Lesmurdie Senior High School

WACE CoursesScore Adjustment

Post-school destinations

WACE Courses of Study Structure

In principle, all WACE Courses have three stages – 1, 2 and 3.

Within each stage are Units which are normally semester long.

Units are normally studied in pairs.

WACE Courses of Study Structure

Stage One Courses– Senior School entry level in a Course– Can be studied in either Senior School (Yr 11)

or Exit Year (Yr 12)– Advantage to have studied in the area in Lower

School– Not Externally assessed in WACE Examinations– Cannot be used for ‘front door’ University

entrance– Excellent for TAFE entry.

WACE Courses of Study Structure

Stage Two Courses– Recommended as University entrance

course entry level.– Can be studied in either Senior School

(Yr 11) or Exit Year (Yr 12)– Externally assessed in WACE

Examinations at the end of Exit Year.– Can be used for ‘front door’ University

Entrance but severely adjusted.– Good for TAFE entry.

WACE Courses of Study Structure

Stage Three Courses– Recommended as University entrance

level for use as part of ATAR.– Can be studied only in Exit Year (Yr 12)– Externally assessed in WACE

Examinations at the end of Exit Year.– Recommended as part of ‘front door’

University Entrance.– Good for TAFE entry.

Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR)

Previously known as the TERA TEA is a score that is used to identify how students performed in each of the

WACE Courses for which they sat an external examination.

It Is used to calculate the ATAR

WACE Courses

Best four WACE courses (2 units = a course – at Lesmurdie, it is very unusual for students to sit a single unit from a course)

Standardised score for each course Marks are moderated and scaled TISC produces a conversion table to

work out the ATAR

What is an ATAR?

Australian Tertiary Admission Rank – lists all students in Australia on a continuum from highest to lowest.

ATAR is used for selection into University courses.

CALCULATING THE ATAR

50:50 School and external assessment. 15 point bonus marks added to Stage 3

Course marks before scaling. The bonus marks for Maths are different!

– 2A/B Math – none– 2C/D Math – 10 bonus points– 3A/B Math – 20 bonus points– 3C/D Math – 30 bonus points– 3C/D Specialist Math – 10 bonus points

CALCULATING THE ATAR

YOUR BEST 4 MARKS MARKS ADDED TOGETHER TO GIVE A

TOTAL OUT OF 400 THIS IS CALLED YOUR TERTIARY

ENTRANCE AGGREGATE (TEA) ATAR (30.00-99.95)

CALCULATING THE ATAR

English 2A/2B 50 Maths 3A/3B 70

Geography 3A/3B 65 Earth & Env Sci 3A/3B 60

Chemistry 3A/3B 55

Best 4 70 + 65 + 60 + 55

Tertiary Entrance Aggregate (TEA) 250

ATAR guesstimate 85.00

2011 TEA/ATAR SUMMARY TABLE BASED ON 2010 RESULTS

FOR ILLUSTRATION PURPOSES ONLY

ATAR Minimum TEA for an ATAR

99.95 378.5(95)

99.90 372.3

99.70 359.3

99.50 351.2

99.00 340.2

98.50 332.8

98.00 326.2

97.00 315.3

96.00 306.7

95.00 300.7

94.00 295.5

93.00 291.0

92.00 286.8

ATAR Minimum TEA for an ATAR

91.00 282.990.00 279.2(69.8)89.00 275.888.00 272.687.00 269.586.00 266.485.00 263.484.00 260.383.00 257.882.00 255.281.00 252.680.00 250.2(62.5)79.00 247.6

78.00 245.4

ATAR Minimum TEA for an ATAR

77.00 242.776.00 240.375.00 237.974.00 235.573.00 232.972.00 230.571.00 228.070.00 225.6(56.4)65.00 214.160.00 211.6(50)55.00 188.650.00 177.1(44.25)40.00 157.230.00 137.3

What couldn’t you do this year with a ATAR

of 85.00? Actuarial Science Chiropractic Dentistry Medicine Midwifery

Physiotherapy Podiatry Veterinary Science Most double

degrees

Standardising Moderation, Application

of Increment and Scaling

Why Moderate and Scale?

Standardise because not all examinations are the same (Curriculum Council)

Moderate because not all school assessments are the same (Curriculum Council)

Scale because some courses are more difficult than others (TISC)

The difficulty of an examination The difficulty of an examination paper from year to yearpaper from year to year

Marks Adjustment Marks Adjustment ProcessProcess

Marks Adjustment Marks Adjustment ProcessProcess

The standard of marking from school to The standard of marking from school to schoolschool

Marks are adjusted to ensure that thisMarks are adjusted to ensure that this

competition is as fair as possible and not competition is as fair as possible and not

affected by differences in:affected by differences in:

The difficulty between different courses and The difficulty between different courses and the courses chosen by groups of studentsthe courses chosen by groups of students

moderation

scaling

standardisation

SchoolMark

Standardised

(State Mean 60)

ExamMark

ScaledMark

Standardised(State Mean 60)

Moderated

CombinedMark

50%

50%

Scaling refers to this

final step, not the whole

sequence

Process used to adjust Process used to adjust marksmarksIn the marks adjustment process, teachers can

only influence this area

COURSE INCREMENT

For courses that have Stage 2 and Stage 3 exams, an increment of 15 will be added to the Stage 3 combined standardised scores before scaling. Mathematics and Mathematics Specialist have different increments.

Don’t Do This.