 in methods, I was still happy with my 37 cuz it still meets the 35 prereq for the scholarship.

The only pleasant surprise is English, I was hoping for a 41-42 but somehow got a 44. I feel that this pretty much highlights the flaws of the VCE system, I enjoyed chem and methods way more than English (which was hell on earth for me), yet my scores certainly didn't reflect this.

When I held my breath and scrolled to my ATAR, I was so happy that my ATAR barely made it over the 98 prereq. But biomed being what it is, I still get asked and ridiculed for my ATAR by other kids in the scholars program, cuz most of them have high 98 - low 99 ATARs  whereas I barely made the cut. Of course I never anticipated that on results day, I was way too busy celebrating

[Joseph41]

But biomed being what it is, I still get asked and ridiculed for my ATAR by other kids in the scholars program, cuz most of them have high 98 - low 99 ATARs

Damn, does that really happen? That's a bit of a bummer.

I don't think I ever spoke about my ATAR at uni, although I also didn't speak to that many people at uni, haha.

[Geoo]

Graduated in 2020, and wow I can't believe it's been a year already!

I was coming into this very nervous. I felt that out of the 5 exams I did, only two went well. Going into the methods exam I had literally given up and just didn't care anymore, and I came out crying from the chemistry exam as I thought i'd bombed it, leaving 15 marks blank as I ran out of time (it was my favourite subject to). Ever since high school started, I had been aiming for a 92 ATAR to get into the B.Sci at monash, which is the first thing I looked up in year 7 to have as an end goal. Even though the in 2020 and onwards the ATAR has lowered to 85, I still wanted that 92 I set out to achieve way back when I was 12.

The night before I took a two hour drive just to ring out my nerves. I was already accepting that at most I could get an 82, at worst a 79 due to all the calculations I had done. I just wanted enough to get into my course. Funnily enough, I slept through the night and got a full 7 hours sleep? Don't know how I did that, but I woke up at 6:30. I checked my email at 6:45, and saw the study score results had come in. I knocked on my parents door, and we all went down stairs. I was just so ready to be disappointed, I had already accepted that I wasn't going to do well. Anyway, I open up the email at 6:50 and my jaw dropped. The first thing I noticed was I somehow passed methods getting a 26, didn't bomb chem getting a 38 and to my utter disbelief got a 48 in food studies. I was hysterical. No idea how to react to that. I was kinda just staring at the screen in complete shock.

Then 7 am rolled around and it was time to check my atar. My hopes had been lifted that I may just scrape into the 90's. The only goal I really had for the year, all thanks to the epic food studies score that people told me I shouldn't take as it won't help my atar (jokes on them lol). After putting in the password to vtac, I clicked it, and to my shock got a 93.2. I was over the moon! My mum was crying, I was just there with my mouth open, and dad was just super happy. So in the end, I had a pretty happy atar story. I got the score that I wanted, I beat out my original expectations from my year 7 self, and my own predictions from the day before. Even though I got a low 90's score which isn't as high as many of the people on these fourms or friends of mine in real life, I was just super happy. I had failed a vce unit (unit 2 of bio, but i was super sick :/), missed alot of school due to health over the years, and somehow I pulled a 93? I came from a school where only 70% of people did an ATAR, and the average was around 62, so I ended up scoring the highest in my cohort which was the icing on the cake. My family celebrated for the rest of the day and new years eve!

I got into melbourne at first with a scholarship, then monash, but decided to go to monash because that's where I planned to go originally and the commute is better...... I took a gap year to decide on that decision. Whilst the atar hasn't been important at all in everyday life outside of getting into uni, it has gained me some respect from a few old fashioned relatives....

The only thing I was disappointed about was my english score, way back in year 10, my english sucked and I aimed for a 25, then I started reading and that really improved my eassay writing and reading comprehension. So I aimed for a 38 going into year 12. I got marked down quite harshly by my school's english teachers which I nor the tutor I had help from agreed with (they marked me down for picking a prompt that wasn't their top 3, as I chose option 4 to pick my own chapter for the the creative essay). I ended up with a B+, B+ A. That meant my SAC scores went down..... I got a 44/60 on the exam, my best performance to date.... I ended up with a 36, which I am still happy with, just slightly disappointed due to all the effort I put in. Overall I'm very happy with everything, plus a year on I don't really care anymore!

Anyway, good luck to the class of 2021! Your atar doesn't matter at the end of the day, it's just on key on a key chain to get into uni. Sorry that this got a bit long...

[caffinatedloz]

Very comforting to read a whole range of stories on here. I'm just anxiously counting down to the 16th. I'm not really sure what to expect. My plan is to work the night of the 15th, come home and sleep and not wake up until right on 7:00. I don't want to subject myself to any more anticipation than necessary.

While my course doesn't need a particularly high ATAR I still really want a good one. I'm hoping for 97+. 99 would be amazing, but I'm not sure that my exams were quite good enough for that.

Once I've seen my ATAR and study scores I'm sure I'll barge in to wake up my parents and tell them. Probably my little sister too. Last year I woke my parents up at 6:53 exactly to tell them my bio study score. It just wouldn't feel right to discontinue the tradition.

[ConFinCMC]

Very comforting to read a whole range of stories on here. I'm just anxiously counting down to the 16th. I'm not really sure what to expect. My plan is to work the night of the 15th, come home and sleep and not wake up until right on 7:00. I don't want to subject myself to any more anticipation than necessary.

While my course doesn't need a particularly high ATAR I still really want a good one. I'm hoping for 97+. 99 would be amazing, but I'm not sure that my exams were quite good enough for that.

Once I've seen my ATAR and study scores I'm sure I'll barge in to wake up my parents and tell them. Probably my little sister too. Last year I woke my parents up at 6:53 exactly to tell them my bio study score. It just wouldn't feel right to discontinue the tradition.

Sounds like you seem confident with your marks. I'm sure you'll do really well, and it's always a good thing if you're likely to get a score well above your requirements. Best of luck for the 16th, and for your parents on that morning, lol

[Billuminati]

Damn, does that really happen? That's a bit of a bummer.

I don't think I ever spoke about my ATAR at uni, although I also didn't speak to that many people at uni, haha.

Yeah it did unfortunately. It's actually a common occurrence in biomed cuz many people are probably still salty about being rejected from undergrad med and are looking for people to pick on. I usually don't say anything in response to them, or if I'm feeling petty on that particular day, highlight the fact that they've peaked in high school.

[tiredandstressed]

Yeah it did unfortunately. It's actually a common occurrence in biomed cuz many people are probably still salty about being rejected from undergrad med and are looking for people to pick on. I usually don't say anything in response to them, or if I'm feeling petty on that particular day, highlight the fact that they've peaked in high school.

Still, that's pretty sad, I didn't have a similar experience at UoM. I didn't really tell anyone my atar because no one asked, nor did I ask anyone else's atar bcoz I couldn't care, since we all knew we were a smart cohort to be able to get in Biomed @ UoM.
Nevertheless, there were some people who 'boasted' their 99.95 atar on orientation but I just didn't vibe with them haha. Sorry this happened to you it shouldn't have, but it seems like you're doing well in undergrad which is great to see