How ATAR Works in Western Australia
Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE)
The WACE System
WACE ATAR students study courses across Year 11 and Year 12, with final ATAR courses producing a mark out of 100 combining school assessment and an external exam (usually 50/50). TISC scales these marks to make them comparable across subjects, takes the best 4 scaled scores, and adds a 10% bonus for Maths Methods, Specialist Maths, and LOTE courses. This Tertiary Entrance Aggregate (TEA) is then converted into an ATAR — a percentile rank from 0.00 to 99.95.
Score Range
0 – 100
Per subject raw score range
English Requirement
Must include an English ATAR course
TAC Body
TISC
Tertiary Institutions Service Centre
How Your Aggregate is Formed
In Western Australia, ATAR courses (studied in Year 11 and Year 12) produce a score from 0 to 100. TISC scales these scores to account for subject difficulty, then calculates your Tertiary Entrance Aggregate (TEA) from your best 4 scaled scores. You also receive a 10% bonus for Mathematics Methods, Specialist Mathematics, and Languages Other Than English (LOTE) courses if they are in your best 4. The TEA is then converted to an ATAR.
Once your raw subject scores have been through the scaling process, they are combined according to the rules above. The resulting aggregate is a single number that represents your overall performance across your best subjects.
Converting Aggregate to ATAR
Your aggregate score is compared against the aggregates of every other student in your state who is eligible for an ATAR. This comparison produces a percentile rank from 0.00 to 99.95, reported in increments of 0.05.
The rank includes the entire age cohort, not just students who completed Year 12 or sat exams. This means an ATAR of 90.00 indicates performance above approximately 90 percent of the relevant age group in your state.
Disclaimer
The information on this page is a simplified overview. Official ATAR calculations involve detailed statistical processes managed by TISC. Always refer to the Tertiary Institutions Service Centre for authoritative information.