SACE scaling explained: raw scores to scaled scores

What SACE scaling does

SATAC says no two subjects are the same: each has different content, assessment tasks and learning outcomes. Scaling allows it to compare student performance fairly across all SACE subjects, by analysing the performance of the cohort across all possible subject combinations. It then adjusts, or scales, subject scores so that you are neither advantaged nor disadvantaged by your choice of subjects.

Your grade reflects your performance in the subject and will not change. Your scaled score shows your position in the subject relative to the rest of the cohort. SATAC does not publish the scaled scores for individual subjects, and says choosing subjects based on historical scaled scores is not recommended because it could lower your aggregate and ATAR.

Step 1: the raw score

The raw score is not made from your overall subject grade. SATAC uses the A+ to E− grade for each school-assessed component and the numeric result of the external assessment. Raw scores are on a scale of 0 to 15, with decimals. When the school assessment is 70 per cent, it contributes out of 10.5, and the external assessment, 30 per cent, contributes out of 4.5.

Here is a worked example with made-up numbers. A subject has three school assessment types weighted 30%, 20% and 20%, and an exam out of 100.

The numeric values for the grades come from SATAC's table, where A+ is 15, A 14, A− 13, B+ 12, B 11, B− 10 and so on down to E− at 1. The exam result is converted to a score out of 4.5 whatever its scale: some subjects have an investigation marked out of 60, others an exam out of 200. See SACE grades explained for the grades themselves.

Step 2: the scaled score

A subject's scaling formula is worked out from the cohort data, and then applied to every student's raw score in that subject in the same way. There is no direct conversion from an overall subject grade to a scaled score. Each grade corresponds to a range of scaled scores, and each student who gets the grade receives a score somewhere within that range. In SATAC's example, a B− in Legal Studies might have a scaled score range of 12.4 to 14.2. Scaled scores are out of 20 for 20-credit subjects and out of 10 for 10-credit subjects.

So two students with the same overall grade can have different scaled scores. SATAC's example is English, with two school-based assessments (30% and 40%) and an external assessment (30%): a B+ with component grades of B and B+ and a raw external score of 11.4 will scale lower than a B+ with B+ and B+ and an external 11.8.

Mathematics and other myths

SATAC's advice on maths is direct: choose the subject that is the right level for your abilities or that prepares you for your course. Choosing a subject simply because it is traditionally "scaled up" is unlikely to increase your ATAR. It says that if you earn a C+ in Mathematical Methods but a B in General Mathematics, the effect of scaling on your aggregate and ATAR is likely to be similar. Compare that with Victoria, where VTAC publishes scaled study scores, in VCE scaling explained.

From scaled scores to an aggregate

SATAC adds your scaled scores from your best 90 credits of study into a university aggregate out of 90, then converts it to an ATAR. The process, and the 2025 conversion table, are in the ATAR in South Australia and the NT.

Practise for the 30 per cent

The external assessment is 30 per cent of the grade, but the exam result also sets the 4.5 marks of the raw score. Sit a short timed paper: Year 12 Maths, Year 12 Physics, Year 12 Chemistry or Year 12 Biology. Each is 8 questions worth 25 to 35 marks, and the results page shows a predicted grade from A to E with typical cut-offs, not the SACE Board's. The exam dates are in SACE exam timetable 2026.

Common mistakes about SACE scaling

• Thinking a grade maps to one scaled score. It maps to a range.
• Choosing Methods only because it "scales up". SATAC says that is unlikely to raise your ATAR.
• Not attempting the exam. If you do not attempt the publicly assessed component you get 0.0 for it, and a scaled score of zero for the subject.
• Looking for a scaled score table. SATAC does not publish scaled scores for individual subjects.

Read next

Australia · SACESACE grades explained: A+ to E− and what they meanSACE grades explained: A+ to E−, the 70/30 school and external split, how grades become numbers for SATAC, and what you need to complete the SACE.