ATAR in NSW: how UAC works it out from your HSC

How the ATAR in NSW is worked out

The ATAR is based on an aggregate of scaled marks in 10 units of ATAR courses. UAC's scaling report for the 2025 HSC, the latest published, sets out the rule: the best 2 units of English, plus the best 8 units from everything else you have completed.

Each course mark is scaled first. Scaling does not change the order of students inside a course. It adjusts for the fact that a mark is harder to earn when you are competing against a stronger group, which is explained in HSC scaling explained. The scaled marks are added into the aggregate, the aggregates are ranked, and the ranks become ATARs.

• 1. Raw HSC marks. The calculation uses the raw mark, the average of your raw exam mark and your moderated school assessment. It does not use the aligned marks printed on your Record of Achievement, which is why you cannot reproduce your ATAR from your HSC marks.
• 2. Scaled marks. Each course is scaled on a 1-unit basis, so scaled marks run from 0 to 50.
• 3. The aggregate. The best 2 units of English plus the best 8 other units, rounded to two decimal places. With 10 units of up to 50 each, the highest possible aggregate is 500.
• 4. The percentile. Aggregates are ranked among everyone who is ATAR-eligible, then converted to the position each student would hold if everyone in the state of that age were ATAR-eligible.
• 5. The ATAR. A cubic spline function that depends only on the participation rate turns the percentile into an ATAR, truncated to the nearest 0.05.

Who gets an ATAR

To be eligible in 2025 a student had to complete at least 10 units of ATAR courses, including at least 2 units of English, three courses of 2 units or more, and four subjects. ATAR courses are the Board Developed courses with NESA exams. Life Skills and Board Endorsed courses are not ATAR courses. English Studies, Mathematics Standard 1 and VET courses only count if you also sit the matching additional exam course. Until 2024 these courses were Category B; the category rule was removed in 2025, so the old requirement of 8 units of Category A courses no longer applies.

Your marks can be collected over up to five years, and if you repeat a course only the last satisfactory attempt counts. In 2025, 77.8 per cent of the HSC cohort received an ATAR. If your ATAR is between 0.00 and 30.00, your ATAR Advice Notice shows "30 or less". If you are not eligible, it says "Not Eligible".

Aggregate to ATAR: what the 2025 numbers looked like

The conversion changes slightly every year, because it depends on the cohort and the participation rate. UAC reported a participation rate of 56.6 per cent for NSW and the ACT in 2025, up from 55.1 per cent. This table gives the lowest aggregate that reached each ATAR in 2025. Treat it as a picture of one year, not a prediction: UAC says it will generally not release its data for ATAR calculators or other predictive applications.

The middle of the pack sits lower than most people expect. The median ATAR in 2025 was 70.75, and the median has stayed between 70.40 and 71.55 since 2021. An ATAR of 99.00 is not the top 1 per cent of the cohort: 1.7 per cent of ATAR students got 99.00 or above, because the ATAR describes where you would sit if the whole age group had been eligible. In 2025, 53 students received 99.95.

Why your ATAR looks lower than your HSC marks

Most 2-unit courses have a median HSC mark between 70 and 80, while the median ATAR is 70.75, so a student in the middle of every course will usually see an ATAR below their average HSC mark. The report works through pairs of students at the median in all their courses whose ATARs were 60.00 and 80.00, simply because one pair had chosen courses with a stronger field. The school you attend does not matter, and neither does your postcode: NESA's marks are the only input.

The ACT

ACT Year 12 students receive a statement from the ACT Board of Senior Secondary Studies in mid-December 2026. UAC calculates the ACT ATAR too, from a notional aggregate worked out by a process that equates ACT results to NSW HSC results, and releases ATARs on its website from 9 am on Wednesday 16 December 2026. NSW and ACT students share one participation rate and one conversion.

Practise for your own ATAR

An ATAR is built from your HSC marks, and the exam half of each mark comes from what you can do under time. Sit today's Year 12 Maths, Year 12 Physics, Year 12 Chemistry or Year 12 Biology paper under timed conditions. It is a short paper of 8 questions worth 25 to 35 marks. When you mark it, the results page shows a predicted grade from A to E with typical cut-offs, not NESA's. NESA reports your result as a band, covered in HSC bands explained.

Common mistakes about the ATAR in NSW

• Treating the ATAR as a mark. It is a rank. A higher HSC mark in an easier field can give a lower ATAR than a lower mark in a stronger one.
• Choosing courses because they "scale up". UAC says scaling is carried out afresh each year and no course is always scaled down. There are students with high ATARs in every course.
• Counting every course. Only 10 units count: the best 2 units of English and the best 8 others.
• Expecting the ATAR to decide entry on its own. UAC says universities use the ATAR on its own or with other selection criteria.

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