Hi everyone, hope you are all well.

johnny

So one of my goals is to achieve an ATAR of 95 so I can get into the course I want to do. I am currently in year 11 and unfortunately, I just achieved back my English Advanced marks and achieved a mark of 73% and a rank of 64/217. I know this is bad, and this will probably scale down to a mark of 60 and as English is compulsory it's gonna count to my ATAR. I'm now really concerned about whether or not I should drop down to standard or I should stay in the advanced course. I'm just really disappointed because this task was an assignment, I prepared well for it, gave 2 drafts in and I still achieved quite a low mark due to the large scale of students in my school. I'm even more scared that if I drop down to the standard and achieve the same mark that it will be a much worse situation for me. So I really don't know what to do, how to improve or any of the sort.

I'm also generally concerned that I will have to be ranked in the top 5 students for all subjects to achieve the ATAR I need. I don't believe I'm smart enough to do that; just any advice or guidance about this would be so helpful.

NicoNico

Hi there johnny ! I know that it is very disappointing when we don't get the mark that we aimed for, particularly if we put in our best efforts. I got a 64% on my creative piece this year, and I was also very disappointed. My school is very competitive, and I felt like I was getting nowhere since all of my friends got really good marks and I was the only one who didn't. Honestly I don't really feel smart at all as well, since I forget stuff so easily. But nonetheless, this is a journey, and sadly we're bound to face some hardships. If we bounce back quickly, review our mistakes, and work on it, I'm sure you'll see some improvements! As a VCE student, I don't really know what your assignment was, but I learnt that the quality of practice is fundamental, even more than the quantity of practice. So for next time, I suggest scrutinising the feedback you received from your drafts and hone those skills.

I'm really sorry if my advice was a bit bad, but I just wanted to motivate you that it's not over yet, and there's still a big adventure ahead of you! I hope you bounce back quickly and get the marks you want! We're all in it together 🙂

BriMT

Wow it really sucks to put in all that effort and not get the returns for it.

For one of my bio SACs I got a worse mark than that and ended up scoring in the top 2% for bio. Also you don't need top 5% for all your subjects to get a 95 ATAR. I got a 98.30 ATAR and I was NOT in the top 2% for all my subjects - it's overall, not for each.

Don't give up hope. What you need to do here is figure out what specifically lost you those marks you were hoping to get. Specific feedback. Then you can work on those things.

Fingers crossed for you!