Northern Beaches student Max Oldham made a promise not to tell his HSC score

For Year 12 students, the time between finishing our exams, getting our results, and moving on in the world, is a strange one. Alongside our celebrations to mark finishing 13 years of schooling is a lot of outside pressure to suddenly decide on our future plans. And for those wanting to go on to higher education, much of this is determined by our ATAR.

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Yet there seems to be some superficial shift to disregard the importance of the HSC. I can't tell you how many times recently I have heard from media outlets, universities and people directly, that my ATAR is just a number and irrelevant in regards to my future.

None of them have me fully convinced. Despite our ATARs supposedly being 'just a number', there is an immense amount of pressure for Year 12 students to broadcast their ATAR to anyone who might ask.

At the beginning of 2021, I promised myself I wasn't going to tell anyone how I went, and I felt like this really changed my perspective towards my exams and in some ways made me less stressed, because I knew that no one would be able to use my results to differentiate me. I never knew how hard it would be to keep that promise. There's a real hypocrisy in the media we consume telling us not to be defined by our ATAR, alongside the constant social reminder that everyone wants to know our ATAR, and I don't understand it.

I have no need to know all my friends' ATARs, and you shouldn't either.

I'd much rather hear they're happy with their results and that they're going on to do something they're excited about.

Because in the end, that's all that matters.

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