ATAR, HSC 2021 results as they happened: NSW Year 12 students receive ATARs after disrupted school year

Marist Sisters’ College student Claire Miller never considered studying law. But when she accidentally put it as her preference when applying for early university entry, and received an offer, she began to reconsider her options.

“I didn’t realise I put law first... It wasn’t until I actually got the offer for law that I started thinking about it as an option. I was leaning towards [medical] science, that’s what I wanted to get into,” she said. Claire is now doing some deep thinking ahead of the university semester. Law might not be a bad path: she received a band six in legal studies, one of her favourite subjects, on Thursday.

She is one of 15,000 students who was not feeling too anxious about their ATAR result today, after receiving an early offer through the University Admission Centre. Claire already has six sitting in her email inbox - from nutritional science at ACU to medical science at Macquarie University - and found they helped her performance in the HSC.

“It kind of gave me the ability to do better. It gave me a clearer mind. I could remember my legal quotes better, I could remember my English quotes better,” she said. “I felt a lot less stressed. I could go in and do my best… even if I got stumped on an answer I could walk out and feel fine.”

Isadora McLeay from Cammeraygal High School sat her HSC exams last year with every other year 12 student in the state. But she had her sights set on a clear goal that lay outside an ATAR.

Just before her HSC exams, Isadora was drafted to be a professional player for Sydney-based AFL team GWS Giants. “When I went into my exams I had already achieved my dream… I am hoping to try my hardest with AFL and put all my effort into something I really enjoy, which is sport,” she said.

The GWS centre-half-back said that even though she had her career set up for 2022, she was still nervous for her ATAR and subject marks to come out today.

“After the year we have had, and then graduating, everyone forgot about the ATAR marks and moved on, and then we had to get back to stressing about them,” she said.

James Ruse Agricultural High School student Abigail Bennett Carungay certainly upheld her school’s reputation after achieving a mammoth 10 band sixes, and an ATAR of 99.85.

“I woke up at 5.45 this morning because everyone else is, but I would have been able to sleep in,” says Abigail, who got out of bed not for her HSC marks, but for the camaraderie.

“Everyone else was waking up, so I thought I should wake up [early] too. I wanted to experience the collective waiting,” she said.

With the disruptions of lockdowns and COVID-19, Abigail said that her school was committed to giving the students a collaborative experience even if they couldn’t be together in person.

Enduring lockdowns during his HSC year was not as tough for Rishi Arora as it was for others, due to the help of a four-legged friend: Scruffy.

“He has been quite therapeutic,” Rishi said about his dog, a shih tzu. “I would do some work, and then come out and play with him for a little bit.”

Scruffy was a huge factor in getting Rishi through lockdown, sitting with him for 14 to 15 hours a day as he studied and then walking with him to each of his HSC exams. “[Scruffy] would not eat his food till the time Rishi was back home. I think he understood the pressure too,” his mother Veenu said.

Rishi said that learning from home also suited him well. “To be honest, lockdown benefitted me because I didn’t have to travel as much and I had more time to myself to focus on my work,” he said.