QCE Scaling 2025: Which Subjects Scale Up? Full QTAC Table

Quick answer: in QTAC's 2025 scaling, Specialist Mathematics scaled highest: the median student's raw result of 82 became a scaled 95.27. French, German, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematical Methods and Economics also scaled strongly. Subjects such as Film, Television and New Media, Dance, Food and Nutrition, General Mathematics and Health had median scaled results under 60, even with median raw results in the 70s and 80s.

Balance scale with subject books showing how ATAR scaling puts subjects on one level

QCE scaling 2025 key facts

Specialist Mathematics scaled highest: the median raw result of 82 became 95.27.
A raw result of 80 scaled from 51.90 to 94.22 across the 46 General subjects with full data.
Half of those subjects (23) scaled a raw 80 up and half (23) scaled it down.
A completed Certificate III scaled to 38.00, Certificate IV to 51.84 and a Diploma to 58.72.
Source: QTAC ATAR Report 2025 and scaling tables.

Best scaling QCE subjects in 2025

Median (50th percentile) raw and scaled results, General subjects:

Subject	Median raw	Median scaled
Specialist Mathematics	82	95.27
French	86	94.98
German	83	91.49
Chemistry	85	90.36
Physics	86	89.79
Mathematical Methods	76	89.64
Italian	85	88.85
Economics	79	88.08

Lower median scaled results in 2025

Subject	Median raw	Median scaled
Film, Television and New Media	75	56.15
Dance	82	56.35
Agricultural Science	77	57.75
Food and Nutrition	70	58.12
General Mathematics	69	59.54
Health	70	59.87

Queensland's scaled results run from 0 to 100, so they look very different from raw results. What matters is how your scaled results add up across your best five. Raw vs scaled scores explains the difference, and how many subjects count covers the best-five rule in every state.

Full 2025 table: General subjects

Raw and scaled results at the 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th and 99th percentiles. Subjects with fewer than 50 students are not reported by QTAC. Type a subject name to filter.

QTAC 2025 raw and scaled results at the 25th, 50th, 75th, 90th and 99th percentiles (General and Senior External subjects)
Subject	Raw P25	Scaled P25	Raw P50	Scaled P50	Raw P75	Scaled P75	Raw P90	Scaled P90	Raw P99	Scaled P99
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies	55	21.91	65	32.49	78	49.26	88	62.48	97	73.02
Accounting	62	62.95	74	77.94	86	88.02	93	91.84	99	94.20
Aerospace Systems	57	50.87	72	73.57	81	83.44	87	88.21	95	92.69
Agricultural Science	70	43.21	77	57.75	84	71.06	88	77.43	94	85.00
Ancient History	62	48.72	74	66.79	85	80.00	92	86.10	98	90.01
Biology	73	59.25	81	75.25	89	86.40	94	90.97	98	93.58
Business	60	49.20	70	62.70	80	74.48	88	81.94	97	88.17
Chemistry	76	77.08	85	90.36	92	95.41	96	97.04	99	97.88
Chinese	85	79.34	91	83.98	96	87.17	98	88.29	100	89.32
Dance	72	42.54	82	56.35	91	68.04	97	74.82	100	77.83
Design	60	49.76	72	63.28	84	74.98	91	80.54	99	85.68
Digital Solutions	65	61.47	78	80.34	89	90.06	94	92.86	98	94.56
Drama	68	45.56	80	63.83	89	75.54	96	82.68	100	85.96
Earth and Environmental Science	73	49.02	80	65.37	87	78.74	92	85.71	96	89.81
Economics	67	72.53	79	88.08	88	94.11	94	96.39	98	97.41
Engineering	62	71.04	75	86.87	86	93.87	92	96.03	97	97.25
English	61	52.67	72	70.12	83	83.18	91	89.48	99	93.60
English and Literature Extension	80	82.40	90	90.57	96	93.66	99	94.82	100	95.16
English as an Additional Language	62	56.54	72	73.29	81	84.30	90	91.31	98	95.02
Film Television and New Media	64	41.55	75	56.15	86	69.76	93	77.04	100	82.99
Food and Nutrition	58	43.08	70	58.12	82	71.78	90	79.21	97	84.44
French	77	88.51	86	94.98	93	97.44	97	98.27	100	98.71
French Extension	82	87.62	86	90.68	95	95.23	97	95.90	100	96.74
General Mathematics	60	48.99	69	59.54	79	70.28	86	76.72	94	82.81
Geography	60	54.32	72	71.88	83	83.75	91	89.57	98	93.06
German	72	80.05	83	91.49	91	95.66	95	96.92	100	98.01
German Extension	64	68.53	81	85.70	94	92.85	98	94.28	100	94.89
Health	59	46.64	70	59.87	81	71.81	89	78.98	98	85.34
Italian	75	79.13	85	88.85	92	93.06	97	95.11	100	96.05
Japanese	70	73.17	83	86.36	92	91.90	96	93.64	100	95.02
Legal Studies	59	55.19	69	68.57	81	81.24	89	87.25	96	91.08
Literature	72	71.32	83	85.99	91	92.22	96	94.70	100	96.13
Marine Science	68	46.92	76	61.41	84	74.12	90	81.66	95	86.54
Mathematical Methods	64	79.43	76	89.64	86	94.43	93	96.44	98	97.43
Modern History	64	52.84	76	71.82	87	84.40	94	89.73	99	92.48
Music	70	52.97	83	71.69	93	82.53	98	86.58	100	87.96
Music Extension (Composition)	85	68.03	94	79.18	99	84.00	100	84.85	100	84.85
Music Extension (Performance)	86	66.75	93	76.40	98	81.99	100	83.92	100	83.92
Philosophy and Reason	67	69.25	79	84.53	88	91.39	94	94.30	99	95.99
Physical Education	63	47.31	74	61.57	84	73.06	91	79.68	98	85.00
Physics	78	77.17	86	89.79	93	95.31	96	96.67	100	97.91
Psychology	72	54.79	80	69.27	87	79.51	92	85.11	97	89.39
Spanish	71	72.80	79	83.94	86	90.37	91	93.44	97	95.92
Specialist Mathematics	70	88.94	82	95.27	90	97.38	95	98.20	99	98.67
Study of Religion	69	65.98	79	79.44	88	87.78	94	91.57	99	93.87
Visual Art	60	46.99	73	61.94	85	74.03	94	81.28	100	85.18
Chinese (Senior External)	71	74.37	83	83.91	89	87.49	93	89.48	98	91.57
Korean (Senior External)	81	82.55	90	88.02	95	90.36	99	91.94	100	92.29
Vietnamese (Senior External)	70	73.42	78	80.33	86	85.80	92	89.01	98	91.57

Estimate Source: QTAC ATAR Report 2025 (Tables 6 to 9, 12 and 13). Data year: 2025.

Applied subjects and VET

QTAC scales Applied subjects by grade, and gives every completed VET qualification at the same level one scaled result. Only one Applied subject or one VET qualification can count in your best five.

QTAC 2025 scaled result for each grade in Applied subjects
Applied subject	Grade C	Grade B	Grade A
Agricultural Practices	6.94	18.12	39.66
Aquatic Practices	7.83	20.70	44.51
Arts in Practice	10.87	26.65	51.96
Building and Construction Skills	6.84	17.78	38.91
Business Studies	9.28	23.09	46.82
Dance in Practice	8.36	21.23	44.33
Drama in Practice	7.17	21.62	49.61
Early Childhood Studies	9.42	21.99	43.29
Engineering Skills	7.77	19.51	41.08
Essential English	8.53	19.59	38.90
Essential Mathematics	10.52	22.34	41.30
Fashion	17.03	37.58	63.83
Furnishing Skills	8.13	21.25	45.15
Hospitality Practices	11.38	25.97	48.93
Industrial Graphics Skills	10.92	25.72	49.42
Industrial Technology Skills	11.38	26.50	50.29
Information and Communication Technology	10.90	28.00	55.28
Media Arts in Practice	10.73	26.67	52.40
Music in Practice	8.79	21.76	44.52
Religion and Ethics		44.01	72.49
Science in Practice	7.59	20.40	44.42
Social and Community Studies	6.33	18.40	42.92
Sport and Recreation	8.21	23.21	50.53
Tourism	9.42	22.42	44.55
Visual Arts in Practice	10.96	25.34	48.34
VET Certificate 3	38.00 (completed qualification)
VET Certificate 4	51.84 (completed qualification)
VET Diploma	58.72 (completed qualification)

Estimate Source: QTAC ATAR Report 2025 (Tables 6 to 9, 12 and 13). Data year: 2025.

How QCE scaling works

QTAC uses an iterative method: it compares how the same students perform across different subjects, adjusts each subject's scale, and repeats until the results stop changing. The scaled results feed your Tertiary Entrance Aggregate (TEA), the sum of your best five. More in how ATAR scaling works.

QTAC does not publish a TEA to ATAR table, so the QCE ATAR calculator models that last step and labels the result an estimate.

What a raw result of 80 was worth in 2025

Scaled result for raw results of 70, 80 and 90, read between QTAC's 2025 percentile points.

Subject	Raw 70	Raw 80	Raw 90
Specialist Mathematics	88.94	94.22	97.38
Mathematical Methods	84.53	91.56	95.58
Economics	76.42	88.75	94.87
Chemistry	70.99	82.98	93.97
Digital Solutions	68.73	82.11	90.62
Literature	69.34	81.99	91.44
Physics	69.26	80.33	92.94
Legal Studies	69.63	80.18	87.80
English	66.95	79.62	88.69
Modern History	62.33	76.39	86.68
Business	62.70	74.48	83.32
Biology	56.82	73.25	87.31
General Mathematics	60.61	71.20	79.77
Health	59.87	70.72	79.69
Psychology	53.27	69.27	82.87
Physical Education	56.38	68.46	78.73

Look at Mathematical Methods: a raw 70 scaled to 84.53, higher than a raw 80 in Chemistry, Physics or English. That is because Methods results run lower raw while its students are strong overall. In Biology and Psychology the opposite happens: raw results run high, so a raw 80 is close to the middle of the cohort.

Two students compared

Student	Subjects	Raw results	TEA	ATAR estimate
A	English, Mathematical Methods, Chemistry, Physics, Economics	80 in each	423.23	91.30
B	English, General Mathematics, Psychology, Business, Health	80 in each	365.29	78.20
B, higher	Same	90 in each	414.34	89.05

At the same raw results, the gap in Queensland is large, partly because raw results mean different things in different subjects. A raw 80 in Methods is a stronger result against its cohort than a raw 80 in Psychology. Comparing raw results across subjects is the most common mistake Queensland students make. The ATAR step here is modelled, so allow a margin of several points.

Reading QTAC's table correctly

Percentiles of each subject. "Raw P50" is the median raw result in that subject, paired with the scaled result at the same rank.
Scaled results are out of 100. They are not percentages and they are not marks.
Small subjects are left out. QTAC does not report subjects with fewer than 50 students.
The TEA adds five scaled results. See the QCE ATAR calculator to add yours.

QCE scaling FAQ

How does QCE inter-subject scaling work?

QTAC compares the results of students who share subjects and adjusts each subject's results onto a common scale, repeating the process until it settles. Subjects whose students do well everywhere end up higher.

Do my subjects scale well for the ATAR?

Find each subject in the table above and compare your expected raw result with the percentiles. A high raw result in any subject still gives a strong scaled result.

Does an A in an Applied subject help my ATAR?

It can count as your fifth result. In 2025 an A scaled to between about 39 (Essential English) and 72 (Religion and Ethics) depending on the subject, usually less than a fifth General subject at a similar standard.

What is a Certificate III worth for the ATAR?

A completed Certificate III scaled to 38.00 in 2025, a Certificate IV to 51.84 and a Diploma to 58.72.

Does Psychology scale down in QCE?

In 2025 a raw 80 in Psychology scaled to 69.27, below a raw 80 in most subjects, because Psychology raw results run high. A raw 90 scaled to 82.87.

Is General Mathematics bad for the ATAR?

It scales lower than Methods: a raw 80 became 71.20 in 2025. A strong General Mathematics result can still beat a weak Methods result, so choose the maths you can do well.

Which QCE subject scaled highest in 2025?

Specialist Mathematics, where a raw 80 scaled to 94.22 and the median raw result of 82 became 95.27.