The same body that crunches the numbers for every Queensland student’s ATAR has given students a leg-up picking their senior subjects with a new program that can estimate final year 12 scores.
Dubbed the ATAR navigator and unveiled on Monday, the tool from the Queensland Tertiary Admissions Centre (QTAC) produced an estimated year 12 rank for students based on their subjects and their expected marks.
QTAC chief executive Chris Veraa said the tool was designed to stop students “flying blind” when preferencing their university course applications.
“A lot of people apply to QTAC each year, and obviously, you apply before you get your ATAR or equivalent tertiary rank,” Veraa said.
Students using the navigator could select from every subject offered in Queensland for year 11 and 12 students and enter a numerical grade, score from A to E, or an estimated grade range.
“It’s based on historical data from the last six years in Queensland so it’s quite accurate, [and] it is based on our methodology of ATAR,” Veraa said.
“It’s probably the most accurate ATAR prediction that you’ll get.”
Kenmore State High School year 12 students Libby Ogle and Caitlin Powell said they were planning to study creative industries, so were not gunning for highly competitive rankings, but the program acted as a reference point.
“Especially once we get our third internal marks back, definitely I think we’ll all be using it to make sure that we know what we need to get for our externals,” Ogle said.
Fellow Kenmore senior Youna Darzaman – who expected to sit his UCAT exam in the mid-year – equally hoped the tool could help guide him through year 12.
“It’s good to have a goal to know what you should be aiming for,” he said.
“Just having an idea of what ATAR you could get once you finish feels a little less uncertain than any situation where you might see the result and go, ‘Oh my God’.”
Veraa said the tool also worked as guide for students in year 10 still determining which senior subjects to select.
“We see this as a really valuable tool not only for year 12 students, or year 10 and 11 students, but also for school-based career guidance officers.”
Used in this way, the program can accept up to 10 subject inputs, and in all instances produces a final estimated range.
Hoping to study fashion, Ogle was confident she would meet academic requirements, but said she had been mindful to choose subjects with “high scaling potential”.
“I wanted to keep my options open, so I wanted to get the highest ATAR that I could,” she said.
QTAC maintained the tool was strictly a planning aid.
“Actual ATAR results will vary from year to year based on statewide student performance and individual subject outcomes,” the admissions centre said.
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