With exams over and schoolies celebrations wrapping up, year 12 students are counting down the days until they get their results. But for many students waiting for their ATAR – or Australian Tertiary Admission Rank – can be a little stressful.
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00:00I remember back in year 12, waiting for my ATAR was very nerve-wracking. Luckily, I got
00:08100 first in history, so that was fine. But we've just been looking at some research coming
00:15out of the University of Adelaide that was looking at kind of the different emotional
00:19strategies you can employ when you're waiting for big results, like exam results or your
00:24ATAR, and they found the best way to deal with those nerves and your feelings is to
00:30accept them. Accept your feelings, speak about how you're feeling, so don't just say,
00:37ah, I'm nervous. Put a label on that feeling and make it specific. I'm nervous because
00:43I think these results are kind of going to dictate the next part of my life. Accepting
00:49those feelings in the long run is going to make you feel a whole lot better when you
00:54actually get those results. And actually, one of the worst things we can do when we
00:58are waiting for our ATAR is to reappraise our thoughts and kind of think of all the
01:03different scenarios in your head about what you're going to do, depending on what ATAR
01:09you get. And the research found that this was actually a kind of bad approach when you
01:14don't know the results yet. So we actually spoke to a couple of year 11s for this story
01:20about their feelings towards their ATAR going into year 12.
01:24I guess it is one of the most stressful things about year 12, achieving the ATAR that you
01:29want for the career path that you're going on. And yeah, it's been talked about a lot
01:34and I'm starting to worry a little bit.
01:37I'm aiming to study medicine, so it's in the high 90s towards the higher end. So yeah,
01:41I'm basically just trying to get the top grade I can essentially in everything.
01:46I've gone to a few open days and they've always said that if you don't reach the ATAR that
01:52you need, you can always just fall back on a different course, do that for about a year
01:56or so and then you can transfer into the course again. So you just build up the credits to
02:00get into the course and then you can transfer. And so I think there's always a way to get
02:04into the course you want to do.
02:05So for those who didn't get 100, like you, Cale, who haven't got the marks that they
02:09want, what are the other pathways available?
02:13There are lots of different pathways and it's important to note that your ATAR isn't the
02:17be all and end all. Speaking with Professor Jenny Shaw, she's the Vice Chancellor Academic
02:25at the University of Adelaide, she was saying the ATAR is kind of dropping in importance.
02:31So there are lots of different pathways, but also universities look at different things
02:35like interviews or auditions or written tasks to get into different degrees. If you don't
02:43get into the degree that you want, there are foundation courses and different kind of bridging
02:49courses, a bit like summer school, that you can do to bump up your ATAR, your ranking,
02:55so you can get into the course you want. Or as Fraser said in those vox pops there, you
03:00can start a similar course and do some of the credits towards that course and then try
03:05and transfer into the degree you want later down the line. But also have a look around,
03:11have a look at the different rankings for the universities across different degrees
03:16and degrees that you want to get into across the country if you're willing to move into
03:20state. They all change and they all vary around the country. So there's lots of different
03:24ways. Your ATAR isn't the be all and end all and I didn't get 100, I was lying to you.
03:30You can only get 99.95, that's the top rank, I should clear that up. But there's lots of
03:36different ways.