Students hit by TCE error in Asian Studies results

Dozens of high-achieving students have been put through the wringer by an apparent mistake in calculating their Australian Tertiary Entrance Rankings.

DOZENS of high-achieving students have been put through the wringer by an apparent mistake in calculating their Australian Tertiary Entrance Rankings.

Students undertaking the Asian Studies unit — who received their TCE marks on Tuesday — had expected the top ATAR score in their course to be around 26, and were shocked to find it was only 17.6 instead.

The change meant that some students could have missed out on entry into their preferred university courses, such as medicine or law.

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Student Sophie Young was one of 24 in her class affected and said the result was an injustice given the hard work students put in.

“I looked at the number and I was completely confused,” she said. “I couldn’t process the number I’d received.

“Asian Studies is a university course [and] because it’s a uni course it can’t be scaled in the same way as any of the other courses.

“It can be quite difficult to know what you’re going to get. We were told that students last year who got in the high 90s, got [a final mark of] around 26.

“I got a score of 90 out of 100 and got 17.2. We worked out that the top mark that anyone got was 17.6. We’re not sure how it’s possible for any subject for the top mark to receive 17.6

“Some people were counting on Asian Studies to get into courses, to get scholarships.”

Exams are hard enough without mistakes in the marks.

Labor’s education spokeswoman Michelle O’Byrne said her office had received calls from upset parents and said the problem had to be fixed quickly.

“Marks do fluctuate, but they don’t fluctuate as much as Asian Studies has,” she said.

“You expect it to move a little bit but that is a big jump. The minister needs to get [the Office of Tasmanian Assessment, Standards and Certification] to immediately review it.

“There are times when you need to intervene because the changes are too substantial and you’re having an effect on kids’ futures.

“This is going to stuff up a lot of kids’ lives. There’s a young woman who wants to study veterinary science on the mainland and now she doesn’t look like she has the marks.”

Michelle O’Byrne. Picture: CHRIS KIDD

An Education Department spokesman said the mistake had been detected and was being fixed.

“The Office of Tasmanian Assessment, Standards and Certification is investigating the scaling data for some University of Tasmania High Achiever Program and University Connections Program units, including Asian Studies,” he said.

“TASC and the University are working closely and quickly to investigate and rectify the data.

“I am advised that TASC will contact all affected students by the end of today [Tuesday] if there are changes to their ATAR as a result of the investigation.

“Importantly, I can confirm that this will not affect offers or scholarships to either the University of Tasmania or mainland universities.”

Ms O’Byrne said the problem came on top of problems with the Food and Nutrition exam having formula errors in it, a shortage of test papers at a North-West school and issues with Chinese language testing at an exam centre.