Is it still possible to score high 99's without scaling subjects.

[DJA]

If someone (ie. me) is doing subjects which have minimal scaling like Literature, English, Music Performance, Bio, Chem is it possible to score in the high 99's?

Just a lot of rumors going around and lots of people saying things like without scaling subjects like LOTEs and subjects like Specialist Maths it is much harder/nearly impossible to score in the high 99's unless you get like perfect scores in like the majority of subjects. (which I won't do haha)

Could someone shed a light on this? Do you guys know of people who have scored very highly who didn't do scaling subjects. I chose my subjects because I really do enjoy all of them and I prefer to do subjects which I enjoy rather than subjects simply because they scale.

[ChickenCh0wM1en]

Definitely
I came from a rather average school and the highest scorer of my school ever was 99.90 and this student did Eng, Bio, Methods, History, Art, HHD !

I must admit, scaling definitely helps though man.
If you enjoy them, you'll put more work into it and the scores will come naturally.
Good luck

[chasej]

If someone (ie. me) is doing subjects which have minimal scaling like Literature, English, Music Performance, Bio, Chem is it possible to score in the high 99's?

Just a lot of rumors going around and lots of people saying things like without scaling subjects like LOTEs and subjects like Specialist Maths it is much harder/nearly impossible to score in the high 99's unless you get like perfect scores in like the majority of subjects. (which I won't do haha)

Could someone shed a light on this? Do you guys know of people who have scored very highly who didn't do scaling subjects. I chose my subjects because I really do enjoy all of them and I prefer to do subjects which I enjoy rather than subjects simply because they scale.

Well looking at the aggregate tables if you want really high 99's i.e. 99.95,99.9 you NEED a 50 in the majority of your subjects if they don't scale >50.

However towards the mid-99's it becomes more accessible and just getting high 40's in your top 4, plus some good increments as a 5th/6th subject can do it.

Keep in mind, subjects scale up because it is harder to get those scores. Therefore if a 46 in subject x scales down to 45, but a 35 in subject y scales up to 45, it is theoretically the same difficulty to get a 46 in subject x as it is to get a 35 in subject y. Thereby no one student as an advantage over another.

[shadows]

Well looking at the aggregate tables if you want really high 99's i.e. 99.95,99.9 you NEED a 50 in the majority of your subjects if they don't scale >50.

However towards the mid-99's it becomes more accessible and just getting high 40's in your top 4, plus some good increments as a 5th/6th subject can do it.

Keep in mind, subjects scale up because it is harder to get those scores. Therefore if a 46 in subject x scales down to 45, but a 35 in subject y scales up to 45, it is theoretically the same difficulty to get a 46 in subject x as it is to get a 35 in subject y. Thereby no one student as an advantage over another.

Hmm difficulty is quite subjective... Like I'd think revolutions would be a lot harder than methods but methods scales higher.
Scaling has nothing to do with difficulty but cohort strength, so it will be difficult to score higher (as SS is based on percentile) but not soo much difficult the subject itself.

To the OP: It really depends on how high of a 99 you are aiming for. With your subjects 99.50-99.80 is very possible! However 99.90+ would be quite hard. Theoretically a 99.95 is possible but it really depends on the aggregate cutoffs next year.

However in saying that if you ended up picking up lotes and spesh just for scaling reasons scoring well will be very very hard.... so you might as well pick subjects you enjoy than do mediocre in high scaling subjects praying that scaling will get you over the line.... (haha unless you really good at math + languages

DW man.... your subjects aren't that bad. I know one person who did all subjects that scaled down and still got a 99.00+
A lot of your subjects scale up and you have uni extension as well ( so if you do good in that thats a 5.0 increment bonus, which is really handy if you want to score really high)

[chasej]

Hmm difficulty is quite subjective... Like I'd think revolutions would be a lot harder than methods but methods scales higher.
Scaling has nothing to do with difficulty but cohort strength, so it will be difficult to score higher (as SS is based on percentile) but not soo much difficult the subject itself.

I didn't mean difficulty of the subject. I meant difficulty to be towards the front of the bell curve as different subjects have cohorts of different abilities.

[shadows]

I didn't mean difficulty of the subject. I meant difficulty to be towards the front of the bell curve as different subjects have cohorts of different abilities.

ohh sorry disregard what i said then xD... kinda just skimmed what you said. hehe

[HossRyams]

Of course it's possible but it's definitely harder - I say this from experience. I was aiming for a 99 and just fell short (98.65) and all my raw scores were above 40, including higher 40s (overall after scaling my scores should be something like 48 46 45 44 42 + uni increment). While I'm not saying "I deserved more" or others deserved less or whatever, I did see scaling benefiting A LOT of the high achievers at my school. All the 99s at my school (a select entry school) included people who either completed specialist maths or a language (except for one girl who's crazy and dominated all her science subjects). A lot of these people did get <40 in some subject(s). The higher 99s however, definitely had either spesh or a language.

I'm not saying you NEED a super scaling subject to get high 99s, it's just that 99 without scaling subjects really is, to an extent, harder - I know scaling is supposed to make things even but it's not COMPLETELY even unfortunately. But it's not something we should complain about either, cos what can they do haha. I still stick by the "pick subjects you like" because while I did not get 99, I REALLY REALLY enjoyed Year 12, it wasn't as stressful as Year 11 (where I took methods and hated it lol) and I still get into my course so there's not much to complain about really! I think for me, it was the simple act of aiming for 99 that did me justice, even if I didn't quite get it. It was enough to get me through, but just low enough to supply me with some crazy drive to own everyone in university to compensate... LOL

So GO FOR 99! But if you don't get it for some reason, don't think it's because you're incapable!! Yeah that's my point, I was wondering where I was going with this. I know people want to hear stories from people who got high 99s without scaling subjects but you should look at both sides I guess?

[shadows]

Of course it's possible but it's definitely harder - I say this from experience. I was aiming for a 99 and just fell short (98.65) and all my raw scores were above 40, including higher 40s (overall after scaling my scores should be something like 48 46 45 44 42 + uni increment). While I'm not saying "I deserved more" or others deserved less or whatever, I did see scaling benefiting A LOT of the high achievers at my school. All the 99s at my school (a select entry school) included people who either completed specialist maths or a language (except for one girl who's crazy and dominated all her science subjects). A lot of these people did get <40 in some subject(s). The higher 99s however, definitely had either spesh or a language.

I'm not saying you NEED a super scaling subject to get high 99s, it's just that 99 without scaling subjects really is, to an extent, harder - I know scaling is supposed to make things even but it's not COMPLETELY even unfortunately. But it's not something we should complain about either, cos what can they do haha. I still stick by the "pick subjects you like" because while I did not get 99, I REALLY REALLY enjoyed Year 12, it wasn't as stressful as Year 11 (where I took methods and hated it lol) and I still get into my course so there's not much to complain about really! I think for me, it was the simple act of aiming for 99 that did me justice, even if I didn't quite get it. It was enough to get me through, but just low enough to supply me with some crazy drive to own everyone in university to compensate... LOL

So GO FOR 99! But if you don't get it for some reason, don't think it's because you're incapable!! Yeah that's my point, I was wondering where I was going with this. I know people want to hear stories from people who got high 99s without scaling subjects but you should look at both sides I guess?

yeah i agree! ^^^

Don't be too upset if you don't get "high 99".... The purpose of VCE is just to get into the course of your choice.

[spectroscopy]

i have played around on atarcalc so much over the past years and here is something i have noticed - at the very high achiever levels, 99+ or so, your subjects stop mattering, because you need to get 48's anyway and at that point things dont scale down much (or up that much)

if youre aiming for 99+ you are probably a reasonably elite student, so do subjects you like or are good at and ignore scaling to maximise that chance of 99+

the only time id take scaling into account was if i was aiming for like 80s to low 90's and you were an average student because at that level the scaling can really help - so a student might do methods instead of further and go to all the tutoring because a 28 in methods ends up as higher than a 35 in further(in 2012)

[DJA]

This is fascinating. Thanks for all your thoughts guys. Been very helpful!

Yes so I really don't care about ATAR as long as I get into the course that I want. The issue is the course that I want requires a pretty high ATAR! So that's why I'm aiming high-because I know that for what I want to do that is what is required.

Definitely
I came from a rather average school and the highest scorer of my school ever was 99.90 and this student did Eng, Bio, Methods, History, Art, HHD !

Very comforting!

The thing is its not so much that I was bad at maths or lotes that I chose not to do specialist or LOTEs. I did French up till year 10 with high marks and dropped it because I was not enjoying it at all. Similarly for Specialist maths this year (I did General Maths Advanced 1/2 this year).

I've stuck with the subjects which I love and I sincerely hope that the marks will show it.

To the OP: It really depends on how high of a 99 you are aiming for. With your subjects 99.50-99.80 is very possible! However 99.90+ would be quite hard. Theoretically a 99.95 is possible but it really depends on the aggregate cutoffs next year.

However in saying that if you ended up picking up lotes and spesh just for scaling reasons scoring well will be very very hard.... so you might as well pick subjects you enjoy than do mediocre in high scaling subjects praying that scaling will get you over the line.... (haha unless you really good at math + languages

DW man.... your subjects aren't that bad. I know one person who did all subjects that scaled down and still got a 99.00+
A lot of your subjects scale up and you have uni extension as well ( so if you do good in that thats a 5.0 increment bonus, which is really handy if you want to score really high)

Thanks for the encouragement. I've gone with my gut feeling and am doing subjects I love. Hopefully the correlation between enjoying a subject and the marks will be in favour for me.

[lzxnl]

It isn't impossible. Firstly what course do you want to get into that needs such a high ATAR?

Secondly, with your subjects, unless current trends change, a 99.95 is actually impossible. 99.90 is possible but this year an aggregate of around 208 was needed. A 99.50 is certainly doable though; 201 aggregate this year.

To the above person who said that a scaled score of 45 for different subjects is meant to be of similar difficulty to get, I disagree. If we assume that everyone who got 50s in Methods this year is either part of or will be part of the elite spesh cohort...40 ish people getting 50 for Methids roughly. Top 40 for spesh is like 46+ or something which went to a 54 for this year. Methods 50 went to 52 this year and normally doesn't go over 50. Scaled scores don't, in reality,  always reflect how hard it is to get those scores equally for all subjects.

[DJA]

It isn't impossible. Firstly what course do you want to get into that needs such a high ATAR?

Secondly, with your subjects, unless current trends change, a 99.95 is actually impossible. 99.90 is possible but this year an aggregate of around 208 was needed. A 99.50 is certainly doable though; 201 aggregate this year.

To the above person who said that a scaled score of 45 for different subjects is meant to be of similar difficulty to get, I disagree. If we assume that everyone who got 50s in Methods this year is either part of or will be part of the elite spesh cohort...40 ish people getting 50 for Methids roughly. Top 40 for spesh is like 46+ or something which went to a 54 for this year. Methods 50 went to 52 this year and normally doesn't go over 50. Scaled scores don't, in reality,  always reflect how hard it is to get those scores equally for all subjects.

I'm thinking of med here.

Also just did a bit of playing around on atarcalc and from what i can see, it is possible to score 99.95 (according to what you said with around 208 being the cut-off) with my subjects but only if the scores were 50 or close to 50 for pretty much all lol. The max aggregrate possible is 210 with that subject list.

Not saying I need such a high score. Just want a score which is comfortable 'in' for the uni course.

[lzxnl]

I'm thinking of med here.

Also just did a bit of playing around on atarcalc and from what i can see, it is possible to score 99.95 (according to what you said with around 208 being the cut-off) with my subjects but only if the scores were 50 or close to 50 for pretty much all lol. The max aggregrate possible is 210 with that subject list.

Not saying I need such a high score. Just want a score which is comfortable 'in' for the uni course.

It's possible to score 99.95 with those subjects in some years, but not others. In 2011, you need an aggregate of around 210.8 for 99.95; last year, you needed 209.9 (LOL), while this year you needed 211.3 (:O right?)
208 was for 99.90.

For med, you don't even need high 99s. You just need to boss the UMAT and then get above 99, I would have thought. So...99.50 + 100% UMAT => get into medicine easily (provided you don't fail interview )

[vox nihili]

For med, you don't even need high 99s. You just need to boss the UMAT and then get above 99, I would have thought. So...99.50 + 100% UMAT => get into medicine easily (provided you don't fail interview )

Med's not quite that competitive. One of my friends got in, and she got a 95.something

[DJA]

It's possible to score 99.95 with those subjects in some years, but not others. In 2011, you need an aggregate of around 210.8 for 99.95; last year, you needed 209.9 (LOL), while this year you needed 211.3 (:O right?)
208 was for 99.90.

For med, you don't even need high 99s. You just need to boss the UMAT and then get above 99, I would have thought. So...99.50 + 100% UMAT => get into medicine easily (provided you don't fail interview )

Got it cheers!

yeah....UMAT....sigh....