How the SACE ATAR is calculated (2026): university aggregate, scaling and SATAC's conversion

In South Australia and the Northern Territory, the SACE Board issues your results and certificate, and SATAC (the South Australian Tertiary Admissions Centre) calculates the ATAR for SACE and NTCET students. Both appear in SACE Students Online: your ATAR is on your SATAC Tertiary Entrance Statement (TES).

Step 1: qualify for the SACE

To be eligible for a university aggregate, SATAC requires you to:

• qualify for the SACE or NTCET;
• follow SATAC's rules on precluded combinations and counting restrictions;
• complete at least 90 credits of Tertiary Admissions Subjects (TAS) and Recognised Studies at Stage 2;
• make sure at least 60 of those 90 credits come from 20-credit TAS (or valid pairs of 10-credit subjects).

The SACE itself needs 200 credits, including 50 credits of compulsory requirements (Stage 1 Exploring Identities and Futures, a 20-credit literacy requirement, a 10-credit numeracy requirement, and Stage 2 Activating Identities and Futures) and at least 60 further credits at Stage 2. Compulsory requirements need a C or better at Stage 1 and a C- or better at Stage 2.

Step 2: raw scores and scaling

Your overall subject grade (A+ to E-) is not what SATAC scales. Instead:

1. Each school-assessed assessment type is converted to a number (A+ = 15, A = 14, down to E- = 1) and weighted.
2. Your external assessment (usually an exam) contributes its numeric result.
3. These combine into a raw score out of 15.0. In a subject with 70% school assessment, the school part contributes up to 10.5 and the external part up to 4.5.
4. SATAC scales raw scores so results in different subjects can be compared. The same scaling formula applies to everyone in a subject.

Scaled scores are out of 20 for 20-credit subjects and 10 for 10-credit subjects. If you don't attempt the external assessment, your scaled score is 0.0, although the subject can still count towards the credit requirements.

Because scaling works on raw scores, two students with the same grade can get different scaled scores. SATAC's own example: a B- in Legal Studies might correspond to scaled scores anywhere from 12.4 to 14.2.

Step 3: the university aggregate (out of 90)

Your 90 credits can come from up to three attempts (years), which don't have to be consecutive.

Step 4: from aggregate to ATAR

SATAC ranks all qualifying students by university aggregate, gives each aggregate a percentile rank, then adjusts for the participation rate (the cohort's size compared with the population of the same age, using ABS data) to produce the ATAR.

SATAC's 2025 conversion shows how the scale behaved last year:

SATAC warns that historical conversion tables are not a reliable way to predict future ATARs and does not recommend online ATAR predictors. The 2026 table is due in December 2026.

Adjustment factors: selection rank, not ATAR

SATAC administers two adjustment schemes for its participating institutions. Points are added to your university aggregate to create a selection rank; your ATAR does not change. The maximum is 9 points:

• Universities Equity Scheme: 5 points. Automatic if your school qualifies (based on remoteness, participation rate and ICSEA). Students at other schools can apply individually if, in their ATAR year, they or their parents received a Commonwealth means-tested income support payment, they held (or a parent held) a Health Care Card or Pensioner Concession Card, they were eligible for a School Card, or (for study from 2027) they were an NDIS participant with an approved plan.
• Universities Language, Literacy and Mathematics Scheme: 2 or 4 points. 2 points for one eligible subject and 4 for two or more, each completed with a C- or better: 20 credits of a language other than English, English or English Literary Studies, Mathematical Methods, or Specialist Mathematics. A few courses, such as Medical Studies at Adelaide University, are excluded.

For subject choice, see choosing SACE subjects with scaling in mind. For release dates and offer rounds, see SACE results day and SATAC offers.