Publications

QTAC ATAR Report 2020 Released

Wednesday 3 March 2021

This report provides an overview of the calculation of the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) for the 2020 Queensland Year 12 student cohort.

The report includes a summary of subject enrolments, the outcomes of the inter-subject scaling process and the allocation of students to ATAR bands.

When reading this report and interpreting the data, it is imperative to observe the following:

• Inter-subject scaling is the process undertaken to map each QCAA subject and completed VET qualification to a common scale. This allows raw results in different subjects to be compared fairly.
• Subject Scaling is a comparative measure based on actual subject achievement data and is expected to be different from one year to the next based on the capability of the student cohort for each year. QCAA subject results are the true achievement levels.
• The performance of students in each subject, each year determine the scaling of a subject. Students should not select subjects based on predicted scaling outcomes but should choose subjects they enjoy, are good at and which meet any prerequisites for courses they want to apply for.
• QTAC does not endorse any ATAR calculators to help identify whether a student is on track to receive a particular ATAR. Calculating the ATAR is a data-driven process and schools need to be wary of calculators, as those calculators will not have access to the actual data which is used to calculate final ATARs. Although trends will form, schools, students and parents are advised not to use historical scaling data to predict future outcomes.

For an end to end breakdown of the ATAR calculation process, we invite you to read the “Calculating the ATAR in Queensland” guide which has been peer reviewed by statistician members of the ATAR Technical Committee, a sub group of ACTAC (Australasian Conference of Tertiary Admission Centres.)

If you have any questions about this report, please email atar@qtac.edu.au