Enter your VCE subjects and raw study scores, see an estimated scaled score for each, the aggregate, and an approximate ATAR, with a plain-English explanation of every step.
Enter up to six VCE subjects with raw study scores. One English-group subject is required for an ATAR. The estimate applies an approximate scaling adjustment, forms the aggregate (English + best three + 10% of the fifth and sixth), then maps the aggregate to an ATAR. Every number is an estimate; see the disclaimer below.
Disclaimer. This calculator is an educational estimate built by RHZ Tutoring. The scaling adjustments are approximations of typical recent VTAC scaling patterns and the aggregate-to-ATAR table is an approximate, smoothed model. They are not the official VTAC scaling report, they change every year, and they cannot predict how your cohort will perform. Your ATAR is calculated only by VTAC from the study scores VCAA issues. Use this page to understand the mechanics and to set goals, not to make decisions about preferences.
Every VCE Unit 3 & 4 sequence gives you a study score out of 50. It is a relative ranking within the subject: the mean is set at 30, roughly two-thirds of students score between 23 and 37, and a score of 40 or more puts you in about the top nine per cent of the cohort for that subject. Study scores combine your School-assessed Coursework (SACs, moderated against the exam performance of your school's cohort) and your external exam results, in proportions that VCAA fixes for each study. The raw study score is the one your school and VCAA report to you in December.
VTAC then scales each study score so that it reflects the strength of the students who took that subject. If the students in a subject scored highly across all their other studies, the subject scales up; if they scored lower elsewhere, it scales down. Scaling is recalculated every year from that year's data, which is why the adjustments on this page are approximations and not a promise. In recent years the pattern has been stable: Specialist Mathematics scales up strongly (roughly ten points at 30), Mathematical Methods and the physical sciences scale up moderately, languages scale up by a fixed amount, English sits close to raw, and subjects such as Health and Human Development, Physical Education, Business Management and General Mathematics scale down by a few points. Our table applies an adjustment at a raw 30 and a slightly larger one at 40, tapering towards zero for very low scores; the real curve is not linear and differs at the extremes.
The aggregate adds your scaled score in English (the best of English, EAL, English Language or Literature), your next three highest scaled scores, and ten per cent of your fifth and sixth scaled scores if you have them. A maximum aggregate is therefore a little over 210. Because the fifth and sixth subjects count only ten per cent, a strong sixth subject adds a few points; the four primary scores do almost all the work, which is why raising a Methods score from 33 to 38 matters far more than picking up an extra subject.
Finally the aggregate is ranked against the whole Victorian age cohort (including students who did not complete Year 12) to give a percentile rank from 0 to 99.95 in steps of 0.05. Because it is a rank, the same aggregate can map to a slightly different ATAR from year to year. Our conversion table is a monotonic, smoothed approximation of recent years: an aggregate near 160 lands around 90.00, near 180 around 96.50, near 200 around 99.50. Between the table rows the tool interpolates linearly.
The useful question is not "what is my ATAR" (nobody can tell you that until December) but "which subject moves the needle most". Try the tool twice: once with your current SAC-based estimates, then again with one subject raised by five raw points. In most combinations the biggest lift comes from the scaled maths or science subject, because the scaling multiplies the gain, and from English, because it is guaranteed to count fully. A subject that scales down still counts if it is one of your best four, so do not drop a subject you are strong in because of scaling; drop the idea of coasting in it instead.
If your Methods or Specialist estimate is below where you need it, the free VCE Skills Check shows topic by topic what is missing, the free practice quizzes cover both subjects by topic, and small-group VCE tutoring at RHZ is from $25 an hour. Year 11 students can start Unit 3 & 4 early through the VCE 2027 Head Start.
A student with raw scores of English 32, Methods 34, Chemistry 31, Psychology 36, Business Management 30 and Biology 28 would, on this model, have scaled scores of about 32, 40, 35, 35, 27 and 30. The aggregate is 32 (English) + 40 + 35 + 35 (best three) + 3.0 + 2.7 (ten per cent of the remaining two), about 148, which the table maps to an estimated ATAR in the mid-eighties. Raising Methods by four raw points would lift the aggregate by about five and the estimate by roughly two and a half ATAR points; the same four points in Business Management would add about four to the aggregate only if it displaced a lower primary score, which here it would not.
No. Only VTAC calculates ATARs, from the study scores VCAA issues in December. This is an educational estimate using approximate scaling and an approximate aggregate-to-ATAR table.
On this approximate model an aggregate near 160 maps to about 90.00. That is roughly four scaled scores averaging 38 to 40 with little from a fifth and sixth subject, or four scores in the mid-thirties plus two strong extra subjects. Scaling changes the picture, which is why maths and science students often reach 90 with lower raw scores.
No. Choose subjects you will score well in. A raw 42 in Health and Human Development scaled to 38 beats a raw 30 in Specialist scaled to 40 in almost no combination, because you also need to reach the 42 in the first place.
Only ten per cent of each scaled score is added, so they add a few aggregate points at most. They matter more as insurance: if one primary subject goes badly, the next best moves up.
It will not, but the real ATAR would, because scaling and the aggregate-to-ATAR mapping are recalculated from each year's cohort. That is why this page is a model, not a forecast.
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