Lesmurdie Senior High
School
WACE Courses
Score 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 TER
A 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
Geography 3A/3B 65
Chemistry 3A/3B 55
Best 4
Maths 3A/3B
Earth & Env Sci 3A/3B
70 + 65 + 60 + 55
Tertiary Entrance Aggregate (TEA)
250
ATAR guesstimate
85.00
70
60
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
ATAR
Minimum TEA
for an ATAR
315.3
91.00
90.00
89.00
88.00
87.00
86.00
85.00
84.00
83.00
82.00
81.00
80.00
79.00
282.9
279.2(69.8)
275.8
272.6
269.5
266.4
263.4
260.3
257.8
255.2
252.6
250.2(62.5)
247.6
96.00
306.7
78.00
245.4
95.00
300.7
94.00
295.5
ATAR
77.00
76.00
75.00
74.00
73.00
72.00
71.00
70.00
65.00
60.00
55.00
50.00
40.00
30.00
Minimum TEA
for an ATAR
242.7
240.3
237.9
235.5
232.9
230.5
228.0
225.6(56.4)
214.1
211.6(50)
188.6
177.1(44.25)
157.2
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)
Marks Adjustment
Process
Marks are adjusted to ensure that this
competition is as fair as possible and not
affected by differences in:
The difficulty of an
examination paper from
year to year
standardisation
The standard of marking
from school to school
moderation
The difficulty between
different courses and the
courses chosen by groups
of students
scaling
Process used to adjust marks
In the marks adjustment process, teachers can only
influence this area
Standardised
(State Mean 60)
School
Mark Moderated
50%
Combined
Mark
Exam
Mark
50%
Standardised
(State Mean 60)
Scaling refers
to this final
step, not the
whole
sequence
Scaled
Mark
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.