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Subject scaling

How every subject scales

A page for each of the 63 subjects we cover, explaining how that subject is scaled in its state and what the official report actually says. Where a tertiary admissions centre publishes a per-subject figure, you get the figure. Where it does not, you get the direction in words and a link to the report — not a number we made up.

VCE scaling (Victoria)

22 subjects · subject hubs → · VTAC ATAR calculator →

VCAA gives you a raw study score out of 50. VTAC scales it against how that study's cohort performed across everything else they studied, and the scaled score feeds your aggregate. The figures below are the report's own raw-30 conversions.

Source: VTAC scaling report (PDF). Scaling is recalculated every year, so these figures describe one past cohort and are not a guarantee of what your result will do.

HSC scaling (New South Wales)

20 subjects · subject hubs → · UAC ATAR calculator →

NESA reports an HSC mark, but UAC scales each course separately before any ATAR exists. UAC publishes its scaled means per course in its annual report; we describe the direction each course scales and link you to that report rather than quoting a figure we cannot verify.

Source: UAC scaling report (PDF). Scaling is recalculated every year, so these figures describe one past cohort and are not a guarantee of what your result will do.

QCE scaling (Queensland)

21 subjects · subject hubs → · QTAC ATAR calculator →

QCAA reports a subject result out of 100. QTAC then applies equipercentile inter-subject scaling before building your aggregate. The figures below are the median raw result and the median scaled result for that subject, not a fixed conversion.

Source: QTAC scaling report (PDF). Scaling is recalculated every year, so these figures describe one past cohort and are not a guarantee of what your result will do.

Common questions

Which subjects scale up the most?

Scaling is set per state and recalculated every year, so there is no single national answer. In Victoria the strongest-scaling mainstream studies are the higher mathematics and science studies; in Queensland the pattern is similar; in New South Wales the Extension courses sit highest. Open the page for the subject you are actually considering — each one states what the official report says and links to it.

Does scaling mean a subject is harder?

No. Scaling measures how a subject's cohort performed across all their other subjects, not how difficult the subject is. A subject scales up when the students taking it also do well elsewhere. That is why scaling changes from year to year and why it cannot be read as a difficulty rating.

Should I pick subjects because they scale well?

Picking a subject you will do badly in because it scales up is usually a worse trade than doing well in a subject that scales down, since scaling adjusts the whole cohort rather than rescuing an individual result. Prerequisites for the course you want come first, then interest and workload, then scaling as a tie-breaker.

Work out what it does to your rank

Scaling only matters through the aggregate it feeds. Put your expected results into the free ATAR calculator, then open the subject hub for whatever the calculator says is holding you back.

Open the ATAR calculatorBrowse every subject