Highest scaling QCE subjects for 2026 (QTAC's 2025 data)

Every figure on this page comes from Table 6 of QTAC's ATAR Report 2025 (published February 2026), which gives the raw and scaled result at the 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th and 99th percentiles of each subject's cohort.

How QTAC scaling actually works

QTAC's scaling is iterative, not a table of fixed bonuses:

1. Each student starts with an estimate of overall achievement (a "polyrank") based on their results.
2. For each subject, QTAC models how raw results relate to the overall achievement of the students who took it and sets a scaled result for every possible raw result: 100 possible results for each General subject and 5 (A to E) for each Applied subject.
3. Polyranks are recalculated from the new scaled results, and the process repeats until it converges.

Completed VET qualifications are scaled by AQF level, so every Certificate III gets the same scaled result regardless of the industry area.

Two consequences:

• There is no single "offset". How much a subject lifts or lowers a result changes along the range. In 2025, Specialist Mathematics lifted a 25th-percentile raw result of 70 to 88.94, but a 99th-percentile raw 99 only to 98.67.
• Scaled results are not percentages. They sit on QTAC's common 100-point scale, which reflects how students achieved both within and across subjects.

General subjects: 2025 results at the cohort median

Subjects with more than 1,000 results in the scaling data.

Smaller subjects with high medians included French (608 results, 94.98), German (262, 91.49), English & Literature Extension (852, 90.57) and Philosophy & Reason (760, 84.53). Small cohorts can change a lot between years.

At the lower end among large subjects: Film, Television & New Media (56.15), General Mathematics (59.54), Health (59.87), Physical Education (61.57), Visual Art (61.94) and Business (62.70). English sat at 70.12 and Psychology at 69.27.

Where you finish matters more than the subject

The percentile columns show how much position within a subject matters. In 2025:

• A 90th-percentile Biology result (raw 94) scaled to 90.97, above a median Chemistry result (90.36).
• A 90th-percentile English result (raw 91) scaled to 89.48, above a median Literature result (85.99).
• A median Mathematical Methods result (89.64) was far above a 90th-percentile General Mathematics result (76.72). The gap reflects who takes each course.

Applied subjects and VET do count

QTAC's ATAR is built from your best five scaled results under one of three schemes: five General subjects; four General plus one Applied subject; or four General plus one completed VET qualification at Certificate III or above. So Applied subjects can count, but only one of them.

Because Applied subjects are graded A to E, each has only five possible scaled results. In 2025:

Completed VET qualifications scaled to 38.00 (Certificate III), 51.84 (Certificate IV) and 58.72 (Diploma).

In practice an Applied subject or Certificate III rarely beats a solid General result, but it can replace a weak one. QTAC also precludes counting General and Applied English together, or General and Applied mathematics together (for example Mathematical Methods and Essential Mathematics).

For the full eligibility rules and 2026 release dates, see how the QCE ATAR is calculated. You can test subject mixes with the QCE ATAR calculator.