I just finished year 12, and got my results

bartobarto
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
UAI = 72.45



115.66 in English

139.54 in Advanced Maths

151.26 in IT

146.30 in Physics

159.22 in Economics



AST = 187.72



180.50 Verbal AST

192.88 Quantative AST

169.17 Writing Task



Any other Aussies want to share their UAI/TER/ENTER score etc?



Heh... well, I can't get into Uni in Canberra then... the UC requires a UAI of 75, and the ANU requires 80. For the curious Americans, all Australian students get a UAI (also called TER and ENTER) based on how well they do in the various school systems... the methods vary state-by-state. Your entrance to Uni as a school leaver is based solely on your UAI, your application is NOT assessed individually (although you are eligable for bonus points to your UAI if you are disadvantaged).



In the ACT (where I live), it is based on the 80 assignments you do over 2 years (assuming you do 5 subjects per semester), and then adjusted using your AST result. The AST is almost identical to the SAT, except it only adjusts your existing scores (rather than being a score in itself). The mean of the AST is 150, and the standard deviation is 27.5.



So... I've got to decide whether I'm prepared to move interstate (probably Adelaide) to go to Uni. Ah well, probably will. It will probably will be fun too



Barto

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 11
    staphbabystaphbaby Posts: 353member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Barto

    UAI = 72.45



    Well done, dude. Congratulations.



    I nearly fell off my seat a few weeks ago when a year 12 I work with told me that she needed 80 to get into Arts at ANU - it was about 55/60 when I got into uni (1997)



    You should probably bear in mind that advertised cut-offs are cut-offs for first round offers - offers will usually go somewhat lower in the second and final rounds (the cut-offs are really only a reflection of the quality of the field applying to each uni in each particular year). I knew a guy who got into ANU Law with 85 in a year in which the cutoff was about 92...



    Quote:

    Any other Aussies want to share their UAI/TER/ENTER score etc?



    Heh... well, I can't get into Uni in Canberra then... the UC requires a UAI of 75, and the ANU requires 80. For the curious Americans, all Australian students get a UAI (also called TER and ENTER) based on how well they do in the various school systems... the methods vary state-by-state. Your entrance to Uni as a school leaver is based solely on your UAI, your application is NOT assessed individually (although you are eligable for bonus points to your UAI if you are disadvantaged).



    If its easier to visualise for you non-Australians out there, the NSW TER simply states a percentile: i.e. what percent of the State (or since a few years ago, those applying to uni) you beat. Its a ranking system.



    Quote:

    In the ACT (where I live), it is based on the 80 assignments you do over 2 years (assuming you do 5 subjects per semester), and then adjusted using your AST result. The AST is almost identical to the SAT, except it only adjusts your existing scores (rather than being a score in itself). The mean of the AST is 150, and the standard deviation is 27.5.



    I thought the AST was used as a measure to standardise school marking systems rather than individual scores i.e. it standardised the mean at each school, which then was used to re-peg results for people at schools, not your individual AST being used to adjust your individual score?



    Does that even make sense? I could well be talking out of my bottom.



    It's got to be easier to visualise than the NSW system, which in my year went like this:



    50% of assessment in school (assignment/exam based)

    50% of assessment based on final State-wide exams.



    Standardisation of school results was done by an examination of the result on the final exams: the results of all students were compared for relative position in the exams, and an aggregate weighting was derived from this to reflect how well students from each school went in each individual subject against the rest of the state. This was then used to moderate the school scores. Moderation was also applied between subjects as well, with subjects being assessed for the relative performance of students enrolled in them in other subjects against the same measure in other other subjects, and then scaled to reflect the presumptive performance of those students.



    This is why the mean in 3 Unit Latin was always about 80%...



    They used to give out a little 10 page booklet explaining the statistical method they used; don't know if they still do this.



    Quote:

    So... I've got to decide whether I'm prepared to move interstate (probably Adelaide) to go to Uni. Ah well, probably will. It will probably will be fun too

    Barto [/B]



    You know you want to... Canberra gets a bit much after 20+ years.
  • Reply 2 of 11
    scottscott Posts: 7,431member
    It doesn't seem to me that your act is like our sat. The SATs are a one day test that attempts to normalize students in some subjects. Your ACT is based on two years of performance.
  • Reply 3 of 11
    staphbabystaphbaby Posts: 353member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Scott

    It doesn't seem to me that your act is like our sat. The SATs are a one day test that attempts to normalize students in some subjects. Your ACT is based on two years of performance.



    ACT = Australian Capital Territory

    NSW = New South Wales (a State)

    AST = (something) standardising test (or something like that, anyway)



    In the ACT the AST standardises marks earned (over two years) at individual schools for all subjects; its also a brief (less than a day) test.



    In NSW, a complex analysis of two years performance is used instead of a single standardising test.



    How do other countries do this, anyway? What is an A-level when you meet it in the street?
  • Reply 4 of 11
    bartobarto Posts: 2,246member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Scott

    It doesn't seem to me that your act is like our sat. The SATs are a one day test that attempts to normalize students in some subjects. Your ACT is based on two years of performance.



    Heh, you misread what I posted. The ACT system is different from most, but it INCLUDES a test called the AST, which is almost identical to the SAT (except it is two half days this year), used to adjust subject scores so they are comparable (and able to be aggregated).



    The main difference as I understand it is that in the USA (correct me if I am wrong), the SAT is sometimes used as a score by itself. Whereas we have the Australia-wide UAI/TER/ENTER.



    Barto



    PS AST = Australian Scaling Test
  • Reply 5 of 11
    staphbabystaphbaby Posts: 353member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Barto

    Heh, you misread what I posted. The ACT system is different from most, but it INCLUDES a test called the AST, which is almost identical to the SAT (except it is two half days this year), used to adjust subject scores so they are comparable (and able to be aggregated).

    PS AST = Australian Scaling Test



    I got the "test" bit right, anyway...
  • Reply 6 of 11
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    Most universities in the States tend to except one of two standardized test (or both). . . The infamous SAT and the less infamous ACT (I'm pretty sure it's called the ACT, which I know will confuse things more). They also look at your high school grades.



    Going further, selective universities look at all sorts of additional stuff, and tend to require lengthy applications.
  • Reply 7 of 11
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    The irony is that in the US, that single standardized test score predicts college grades better than overall high school GPA, which is based on several years of performance and many many different tests. You'd think the GPA would be a better predictor, but it's not. Must be grade inflation and just the lack of comparability of grades between different high schools.
  • Reply 8 of 11
    existenceexistence Posts: 991member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by BRussell

    The irony is that in the US, that single standardized test score predicts college grades better than overall high school GPA, which is based on several years of performance and many many different tests. You'd think the GPA would be a better predictor, but it's not. Must be grade inflation and just the lack of comparability of grades between different high schools.



    I don't put much weight behind standardized tests. For example, in applicants applying to law school, it has been shown that their grandfather's educational level has a higher correlation with their grades than their LSAT score.



    The SAT has a correlation of less than .18...it's absmal. I'm sure you could find correlations much higher than .18 within a student's socioeconomic stature.
  • Reply 9 of 11
    splinemodelsplinemodel Posts: 7,311member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Existence

    I don't put much weight behind standardized tests. For example, in applicants applying to law school, it has been shown that their grandfather's educational level has a higher correlation with their grades than their LSAT score.



    The SAT has a correlation of less than .18...it's absmal. I'm sure you could find correlations much higher than .18 within a student's socioeconomic stature.



    True, but there are a lot of other things that impact college grades that don't impact high school grades much, and furthermore I'm very convinced that most of the really brilliant people in college aren't the ones getting 3.8's. So intelligence, what does it correlate with? Who the hell knows. . . but I do think it correlates a bit better with SAT than with GPA.
  • Reply 10 of 11
    dmband0026dmband0026 Posts: 2,345member
    A lot of universities here in the midwest have stopped requiring an SAT score, and look a lot less at your ACT score now than they did years ago. Now it's more about GPA. I can't decide which way I liked better, basing your entire future on one test, or looking at a HS GPA which is hardly an indicator of how intelligent or successful a student will be.

    I didn't take the SAT, but did take the ACT and got a 26 on it. Ya'll are gonna love this:

    (All out of 36)

    English: 28

    Reading: 29

    Science: 34

    Math: 12

    That's right, a 12 on the math part. I'm a pretty smart kid, except when it comes to numbers. If I had even gotten a 20 on the math it would have boosted my score to a 28 which isn't all that bad (neither is a 26, but a higher score would have been nice).
  • Reply 11 of 11
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Existence

    I don't put much weight behind standardized tests. For example, in applicants applying to law school, it has been shown that their grandfather's educational level has a higher correlation with their grades than their LSAT score.



    The SAT has a correlation of less than .18...it's absmal. I'm sure you could find correlations much higher than .18 within a student's socioeconomic stature.



    That may be true, I don't know. But compare standardized tests to any other admissions criteria in use - GPA, letters of ref., personal statement ( ), etc. Guess which has the best predictive validity?
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