Why I’ll Never Let My ATAR Define Me

Over the course of our school lives, we’re continuously confronted with a million different perspectives, pieces of advice, people telling us who we are and what to do. We’re jostled back and forth between “this is so important” and “this doesn’t matter at all,” between “you’ve gotta do well in school for your future” and “you will never need surds ever again.”

When you get to year 12, this only proliferates until it’s coming at you from every angle and all you want to do is curl into a ball with your hands over your ears and scream. Yeah, I’ve been there.

ATAR talk is literally the absolute worst kind of school-related chatter, and it always comes at the most annoying time of year. Your exams are long done and you’re looking forward to having a brilliant summer, and then one day you get a text containing a number that could send your mood soaring or crashing down in flames.

But that’s all it is. A number, just the same as your street address, the same as your phone number. Neither of these things define who you are or who you will be, and nor does your ATAR.

You can look at the text and never look at it again. It’s done. Those numbers don’t get etched into your forehead for everyone you meet to see for the rest of time. They are a mere glimpse into a small section of the rest of your life. They are the numbers in math class you could not find reason for learning but are the foundation for something bigger. No, we don’t think there will be unicorns in the next lesson, but we guarantee you’ll meet that Dan character that kept buying 73 watermelons and needs help figuring out how much it’s going to cost him at $1.73 per watermelon. And you will know, all thanks to where you chose to go to school to teach you how to figure that out.

You should feel proud of yourselves for having completed Year12, finished your exams, and now are taking the steps toward a university degree.

 And if you didn’t get the ATAR you wanted, and even after all this, you’re still worried, remember: there is always another way to get where you want to be. Always. And once you’ve figured that out, the number fades into obscurity. Into nothingness. You’ll never, ever need it again.

Take care to remember what you want to use this ATAR score for. If you’re going to university, whether your results were as high as you might have liked, you can’t lose focus on the bigger picture. What your score is isn’t as important as what you choose to do with it.

In my three years out of school, nobody has ever asked me what my ATAR was except for the day we got them. Ask anyone, and they’ll tell you the same. Whether you choose to use your ATAR or not, it’s up to you to work to achieve your goals and aspirations in the way that works best.

Be secure in the knowledge that there are a million options and opportunities out there for you, and that literally the only thing that can hold you back is letting your ATAR hover over your head and poison your self-confidence. It all comes down to you.

Check out UTS:INSEARCH is the premium pathway provider for UTS which aims to give students alternative entry into the university. In other words, if you don’t get the ATAR needed – depending on the diploma program you study, you can go straight into your desired UTS degree, and always remember #ImNotaNumber