Scaling

How scaling works 

Scaling adjusts the raw scores of a subject. Raw scores are the results of the individual assessment components of each subject.

For example, if you have a raw score of 10.4 in Biology, this shows how you performed relative to other Biology students. However, it does not allow direct comparison with students who took different subjects.

By applying scaling, SATAC can fairly compare your achievement in Biology with the achievement of students in other subjects, such as Modern History, English, or Specialist Mathematics, for example.

Why we need scaling

When selecting students, tertiary institutions need a reliable and fair way to compare overall performance among applicants for the same course. The ATAR provides this by ranking Year 12 students from 0 to 99.95. 

For each SACE subject you complete, you receive an overall grade (A+ to E-), which shows how well you performed compared to other students studying the same subject.

However, your overall grade for one subject does not tell us anything about how you compare to students studying other subjects.

To rank students fairly, it is necessary to compare performance across all possible combinations of subjects, which is done through scaling. Scaled scores are then used to determine each student’s ATAR.

By applying scaling, SATAC can make fair comparisons between different subjects for tertiary selection. This ensures that you are neither advantaged nor disadvantaged by your choice of subjects. 

Calculating scaled scores

The A+ to E- grades you receive for each SACE subject are based on the results of your assessment tasks and exams. To calculate scaled scores, two things must happen:

1. Your weighted raw scores from all assessments are combined into an overall raw score.
2. This total raw score is then made comparable across different subjects.

Once a subject’s scaling formula is calculated, it is applied to every student’s score in that subject in the same way.

There is no direct conversion from your overall subject grade to a scaled score. Instead, each grade corresponds to a range of scaled scores, and each student achieving that grade will receive a scaled score somewhere within that range. For this reason, grades alone do not provide a clear indication of what your ATAR might be.
 

Example:
For a B- in Legal Studies, the scaled score range might be 12.4 to 14.2.

If you and another student both earn a B-, your scaled scores could still differ. This is because your scaled score is based on the raw scores from all of your individual assessment tasks. It is unlikely that two students will have identical raw scores for every task, including final exams. Even with the same overall grade, differences in total raw scores will result in different scaled scores.

Because scaling is applied to raw scores, not overall grades, your grade and scaled score for the same subject do not have a direct correlation.

Raw scores are measured on a 0–15 scale, including decimal points. For example:

• If a subject has a school-assessed component worth 70%, its contribution to the raw score is out of 10.5.
• The externally assessed component (30%) contributes out of 4.5.

For more details on how raw scores are calculated, see the fact sheet below.
Calculating the raw score for scaling (118KB PDF)