The Australian Tertiary Admission Rank is as applauded as anthrax – which is not always fair

The NSW Universities Admissions Centre has crunched student data for 2013-17 to find that students do not game the rank to increase overall scores for uni entry. Rather, “most students tended to self-select subjects that align with their interests and academic ability, and which provide them with appropriate preparation for university, so a student who is strong in humanities subjects would be unlikely to choose science subjects for their HSC, and vice versa.”

And results are consistent across subjects, a student with good results in chemistry is likely to have a similar score in Italian.

“Students with a ‘jagged’ profile – those who excel in certain areas while performing badly in others – a group of students some believe are not best served by the ATAR, are rare,” UAC announces.