What ATAR do you need? How the aggregate works (with a worked example)

Your ATAR doesn't come straight from your study scores — it comes from an aggregate built out of them. Understanding that one number makes it clear what you actually need to aim for. Here's the formula, a worked example, and the rough milestones on the 2025 table.

The aggregate formula

VTAC builds your scaled aggregate from your best subjects after scaling:

• •Your best four scaled study scores, added together — one of them must be an English study (English, EAL, English Language or Literature).
• •Plus 10% of your fifth-best scaled score.
• •Plus 10% of your sixth-best scaled score.
• •That total is your aggregate. VTAC then converts it to an ATAR — a percentile rank from 0 to 99.95 — using a table published each year.

A worked example (2025 scaling)

Say you sit six subjects and get these raw study scores: Methods 42, Chemistry 40, Biology 40, Physics 38, English 38, Psychology 35. Applying the 2025 scaling, those become roughly: Methods 47, Chemistry 44, Biology 41, Physics 40, English 37, Psychology 34.

Your best four must include an English study, so English (37) is locked in alongside Methods (47), Chemistry (44) and Biology (41) — that's 169. Then add 10% of the next two scaled scores, Physics (40) and Psychology (34): 0.1 × 74 = 7.4. The aggregate is about 176.

On the 2025 aggregate-to-ATAR table, an aggregate of ~176 lands an ATAR in the mid-96s. Notice Physics, despite a solid scaled 40, only contributed 10% — because the English rule pushed it out of the primary four.

Rough aggregate milestones (2025 table)

• •ATAR 99.95 — aggregate about 211+.
• •ATAR 99 — about 192.
• •ATAR 95 — about 170.
• •ATAR 90 — about 155.
• •ATAR 85 — about 144.
• •ATAR 80 — about 136.
• •ATAR 70 — about 120.
• •ATAR 50 — about 94.
• •These are 2025 figures and shift slightly each year, since the ATAR is a rank against that year's cohort.

What this means for your targets

Because only your best four (plus 10% of two more) count, a weak fifth or sixth subject barely dents your ATAR — but a weak English score always counts, since English is compulsory in the top four. And scaling decides how far each raw score travels before it's added up, so a high rank in a well-scaled subject does a lot of the work.

The practical takeaway: protect your English, lift your rank in your three or four strongest subjects, and don't over-invest in a sixth subject that only contributes 10%.

Estimate yours

Put your own scores into the ATAR calculator — it applies the official 2025 scaling and aggregate-to-ATAR table, enforces the English rule, and shows which subjects land in your top four. Not sure of your study scores yet? ATAR99 estimates them per subject from your practice.