Year 10s - What do you need to know about Senior School?

FAQs about selecting subjects for Year 11 and 12:

1. Do I need to demonstrate the required standard of Reading, Writing and Numeracy (the Online Literacy and Numeracy Assessment - OLNA) to achieve the Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE)? YES  
   
   
2. Do I need to achieve a ‘C’ grade in all my Year 11 and 12 courses? NO, you are only required to achieve 14 ‘C’ grades in total over Year 11 and 12  
   
   
3. If I get an ‘E’ grade for some of my courses, do the courses still count towards the WACE? YES, all courses regardless of the grade still count towards course completion.  
   
   
4.  I must do 6 courses (or equivalent) in Year 11 and 12. YES
   
   
5. I can choose to have private study class (4 sessions a week) if I wish. NO, private study is only given to students who do courses off campus or for exceptional circumstances.
   
   
6. Of the 24 units (or equivalent) I will be enrolled in I must complete a minimum of 20 to achieve the WACE. YES
   
   
7. I must have 6 ‘C’ grades (or equivalent) in Year 12 to achieve a WACE. YES 
   
   
8. I must successfully complete my Certificate II in VET course in order to be awarded two Year 11 and 2 Year 12 ‘C’ grade equivalents. YES, there is no credit for partial completion.
   
   
9. In Year 12, I must complete at least one course from the English/the Arts/Social Sciences and at least one course from Mathematics/Science/Technology. YES  
   
   
10. I can only attend a University if I complete an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR).  NO. Curtin University, Murdoch University and Edith Cowan University all have alternative and pre-university courses that all students can access past Year 12.
    
    
11. The minimum ATAR is 80 for ‘front door’ entry to the University of Western Australia. YES 
    
    
12. The ATAR is based on the final score of a student’s best 4 ATAR courses. YES
    
    
13. The final scaled score a student receives for each ATAR course is based on a combination of the school mark and external examination mark. YES. Also, scores are mathematically moderated (to reduce any bias in teacher grading across all WA schools) and scaled (to even out the variability in difficulty in ATAR courses).  
    
    
14. To achieve an ATAR of 70, which is the minimum ‘front door’ for Murdoch, Curtin and Edith Cowan Universities, students would need an average of approximately 60% over their best 4 ATAR courses. YES
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15. Many university courses have prerequisite courses that must be studied at Year 11 and 12 levels. NO, in fact very few university courses have prerequisites, the main one being engineering. ​