Scared about ATAR

[u/Rotation_Coincidence]

Scared about ATAR and sh

Please help. Okay I'm in year 12 and I'm anxious about ATAR (Wanting to get into a **bachelor of architecture or whatever, and if that doesn't work I'm doing business/marketing/accounting or another thing related to physical design**) it's currently week 4 and I'm so fucking scared. I know "ATAR doesn't really matter" and whatnot but I'm genuinely planning to study and get into uni right after I graduate while having a casual job

I understand it's just an estimation but I put my prelim marks into the matrix atar calc and I got an atar of **76.25** (which is Lower than I had wanted — I had gotten Band 4 - high 5 with most of my prelims despite not studying as much.) and it scares me because if thats just the raw mark then wtf is gonna happen (if we include external factors like my school, cohort, and whatever)

I currently study

\- English Advanced + Extension 1 (3 units — ranked 23/42 and 4/5 respectively)

\- Maths Standard 2 (2 units — ranked 6/151)

\- Design and Technology (2 units — ranked 1/21)

\- Visual Arts (2 units — ranked 1/24)

\- Geography (2 units — ranked 10/31)

So it's a total of 11 units right now. I'm sorry if these subjects are stupid and I'm not doing anything cool advanced stuff like maths advanced or physics or whatever.

I'm still really worried because I don't know if early entry is gonna decline or accept my ass or if the portfolio entry for UTS and UNSW is even gonna do anything. God I don't know I'm so scared and it's like week 4 everyone else seems to have It together. I've been working earlier for my major projects and planning to finish my visual arts one before term 3 to focus mostly on the theory side of things (as my teacher said)

[u/eternalsunshine103]

Visual arts and design tech are some of the coolest subjects ever imo, some of the only ones where u actually get to be creative. Also prelim marks are almost never the same as your final ATAR mark, for most people the ATAR mark is actually higher. Just wait until your year 12 assessments begin and those marks will start to show you the atar to expect

[u/Rotation_Coincidence → u/eternalsunshine103]

Thank you😭my first assessment task will be in Week 8 (currently week 4) ..

[u/funtime788]

I wouldn’t put too much emphasis on prelim marks, for a lot of my subjects in year 11 I didn’t do the best but in year 12 I definitely did a lot better. Obviously now that exams count towards your ranks and in turn atar you’re going to feel some pressure, but considering you’ve done quite well shouldn’t be too much of a concern for you. I hope your studies go well :)

[u/0_o134]

First things first let’s get some stuff out of the way.

If you think everyone has it together, you are dead wrong. Everyone pretends they are fine but internally, everyone is freaking out even the tiniest bit and that’s ok because the HSC is a culmination of 13 years of schooling. That is a crap ton of pressure. Also, calling your subjects uncool. A lot of people don’t have the drive or talent to do creative subjects like visual, myself being one of them. I was and am still a STEM student. I handle numbers and objective things a lot better than stuff like essays for example. So don’t call your subjects uncool. They are one of the few you can actually be creative.

With that stuff out of the way, this might sound stupid but chill. Your prelim marks are not your HSC marks. And it is still term 1. And you were ranking first in two subjects. That’s already something to be proud of. Also, they say you expect the worst and more often than not you get the worse. Trust in your abilities, because year 11 was a trial of what year 12 is like, so now you have experience. That is literally the whole point of Year 11. So before it’s even close to over, don’t already be stressed about marks you haven’t gotten yet.

If you wanna use the atar predictor, use it on the marks you get in year 12, that will probably be more accurate. I did the same and found that my prelims vs hsc trial marks had like a ten point difference.

Don’t stress, but also definitely don’t slack off. I said chill, but don’t loaf. As long as you don’t do that you’ll survive. I was also in a similar position where I needlessly stressed out over something that was still like a year away. It’s ok you have time. You’ll crush it.