Is it possible to achieve 90 or above atar with scaled down subjects?

[felixious]

By that I mean a student who chose all of his/her subjects that scales down, e.g Food Tech. I'm just curious, that's all.

[Individu]

Try using the ATAR calculator. It's definitely possible to get 90+ ATAR with such subjects if you put in a decent effort.

[Ammin]

It's definitely possible if not a certainty if your willing to work hard enough. (Being on this forum implies that you are).
The higher you score in a subject the less it will be vunerable to scaling down.

Lets use a subject that you're doing as an example.
Food Tech:

At 30 it scales down to 23
At 35 it scales down to 28
At 40 it scales down to 34
At 45 it scales down to 41

On the flipside though, once you hit scores like 46,47,48,49 it scales down to 43.6, 45.2,46.8,48.4 or thereabouts. (That was using 2013 scaled scores which gives you the correct scaled score, Atarcalc doesn't have the 2014 version yet).

And finally once you hit 50, your score doesn't move.

You can definitely achieve the Atar that you want with subjects that don't scale up.

Good Luck OP and I definitely commend you for not buying into "I have to do Spesh, Lote, Chem, Physics etc only because they scale up ridiculously".

[cosine]

You will do well in subjects you enjoy whether they scale up or down. I didn't choose specialist because it scales by 10+, I chose it because I'm interested in the content that it comes along with! I have a friend who does relatively, so bad in spesh because he hates it, and only chose it because of the scale.

Anyways, I haven't done Year 12 yet, but from personal experience, if you enjoy food tech, or what ever subject you are doing, regardless of scaling you are deemed for a good score!

By the way, what kind of sorcery is, "is it possible?" Anything is possible if you put your mind to it!

* i would insert an image here, but i dont know how to -.- *

[keltingmeith]

By that I mean a student who chose all of his/her subjects that scales down, e.g Food Tech. I'm just curious, that's all.

I've seen it happen - in fact, the dux of my school a couple of years ago (99.10 ATAR, I think?) did exclusively subjects that scaled down.

[Joseph41]

By that I mean a student who chose all of his/her subjects that scales down, e.g Food Tech. I'm just curious, that's all.

Hi Felixious,

I remember worrying about this same thing before the start of Year 12, so good question!

Achieving an ATAR of greater than 90 is most certainly possible with subjects that all scale down. My subjects - Health & Human Development, Psychology, Business Management, Further Maths, Visual Communication & Design, and English Language - all scaled down apart from English Language (which scaled up minimally). I ended up with an ATAR of 99.65.

I strongly recommend choosing subjects that you think you will enjoy, rather than concerning yourself with scaling of any description. As mentioned above, it is likely that you will do better in enjoyable subjects, even taking into account scaling.

Good luck!

[doher109]

Always try and remember that the purpose of scaling isn't to advantage those that 'enjoy' science and math it's to create a level playing field.

You may feel discouraged by the fact the raw 40 goes to 35 scales, but remember if you enjoy the subject you will perform much much better than if you hate it.

I know of people that have done Spec because it was scaled and gotten raw numbers in the teens.... remember most people on here got really awesome scores, but there is thousands of other students out there we don't here of.