Entire state’s high school leavers forced to have their final exam results recalculated after ‘procedural error’
- Tasmanian high school graduates had ATAR recalculated following stuff up
- ‘Procedural error’ in the scoring impacted Asian Studies students the most
- The maximum score was calculated as 30 per cent lower this year than the last
- Students impacted will be given their correct scores later on Wednesday
An entire state’s high school leavers have had their final exam results recalculated after a ‘procedural error’ impacted their overall scores.
Tasmanian high school graduates were given a revised Australian Tertiary Entrance Rank (ATAR) statement on Tuesday night following the discovery of a technical stuff up, the ABC reported.
The change comes after some of Tasmania’s highest-achieving final year students were given a maximum score that was 30 per cent lower than last year.
Tasmanian high school graduates were given a revised Australian Tertiary Entrance Rank (ATAR) statement on Tuesday night following the discovery of a technical stuff up (stock photo)
The change comes after some of Tasmania’s highest-achieving final year students were given a maximum score that was 30 per cent lower than last year (stock photo)
Asian Studies students have been the biggest impacted, with the maximum score this year set at 18 point, down 8 points from last year.
Student Yasmine Wright Gittins said she and her peers were upset after receiving their scores.
‘We were all shocked, and pretty emotionally distraught over it, a lot of people were quite reliant on the marks they needed to receive from that subject,’ she said.
The score had reduced her overall ATAR and Ms Gittins said she feared it would impact her application for a scholarship at university.
Though her alarm as well as the other student’s may be alleviated after a ‘procedural error’ was discovered in the scoring.
The units offered to students as part of Tasmania High Achiever Program (HAP) and University Connections Program (UCP) were found to be impacted.
As a result, the original scores have been renegged and high school graduates can expect a recalculated ATAR on Wednesday.
‘The University has been supplied with the revised ATAR and subject data, and selection processes will be re-started using the new data,’ TASC said in the statement.
‘The changes to Tertiary Entrance Scores for this group of students has required us to recalculate the Australian Tertiary Entrance Rank (ATAR) for all students in the 2018 cohort,’ Tasmanian Assessment, Standards and Certification (TASC) said in a statement.
Asian Studies students have been the biggest impacted, with the maximum score this year set at 18 point, down 8 points from last year (stock photo)
A government spokesperson said TASC was investigating the data and that the blunder had been ‘unfortunate’.
They reiterated that scholarships to the University of Tasmania or mainland universities would not be impacted as a result.
The HAP and UCP mean students studying their Tasmanian Certificate of Education (TCE) can also study university-level units.