What is the ATAR?

ATAR stands for Australian Tertiary Admission Rank.

ATARs provide a measure of overall academic achievement in the NSW HSC (or equivalent) that assists universities in ranking applicants for university selection. It is calculated by the universities and released by the UAC. It is given to NSW HSC students who indicate they wish to be notified of their ATAR.

• ATARs are an assessment of rank, not performance.
• An ATAR of 50 means a student performed better than half the other students. It does not mean an average assessment mark of 50%.

For more information, visit the UAC website.

How is the ATAR calculated?

The highest ATAR rank is 99.95. Achieving an ATAR of 99.95 means you are in the top ranked group of students.
Firstly, subject marks are scaled to account for different degrees of difficulty. The best 10 units, including 2 units of English, are then selected from the scaled marks. These subjects are added to give an aggregate out of 500 and each person’s position is determined. The position is then determined as a percentage.

For more information, visit the UAC website.