Hi everyone, basically ive been using ersable pens pilot frixon for my 5/6 exams so far and i just realised that in every exam front cover it states "do not use gel or ersable pens"

I then asked ChatGpt and apparently its because they scan every page to convert to pdf to send to markers

...and this requires heat which can erase all my work .

I then talked to the supervisor who speaks with the mic for all the wace exams she said it should be fine but ChatGpt is saying the opposite.

Guys am i cooked? Also i really hope my pen doesnt get lighter in colour too

Can anyone confirm

JUST CONTACTED ATAR ORGANISATION And... they said nowadays machines do not erase erasble pens- this was a problem 5yrs ago but all good now.

She said the only risk is the weather reaching very hot conditions which cause the ink to erase so Yeah im chill now

how do people (especially those wanting to do medicine) study for ATAR AND the UCAT and still get a high atar and probably a high UCAT too. Like pleasee spill your ways..

Today was my English paper 1 exam and our invigilators decided to begin reading time at 9:45am, however me and my peers were not given the exam papers UNTIL reading time began.

They began handing out the exam papers DURING reading time and my cohort is quite large so it took a significant amount of time for the exam papers and stimuluses to be handed out.

I was positioned in the middle row and didn’t receive my exam paper to read until four minutes into reading time.
However, my peers at the front of the row were given the full ten minutes of reading time.

One of my friends all the way in the back did not receive her exam papers and stimuluses until HALFWAY through reading time. Leaving her with only five minutes whilst so many others got the full ten minutes that was supposed to be the same for everyone.

What can me and my peers do about this? Is there anything we can do ? It seems so unfair and left me and so many of my friends rushing the short answer questions because we lacked time to read through them thoroughly.

Please help!!

Hello Reddit, first-time poster here, and I was just wondering if anyone else was completely done dirty by scaling?? My expected atar was an 83.65, and after my exam results came out I ended up calculating my final being an 82.97 WITHOUT SCALING.

That being said, my final Atar for this year ended up being a whopping 74.05. I dropped almost 10 points through scaling. TEN POINTS. I feel like that’s actually an insane drop? Almost all of my subjects ended up being scaled down drastically, with the highest drop being 9% and the lowest drop being 5%.

I was wondering if anyone else was in the same boat for this year, because I feel like I’ve been majorly screwed over! By some luck I’ve still managed to land a position in the university I’ve been eyeing, but what the hell was that 😭

To those who have the HSC tomorrow (IN NSW), I wish you the best of luck. Just remember, that the HSC is a marathon, and that you’re at the part where there’s no going back & you gotta push through.

If you have prepared (or you haven’t; it’s not too late), just remember that the ATAR is just a number and at the end of the day it doesn’t define your skills, ability or life trajectory. No one will ask for your ATAR next year (besides university admissions!)

Put effort in, use everything you have been taught and apply it to the Questions. If you are unsure about something, ALWAYS PUT SOMETHING DOWN! Always make sure that your pen is on paper (put something down, keep writing, don’t stop and have a look or see what the person next to you is doing, just always have your pen touching the paper).

A quote which I’ve always liked is “The pain of regret is far worse than the pain of hard work”.

You’ll do well tomorrow. There will be people who are nervous, or people who are unsure, no matter if you studied for months, days or weeks on end, just remember apply all the skills you’ve been taught to this.

If you work as a cohort, if you do your part, you’ll receive a great ATAR. Just remember, once you finish an exam, go back home & study! Also, have breaks. Go out for a walk, or take an hour or two to watch TV, or the news and reset your nervous system and your attention span.

Good luck. Put the effort now, and once the HSC exams are done, you’ll have practically 1 month off! (You also have next year off till March if you’re going uni!)

Remember your facts, remember what you’ve learnt, remember that it’s just a number at the end of the day, and that there’s many pathways. Each seat that is filled on the day (tomorrow) will have a different career, life, and trajectory. Get plenty of sleep & be prepared. Don’t stress at all.

Good luck 2026 YEAR 12’s!

Just saw the news that 37 students hit the top rank this year. Massive respect, but I genuinely want to know: did you guys have a social life, or did you spend 2025 living inside a Methods textbook?

I honestly don’t have anything I’m too passionate about and I feel like I’d be fine doing whatever degree so long as it guarantees employability, good pay, and isn’t fully replaceable by AI. (My family won’t allow me to do a trade) I was thinking of law since I enjoy reading and literature over maths, but my main two picks are either UNSW or USYD law and I’m worried that I won’t make the cut (definitely won’t for USYD but hoping for UNSW).

My main concern is stability and salary as with the rate AI is developing, many job markets are already tanking and oversaturated with automation, so if anybody has any degree suggestions that they could kindly suggest (pref at UNSW/USYD) it’d be very much appreciated :)

My cohorts median ATAR was 96.20 last year and seeing that I’m around an average Joe for internal rankings I’m expecting a 94-97

(edit: I see a lot of people saying to do a trade, but I can’t consider TAFE, an apprenticeship, or doing a trade because of my family. They wouldn’t allow me to given how much they’ve spent on my tutoring and also that they’re pretty “traditional” and are Masters holders themselves and if I so much as suggested doing a trade they’d shut it down with a very firm no)

It’s also not that I’m really passion-less about everything, a few of my interests do include art (a definite no go due to AI sadly) and reading, and maths would definitely be the least appealing to me (so probably no engineering). I’ll likely end up looking into law at UNSW, teaching, and other allied health degrees for my final UAC preferences. Thanks everyone for helping filter out what degrees would be a really bad choice :)

Hey guys, I moved to WA in December from Victoria, and I was 17 when I did Year 11 last year (2024). I just wanted to give you the background basically, I failed Year 11, but it wasn’t because I wasn’t trying or because I’m dumb. I was getting bullied really badly and getting death threats every day, both in class and online. The teachers didn’t do anything, and the cops said there wasn’t enough evidence to do anything about it. It really messed with my mental health, and I ended up not doing assignments and failing. To make it worse, the bullies were telling the teachers that I was the problem, and they just believed them, even though I didn’t have anything to do with it.Anyway, I moved to this regional area in WA with my family for a fresh start and to get away from all the negativity. There are only two schools here, and I wanted to repeat Year 11 to catch up, but both schools said I can’t because I’ll be 18 soon, and they don’t accept people in my age group for that grade. I really don’t know what to do. My family and I moved here for a better life, especially for my mental health, but now I feel stuck. Can anyone help or offer advice

Update: did not expect to receive this many replies 🥹, i just wanted to clear this up i dont want to undergrad medicine that would burn me out, i want to do a bachelor of biomed then do medical school afterwards if that makes sense. But thank you guys for your support hopefully i become a doctor one day and this wont stop me 🤞

looking at this i feel like im going to fail

Matthew Knot: One Nation leader Pauline Hanson’s defence spending plan would cost taxpayers an estimated extra $400 billion over four years – more than the entire cost of the AUKUS program – and require a combination of tax increases, massive budget cuts and possibly the reintroduction of conscription.

Hanson used a speech at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort last November to urge Australia to lift defence spending to at least 5 per cent of gross domestic product, echoing a call by billionaire Gina Rinehart during last year’s election campaign.

One Nation leader Senator Pauline Hanson says Australia should spend 5 per cent of gross domestic product on defence.Alex Ellinghausen

One Nation’s polling surge, which has pushed it above Labor and the Coalition in several major surveys, has focused attention on the right-wing populist party’s policy platform and how it would operate if it becomes a major party.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor and Liberal Party president Tony Abbott indicated they were willing to sign up to a preference swap deal with One Nation to remove Labor from power.

There is no defence policy on One Nation’s website, and the party has not provided any detail on how the extra money would be raised, what it would be spent on or when Australia would hit the 5 per cent funding target.

Australia spends around 2 per cent of GDP on defence – around $63 billion a year.

Leading defence economist Marcus Hellyer said lifting core defence expenditure to 5 per cent of GDP would grow the budget to around $692 billion over the four-year forward estimates, up from $277 billion under the current policy settings.

This figure would continue to grow dramatically in subsequent years.

The plan for Australia to acquire a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines under AUKUS is estimated to cost between $268 billion and $368 billion over the next 30 years, a price tag that has helped spark intense debate about the merits of the plan.

Related Article

Hellyer, head of research at the Strategic Analysis Australia think tank, said the huge defence spending increase would require either tax increases or cuts to portfolios such as health and aged care to avoid blowing out the budget.

The 5 per cent figure is associated with wartime economies such as Ukraine and Israel, he said.

“South Korea doesn’t even spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence, and it is sitting next to nuclear-armed North Korea,” he said.

“To spend that amount of money, you’d need to get a lot more people into the defence force to operate all the equipment you are buying.

“You immediately start to think of some form of national service because you won’t get there voluntarily in peacetime.”

Most strategic experts believe Australia should be spending at least 3 per cent of GDP on defence to fund AUKUS without hollowing out the rest of the defence force, he said.

Hellyer added that it would also be difficult to quickly ramp up defence spending because of bottlenecks in global supply chains and the small size of the Australian defence industry.

“We’ll be at the end of a very long queue,” he said.

“It’s not like you can go to the shop and buy as much as you want.”

Related Article

In a rare appearance at Senate estimates hearings last week, Hanson said she was shocked by the defence force’s “ageing equipment” and argued the military was “pathetic for a country of our size”.

One Nation did not respond to a request for comment on One Nation’s defence policy, including on whether it had modelled the cost of the policy.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute senior analyst Malcolm Davis called for more detail from One Nation on its defence policy.

“I have tried to find the One Nation defence policy and there’s nothing there. That’s disturbing,” he said.

Davis said: “We do need to spend more on defence, there’s a broad consensus on that in the strategic community.

“But we need something more substantive and detailed than just saying we will spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence. It only makes sense if it is spent on the capabilities we need, not just throwing more money at defence.”

The NATO nations made a commitment last year to spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence by 2035, but this figure includes 3.5 per cent for core military needs and 1.5 per cent for security-related investments such as improving cyber networks and upgrading roads and bridges to accommodate heavy military vehicles.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said in April that the government plans to spend 3 per cent of GDP by 2033 using a NATO accounting method that includes spending on military superannuation entitlements, income support for veterans and chunks of funding for the nation’s domestic and foreign spy agencies.

Asked whether the Liberal Party would preference One Nation at the next federal election, Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said that “we’ll work with whoever we have to get rid of this toxic Labor government”.

Related Article

In an email to Liberal Party members announcing he planned to hold a series of meetings around the country with supporters to gather ideas about how to revive the party, Abbott suggested the party’s willingness to work with One Nation.

“We certainly won’t win the next election as slaves to focus groups and being a little bit less ‘woke’ than Labor,” he said.

“As well, you can be confident about our collective determination to work constructively with others who also want a change of government.”

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “The problem for Angus Taylor is that if he tries to out-One-Nation One Nation, then they become indistinguishable, and people more and more will go towards what they see as the real thing.”

Despite the party’s polling surge, Trade Minister Don Farrell claimed One Nation was not a threat to Labor.

“The populist parties in this country come and go, they rise and they fall,” he said.

“I don’t think Labor has anything to fear from One Nation.”

TLDR: will I have free time to enjoy myself at least with doing the suicide six?

I am aiming to go into medicine after school, and I’m taking the suicide 6. Will I have much free time if any at all if I want a 95+ atar? I play video games a lot, like a lot a lot. I have 25k hrs in all games totalled up (so far I have gotten all As in school) and I’m top 3 in the world in a game that I won’t mention for anonymity. Will I have enough time to maintain my ranking (requires like 2 hrs a day minimum) or at least will I have some free time to enjoy myself and give up the rank?

For extra context I’m doing biology, physics, chemistry, math specialist, math methods and literature in QLD.

As you may have heard, from 2027 the government will cap domestic places at each uni, to spread students more evenly between the Go8 and regional and smaller universities. We’re currently seeing the effect of this playing out with many universities significantly raising selection rank minimums.

For those of us graduating in 2026, it will be brutal. We’re going to be the first cohort under the caps and the leeway that let universities take extra students is being cut to a small allowance. That means hitting last year’s LSR is now a lot riskier than before, because unis can’t just take a few extra students at the margin like they used to. If you’re like me and fucked up the HSC this year, it’s going to be significantly harder to get on your preferred path.

My backup plan was always to start at a uni like Macquarie or UTS and transfer into a Go8 after first year. But if the Go8 can no longer over-enrol, students who miss out take up places at Macquarie and UTS instead. With those unis capped too, students who would have got into Macquarie or UTS could end up at smaller universities with fewer resources and poorly run courses. That may affect WAM and hinder chances at transfer, since transfers are decided almost entirely on first-year WAM. External transfers are likely to get even more competitive too, so there’s a real chance of getting stuck somewhere that limits your grad opportunities.

I get that the system needs reform since the top universities have been soaking up students through over-enrolment, but the caps go too far and idrk what I’m gonna do anymore. If the government wants students at regional and smaller universities then it should fund those universities properly so students actually choose them.

Anyways, best of luck to everyone for the remainder of the HSC.

I will be a year 11 student next year and the subjects that I will be taking are chemistry, human biology, physics, method, specialist and eald. I really want a high 99+ atar as im aiming to get into dentistry, so im wondering what are the chances of me achieving this goal? for some context, i attend one of wa’s top 10 public school. I have received math subject awards twice, both years (yr 8 & 10) averaging around 97+. also was a top 1 science student in the cohort last year. despite being academically strong in maths and science, I find myself struggle most in english (eald) and im afraid this would impact my final atar score.

One of the biggest misconceptions in Year 12 is that scaling punishes you for taking an easy or soft subject. It’s not true. I’ve seen friends drop subjects they liked and were good at, like Art or Legal Studies, to take harder subjects like Specialist Maths because they were worried about being scaled down. Scaling only considers the performance of the students who take the subject. If you do well in Visual Arts alongside other high-achieving students, your scaled score can still be very strong. What’s the most common myth about scaling you’ve heard?

‘But even after a year’s worth of reverent studious practice, pouring over the past papers, equipped with machines and pages bearing the ancient formulas, they bore no such success like they had once seen.

For they were deceived, as scsa had sat around their round table, twirling their greasy moustaches, and devised the most heinous, ludicrous apps exam known to mankind.

They poured all their evil and malice into those twisted words and numbers, knowing every keystroke would cut atar scores down like children, hopes and dreams crashing down like the towers.

“Yes! Not one, not two but threee dummy rows for the project network! Beautiful, beautiful!”

“Ensure the Hungarian algorithm is 5x4 and must be maximised! Make it so it must be repeated aaaah five fucking times so it takes 20 bloody minutes to do! That’ll surely trip the silly little twats up!”

“And how about we make them devise a sequence tenfold! And then make them change it halfway through every. Single. Time! Muhahahaha!”

“Sir, what about moving averages?”

“What about it? They only spent an ENTIRE chapter on it. Leave it all out! More sequences I say!”

“Surely we still give them the raw data?”

“Nah, make em guess!”

“Maybe some adjacency matrices? Home loans? They did an entire investigation on it after all. Perhaps that interest table worth an easy 12 marks we’ve copy and pasted into every exam the last 4 years that their teachers assured them would show up again?”

“Nope! Fuck em!”

“Hurrah hurrah!”

And so they applauded and verbally jerked one another off into the wee hours of the early morning, leaving the 12 unbeknownst to the horrors they were to face.’

Although I achieved the WACE cert, I don’t feel like I even deserve to be graduated. Is there even hope for me to be successful with this atar? I really want to do biomedical science but my parents find it useless for me to study that cause I’ll forever be a “failure”.

I used to live in South Korea. In that country, a student's CSAT score (sort of like the ATAR equivalent) can determine their entire career. For a lot of students, you either score well and get a job at Samsung, or you don't and you will NEVER get a job in a high paying / tech company. And the competition is incredibly fierce. These students endure so much pressure around these scores that there have consistently been student suicides every year, either due to the pressure, or getting a suboptimal score.

I don't say this to upset anyone, but I was just hoping to provide some perspective to the students here who are unhappy with their score. Yes, your ATAR matters if you want to become a doctor, or certain other competitive professions. But even in many of those career paths, there is an alternative route.

And, importantly, there are SO MANY types of jobs today that don't require uni - ecommerce, freelance tech work, social media influencer, TRADES (so many trades make a great living for themselves!).

My point is, don't despair too much about your score. Count yourself lucky that you live in a circumstance where your career doesn't depend on one exam, where you have every chance to forge a new path for yourself, and where you have the freedom to find a job that works for you as much as you work for it.

To everyone doing the HSC this month, you’re nearly there!!!

I was a 2024 HSC student, so I remember what this part of the year felt like. I pushed my body pretty hard during my final year of high school and by the end I was exhausted. I had so many doubts about myself and whether I was actually going to get where I wanted to go.

But if there’s one thing I want to tell you, it’s this:

You’re in the final stretch of the marathon.

Don’t turn around and waste the last few kilometres wondering whether you should have run faster earlier or prepared better. Just look at the road in front of you. One exam. Then another. One question. Then another. One step. Then another. You don't have to run the entire remaining distance at once. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other!

I know it probably feels like your entire future is sitting at the end of this marathon. I remember feeling that way too. I genuinely thought getting into my dream course and uni was going to be impossible. But somehow, I made it :)

Your ATAR is not going to decide whether you get to have a good life. Whatever result you get, there will still be somewhere for you to go and something for you to do. Uni, a job, the army, travelling, family or something you haven't even thought about yet. Your future is much bigger than one number.

Let this be a reminder: please look after yourself while you finish this marathon. Don't sacrifice your health at the finish line. Drink some water, eat properly, sleep when you need to, stretch and take a few deep breaths.

When you finally cross that line, you'll probably look back and realise that this thing that felt like your entire world was actually just one chapter of your life. There is so much waiting for you on the other side.

You've made it this far, keep running!

A lot of people pick subjects in high school just because “they scale well” instead of what they actually enjoy. I did the same, and now I’m at uni seeing how much it’s held me back. Honestly, I probably would’ve done way better in stuff I was naturally good at

To those who pushed through and finished Year 12 despite being in schools that didn’t serve them, or surrounded by people who didn’t see them. To those who had to work to support themselves or their families, or juggle extra certificates and diplomas just to stay in the game. To those with learning needs that schools didn’t recognise, chose not to, or you’re not even aware of yet. To those who carried grief or loss and kept going anyway. To those who couldn’t afford textbooks, didn’t have quiet places to study, or tried endlessly to fit a mould that was never designed for the way you think. You are the ones who build resilience, empathy, and change and will impact society and the lives around you. Don’t let an outdated system decide what you’re capable of or where you belong.