Contact
Perpetua Joseph (08) 9273 6771
Perpetua.Joseph@scsa.wa.edu.au

It is important to ensure students are aware of the consequences of not sitting Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) course examinations.

Students who are enrolled in a Year 12 ATAR course and who do not sit the ATAR course examination will not have their school grades for that ATAR course count towards meeting any of the Western Australian Certificate of Education (WACE) requirements.

If the ATAR course has a practical component, both the written and practical examinations must be completed.

Note: from 2025, the Physical Education Studies Year 12 ATAR course includes a School-based practical assessment (SPEA) that students must complete to satisfy the completion requirement for the course. To learn more, see sub-section 3.4.4. in the WACE Manual 2025 at https://scsa.wa.edu.au/publications/wace-manual.

For students who do not sit an ATAR course examination or SPEA, and do not have an approved Sickness/Misadventure Application for that course, or an Application for an Approved Absence for the SPEA, the pair of units completed in that year will not:

• contribute towards any of the WACE requirements,
• have a course mark or grade recorded on their Western Australian Student Statement of Achievement (WASSA),
• receive a report for that ATAR course.

When a student is considering not sitting an ATAR course examination or SPEA because they do not ‘need’ it to contribute to an ATAR, they should be aware of the contribution of the course completion towards the WACE requirements.

The WACE requirements can be found in Section 7.2.1 in the WACE Manual 2025, available at https://scsa.wa.edu.au/publications/wace-manual.

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