Curious about study scores and ATAR

[Duck]

How can a SS of 40 in all 5 subjects, i.e. top 8%, get an ATAR of 96, i.e. top 4%?

[superflya]

those raw scores of 40 are moderated.

[_avO]

Most likely influenced by the large scaling involved.

For example someone who does Accounting, Lit, Further, IT and Biology have very little scaling (+-2) so 40's in all those 5 will be in top 8% (92.XX ATAR)

[m@tty]

Plus, people generally get a range of scores, so someone who gets all 40s will be above someone who gets all 30s and a 40, or half 35 and half 40, etc.

It's the same with individual SS, if you are consistent and get all low A+s(~ top 10%) you generally achieve about 40(top 8%).

It is the consistency that puts you higher overall.

Scaling also comes into it, but that's a whole other conundrum.

[chem-nerd]

Also, ATAR is a ranking based on all students your age who could have completed Year 12. ie it includes VCAL students and those that left school early etc when calculating ranks.

Hence why the average ATAR is not ~50.

[Duck]

Yeah that makes sense chem-nerd, it's been bugging me for a while. Do you happen to know what the average ATAR is then? Btw, i was talking about 40 scaled scores because i'd been playing around with the entercalc.

[ben92]

To get a score of 96 you need a *scaled* average of 42. If you do six subjects, that average need only be 41.5.

Is this for law at ANU by any chance?

[Duck]

Sort of but I've stopped considering ANU as circumstances at home have changed. More just curiosity.

[ben92]

Ah OK.

Anyway some other info off the top of my head

95 = scaled average of 40
99 = scaled average of 45

These numbers might be off by as much as 0.5.

[jimmy999]

If you include all 6 of my subjects, then my average scaled study score was 44.3 producing a 99.15. If you include only the top 4 (which is the major influence), then my average scaled score was 46ish.

The major thing that gives you that top score is the consistency. Obviously my English wasn't consistent and I only got a 99+ score because I maxed out my other scores.

However I have friends who got a 48 in English Language and someone else who got a 50 in English but only ended up with a 98 ENTER.

[ben92]

Ah man I'm going to be like that. I'm expecting high 40s for English, IT and French but my revs I'll be lucky to get high 30s in. Hoping to scrape 99.