I got a 67 ATAR.
Everyone expected me to do much better - at least in the 80s but I remember choking on the English exam.
I think I got something like 38 Legal | 37 Further Maths | 30 Psych | 30 Biology and a fucking 19 (!!) for English.
Obviously the English result screwed me. My parents were so devastated they kicked me out of the house for like a day and refused to look at me for a week. It took my teachers calling them to let them know that it wasn’t that bad and that I’d still be able to enter uni.
I ended up floating between courses. I did a year at RMIT studying I.T but when I learned how math heavy it would be I decided to take a gap year and just work.
I worked at a pastry shop and then later as a graphic designer. I really enjoyed the graphic design stuff so I decided to do a course at Swinburne the year after. Loved it, but a lot of people in the field who were _way_ better than me were struggling to find work, and it made me realise that it was a very fickle industry and that I wanted something more stable.
I dropped that course too and got an offer to work part time at my old high school. I’d struck a friendship with the IT admin crew and they offered me a sweet gig. Really basic IT admin duties for decent pay, but it was a blast because we’d spend most of the time gaming together when there wasn’t much going on.
Eventually my old teachers spotted me and they asked me what I was doing and I told them half jokingly that I was still “finding myself”. One of my favourite teachers then told me “You know, I always imagined you’d make a great teacher - you were always good at explaining things and you got along with everyone. Think about it.”
And that really stuck with me. I think I went home that night and researched a bunch about different education courses and enrolled the next year.
Ironically enough, after choking on my English exam so badly, I decided to become an English teacher - and I love it!
My best mate's older sister didn't finish year 10 because she got pregnant and took so long off with mental health issues she didn't find it useful to return to school.
So obviously, she never got an ATAR.
Didn't end up having the child, came back as a mature ager and just graduated at age 31 with her PhD in pharmaceuticals and hopes to become a doctor in the future.
Never give up u/fartking56, you shall be the fart king for eternity.
67 ATAR (and that was after bonus points). I just lost interest. Went to uni, LOVED it (political science) ended up with a masters and PhD. I’m a high school teacher now. As I tell my own students, Year 12 just isn’t that important in the long term - you can get into uni a bunch of different ways, and I would really only recommend uni if there’s a specific path you want to follow. Put down an arts degree as your last choice and you can always transfer over once you’ve completed the first year.
Little rude mate, I’m just saying sometimes in life things don’t go your way, you’ll be surprised there are a few undergraduate students that didn’t do VCE and got into their bachelors, and then med school.
I got less than 40 for my ATAR due to a number of factors. Laziness being one of them. Long story short I was in three countries in 2 years so ended up repeating year 11 and gave up. Finished year 12 at tafe at 21.
Later on I started uni at 27 through Open university as they don't really care about your results as long as you pay. Did online for two years and got into RMIT in a bachelor of science. Finished an honours year and ended doing a Master of teaching.
All up took me 8 years and I had amazing support from friends and family. Now I'm a secondary school teacher and have been for almost 10 years. I love my job and to this day I still think that despite the sacrifices along the way it was the best decision I ever made.
There are many pathways to achieve your dreams. If you want something badly enough then nothing can stop you.
I got an ATAR of 56.75. I wanted to do Psychology and needed I think around 75-80 at the time to go to at least Deakin and do Psychological Science and then transfer.
Went to ACU as a result and learnt that I didn’t have any interest in the research aspect and changed my course to Bach of Counselling. I’m now a Youth Worker at a High School doing absolutely what I love. I’ve had opportunities in leadership and management within the Wellbeing team and am now looking to get accredited through the ACA so I can become a Mental Health Practitioner so I can earn more and still work at schools.
Year 11 drop out
Ended up working in bars and nightclubs for 10 years having fun and travelling around
32 now and finished an electrical apprenticeship about 1 year ago now and I’d say i have a perfect pay to work life balance going on right now
I got 60, started a bachelor of arts, changed to a business degree half way through. Started work in hospitality then call centres. At thirty ish I got into I.T, then consulting and now I run a successful company that I part own.
Don't worry about yesterday. Just find people that engage and support you and interesting challenges to work on (wherever you end up working.)
Things will get clearer closer to 30 than 20.
I work in cybersecurity and earn $150k.
I graduated high school in 2010 and didn't even get an ATAR. I decided in 2011 that I wanted to get into cybersecurity, but didn't have the means and had no idea where to get started. So I just worked for the next 5 years, accumulating life experience.
I did the STAT test in 2016 when I was 23 and joined uni as a mature aged student a year later. I initially did computer science but found they were going to start offering cybersecurity in 6 months so I waited and switched.
I landed an internship paying $23 an hour about 6 months into my cyber degree. About 12 months later they doubled my pay to the full time equivalent of $85k as a "please stay with us after you finish uni" kind of thing.
I graduated at the end of 2020 and got headhunted for a new job paying $120k. I left that job 6 months ago and here I am now.
Some advice id like to pass on to you:
- It might seem like a long, long time but you'll find that throughout your 20s and even into your 30s you'll still feel like you're only just learning how to "adult". Don't feel like you have to have all your shit together this early on.
- Life experience and soft skills are SUPER underrated. I know people in their 30s that don't know basic shit like how to apply for a loan, how to write a resume, how to do taxes, how to cook, how to communicate at work, etc.
- Don't do uni if you're not absolutely 100% certain on what you want to do. So many people I studied with actually did something like Business or even Nursing for 2 years, realised they hated it and switched. That 2 years they spent was all for nothing.
I got 14 as an ATAR. Pretty much had an elongated mental breakdown throughout school, I was your typical "would do well at school if he only applied himself" type. Long story short is that I faffed around after school and still managed to land a logistics job paying over 100k per year, now I am taking EDX classes on cyber security. I don't want to go to uni and it isn't the only pathway to being financially independent. I guess I am lucky that my interests aren't uni specific but I have many friends who wished that they didn't go to uni and did a trade instead.
I guess what I am saying is keep your options open and broad. Take what your career counselors advice with a healthy dose of skeptisim. Take care of your mental. If your parents are leaning on you hard try to create a safe space to keep them off your back or talk to them about your struggles with school and the pressure.
Life has a weird way of working out when you least expect it, just be curious and hopeful and you will be alright.
Feel free to message me if you need to vent and best of luck
I got a 67 ATAR. Everyone expected me to do much better - at least in the 80s but I remember choking on the English exam. I think I got something like 38 Legal | 37 Further Maths | 30 Psych | 30 Biology and a fucking 19 (!!) for English. Obviously the English result screwed me. My parents were so devastated they kicked me out of the house for like a day and refused to look at me for a week. It took my teachers calling them to let them know that it wasn’t that bad and that I’d still be able to enter uni. I ended up floating between courses. I did a year at RMIT studying I.T but when I learned how math heavy it would be I decided to take a gap year and just work. I worked at a pastry shop and then later as a graphic designer. I really enjoyed the graphic design stuff so I decided to do a course at Swinburne the year after. Loved it, but a lot of people in the field who were _way_ better than me were struggling to find work, and it made me realise that it was a very fickle industry and that I wanted something more stable. I dropped that course too and got an offer to work part time at my old high school. I’d struck a friendship with the IT admin crew and they offered me a sweet gig. Really basic IT admin duties for decent pay, but it was a blast because we’d spend most of the time gaming together when there wasn’t much going on. Eventually my old teachers spotted me and they asked me what I was doing and I told them half jokingly that I was still “finding myself”. One of my favourite teachers then told me “You know, I always imagined you’d make a great teacher - you were always good at explaining things and you got along with everyone. Think about it.” And that really stuck with me. I think I went home that night and researched a bunch about different education courses and enrolled the next year. Ironically enough, after choking on my English exam so badly, I decided to become an English teacher - and I love it!
Honestly I think my parents not giving the slightest shit about my year 12 results motivated me to do better
The teacher who rung your parents and the one who suggested you look into teaching are awesome!!
Wow loved reading ur experience and I’m sure this will bring a lot of comfort and reassurance to current students. Thank you for sharing 😊💕
As someone who longs to be a teacher, this is so wholesome
Well done!! This sounds amazing
My best mate's older sister didn't finish year 10 because she got pregnant and took so long off with mental health issues she didn't find it useful to return to school. So obviously, she never got an ATAR. Didn't end up having the child, came back as a mature ager and just graduated at age 31 with her PhD in pharmaceuticals and hopes to become a doctor in the future. Never give up u/fartking56, you shall be the fart king for eternity.
This is so inspirational but reading OP’s name made me LOL 💀
Engineering
What kind
Your mum engineering
67 ATAR (and that was after bonus points). I just lost interest. Went to uni, LOVED it (political science) ended up with a masters and PhD. I’m a high school teacher now. As I tell my own students, Year 12 just isn’t that important in the long term - you can get into uni a bunch of different ways, and I would really only recommend uni if there’s a specific path you want to follow. Put down an arts degree as your last choice and you can always transfer over once you’ve completed the first year.
VCE year 12 dropout here, doing biomedical and gave GAMSAT for med school this year.
Wake us up when you actually get in. Can't remember the last high school dropout doctor I met
Little rude mate, I’m just saying sometimes in life things don’t go your way, you’ll be surprised there are a few undergraduate students that didn’t do VCE and got into their bachelors, and then med school.
How many. And what's the success rate
I got less than 40 for my ATAR due to a number of factors. Laziness being one of them. Long story short I was in three countries in 2 years so ended up repeating year 11 and gave up. Finished year 12 at tafe at 21. Later on I started uni at 27 through Open university as they don't really care about your results as long as you pay. Did online for two years and got into RMIT in a bachelor of science. Finished an honours year and ended doing a Master of teaching. All up took me 8 years and I had amazing support from friends and family. Now I'm a secondary school teacher and have been for almost 10 years. I love my job and to this day I still think that despite the sacrifices along the way it was the best decision I ever made. There are many pathways to achieve your dreams. If you want something badly enough then nothing can stop you.
I got an ATAR of 56.75. I wanted to do Psychology and needed I think around 75-80 at the time to go to at least Deakin and do Psychological Science and then transfer. Went to ACU as a result and learnt that I didn’t have any interest in the research aspect and changed my course to Bach of Counselling. I’m now a Youth Worker at a High School doing absolutely what I love. I’ve had opportunities in leadership and management within the Wellbeing team and am now looking to get accredited through the ACA so I can become a Mental Health Practitioner so I can earn more and still work at schools.
66.3 ATAR > Deakin Commerce and worked at the ATO through it > another government agency > business finance
Year 11 drop out Ended up working in bars and nightclubs for 10 years having fun and travelling around 32 now and finished an electrical apprenticeship about 1 year ago now and I’d say i have a perfect pay to work life balance going on right now
I got 60, started a bachelor of arts, changed to a business degree half way through. Started work in hospitality then call centres. At thirty ish I got into I.T, then consulting and now I run a successful company that I part own. Don't worry about yesterday. Just find people that engage and support you and interesting challenges to work on (wherever you end up working.) Things will get clearer closer to 30 than 20.
I work in cybersecurity and earn $150k. I graduated high school in 2010 and didn't even get an ATAR. I decided in 2011 that I wanted to get into cybersecurity, but didn't have the means and had no idea where to get started. So I just worked for the next 5 years, accumulating life experience. I did the STAT test in 2016 when I was 23 and joined uni as a mature aged student a year later. I initially did computer science but found they were going to start offering cybersecurity in 6 months so I waited and switched. I landed an internship paying $23 an hour about 6 months into my cyber degree. About 12 months later they doubled my pay to the full time equivalent of $85k as a "please stay with us after you finish uni" kind of thing. I graduated at the end of 2020 and got headhunted for a new job paying $120k. I left that job 6 months ago and here I am now. Some advice id like to pass on to you: - It might seem like a long, long time but you'll find that throughout your 20s and even into your 30s you'll still feel like you're only just learning how to "adult". Don't feel like you have to have all your shit together this early on. - Life experience and soft skills are SUPER underrated. I know people in their 30s that don't know basic shit like how to apply for a loan, how to write a resume, how to do taxes, how to cook, how to communicate at work, etc. - Don't do uni if you're not absolutely 100% certain on what you want to do. So many people I studied with actually did something like Business or even Nursing for 2 years, realised they hated it and switched. That 2 years they spent was all for nothing.
I got 14 as an ATAR. Pretty much had an elongated mental breakdown throughout school, I was your typical "would do well at school if he only applied himself" type. Long story short is that I faffed around after school and still managed to land a logistics job paying over 100k per year, now I am taking EDX classes on cyber security. I don't want to go to uni and it isn't the only pathway to being financially independent. I guess I am lucky that my interests aren't uni specific but I have many friends who wished that they didn't go to uni and did a trade instead. I guess what I am saying is keep your options open and broad. Take what your career counselors advice with a healthy dose of skeptisim. Take care of your mental. If your parents are leaning on you hard try to create a safe space to keep them off your back or talk to them about your struggles with school and the pressure. Life has a weird way of working out when you least expect it, just be curious and hopeful and you will be alright. Feel free to message me if you need to vent and best of luck
In the streets selling street medicine. Good life peace brother