Should Australia Ditch the ATAR?

Recently, it was revealed only 26 per cent of students entered university using an ATAR in 2016.

Given how three quarters of students found an alternative pathway into uni, we asked our members: Do you think students should still be subjected to the stress of getting an ATAR? Do we need to find a new system? Here’s one thoughtful response, from student Robin Woods.

As a current Year 12 student who is constantly stressing out about my mark and whether it is good enough for me to get my ideal ATAR, I don't (ironically enough) think we should ditch the ATAR.

Getting rid of this whole exhausting system may sound great at first, until we realise that such a system is necessary for universities to judge whether or not the academic ability of a student is sufficient for a course, and for students themselves to decide whether they are suited for this path of their own choices.

If not ATAR, other ways of measuring a student's ability would be necessary, and unfortunately, we don't have such a perfect methodology that can fully assess all aspects of a person.

ATAR is about as good as we can get as a means of evaluation, as it averages out one's score over the year (incorporating weighted school marks and exam marks), scales the scores accordingly, and gives a final rank to compare one with one's cohort.

Among the students not studying ATAR subjects, other forms of assessment are applied, including aptitude tests, interviews and essays. If we ditch ATAR, one or more of these other tests will need to be undertaken by all the students as a substitution. While taking the pressure off some students for not needing to produce high marks, simultaneously, some other students who are not particularly good at any of these other forms of examinations will experience more pressure.

The increasing percentage of alternative pathway enrolments should not make us panic about the validity of ATAR; instead, we should feel relieved that there are other options to get us where we want to go.

It is good to know that those who did not perform their best during exams (could be any of us) and those who are not natural 'marathon runners' (a proper analogy for any senior student) may not miss out on the university experience.

Taking ATAR subjects can be stressful, but so is university, and work, and, as a matter of fact, life itself. The best way to get through it is not by protesting against the system—though it has space to improve—but by learning to persevere, strengthen ourselves and carry on.

Congratulations to Robin for winning this week's writing challenge: Should Australia Ditch the ATAR? Robin wins a $50 Westfield gift card for her submission. For your chance to win, check out our latest writing challenges in our Competitions section. Also, be sure to follow this guide on how to win the writing challenge

Photo: iStock.com/PeopleImages