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How to calculate your ATAR from trial/past paper marks (1 Viewer)

carrotsss

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No wayyy you have lambs??? Do you feed them carrots
the lambs don’t really like carrots they’re more into grass (and the chickens food) but we feed the neighbour’s horses carrots! it’s so fun feeding them
 

carrotsss

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can u adopt me
I won’t even be living on the farm anymore in a few months because I have to move for uni :(

I rlly want to get myself a place like this when I’m older though and I guess I’ll still live here in holidays
 

Awesome8r

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I won’t even be living on the farm anymore in a few months because I have to move for uni :(

I rlly want to get myself a place like this when I’m older though and I guess I’ll still live here in holidays
what uni do you plan on going to?
 

ExtremelyBoredUser

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I inserted these equations using a simple IF() formula for whether a student is within that 25th percentile, with both MAX(x,0) and MIN(x,100) functions to prevent an extreme increase/decrease in ATAR although this shouldn't ever really be necessary notwithstanding any errors in the fairly manual data entry process. All of the English scaled marks are then split into individual units and placed in the B column below the calculator. From this list the sum of the best 2 units of English is determined through the sum of a =sortn function which finds the 2 greatest units of scaled marks. Then, for the remaining 8 units needed for calculation, a similar process of unit splitting occurs into column D, and to account for cases in which more than 2 units of English are counted, the worst 4 units out of the six available English units are added to the list using an ascending =sortn function. Similar to the process for English, the sum of the remaining best 8 units is determined through the sum of a =sortn function, which is then summed once more with the best 2 units of English to find the aggregate. Due to the use of =sum(sortn) functions, it isn't immediately visible which units were counted, so I got around this by using another =sortn function (without =sum) which creates a list of counted units in columns E and F (for names and marks respectively), by using two sortn functions (one for English and one for the rest) with an area that includes all of the names and marks for each subject, with the marks as the sorting column, in descending order. The 'Counted units' cell in row 6 for each subject then just employs a simple =COUNTIF check for how many times the name of the subject is included in this sorted list of the top 10 units, with a simple failsafe so that it is equal to 0 where the scaled mark is zero, and equal to 2 when above 2 are present (which can occur for English where less than 10 units are present and it is equal to 0 in some rare cases - unimportant for real calculations but nonetheless included for quality of life). There is also a simple detector for when a 0 is present in the top 10 units list using another =sortn function in ascending order (as a 0 will be the lowest value) which notifies the user that less than 10 units are present.

Finally, the conversion from aggregate to ATAR is percentile-based, so it could not directly be modelled through a quadratic - this produced extreme inaccuracies at high ATAR ranges. I got around this by calculating the quadratics in sections, and found that quadratic formulas were remarkably accurate within small ranges of ~5 data points. Because the UAC data does not extend below 50, I created a simple quadratic by equating an aggregate of 0 to an ATAR of 0 and including the 50 and 55 data points to provide a relatively realistic curve below 50. These equations were then inserted using a simple =IFS formula, with an integrated limitation to provide an * for marks below 30 (both to mirror the HSC and to prevent usage in an area where the calculator is inaccurate), which is then rounded to the nearest 0.05 using an =MROUND function. I considered using more intense rounding below certain ATAR points to remove the pretence of that level of accuracy at low ATARs, but ended up resolving against it to allow usage of the calculator as a tool to track progress. Each of the "ATAR equivalent" cells use this same formula, except with the scaled mark multiplied by 5 or 10 (for 2 and 1 unit subjects respectively) in place of the aggregate.

I definitely plan on adding more years in the future (with a dropdown for each subject), but given the time commitment needed to model each subject it just isn't really feasible, and at the end of the day last year's data is usually going to be the most relevant anyway. Adding more subjects isn't really possible due to the limited available data on rawmarks.info, because I've added every subject with sufficient data.

Some statistics on the aligned->ATAR conversion from some quick testing with some ATARs published on this website + conquer from last year (this is not native functionality, if you want to do this then go into advanced mode and enter them in the "unrounded aligned marks", and make sure you put a number for the raw mark of mx2 so that mx1 counts as 2 units):
- UAC ATAR Calculator had an average delta of 0.1 ATAR points (minimum of 0, maximum of 0.25)
- My ATAR Calculator had an average delta of 0.1 ATAR points (minimum of 0, maximum of 0.2)
- Matrix ATAR Caculator had an average delta of 0.25 ATAR points (minimum of 0.15, maximum of 0.45)

Keep in mind most of the ATARs used were quite high (95-99.5) but this is a bit unavoidable given the dataset on BoS/conquer. Obviously the aligned->ATAR conversion isn't the main part of my calculator but it's accuracy is nonetheless important. It's also just impressive that matrix, a major tutor company with limitless resources has a less accurate calculator than I made fairly easily in a few days.

These tests are outdated - I may retest at a later date as these calculations are significantly more accurate after some improvements.

If you made it this far then thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the calculator :)

Also if you find any issues or errors please let me know so I can fix them!
Super good bro I did not see this before, good job 😍 You should def try coding an ATAR calc as a CS project. personally i found for ME that trial marks didnt really help as they didnt give an accurate prediction but that might just be bc im an anomaly
 

ExtremelyBoredUser

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hopefully usyd! it just seems like such a nice uni and will be super convenient walking distance to where I’ll be living

hbu?
commuting time is rlly important when choosing uni bc being close to a uni will save so much time and money over time. Jokes aside between USYD vs UNSW, both are v. good and you can't go wrong.

Good thumb of rule for choosing unis is IMO


Priority:
1. Degree choice/interest
2. commuting time + scholarships (IF POSSIBLE dw if u didnt get any)
3. faculty
4. cost
5. friends/social
 
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carrotsss

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Super good bro I did not see this before, good job 😍 You should def try coding an ATAR calc as a CS project. personally i found for ME that trial marks didnt really help as they didnt give an accurate prediction but that might just be bc im an anomaly
that’s the plan! :)

the trial marks aren’t meant to be an accurate prediction (low key just click bait lol) but it’s more of a prediction of where you’re at at that point like what you’d get if your trials was your hsc if that makes sense
 

ExtremelyBoredUser

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that’s the plan! :)

the trial marks aren’t meant to be an accurate prediction (low key just click bait lol) but it’s more of a prediction of where you’re at at that point like what you’d get if your trials was your hsc if that makes sense
Yea ofc, ppl tend to over rely on atar calcs which is a big thing and should be prefaced that it should be a tool to form a vague/general idea on where's somegoing towards and DEPENDING on that how they should continue their efforts or get back in shape and go further.
 

ExtremelyBoredUser

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that’s the plan! :)

the trial marks aren’t meant to be an accurate prediction (low key just click bait lol) but it’s more of a prediction of where you’re at at that point like what you’d get if your trials was your hsc if that makes sense
All the best if you're going to use TS, if you ever need to rant about the countless bugs you'll get, I'll be here to empathise
 

carrotsss

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Yea ofc, ppl tend to over rely on atar calcs which is a big thing and should be prefaced that it should be a tool to form a vague/general idea on where's somegoing towards and DEPENDING on that how they should continue their efforts or get back in shape and go further.
Yeah I 100% agree (hence the like 20 disclaimers explaining all of the flaws) but after seeing countless people put their raw marks into normal ATAR calculators and then get super disheartened, imo if people are going to use ATAR calculators either way they might as well use one that is accurate for the purpose they’re using it for
 

carrotsss

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All the best if you're going to use TS, if you ever need to rant about the countless bugs you'll get, I'll be here to empathise
I’m so scared for web developing lol, pretty much all of my experience is in python which seems way easier
 

ExtremelyBoredUser

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I’m so scared for web developing lol, pretty much all of my experience is in python which seems way easier
Skip JS, TS is much better for a practical project, just as painful but feels more convenient..? I heard Reacts rlly good tho but never touched it
 

carrotsss

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Skip JS, TS is much better for a practical project, just as painful but feels more convenient..? I heard Reacts rlly good tho but never touched it
I haven’t looked into it too much but React seems like my best bet since it has such universal support and it’s so popular so it’ll be a nice skill to have down the road

I think some people don’t like react or prefer something else nowadays though? I have no clue it’s all too confusing
 

ExtremelyBoredUser

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I haven’t looked into it too much but React seems like my best bet since it has such universal support and it’s so popular so it’ll be a nice skill to have down the road

I think some people don’t like react or prefer something else nowadays though? I have no clue it’s all too confusing
Im saying TS because it felt most easy to pick up from C. I would say before trying react that you get the fundamentals of JS/TS so that you're more suited. I mean either way IMO you learn way more coding projects in languages than studying/watching vids. Trial-error/pain >>>>>>>> studying but ofc study before trial error so u dont just get crashed, just enough such that u can be able to debug and understand code.

Codings a great skill to pick up before going into uni, and given you are comfortable with the struggle you should be motivated to continue onwards. Saying this from someone who wasn't a big coder before uni but yh. Pythons a great base for JS, you should be fine with the transition.
 

ExtremelyBoredUser

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@dav53521 might be able to give you better advice on this since id assume hes more orientated/geared towards CS and more engaged with it for a longer time.
 

carrotsss

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Im saying TS because it felt most easy to pick up from C. I would say before trying react that you get the fundamentals of JS/TS so that you're more suited. I mean either way IMO you learn way more coding projects in languages than studying/watching vids. Trial-error/pain >>>>>>>> studying but ofc study before trial error so u dont just get crashed, just enough such that u can be able to debug and understand code.

Codings a great skill to pick up before going into uni, and given you are comfortable with the struggle you should be motivated to continue onwards. Saying this from someone who wasn't a big coder before uni but yh. Pythons a great base for JS, you should be fine with the transition.
Yeah that makes sense, honestly I’m almost certain I’ll struggle at first and get stuck in bugging hell no matter what but it’s a nice relatively simple project to get decent skills up in js, and I feel like that struggle to get something to work for hours is sorta something I enjoy anyway. I’m v excited for coding in uni though I feel like it’ll be so much fun
 

dav53521

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I've personally never liked front end and never been a big fan of Python as I fell in love with programming through C# but I feel that TS/JS from python is not that big of a jump while JS (not too sure about TS) can be very strange at times I feel that if you put in the time you could definitely do it. Like even python to C or C++ is possible, will take a long time and will be very difficult but is possible.

I feel that if you know a lot of the basic concepts it is very possible to switch languages for example at UTS we learn Python and Java along side each other and in concepts they were very similar although they did have some deviations it was definitely possible and the similarities was very apparent as a lot of programming can carry over.

Also there are an abundant amount of resources online, like I personally look up things all the time, and I would say that's fine as long as you're thinking about it and using the internet to help you with things that you don't know. The worst thing to do is only know how to follow tutorials as that's how you end up in tutorial hell but using it to help you with something you don't know is ok.

One other thing I would say is that you're initial code is probably gonna be horrendous when you look back upon it but that shows your learning and growing so it's ok. For example major project was absolutely horrible like I knew nothing about OOP so I made some really poor design choices but it's all part of learning.

Plus you can implement a MVC pattern which will allow you to use something like Python for the backend and then use HTML/CSS and JS for the front end.
 
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