World News – AU – Tertiary Entrance Guide 2020: Stay Fair

When calculating the ATAR, VTAC scales the study results. This ensures a fair comparison of student performance throughout their studies, regardless of what they have studied.

The scaling adapts to the fact that in some studies it is more difficult to get a high VCE study score than in others. This is not because some studies are inherently more difficult or easier, but because some studies attract a more competitive cohort of students.

Scaling ensures that students are neither favored nor disadvantaged based on the studies they choose. All VCE study results are scaled by VTAC.

Study results reflect a student’s relative performance in this single study, but cannot be compared to students who have completed other studies. In order to select applicants fairly, the institutions need an overall measure of the performance of the students who complete the VCE in all courses and in all combinations. The study results are scaled to take into account the different levels of competition in different studies.

VCE studies are always scaled in the year you conducted them. It does not have to be the year you received your ATAR.

The following studies attract additional scaling rules. If you don’t like these studies and are not good at them, choosing these studies just because they are treated differently in the scaling doesn’t automatically guarantee you a higher ATAR.

Mathematics: The VCE mathematics course is aimed at students with different skills and interests. In contrast to other studies, there is a different hierarchy of studies:

In order to ensure that students who complete the more difficult mathematics degree are not disadvantaged by the degree of difficulty, all three mathematics studies are scaled against each other and against all other studies. The higher of the two resulting scales is used for each of the math studies.

Languages: Due to government policy to promote language learning, each language is adjusted by adding five to the initial VTAC scaled average of study results. This does not mean that five points are added to the ATAR. This means that for study results at or near the mean of 30, the adjustment is 5. This adjustment is different for each study rating and decreases as the study rating moves away from 30.

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