More boys are getting top ATARs. Here’s how they’re doing it

06 Sep 2024

Parramatta Marist High School students Joseph Baini and Jean-Paul Boutros are hoping for top exam results. Credit: Rhett Wyman

Fewer girls achieved near-perfect ATARs of 99 in the HSC, while an increasing number of boys are leaving school with better marks than five years ago.

Boys receiving an ATAR above 90 – which would get a student into law at UTS, actuarial studies at UNSW or civil engineering at Sydney University – are now almost on par with girls, while the proportion receiving an ATAR over 70 has also increased.

Percentage of ATAR students receiving specific ATARs and above

ATAR	%female 2019	%female 2020	%female 2021	%female 2022	%female 2023
99	47.2%	45.1%	47.3%	41.8%	40.6%
98	52.6%	47.9%	49.5%	46.2%	42.3%
95	55.8%	51.7%	52.8%	51.2%	49.2%
90	57.7%	54.3%	55.5%	54.8%	52.6%
80	56.9%	56.1%	57.1%	56.2%	55.0%
70	57.2%	56.4%	56.8%	56.1%	55.3%
60	53.0%	56.1%	56.1%	55.4%	54.9%
50	54.8%	55.4%	55.4%	54.7%	54.5%
40	48.4%	55.0%	54.8%	54.3%	54.2%
30	46.5%	54.5%	54.5%	54.2%	53.9%

Source: Universities Admissions Centre 2023 report on HSC scaling

Girls getting an ATAR above 99 – which would see them get into high-status courses such as law at the University of Sydney – has slipped by almost seven percentage points, with them now making up 40 per cent of students getting an ATAR above 99.

The most common HSC subjects taken by students who got an ATAR above 99.00 were mathematics extension 1, English advanced, mathematics extension 2, chemistry, physics, mathematics advanced, biology, economics and English extension 1.

Dr Robin Nagy, director of Academic Profiles, a consultancy that analyses schools’ HSC results, said very high ATAR scores generally have extension mathematics contributing handsomely.

“Boys dominate in terms of the percentage of enrolments in these higher level maths courses and maths extension 1 and extension 2 scale better than virtually all other courses, and so this may advantage high-flying boys over girls in terms of subject selection,” he said.

Across the board, girls still received a higher median ATAR of 71.90 compared to boys, who received 70 last year, the Universities Admissions Centre report on scaling found.

Macquarie University Professor Rod Yager, chair of the organisation’s scaling committee, said the uptick in boys receiving higher ATARs showed boys were starting to perform as expected.

“I am pleased to see the proportion of boys getting ATARs above 70. That’s a good news story about boys,” he said.

Yager said in the 1990s, schools were concerned that girls were not performing as they should, but in recent decades, that had changed as schools moved to arrest a decline in boys’ achievement.

Percentage of ATAR students receiving specific ATARs and above

ATAR	%male 2019	%male 2020	%male 2021	%male 2022	%male 2023
99	52.8%	54.9%	52.7%	58.2%	59.4%
98	47.4%	52.1%	50.5%	57.7%	57.7%
95	44.2%	48.3%	47.2%	48.8%	50.8%
90	42.3%	45.7%	44.5%	45.2%	47.4%
80	43.1%	43.9%	42.9%	43.8%	45%
70	42.8%	43.6%	43.2%	43.9%	44.7%
60	47%	43.9%	43.9%	44.6%	45.1%
50	45.2%	44.6%	44.6%	45.3%	45.5%
40	51.6%	45%	45.2%	45.7%	45.8%
30	53.5%	45.5%	45.5%	45.8%	46.1%

Source: Universities Admissions Centre 2023 report on HSC scaling

Nagy noted early unconditional offers from universities to HSC students may have had a disincentivising effect on some students, especially those with a personality profile motivated by extrinsic factors like course entry.

“Whether there are more (high-achieving) girls in these profiles than boys is an open question, but this could be a contributing factor,” he said.

Marist College Parramatta principal Mark Pauschmann, whose school had 39 boys receive an ATAR above 90 last year, said teachers focused on building reading and writing skills from year 7. They have 100-minute lessons, but the first 10 minutes of every class is spent reading.

“We look at their writing. It is looking at their writing, and at ways they can improve, and what skills they need. The only way to improve is that they do more and more reading,” he said.

“Reading is a very critical part of what we do. It is meant to just expose them to a whole variety of narratives and writing.”

Marist College student Jean-Paul Boutros, 18, said he aimed to get an ATAR above 90 and was contemplating studying engineering or actuarial studies.

“I definitely think reading has allowed me to communicate ideas more and reading helps writing,” he said.

Meanwhile, 18-year-old Joseph Baini was considering studying medicine. For the HSC, he is studying advanced and extension mathematics, advanced and extension English, religion, chemistry and biology.“I think a big thing is managing all these different subjects,” he said.