Is it even possible to achieve an ATAR of 99.90+ without doing 4U Maths? (1 Viewer)

[stellyy]

Hi I dropped 4u maths last term since I was feeling a bit overwhelmed balancing with my other subjects and I just realised nearly 99% of the people who got 99.90+ ATAR necessarily did 4u maths. Is it unrealistically hard to pull your ATAR up to 99.90+ without doing 4u maths even if you're acing in 2u and 3u? Many thanks!

 

[InteGrand]

Hi I dropped 4u maths last term since I was feeling a bit overwhelmed balancing with my other subjects and I just realised nearly 99% of the people who got 99.90+ ATAR necessarily did 4u maths. Is it unrealistically hard to pull your ATAR up to 99.90+ without doing 4u maths even if you're acing in 2u and 3u? Many thanks!

It is indeed possible to get 99.9+ without doing 4U maths. Doing 4U is neither necessary nor sufficient for getting 99.9+ ATAR (although it can be helpful).

Also, I doubt that 99% of people with 99.9+ ATAR did 4U maths. That seems too big a proportion. For example, in 2015, 92 people got 99.9+ ATAR: http://www.uac.edu.au/documents/atar/2015-tables/A7.pdf (I think the number is similar in most other years, you can check by searching up past UAC tables.) So if just one person in 2015 got 99.9+ ATAR without doing HSC 4U Maths, that'd make it less than 99% of 99.9+'ers having done 4U. There are probably a fair few people who get 99.9+ each year without doing 4U, so the proportion of those who get 99.9+ ATAR that have done 4U maths would be easily under 99%.

You can also check the UAC tables that say the highest ATAR achieved by anyone doing a given subject. Here's the 2015 one: http://www.uac.edu.au/documents/atar/2015-tables/A1.pdf . You can check for the 2U maths one there. As it shows, the highest ATAR obtained by someone doing 2U maths (which means they didn't do 4U maths) was 99.95.

 

[JT145]

possible, yes

probably makes it a tad harder though.

 

[Nailgun]

Hi I dropped 4u maths last term since I was feeling a bit overwhelmed balancing with my other subjects and I just realised nearly 99% of the people who got 99.90+ ATAR necessarily did 4u maths. Is it unrealistically hard to pull your ATAR up to 99.90+ without doing 4u maths even if you're acing in 2u and 3u? Many thanks!

I know a few people who got 99.9+ doing only humanities (they were exceptionally gifted though lol)
That being said, I wouldn't be surprised if the vast majority of 99.9+ers did 4U maths. That doesn't make it impossible by any stretch of imagination though.

 

[eyeseeyou]

Yes but you need to achieve ridiculously higher ranks in all your other subjcts

 

[Nailgun]

Yes but you need to achieve ridiculously higher ranks in all your other subjcts

Obviously there's a trade-off involved. 4U may scale very well, and with 3U makeup a substantial portion of your 10 units, but it's very demanding. Most 4u kids I know spend probably ~70% of their time solely on 4u. You have to consider the balance with your other subjects, like there are still another 6 units you need to do well in, regardless of how well you do in 4u.

Plus you still have to go and actually do well in 4U first as well ahahah, there is a reason it scales as well as it does.

Even if you get 100 in 4U and 3U (read: you are a fking genius lol) but getting low to mid band 5s in your other subjects, you are still looking at an ATAR between 95-97

 

[axwe7]

Just be like that Ft Street kid.

 

[WrittenLoveLetters]

Any, if not most, combinations of subjects accompanied with your hard work can result in a 99.90+

I believe the Dux of 2015 at my school did: 4U Eng, Legal Studies, Visual Arts, Serbian and maybe...2U Maths
This was followed by a 99.50 who did: 4U Eng, 3U Maths, Accelerated Business, Economics, Modern History

 

[eyeseeyou]

Just be like that Ft Street kid.

Janek Drevikovsky