15 Dec 2019

Brace yourself, my friends: the great uni-Judgement Day is near.

ATAR results are about to be released.

And with your ATAR comes an unending barrage of questions from friends, family, teachers, neighbours and old ladies on the bus.

This wouldn’t be too bad if each question were different. In fact, you’d probably enjoy the idea of so many people taking a sudden interest in so many different areas of your life.

But that’s not how it is.

Whether you like it or not, you’re gonna be hearing the exact same three or four questions over and over and over. And of course, you can’t get mad at someone for taking an interest in you and asking a simple question, can you?

Well, let’s take a look at what those questions are:

“What was your ATAR?”

“Did you get into uni/the course you wanted?”

“What are you gonna do next year?”

If you got an ATAR you’re proud of, then these questions won’t seem so bad. Sure, it’ll be irritating having to answer the same thing over and over again, but hey - every time you get asked, you’re basically getting permission to subtly brag to all ya friends and family! It could be worse!

But what if you’re one of the people who were disappointed by their ATAR? 

Or one of those who didn’t even look?

If this was you, then you’d know that these questions can almost feel like an attack.

When the last thing you wanna do is talk about your results, it seems that all anyone wants to hear about is your bloody ATAR. For a week straight you’re constantly having to tell people about your failure to reach your goal, about how you’re suddenly not so certain about your plans for next year.

And sure, everyone who’s asking means well. A bunch of them probably even have some good advice.

But repeatedly being asked the same questions gets old fast; especially if they’re questions you didn’t enjoy answering the first time around.

Of course, it’d be weird if you didn’t get asked anything about your results. The end of over a decade of schooling is a pretty big deal for most people, so it makes sense that your friends and fam take an interest in how you went.

But I think there’s a better way to ask than simply “what was your ATAR?”.

How about, instead of asking our mates direct questions about their results, their plans, their successes, their failures – how about we just check in on how they’re going?

“How are you?”

“Are you doing okay?”

“How do you feel about your result?”

If they wanna tell you their number, they will. It’s theirs to tell and not yours to pry out of them.

Everyone reacts differently to their ATAR results, so don’t expect the same answers every time.

Some might go quiet for a week or so, then open up once they’ve come to terms with it in their own time. Others will be quite upfront about it from the get-go. This applies as much to people who are stoked with their results as it does to those who aren’t.

If you’re not stoked on your ATAR, don’t beat yourself up. As life goes on, you’ll start to appreciate how little they’re really worth, and you’ll wonder how you and your mates ever worried about them so much.

Your ATAR doesn’t define you, nor does it place limitations on your future. Happy or not with your result, it really doesn’t change a thing.