What is the ATAR?

As we can see from the name, the ATAR is a ranking that is used for university (and other tertiary institutions) admission.

The key word that many people seem to overlook is "rank".

That's right, the ATAR is a ranking. Your ATAR does not directly indicate the amount of questions you got right or the amount of marks you got in the exams. It is a direct indicator as to how many students (what percentage of students) you did better than in the state.

Here's how it works.

Your highest English study score and your highest 3 non-English study scores are added together. Then 10% of your 5th and 6th highest study scores (if applicable) are also added to this.

This total score is what we call your aggregate score. Your aggregate is what is used to determine your ranking for your ATAR.

Everyone has an aggregate score and now the top 0.05% of students get "assigned" a 99.95 ATAR, the next 0.05% of students get 99.90, the next 0.05% students get 99.85 and so on.

If you want to improve your ATAR, the best way to do so is to improve your study scores. This is where Benchmark Tutoring comes in. We offer tutoring for a range of VCE subjects, and our tutors are all high-achievers that know exactly what it takes to get a high study score.

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