WACE ATAR: How It's Calculated, Scaling and Subjects (SCSA)

Your WA ATAR comes from your best four scaled scores in Year 12 ATAR courses. TISC adds them into a Tertiary Entrance Aggregate (TEA), adds 10% bonuses for Mathematics Methods, Mathematics Specialist and one language, then converts the total into a rank between 0 and 99.95. English does not have to be one of the four, and scaling is worked out after the exams, so it can't be predicted well enough to choose subjects by.

This guide describes TISC's rules for students completing Year 12 in 2026 and applying for 2027 university entry, together with SCSA's WACE rules for 2026. The ATAR is calculated by TISC, not by SCSA, and the numbers below can change with each year's rules. For exam dates and how to prepare for them, see the WACE exam timetable and the WACE exam preparation guide.

How is the WA ATAR calculated?

Your marks pass through four steps before they become an ATAR. SCSA runs the first two. Scaled scores and the ATAR come from TISC, and the WACE Manual states that SCSA is not involved in scaling or in calculating the ATAR.

1. Your school mark and your exam mark. Your school sends SCSA a school mark for the course, and you sit the same ATAR course examination as every other student in it.
2. Moderation. SCSA statistically adjusts each school's marks so they sit on the same scale as that school's exam marks in the course. A moderated school mark is then combined with your exam mark. In a course with a written exam only, the combined mark is the average of the two, so the exam is half. Courses with a practical component weight written and practical differently, and the weights are in the WACE Manual.
3. Standardising. Combined marks are standardised before scaling so that every subject in every year has a mean of around 60 per cent. That removes any advantage or disadvantage from which year's paper you were set.
4. Scaling. TISC's Average Marks Scaling process adjusts the standardised marks to give you a scaled score for each course. You only get one if you sat the ATAR course examination.

Then TISC works out the aggregate:

$\text{TEA} = (\text{best four scaled scores}) + 10\%\ \text{of Methods} + 10\%\ \text{of Specialist} + 10\%\ \text{of best language}$

The bonuses apply to whichever of those courses you studied, and you receive them whether or not the course is in your best four. TISC gives the maximum possible TEA as 430. A table built each year then converts the TEA into an ATAR, using the number of students with a TEA and the number of people of Year 12 school leaving age in the WA population.

The rules that limit which scores count:

• At least four ATAR courses to receive an ATAR. Only ATAR courses count (not General courses, VET or endorsed programs), and you must have sat the exam.
• No more than two mathematics scaled scores can be used.
• Unacceptable combinations. For some pairs, only the higher of the two scaled scores can count. Examples include Chemistry with Integrated Science, Physics with Integrated Science, Mathematics Applications with Mathematics Specialist, and English with English as an Additional Language or Dialect (EAL/D). Many pairs of language courses are also covered, such as a background language and a second language course in the same language. TISC's list is the one to check.
• Five consecutive years. For 2027 entry, scaled scores from 2022 onwards can be combined, with no course counting twice.
• Earlier ATARs. If you hold an ATAR from a previous year, you get the higher of that one and your current one.
• Courses sat on a non-school basis can count, but the scaled score is based on the exam mark alone.

Does English count towards the WACE ATAR?

It doesn't have to. TISC's rules for the aggregate don't require an English course to be one of your best four, and no English course is marked as compulsory. Jo's four above include English only because it was not her lowest score.

English matters for a separate reason. To get into a WA university you normally also need competence in English, which TISC lists as its own requirement alongside the WACE, the ATAR and course prerequisites. The most direct way to show it is a scaled score of at least 50 in English ATAR, Literature ATAR or EAL/D ATAR. Curtin, ECU and UWA use that route and each adds other ways in if you fall short, such as a school grade of C in one of those courses, or the Skills for Tertiary Admissions Test (STAT) at Curtin and UWA. Murdoch and Notre Dame rely mainly on completing senior secondary studies in Australia. Check TISC's document and your target university for the current wording.

TISC's 2025 sheet gives the share of each course's students who scored 50 or more in 2025: Literature ATAR 86.5%, English ATAR 73.8% and EAL/D ATAR 62.6%.

Scaling

Scaling exists so that students aren't disadvantaged for choosing a course that is harder to score well in. The WACE Manual describes TISC's average marks scaling as adjusting for differences in difficulty between courses. TISC says that once scaling is complete, the average of all scaled scores across all courses is 60.

What that means for you:

• A scaled score is not your exam mark or your combined mark. The WACE Manual says it is likely to differ from your school mark, exam mark, combined mark and combined score.
• Scaling isn't set in advance. TISC says scaling is not pre-determined and cautions against choosing courses on how you think scaling will treat them.
• A course's mean describes the cohort that sat it. It tells you how that year's students ended up, not what you would score.

TISC's 2025 sheet prints mean scaled scores for the three maths courses, which it calls consistent over recent years:

Source: TISC, 2025 Scaling and ATAR Information. In 2025, 81 courses were examined for scaling, including 22 language courses using interstate syllabuses. The sheet we hold doesn't print a mean for the other courses. TISC points to its website, under Resources and then Statistics, for the full scaled score and ATAR distributions. The "highest scaling subjects" question is answered by that data, not by a ranking from us.

Good ATAR

An ATAR is a rank, so what makes one good depends on where you want it to take you. TISC defines it this way: an ATAR of 75.00 means you rate equal to or better than 75% of the Year 12 school leaving age population in WA. The scale runs from 0 to 99.95, and it ranks you against that whole population, not only the students who sat exams.

Some fixed points from TISC:

• Around 70 is the minimum entry set by most WA universities, according to TISC's guide. A best-four average scaled score of around 55 is likely to land there.
• In 2025, 10,265 school leavers achieved an ATAR, up from 9,992 in 2024. Eighteen of the 2025 group achieved the maximum of 99.95.
• Your ATAR isn't always the number a university uses. Some universities give applicants a higher Selection Rank when they are eligible for adjustment factors, such as the school attended or home postcode. Courses can also add their own criteria, such as interviews, auditions or portfolios. TISC tells you if you are eligible when results are released in late December.

For the ATAR a specific course needs, use that university's published selection information. We haven't published course-by-course cut-offs because the documents behind this guide don't contain them.

Choosing subjects

The rules above give you a few firm points to build a choice on.

1. You need four ATAR courses to get an ATAR. Taking fewer is allowed if you want the more demanding course for its own sake. Taking five gives you a spare, because your lowest score drops out of the best four (although a bonus course still earns its 10%).
2. Check university prerequisites first. For most degree courses, a prerequisite is met by a scaled score of 50 or a final school grade of C in the ATAR course, using the current year or the previous four. Murdoch and Notre Dame don't require specific prerequisite courses, but list recommended ones. TISC's document has a prerequisite table for each of the five universities.
3. Choose the English course that suits your pathway. TISC says to choose the course that will prepare you best, and ties competence in English to English, Literature or EAL/D ATAR. EAL/D is only open to students who meet SCSA's eligibility criteria.
4. Weigh the bonuses honestly. The bonuses are 10% of a scaled score. A strong Methods, Specialist or language result adds a few points to your aggregate, and a weak one adds correspondingly few, as Jo's 4.1 shows. They are a reason to look at those courses, but not a reason to take one you expect to struggle in.
5. Mind the overlaps. Two maths scores at most, and some pairs only count once, so a combination like Applications and Specialist can't both help your aggregate.
6. Don't choose by scaling. The TISC and SCSA documents give no way to predict it, and TISC advises against trying. Pick courses you can score well in and that open the university courses you want.
7. There is no entry bar from TISC or SCSA. Neither sets academic requirements for enrolling in an ATAR course, but your school may, for example a B or C in the matching Year 10 subject. The WACE also requires a certain number of C grades, so don't plan around the ATAR alone.

Your ATAR courses run across Year 11 and Year 12, and the scaled scores come from the Year 12 examinations. That makes the choice you make in Year 10 for Year 11 the one that sets up the four you need.

To practise ahead of those exams, AusGrader has WACE past papers with marking keys for you to work through under WACE past exams (SCSA), and for the maths courses you can start from Mathematics Methods.

Common mistakes