SACE ATAR: How It Is Calculated, Scaled and Ranked (SATAC)

Your SACE ATAR is a rank that SATAC (not the SACE Board) calculates from your Stage 2 results. SATAC scales each subject's raw score, adds your best three 20-credit subjects to a 30-credit flexible option to get a university aggregate out of 90, then converts that aggregate into a percentile rank against your age group. To test your own numbers, use the SACE ATAR calculator, which takes your scaled scores and gives an estimate, not an official ATAR.

This guide describes the SATAC booklet Tertiary Entrance 2026 | 2027 | 2028 (SACE/NTCET) and SATAC's current ATAR, scaling and adjustment factor pages, for students finishing Year 12 in 2026 (SACE and NTCET). The one table quoted here is the 2025 aggregate to ATAR table, because the 2026 table is published in December 2026. Rules and tables are reviewed each year, so check SATAC's current booklet before relying on any figure.

What is the SACE ATAR?

The Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) runs from 0.00 to 99.95. SATAC describes it as a rank, not a score: it shows where your results sit against the rest of your age group, and it is not a percentage of anything. SATAC calculates it only for students who qualify for a university aggregate, and your Tertiary Entrance Statement (TES), issued by SATAC, shows your scaled scores, aggregate and ATAR.

Not every student gets one, and not every pathway needs one. In 2025, 19,317 students completed the SACE or NTCET and 13,469 of them received a TES with an ATAR (SATAC, 2025 Year 12 results news item). Many university and TAFE SA pathways do not use the ATAR. Students on other certificates, such as the IB, are ranked on a different measure.

Who can get a SACE ATAR?

SATAC lists these conditions for a university aggregate:

• You qualify for the SACE or NTCET.
• You follow the precluded combination and counting restriction rules (covered below).
• You complete at least 90 credits of Tertiary Admissions Subjects (TAS) and Recognised Studies at Stage 2. A TAS is a Stage 2 subject approved by SATAC's member institutions. A subject that is not a TAS cannot be used.
• At least 60 of those 90 credits come from 20-credit TAS or valid pairs of 10-credit TAS.
• The credits come from at most three attempts. The years do not have to be consecutive, and if you studied across more than three years, the three giving the best outcome are used.

Stage 1 results do not count. A subject you did not sit the external assessment for still earns its credits but contributes a scaled score of 0.0.

Does Activating Identities and Futures count in the SACE ATAR?

Yes, in one place only. Activating Identities and Futures (AIF) is the compulsory 10-credit Stage 2 item (minimum C-), and the SACE Board's requirements page no longer lists the Research Project. AIF is also a TAS. Because it is a 10-credit subject that is not one of the valid pairs, it can count in the flexible option but never in the first 60 credits. It is precluded with Research Project A and B, so anyone who read advice about the Research Project and the ATAR was reading the old rules.

SATAC's booklet shows AIF in its worked examples with scaled scores such as 6.05 out of 10. Those are illustrative figures, not typical results.

How is the university aggregate worked out?

The aggregate is out of 90 and has two parts.

1. The first 60 credits. Your best scaled scores from three 20-credit TAS. A valid pair of 10-credit TAS can take the place of one of them. SATAC's booklet lists three valid pairs: Music Performance: Solo with Music Performance: Ensemble (as in SATAC's Alex example), Workplace Practices A with Workplace Practices B, and Integrated Learning A with Integrated Learning B.
2. The flexible option, 30 credits. SATAC calls this the best outcome from a set of building blocks: a 20-credit TAS at full value, half of a 20-credit TAS (half its scaled score), 10-credit TAS, and Recognised Studies (a maximum of 20 credits).

A scaled score is out of 20 for a 20-credit subject and out of 10 for a 10-credit subject, so the maximum is 20 + 20 + 20 + 30 = 90.

If you only have 20-credit subjects, this works out as your best four plus half of your fifth. Four full subjects is a common pattern, not the rule, and a student with 10-credit subjects or a VET qualification can build the last 30 credits differently.

To try your own set, the SACE ATAR calculator takes your scaled scores out of 20 or 10, builds the aggregate and looks up an estimated ATAR from the 2025 table.

Which subjects can I combine?

Two rules stop a student with 90 Stage 2 credits from having 90 usable credits.

Precluded combinations. Two subjects with significant overlap cannot both count. A 10-credit and a 20-credit version of the same subject are always precluded. SATAC's booklet gives the full list per subject. Its own example is a student, Avery, who took General Mathematics and Mathematical Methods, which are a precluded combination, leaving only 70 usable credits and no aggregate.

Counting restrictions. To keep a program broad, SATAC limits how many credits from one area can count. Examples from the 2026 to 2028 booklet:

• Mathematics subjects: a maximum of 40 credits.
• Music: a maximum of 40 credits.
• Australian Languages: a maximum of 20 credits. SATAC's example Celeste took 40 credits of them, only 20 could count, and she was left with 70 usable credits.
• Cross-Disciplinary Studies and Integrated Learning together: a maximum of 20 credits.
• Only one Beginners, Continuers or Background Speakers subject counts for the same language.

The booklet table is the reference for every subject, so check your own combination there before you finalise a program. SATAC says it knows of no changes to Tertiary Admissions Subjects for 2027 entry.

How does SACE scaling work?

Every Stage 2 subject is 70 per cent school-assessed and 30 per cent externally assessed, and you get a grade from A+ to E-. SATAC then scales your raw score. Scaling does not change your grade. It puts results from different subjects on one scale, using how the cohort performed across all combinations of subjects, so that a scaled score shows where you sit relative to the cohort. SATAC's line is that it does not scale subjects, it scales subject scores.

How is a raw score built?

SATAC says your overall subject grade is not used. Each school-assessed task's grade is converted to a number and weighted by that task's share of the subject. The external result is converted to a score out of 4.5 (30 per cent of 15). The raw score is the sum, out of 15.

Source: SATAC, Calculating the raw score for scaling. N (not satisfactory) is 0.

SATAC's example is a Tourism student called Jane. Her task grades are B, B- and C, weighted at 20, 25 and 25 per cent, which give 6.7 out of 10.5 for the school-assessed part. An exam mark of 56 out of 80 gives 3.15 out of 4.5. Her raw score is 9.85 out of 15.

Can I look up what a subject scales to?

No, and SATAC says so directly. Its scaling FAQ answers "Can SATAC tell me the scaled scores for a particular subject?" with: "No. Scaled scores for individual subjects are not publicly available." There is no direct conversion from a grade to a scaled score, because each grade maps to a range that differs by subject and year. SATAC's only illustration is that a B- in Legal Studies might map to a scaled score from 12.4 to 14.2. That is why this guide has no scaling table, and why you should be wary of any site that claims to give you one.

This is also the honest answer to searches for the highest scaling SACE subjects: SATAC publishes no per-subject scaling, so there is no official list of subjects that scale up or down. Your own scaled scores appear on your Tertiary Entrance Statement after results are released. To see what a set of scaled scores would have meant, enter them in the SACE ATAR calculator, which uses the 2025 aggregate to ATAR table and does not estimate scaled scores from grades.

Can VET, IB or university subjects count?

Yes, as Recognised Studies, and only in the flexible option. At most 20 credits of them can count, and each needs a result of C- or equivalent. SATAC lists these types:

• VET at Certificate III or above, as a full qualification. Individual units of competency are not accepted.
• Higher education subjects, where SATAC generally approves degree-level, non-introductory subjects and you apply the year before.
• IB Higher and Standard Level subjects.
• Specified interstate Year 12 subjects that count towards the ATAR in their home state.

SATAC converts these to a scaled score. For VET, it uses the average scaled score of the first 70 credits of TAS used in your aggregate, halved if the qualification counts for only 10 credits. For higher education, it uses the higher of a grade equivalent (HD 20, D 19.8, C 18, P1 15.8, P2 11.5, conceded pass 10) or that same 70-credit average. For IB, a 7 is 19, a 6 is 18.2, a 5 is 16.6, a 4 is 14.2, and a 3 (Higher Level only) is 12.

A SACE subject and a Recognised Studies subject that overlap are precluded, and only the SACE subject counts. Recognised Studies must be completed by the year of your first ATAR calculation, and ATARs are not recalculated for later study.

How does the aggregate become an ATAR?

SATAC ranks every aggregate in the cohort as a percentile, the share of the cohort who achieved the same aggregate or better. It then adjusts that for the participation rate (the cohort size against the population of 16 to 20 year olds), and the result is the ATAR. SATAC's own illustration: an aggregate of 78.00 that 10 per cent of the cohort matched or beat gives a percentile of 90.00 before the participation adjustment.

This table shows the lowest aggregate that gave each of these ATARs in 2025.

Source: SATAC, 2025 SACE/NTCET aggregate to ATAR table (SATAC reference licence), selected rows. The 2025 table is for the 2025 cohort. SATAC publishes the 2026 table in December 2026.

The table changes every year with the cohort. SATAC's own example is that an aggregate of 80.0 gave an ATAR of 95.20 in 2015 and 94.75 in 2016, and in the 2025 table the same aggregate gave 93.65. An aggregate below about 12.7 gives an ATAR of 0.00 in the 2025 table.

Do bonus points change my SACE ATAR?

No. Adjustment factors (SATAC's current name for bonus points) are added to your aggregate to produce a selection rank for a particular course. SATAC states that selection rank adjustments do not change your ATAR, and not every course allows them. The total is capped at 9 points across two schemes.

• Universities Equity Scheme, up to 5 points. A school-based adjustment applies automatically at qualifying SA and NT schools if you have allowed information sharing in Students Online. Students at other schools can apply individually, for example if they or a parent held a means-tested income payment, or a School Card, Health Care Card or Pensioner Concession Card.
• Universities Language, Literacy and Mathematics Scheme, 2 points for one eligible subject and 4 for two or more, at C- or better. Eligible subjects are a 20-credit language other than English (not Language and Culture), English, English Literary Studies, Mathematical Methods and Specialist Mathematics. A few courses, including some medicine and veterinary ones, do not use it.

The exact points and course lists change each year, so check SATAC's adjustment factors page for your entry year.

When are SACE results and ATARs released?

The SACE Board releases 2026 end-of-year results on Monday 14 December 2026 at 8.30 am ACDT through SACE Students Online. SATAC issues the TES. In 2025 the TES and ATAR were released with the results, and for 2026 SATAC has not published a separate ATAR release time, so check SATAC and your Students Online account on the day.

If a Recognised Studies result is not yet processed, you may not have an ATAR on release day. A new ATAR and TES are issued once it is.

Should I use an online ATAR calculator?

SATAC says it does not recommend using online ATAR prediction tools, and that past conversion tables do not predict future ATARs. That caution is fair, and it applies to ours. The aggregate rules are published, and so is the 2025 aggregate to ATAR table. The step in between is the one nobody outside SATAC can reproduce: your scaled scores, which SATAC does not publish per subject and which depend on this year's cohort.

So the SACE ATAR calculator asks you for scaled scores and does not guess them from your grades. Use it to see how the 90-point structure works, how much the flexible option can move your aggregate, and what a set of scaled scores would have meant in 2025. Treat any ATAR it shows as a 2025 table estimate. Your official ATAR is the one on your Tertiary Entrance Statement.

Choosing SACE subjects

SATAC's rules give you a few firm points to build a choice on. The figures below come from SATAC's subject table for 2026 tertiary entry, as recorded in the data behind our SACE ATAR calculator.

1. Plan the 90 credits first. Three 20-credit subjects fill the first 60 credits and the flexible option fills the last 30. See how the university aggregate is worked out.
2. Check each subject is a Tertiary Admissions Subject. In SATAC's table, 127 of the 202 listed Stage 2 subjects are TAS (110 at 20 credits and 17 at 10 credits). The other 75 earn SACE credits but cannot be used. The conditions are under who can get a SACE ATAR.
3. Know which credit size fits where. Only 20-credit TAS, or one of the three valid pairs of 10-credit TAS, can count in the first 60 credits. The other 11 10-credit TAS can count in the flexible option only. That includes Activating Identities and Futures (see how it counts).
4. Do not pair a 10-credit and a 20-credit version of the same subject. SATAC always precludes them. In its table, for example, Creative Arts at 10 credits is precluded with the 20-credit version.
5. Check precluded combinations for every subject. SATAC's table lists 71 subjects with at least one precluded partner. General Mathematics is precluded with both Mathematical Methods and Essential Mathematics, and Essential Mathematics is precluded with Mathematical Methods. Specialist Mathematics has no precluded subject in the table. The reasoning and Avery's example are under which subjects can I combine.
6. Count against the caps. SATAC limits how many credits from one group can count:

Source: SATAC, Tertiary Entrance 2026 | 2027 | 2028 (SACE/NTCET), subject table (SATAC reference licence). Paraphrased. Two further rules cover Bosnian, Croatian, Macedonian and Serbian and the former set of Agricultural and Horticultural subjects.

7. Count one subject per language. Only one Beginners, Continuers or Background Speakers subject in the same language can count. In SATAC's table that applies to Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Modern Greek, Spanish and Vietnamese. Separately, no more than one of Bosnian, Croatian, Macedonian or Serbian can contribute to your aggregate. A language other than English at C- or better also counts towards the 2 or 4 point adjustment factor described under bonus points.
8. Use the flexible option on purpose. It can take a 20-credit subject at full value or half value, 10-credit subjects and Recognised Studies up to 20 credits. See Recognised Studies before you assume a VET qualification will help.
9. Do not choose by scaling. SATAC publishes no per-subject scaled scores and advises against picking subjects on past scaling. See can I look up what a subject scales to.
10. Check university prerequisites separately. The SATAC material this guide uses sets the rules for the ATAR and lists no course prerequisites. Look up the entry requirements for each course you want on the university's own pages.

Common mistakes about the SACE ATAR