The Biggest Thing You’ll Learn From Your ATAR

Everyone had at least one moment at school where a teacher or headmaster would say something along the lines of “this is the most important thing you’ll learn here.” And not to discredit whatever it was that they told you, but there is something really important that you should know.

“Your ATAR doesn’t determine your future”

Now we’ve already written enough articles about how you need to relax when you’re in year 12 and that results aren’t everything, and whilst this is important, it isn’t what this article is about. We want to open the floor up for a second, to give you some perspective about education and to show you another point of view, from people who’ve been in your position recently.

Don’t get us wrong–every school’s number one priority is to teach students to the best of their ability. But you’ve got to remember that school’s, like a business,  are under pressure to succeed too because they are judged by their students’ success. All we’re saying is that even though they want you to do well, it’s not merely based on their liking you.

We live in a society where high schools are ranked state-wide by how their students perform in the HSC each year. At the end of the day, their goal is to make sure every student has the highest mark possible. Which is a good thing, until you take a step back and realise that all this pressure to get the best ATAR possible makes students feel like the weight of their entire future rests on these numbers.

Again, we need to stress this, high schools aren’t the bad guy here–it’s just like many relationships where people have different expectations and needs. For you, receiving a  ATAR isn’t the end of the road–you’ve still got decisions to make and joy or disappointment to feel. It’s times like these where you need to  back up and realise, you aren’t in this alone. If you don’t get the mark you want, it’s not the fiasco you think it is.

So what’s the solution?

Work your arse off, but do it for you. And if you don’t get the mark you wanted, take a deep breath and say to yourself, “I could not have worked any harder. It’s not the end of the world.”

And it’s really not–you have so many options. Perhaps the most underutilised tool in entering tertiary education is through pathway and bridging courses. 17 year olds are preached to think that not getting a certain mark is their spiral into catastrophe, when really all it means is that they have to take one extra step to get into the uni degree they really want.

Understand that this isn’t an article saying don’t show up to your final exams–we want you to do as well as possible. We’re just sick of kids copping an unwarranted amount of pressure all in the name of standardised testing.

Think about getting into university like getting the bus to school: some kids get on buses that have an express route, while others have to make a few more stops. At the end of the day, you still end up at the same place. It’s just definitely not worth getting worked up over.