QTAC’s 2024 ATAR Report is out and gives us a lot of info about what happened with the Queensland ATAR last year! Let’s look at how different subjects scaled in 2024.
Before we get started, it’s really important to remember:
- The same subjects don’t necessarily scale well every year.
- That’s because scaling depends on how each cohort of Year 12 students performs across all of their subjects.
- Don’t really understand how the Queensland ATAR is calculated? Check out my video about how the Queensland ATAR is calculated and QTAC’s All about the ATAR, Inter-subject Scaling and Calculating the ATAR reports.
Scaling data in the ATAR scaling report
In the QTAC’s 2024 ATAR Report, scaling data is reported in a big table.
As you can see, QTAC report the raw results that students achieved at certain points in each cohort (25th percentile, 50th percentile, 75th percentile, 90th percentile and 99th percentile). They also report the way these raw results scaled before they were input into the student’s ATAR calculation.
This data shows us what was happening in different subjects in 2024 – did certain subjects generally scaled up or generally scaled down or did it vary depending on where a student sat in the cohort?
(Not sure what a percentile is? Here’s a simple explanation.)
Which subjects scaled well overall in 2024?
In 2024, there were NO subjects that scaled up at every single reported percentile.
Very interesting.
Which subjects generally scaled up?
There were a lot of subjects that scaled up at most percentiles in 2024.
| Subject | Result | 25th percentile | 50th percentile | 75th percentile | 90th percentile | 99th percentile |
| Accounting | Raw result Scaled result | 63 65.43 | 74 79.25 | 85 88.51 | 92 92.33 | 98 94.64 |
| Chemistry | Raw result Scaled result | 76 76.74 | 85 90.45 | 92 95.56 | 95 96.83 | 99 97.99 |
| Economics | Raw result Scaled result | 66 71.30 | 78 87.21 | 87 93.56 | 93 96.01 | 98 97.34 |
| Engineering | Raw result Scaled result | 63 70.03 | 74 84.71 | 85 92.93 | 92 95.79 | 98 97.33 |
| French | Raw result Scaled result | 75 88.69 | 84 94.73 | 92 97.41 | 96 98.19 | 99 98.62 |
| Geography | Raw result Scaled result | 59 56.08 | 69 70.98 | 79 82.41 | 88 89.37 | 96 93.39 |
| German | Raw result Scaled result | 77 86.82 | 85 93.46 | 91 96.23 | 95 97.41 | 100 98.39 |
| Italian | Raw result Scaled result | 74 82.40 | 82 89.29 | 90 93.69 | 95 95.51 | 98 96.35 |
| Mathematical Methods | Raw result Scaled result | 67 79.76 | 78 89.65 | 88 94.66 | 95 96.69 | 100 97.66 |
| Philosophy & Reason | Raw result Scaled result | 65 69.69 | 76 84.01 | 87 92.31 | 94 95.31 | 99 96.73 |
| Physics | Raw result Scaled result | 74 73.96 | 84 89.64 | 92 95.47 | 97 97.35 | 100 98.09 |
| Specialist Mathematics | Raw result Scaled result | 73 89.11 | 83 95.35 | 90 97.50 | 95 98.40 | 99 98.89 |
A reminder about how the ATAR is calculated
As a quick reminder, the basic process for ATAR calculations is:
- You complete at least 5 subjects (including a minimum of 4 General subjects)
- QTAC take your raw subject results from QCAA and scale them
- QTAC add all five scaled scores together to get your “aggregate score”
- QTAC put all ATAR eligible Year 12 students’ results in a list from highest aggregate score to lowest aggregate score
- QTAC figure out how many students will be in each ATAR band (from 99.95-00.00). Usually there are about 30 students per band.
- QTAC then assign students to each ATAR band by working their way down the list of students. So the top ~30 students will get a 99.95 ATAR, and the next ~30 students in the list receive an ATAR of 99.90, and so on!
Remember, your raw score REALLY matters
Sometimes students think they should select subjects that have scaled up in the past, even if they don’t enjoy them and/or don’t think they’ll do well at them. This is not usually a good approach. This is because how you perform in each of your subjects is a really important part of the ATAR calculation.
For example, last year an 87 in Business was a stronger ATAR input after scaling than a 79 in Geography. Focus on what you enjoy and can do well at; don’t just think about scaling!
Using this information for the future
Thinking a subject might scale well is not usually a good reason to choose to study it in Year 11 and 12. There are a lot of other things to think about when you select your Year 11 and 12 subjects.
As QTAC say, you should definitely consider taking:
- subjects you enjoy
- subjects you think you’ll do well at, and
- subjects that meet the prerequisites for any courses you’re considering at university.
This is great advice!
