What is ENTER?

ENTER is short for “ Equivalent National Tertiary Entrance Rank” and it is a way of comparing students, to sort out the best that the university can get. So tertiary entrance exams, such at the VCE or HSC exams, are designed to be really challenging. This results in a big spread of scores, so that the results can indicate how well the students will cope with university.

Many people believe that achieving a great ENTER score is like scoring 10 out of 10 in a test. Of course, it isn’t. It’s much more demanding – and students with this ambition need all the help they can get. Entry to university courses is competitive, the uni selects the applicants with the best scores.

The “cut-of” score for gaining a place at uni, depends on supply and demand. If the course is popular and attracts strong students, the cut-off is very high. The competition is very tough for subjects such as Medicine, Dentistry or Law.

The so-called “Perfect” ENTER score is the best score, and several students can have the best score. It’s really important to realise that it doesn’t mean that the student achieved 100% in the exam. That would be a daunting task, and year 12 students can get very stressed if they think they are expected to be perfect.