Okay, it's kind of really complicated, but I'll explain how this works.
In highschool, you leave Year 12 with an ATAR score. It's a number between 0 and 99.95 which ranks you against other students. The higher the number, the better you scored. For example, if you got an ATAR of 85.00, you are in the top 15% of senior highschool students across the country. If you got a 60.00 ATAR, you are in the top 40%, 55.00 is 45% and so on.
Subjects at universities here all have an ATAR requirement, you have to have a certain ATAR to get into a certain subject. Subjects like Medicine require high ATARs, usually 95.00+, and the less "prestigious/difficult" the subject, the lower ATAR it'll require. Universities which are more renowned for a subject will have higher ATAR admission numbers than Universities that aren't renowned for that subject. For example, a University which is well known for it's great Medicine course might have an ATAR admission score of 97.00. Meanwhile, a University where Medicine isn't really that great a subject to get into, could have an ATAR admission score of 94.00.
Most universities have an admission ATAR score of around 60, just to get in. Now this may sound difficult, but consider this: The percentage ATAR accommodates for is including everybody who is eligible for an ATAR score, not everyone will receive an ATAR score because they might not want to go to university. If that doesn't make sense, look at it like this: Even if you got 0% on every single exam you did that went towards your ATAR (you have to do five "pre-tertiarty" (aka difficult) subjects to get an ATAR), you would still get an ATAR of over 20.00, because most likely 20% of people in the country who are eligible for an ATAR won't get one, because they're probably doing something like an apprenticeship, or some other form of education.
Now, we DO have GPA's. One type of GPA is our GPA which is used into admission into some specific subjects like law and medicine. We also can translate our scores in high school, our ATAR, to your GPA, if we want to, say, go to the USA to study.
Basically, Australia is a ranking system. It's you against everyone, and not you against a test %.
Ah I see. So it's more like percentiles vs your own score. We get ranked too in our classes in 12th grade, but it's by GPA, so... (which is not really a measurable thing because someone with a high ACT or SAT score and a lot of advanced classes could have a lower GPA than a person with easy "dumb" classes and lower test scores). ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I see. Well in essence, it doesn't really matter what subjects you do, as long as it's per-tertiary (level 3 or 4) than it counts towards your ATAR, and you need to do five of those.
It's kind of similar here to what you're saying... You could do level 3's that are really easy, and get a higher ATAR than someone who did a bunch of tough level 4s, and hence have higher admission. However, university subjects will require a lot of per-requisites, and the harder subjects are per-requesites (the easier ones are not). So, it works. There's no cheating the system, or getting unfairly ranked. It's just you against everyone else.
From my point of view, the Jedi are Evil a C is a 50%!
Okay, in all seriousness, where I live a C is a 50% for some subjects, such as Physical Sciences (Chem/Physics). That subject has this for its grading:
Keep in mind I live in Australia. Not in North America, or the UK. In Australia, we don't have F's. In most places. Some weird places have F. Anyway... We do A, B, C, D, E from years 7-12, in most places. Where I live, in years 11-12, we have A, B, C, and t. t is automatic fail. Although I think t is just what Tasmania uses. This is a comprehensive guide to our Secondary Grading system, courtesy of Australianeducation.info.
For some other details, in case you don't understand:
Year 12 = Senior
Year 11 = Junior
Year 10 = Sophomore
Year 9 = Freshman
Highschool/Secondary Education = 7-12 (Note: Some places use 7-10, and Year 11-12 is "College")
Primary = K*/P* - 6
K* = Kindergarten
P* = Prep
Hm, so high school starts in year 7? If year 11 is college, you guys must have some young college people (compared to us). We skip the grade E entirely, but also . . . I can't understand how getting only 50% can be a passing grade. We must grade more strictly over here or something.
Yes, we don't have middle school. High school starts at year 7.
Well, year 11-12 is college here, but college here is not college over there. College students in the US are university students in Australia.
You do grade more strictly. But I also believe that the content you get given and the way it is given to you results in harder pass ranks.
Hello, my good fellow. I don't believe we hath met?
Hello there! *tips cap* Well, I recognize the username, however that could just be because I have seen it before on here; I do not know if we have ever talked before.
*raises top hat* I was on the old LMBs, perhaps you saw it there.
Yeah, not to complain, but . . . when you're good at a bunch of things it makes it hard to decide. I do hope so as well.
Proofs aren't exactly enjoyable for me but I don't mind them. I have neutral feelings about them, I suppose. I suppose what's necessary for a job is a selective memory to remember well the things you need to know and forget everything else.
Yep, a lot of gray yellow and blue, but the colorblindness also affects green somewhat too.
Ah, I see. Perhaps something specifically mathematical since you like it best. Awesome.
That's fair. They aren't the easiest things to do, but once in a while they can be interesting. That's pretty much how it goes. There's a lot of math in the back of my mind that I haven't touched in a very long time.
I see. I've heard it's usually the reds and the greens that are most affected.
I've been leaning toward something mathematical probably because my of my parents, but I'm still not sure. And now I've gotten to the age where I kind of need to decide. . . .
I think proofs are usually always interesting to me, but again, not that easy to do. I suppose if you ever need to learn that math if you revisit it'll come back to the front of your mind.
Yep, red-green color vision deficiency is the most common kind, which I have.
Ah, I see. I can understand why people weren't happy with two more years of high school. I know it's quite easy to switch majors in college, but is it more difficult to switch strands?
Ah, I see. That sounds like quite a bit of school, but film writing and stuff sounds very interesting! I'm just not doing it because I'd be bad at it.
I would say that was eight to ten years ago, so I dunno. Probably like 2012. *Gasp* it's a four-year cycle! And we're all hoping that things get better.
Honestly, I'm not sure if switching stands is possible but if it is, it's gonna be hard to adjust.
It is a lot but honestly, me choosing film right after is placed that way so that if I wanna kill that dream of mine in case stuff gets worse in the future (which it will), at least I'll have some career-related background that's more common than "big" (idk the right words to describe that, sry).
Why do you think you'd be bad at it tho?
I see. I'M SO GLAD I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO NOTICED THAT! 2012 was bad for me as a kid, 2016 was worse, and then 2020 is objectively disastrous. I do too but with the possibility of the coronavirus lasting until 2021 or 2022, it won't, especially for me who has already suffered too much here at home.
Ah, I see. So that must be much more difficult than switching majors, but I'm sure there are different "concentrations" you could call them inside each strand.
I understand that. If film falls through or something you have another option that you've already studied for that should be easy to get a job in.
Well . . . actually I haven't thought about that much. I'm just not super creative or good at film-related things, I don't think. What exactly do you want to do? Maybe then I could think through more deeply.
Oh wow! It's a four-year cycle for you too. (This is kind of crazy. ) I don't want to know what 2024 will hold. I know that the virus will probably stick around until at least 2021, but viruses normally mutate into less harmful ones, so the hope is more people have immunity and the virus is not as bad. However . . . there's a possibility people don't get immunity and the virus stays just as bad.
The sadness is palpable. (I watched the first three, but I can't remember the theme. Let me go check . . . that was not what I was expecting for this conversation. It's not even the kind of music one blares. Edit: Oh wait, now I've gotten to the triumphant part! Blare it indeed! )
I wish it weren't. (Did you like it? I watched the whole first season with my family. BLARE THE SONG OF THE MANDALORIAN PEOPLE! )
I know. Sadness is not happy. (Yes, I did, but none of us has the streaming service to watch it. We watched the first three when my oldest brother came home for the Christmas holiday or something. My parents weren't thrilled with it (my dad just wanted him to take off his helmet ) but I thought it was cool)
Yep, I definitely know of the baby boomer generation those young whippersnappers.
OK, so a joke that was popular a few months ago was kids saying "ok boomer" to anything anyone older than 30 said to them.
Ah, I understand this. So basically if some "older" person said something that wasn't "with the times" then he got called a Boomer. What else have you to teach me?
![[derp]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/YqNTPqyQUocVMYXZgUAI.png)
I do hope so as well. 
(I watched the first three, but I can't remember the theme. Let me go check . . . that was not what I was expecting for this conversation. 
(Yes, I did, but none of us has the streaming service to watch it. We watched the first three when my oldest brother came home for the Christmas holiday or something. My parents weren't thrilled with it (my dad just wanted him to take off his helmet ![[h]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/lOAvnqZAwGbbMRBuxiWY.png)
![[h]](http://storage.proboards.com/6672327/images/nPCskakrdhDERqIVGKuw.png)