Materials Design and Technology — WA WACE scaling 2024

TISC's verbatim 2024 scaled-score statistics for Materials Design and Technology. Scaled mean 54.6/100, SD 13.2, 79 students. Range observed: 19.7 to 89.8.

Summary statistics

Scaled mean	54.6 / 100
Standard deviation	13.2
Minimum scaled score	19.7
Maximum scaled score	89.8
Students (2024)	79

Scaled scores by percentile

Percentile	Scaled score
P90 (top 10%)	72.0
P75 (top 25%)	62.7
P50 (median)	54.3
P25 (bottom 25%)	45.5

The P25-to-P90 spread for Materials Design and Technology was 26.5 scaled points in 2024.

How Materials Design and Technology scaled in 2024

This subject scales down. The average student in this course performs below the senior-secondary cohort median across all their subjects, so scaling adjusts most raw marks downward. Important nuance: this does not mean strong students in this subject get poor scaled marks — look at the P90 row in the table. Top performers are still rewarded; the cohort-average position is what moves the mean.

The scaled-score scale in WA is 0–100, with the cohort-wide mean across all subjects sitting around 60 by construction. A subject with a scaled mean above 60 had a candidature performing above the WACE-wide average; below 60 means the average student in this subject performed below the WACE-wide average. Note that this is the scaled mean across the course's candidature, not a measure of conceptual difficulty.

3-year scaling trend for Materials Design and Technology →

Year	Scaled mean (/ 100)
2023	54.9
2024	54.6

Very stable across 2 years — Materials Design and Technology has scaled within 0.3 points of its 2023 value, suggesting its candidature composition is consistent.

3-year trend data sourced from the TISC annual scaling reports 2023–2024. See all scaling trends.

Tutor rate context for Materials Design and Technology

Subject complexity classification: low — broad tutor supply. Based on our subject-complexity model, this subject typically carries a -4% adjustment to the base AU tutor rate band — partly because of the qualified-tutor pool size, partly because of subject-specific marking and exam complexity.

Tutor tier	Typical rate for Materials Design and Technology
University-student tutor	$60/hr
Experienced graduate	$75/hr
Registered teacher	$105/hr
Subject specialist	$135/hr

Estimates from the AU rate synthesis at /rates/. Use the rate estimator to add city and delivery format.

What this means for ATAR planning

In WA, the Tertiary Entrance Aggregate (TEA) is formed from your best 4 scaled scores, with a 10% bonus added to scaled scores in Mathematics Methods, Mathematics Specialist, and LOTE subjects (highest LOTE only). The maximum aggregate in 2024 was 430.

• Materials Design and Technology scaled to a mean of 54.6 — below the WACE average.
• If you scored at the P90 of this subject (72.0) and it was one of your best 4, you contributed 72.0 scaled points to your aggregate (or 79.2 with the LOTE/Maths bonus where applicable).
• Strong individual results in subjects with lower scaled means can still produce strong scaled scores — look at the P90 row, not just the mean, before deciding a subject is "weak" for ATAR.

Caveats specific to Materials Design and Technology

• This is 2024 data. TISC recalculates scaling each year.
• WACE scaled scores are NOT directly comparable across states. NSW and VIC use a 0-50 scale; QLD and WA use 0-100. Cross-state comparisons need to be normalised by scale.
• The WACE Maths Methods / Specialist / LOTE 10% bonus applies after scaling, only when the bonused subject is one of your top 4.

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