How the WACE ATAR is calculated

Only ATAR courses in which you sit the external WACE examination produce a scaled score. General courses, Foundation courses, VET qualifications and endorsed programs all count towards achieving the WACE, but not towards the ATAR.

1. SCSA moderates each school's marks in a course against that school's exam results, so a school mark means the same thing everywhere.
2. The moderated school mark and the exam mark are averaged 50:50 into a combined mark.
3. Combined marks in each course are standardised so that different courses can be compared.

TISC scales all courses at the same time so that the all-course average sits at 60 and each course is adjusted for the strength of the students who took it. Scaling is recalculated every year and TISC publishes the resulting statistics for each course. Choosing a course because it "scales up" usually backfires; TISC's own advice is to pick the courses you are strongest in.

Your Tertiary Entrance Aggregate is the sum of your best four scaled scores (out of 400) plus 10% of your Mathematics Methods, Mathematics Specialist and best language scaled scores, for a maximum of 430. A fifth or sixth course adds nothing directly unless it is one of those bonus courses; otherwise it only helps by replacing a weaker score.

• Mathematics Applications and Mathematics Specialist cannot both count. Only the higher scaled score is used.
• Scaled scores can accumulate across the current year and the previous four, so a course completed in Year 11 can count.
• A 10% bonus is added to the TEA for Mathematics Methods, Mathematics Specialist and your best Language Other Than English, whether or not those courses sit in your best four. TISC planned to remove the bonuses from 2026 but postponed the change until further notice; it is consulting on 2027 onwards.
• Other unacceptable combinations: English as an Additional Language/Dialect with English or Literature, and Integrated Science with Chemistry or Physics. Only the higher scaled score counts.

TISC ranks every TEA against the Western Australian age cohort to produce ATARs from 99.95 down to 30.00 in 0.05 steps.

A student sits five ATAR courses and finishes with combined marks of English 71, Mathematics Methods 66, Chemistry 62, Human Biology 74 and Geography 69.

1. Each combined mark is standardised and scaled. Suppose the scaled scores are English 70, Methods 72, Chemistry 68, Human Biology 71 and Geography 65.
2. The best four are Methods 72, Human Biology 71, English 70 and Chemistry 68.
3. Best four = 72 + 71 + 70 + 68 = 281. Methods earns a 10% bonus of 7.2, so TEA = 288.2 out of 430.
4. TISC ranks 288.2 against the cohort. In recent years a TEA in the high 280s has corresponded to an ATAR in the low-to-mid 90s.