When it comes to the ATAR, there's a lot that's left unexplained. Schools, teachers and parents tend to place an absurd amount of importance on it, as if it's going to define the rest of your life, but then nobody seems to understand how the ranking and scaling actually works.
You're told that if you're serious about a high ATAR you should pick subjects like Physics and Chemistry, because they'll scale your marks up. Subjects like Art and Music will apparently drag you down. Beyond that, it's a lot of complicated language and freakishly complex numbers.
So here's the breakdown. Fair warning: the detail changes depending on which state you're in, and we'll get to that.
First, what the ATAR actually is
Your ATAR is not a mark. It's a rank.
You might already know this, but just in case you need a reminder: your ATAR is simply a rank of how you performed in comparison to every other student in your state.
It runs from 99.95 down to 0.00 in steps of 0.05, although anything below 30.00 is just reported as "30.00 or less".
It's also portable across states; an ATAR of 85.00 in NSW is the equivalent to an ATAR of 85.00 in any other state.
Now that we're clear on that, let's look at how you get there. It starts with your raw examination mark.
Raw examination mark
Your raw examination mark is exactly what it sounds like: the actual mark you got in your final exams. For some subjects, the exam might be out of 80, while for others, it might be out of 140.
Obviously it’s confusing to compare these marks, which is where your aligned mark comes in.
Aligned mark
Your aligned mark (not to be confused with your scaled mark) is out of 100, so it's a percentage. This is calculated from your raw examination mark and your school assessment mark. The two marks are aligned and the result is the examination mark and assessment mark that are printed on your record of achievement.
Aligned marks are a measure of how well you did with meeting the criteria of the syllabus, rather than how well you did in comparison to your peers. This is totally different to your ATAR, which is a rank. So, depending on your subjects and your consistency across the board, a high aligned mark won't necessarily mean you'll get a high ATAR. This is because of ranking and scaling.
ATAR scaling
Scaling is completely separate from aligning. Basically, scaling attempts to account for the differences between subjects. For example, if score of 63 in Visual Arts does not mean the same as a 63 score in Chemistry.
Why are some subjects scaled higher than others?
This is the burning question and it's a controversial one. According to the UAC Scaling Report 2025:
"The model underpinning the scaling algorithm specifies that the scaled mean in a course is equal to the average academic achievement of the course candidature where, for individual students, the measure of academic achievement is taken as the average scaled mark in all courses completed."
In other words: scaling is decided by the academic achievement of the entire cohort of students who undertook study in that course.
So, if the students who did chemistry all scored really high marks in all their other subjects, then a high mark in chemistry is deemed to be worth more than another subject where students predominantly scored lower across the board.
This example from Dux College explains it pretty well:
"Suppose there were 9,000 Physics students and 9,000 Chemistry students, all of whom did English Advanced. All else equal, if the Physics students scored lower than the Chemistry students in English Advanced, then Physics will be scaled lower than Chemistry. The justification is that because Physics students didn't do as well in their other subjects as the Chemistry students, a 90 in Physics is of lower achievement than a 90 in Chemistry."
So scaling isn't necessarily about how difficult a certain subject is, but how the students who do that subject perform in all their other subjects.
Which subjects scale best?
In 2025, Mathematics and language extensions scaled the highest.
- Maths Extension 2 — 43.4
- Latin Extension — 42.3
- Latin Continuers — 40.5
- Maths Extension 1 — 39.7
- Italian Extension — 39.5
- French Extension — 38.9
- German Extension — 38.4
- Japanese Extension — 38.0
- Chinese Extension — 37.3
- English Extension 1 — 36.1
- Music Extension — 35.9
- French Continuers — 34.4
- Music 2 — 34.1
The four lowest scaling subjects were Mathematics Standard 1 (13.9), Automotive (14.1), Retail Services (16.1), Primary Industries (16.1) and Construction (16.5).
So how is the ATAR calculated?
You probably know that your best ten units count towards your ATAR, including a mandatory two units of English. For each unit, you receive a score out of 50; so for a two-unit subject, this is a score out of 100 (your scaled mark).
When you add these marks up, you get a maximum score of 500. After marking, the NSW Standards Education Authority (NESA) provides the marks to the Technical Committee on Scaling, which calculates the ATAR on behalf of the NSW Vice-Chancellors' Committee. Your ATAR is then provided to you by the Universities Admissions Centre (UAC).
In 2025, 60,432 NSW students received an ATAR, out of an HSC cohort of 77,693 (about 78%).
Of those who got one:
- 1.7% scored above 99.00
- 8.7% scored above 95.00
- 17.3% scored above 90.00
- 34.6% scored above 80.00
- 19.5% scored below 50.00
Fifty-three students got an ATAR of 99.95.
How do other states calculate the ATAR?
It's all the same idea, but slightly different machinary.
- ACT: Students sit an exam called the ACT Scaling Test, which is used to measure scale between schools and courses.
- WA: Straight bonuses are added, rather than relying on scaling alone.
- WA, SA, NT and Tasmania: English isn't a compulsory subject.
The important thing to remember is that your life isn't over if you don't receive the ATAR you wanted. There are so many pathways into higher education and employment, and in a few years, you won't even remember what ATAR you received — promise.
This article was originally published in 2022 but has been updated for 2026.