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VCE results and ATARs were released on 10 December 2026. HSC results arrive on 16 December. Here is what each number means, and the week that follows.
Two states, two dates, six days apart. Victorian students received results first.
| What | When | Published by |
|---|---|---|
| VCE results and ATAR | From 7:00 am Thursday 10 December 2026 | VCAA and VTAC |
| Victorian results service closes | 5:00 pm Tuesday 15 December 2026 | VCAA |
| HSC results | From 6:00 am Wednesday 16 December 2026 | NESA |
| NSW ATAR | From 9:00 am Wednesday 16 December 2026, on the UAC website | UAC |
The NESA HSC key dates page is the authority for the HSC date, and the VCAA VCE results and ATAR service page for the Victorian one. Victorian students access results through the online service or the app after registering, and paper statements are posted from 10 December.
For the ATAR specifically, UAC handles New South Wales and the ACT, and VTAC handles Victoria. Neither is NESA or VCAA, which is the single most common confusion in results week.
An HSC mark describes how you performed in one course. An ATAR describes where you sit relative to your whole age group. They are produced by different bodies, on different scales, for different purposes, and a strong result in one does not translate mechanically into the other.
| HSC mark or VCE study score | ATAR | |
|---|---|---|
| What it describes | Your performance in one course | Your rank against your age group |
| Scale | HSC marks out of 100; VCE study scores 0 to 50 | 0 to 99.95, in steps of 0.05. The lowest ATAR reported is “30 or less” |
| Produced by | NESA in NSW, VCAA in Victoria | UAC in NSW, VTAC in Victoria |
| Is it a percentage? | No. It is aligned to a standard | No. It is a rank |
| Who gets one? | Every student completing the course | Only students who are eligible |
The thing worth understanding before you open anything is that an ATAR of 80 does not mean 80 per cent of anything. It means you sit roughly in the top fifth of your age group, including the people who left school before Year 12. That is why an ATAR can look lower than the marks that produced it and still be a strong result.
It means a position, and only that. The ATAR exists so that universities can compare students who studied different combinations of subjects, which is a narrow job done precisely.
Three things follow and all three are worth saying out loud in results week.
It is not a measure of how hard you worked. It measures where your results placed you against a cohort, and a student who improved enormously can still sit mid-range if they started a long way back.
It is not a measure of your intelligence or your worth, and the fact that this is obvious does not stop it feeling otherwise on the day.
It is not a verdict on your options. It is one entry mechanism among several, and it expires in relevance faster than almost anything else you will be handed at eighteen.
Less than you think, deliberately. Open your results somewhere you are comfortable, with someone you trust, and give yourself an hour before you do anything with the number.
The practical sequence matters less than people think, but a few things genuinely help.
Look at the course results before the ATAR. They tell you about the work you did. The rank tells you about everyone else, and it lands harder when you have not yet seen what you actually achieved.
Do not compare immediately. The first conversation after results is almost always a comparison, and it is the least useful one available. Your results are information about your options, not a position in a queue among your friends.
Write down what you were hoping for and what you got. Not to dwell on it, but because within about 48 hours you will be making preference decisions, and you will want the gap in front of you as a fact rather than a feeling.
Then stop for the day. Nothing has to be decided in the first few hours, but the first change-of-preference deadline is close: midday Saturday 12 December for VCE students, and 11:59 pm Friday 18 December for HSC students. Sleep on it, then use the next day to finalise your list.
Through scaling and an aggregate, and the two steps are worth understanding because they explain most of the surprises in results week.
In New South Wales, your ATAR aggregate is built from ten units: your best two units of English plus your best eight units from your remaining courses, with no more than two units of Category B courses counting. Those marks are scaled before they are used, so that courses of different difficulty can be compared fairly. Scaled marks are usually lower than the HSC marks they came from, and they are not reported to students. You will see your HSC marks and your ATAR, but not the scaled marks in between. Our guide to ATAR and scaling walks through the mechanism.
In Victoria the structure differs. VTAC builds an aggregate from your English study score plus your next best three study scores, with increments from any remaining studies, and study scores are scaled before they count. Our guide to VCE study score scaling covers the Victorian version.
Two consequences catch students out every year.
A subject you worked hard in may not be counting. Only a set number of units or studies contribute, so a strong result outside that set does not raise the aggregate. This is the commonest reason a student’s ATAR feels lower than their results look.
Scaling is calculated from this year’s cohort. It is not a fixed table applied to your marks, which is why an estimate made in October could not have been exact and why your scaled marks may differ from what any calculator predicted.
Four organisations, and knowing which does what saves a great deal of confusion in results week.
| Organisation | What it does |
|---|---|
| NESA | Sets the HSC, marks it, and releases HSC results in New South Wales |
| VCAA | Sets the VCE, marks it, and releases VCE results in Victoria |
| UAC | Calculates and releases the ATAR for New South Wales and ACT students, and runs applications and offers |
| VTAC | Calculates and releases the ATAR for Victorian students, and runs applications and offers |
The practical point is that your results and your rank come from different places and may arrive through different services at different times. A student who has their HSC results but not their ATAR has not been overlooked; they are waiting on a different organisation.
It also means a question about your mark goes to NESA or VCAA, and a question about your ATAR, your preferences or an offer goes to UAC or VTAC. Schools field a great many questions in results week that only the admissions centre can answer.
Preferences, offers and a set of deadlines that arrive faster than most students expect. The first change-of-preference deadline falls about two days after results in both states. The exact dates are set by the admissions centres, so treat UAC and VTAC as the authority rather than your school or any news article.
In New South Wales, UAC runs applications and offers. Offers are made in rounds. December Round 1 offers are released on 10 December, before HSC results, so the first results-based round is December Round 2: change your preferences by 11:59 pm Friday 18 December, and offers are released at 7:30 am Wednesday 23 December. Further rounds follow in January, February and early March, and you can change your preferences between rounds. UAC publishes the full timetable on its key dates page.
In Victoria, VTAC runs the equivalent process. For current VCE students, change of preference for the December round closes at 12 noon on Saturday 12 December, two days after results, and December offers are released at 10 am on Wednesday 23 December. Preferences reopen after each round, with offer rounds continuing through January and into mid-February. VTAC publishes the full timetable on its important dates page.
| Step | Where to go |
|---|---|
| Your official results | NESA for HSC, VCAA for VCE |
| Your ATAR | UAC in NSW, VTAC in Victoria |
| Changing preferences | UAC or VTAC, within the published window |
| Offer rounds | UAC or VTAC |
| Entry ranks for courses | The institution, and the admissions centre |
The change-of-preference window is the part that repays attention. It is short, it is the last point at which you control anything, and it is where a realistic list beats an aspirational one. Build a list with range: something you expect to get, something you would get comfortably, and one you would need a good day for.
Related course: Year 11 and Year 12 courses
If you are reading this as a Year 11 student rather than a Year 12 one, your own results year has already started. Matrix Year 11 and 12 courses teach a term ahead of school, which is why they open in October rather than January, and the 2027 HSC is the first examined under the new English and Mathematics syllabuses.
Courses run as nine weekly lessons per term (1.5 hours for most Year 11 subjects and 3 hours for Year 12), in classes capped at 15, on campus or online through Matrix+. See the Year 12 NSW courses and the VCE courses for subjects and timetables.
Then you have more options than you can see today, and the ones that matter are mostly still open. This is the part of results week that goes badly for families, and almost all of the damage is done in the first forty-eight hours by people making permanent decisions about a temporary feeling.
Several routes exist and none of them is a consolation prize.
Change of preference. The most immediate lever. A course you did not list is a course you cannot be offered, and the window is open now.
Later offer rounds. Offers run into January and February, and places open as people decline them. A December outcome is not the final one.
Pathway and transfer courses. Many institutions take students into a related course and transfer them after a year of good results. This is a well-worn route rather than a side door, and after first year nobody asks how you entered.
A year doing something else. Work, travel, an apprenticeship, a TAFE qualification. Entry as a mature-age or non-school-leaver applicant exists precisely because the eighteen-year-old route does not suit everyone.
Adjustment factors. Some institutions apply these for particular circumstances, which change the rank used for selection. Check the institution’s own site.
What does not help is a decision made on the night. Results day is a bad day to decide anything permanent about the next five years.
The most useful thing you can do on results day is be unimpressed by the number, in either direction.
A child who has done well will have plenty of people telling them so, and a child who has not will be doing the arithmetic on themselves faster than you can. What neither of them needs in the first hour is a reaction that confirms the number was the point. The quietest version of this works best: acknowledge the result, say something true about the work rather than the rank, and let the day go on.
Three things are worth avoiding, and they are the three that happen most.
Do not ask about anyone else’s results. It is the first question most adults reach for and it converts a private outcome into a public comparison.
Do not relitigate Year 11. Nothing said on results day changes what happened in a Term 2 assessment task, and the conversation about what might have been done differently belongs weeks later, if at all.
Do not make a decision that night. Preferences can be changed after each offer round, and rounds run into February. The first deadline does come within about two days, so help your child sleep on it and finalise their preferences the next day, with a clear head.
If your child is in Year 11, this week is also information for you. The Year 11 courses page sets out how the senior years are structured, and the point most parents take from watching a results week is that the work that produces a December number happens across two years rather than in the fortnight before an exam.
NESA releases 2026 HSC results from 6:00 am on Wednesday 16 December 2026. ATARs for New South Wales and ACT students are released by UAC, a separate organisation from NESA, on its website from 9:00 am the same day. Your HSC results and your ATAR come from different bodies and arrive through different channels.
The 2026 VCE Results and ATAR Service opened at 7:00 am on Thursday 10 December 2026 and stays available until 5:00 pm on Tuesday 15 December 2026. Students access results through the online service or the mobile app after registering, and paper statements are posted from 10 December.
A rank. The ATAR is reported between 0 and 99.95 in steps of 0.05, with the lowest reported value shown as “30 or less”. It describes your position relative to your age group rather than a percentage of anything. An ATAR of 80 means you sit in the top 20 per cent of your age group, not that you scored 80 per cent.
UAC calculates it for New South Wales and ACT students, and VTAC calculates it for Victorian students. NESA and VCAA produce the underlying results, and the admissions centres turn those into a rank. This is why results and ATARs can arrive through different services on different schedules.
More than it feels like on the day. Change your preferences before the next deadline, since a course you did not list cannot be offered to you. The first deadline is about two days after results: 12 noon Saturday 12 December for VCE students, and 11:59 pm Friday 18 December for HSC students. Later offer rounds run into January and February. Pathway and transfer courses let students move into a related degree after a year. Adjustment factors apply at some institutions.
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Free trials apply to term courses. They do not cover holiday courses or Matrix+ online enrolments.
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Written by Matrix Education
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