I'm in Year 11 in Victoria and my school is treating the GAT like it's make or break, but I've also read it only affects your ATAR in very specific circumstances. I'm confused about when it actually matters versus when it's basically irrelevant to my final score.
From what I understand, the GAT gets used to verify internal assessments and can adjust your school-assessed coursework if there's a large discrepancy. So it doesn't directly add to your ATAR but can indirectly affect it. I scored 152 on a past paper practice and I'm not sure if that's solid or if I should be worried.
My school has us doing 3 hours of GAT prep each week for the next month, which feels like a lot given I also have SACs coming up in Maths Methods and English. I'd rather spend that time on SAC prep which will definitely affect my marks.
Anyone who's been through it - did the GAT actually affect your ATAR personally, or did it just happen and everyone forgot about it? Trying to calibrate how stressed to actually be here.
152 on the practice is solid - the median usually sits around 145 so you're above that. I wouldn't stress heavily about prep, just make sure you're familiar with the extended writing tasks so the format doesn't surprise you on the day.
Sat the GAT two years ago and it basically didn't affect my ATAR at all. For most students in most subjects it's invisible - the adjustment only kicks in when there's a significant discrepancy between GAT performance and school assessments.
Your school is partly cautious because the GAT affects their own reporting stats, not just your individual ATAR. Take that context into account when deciding how much prep time to actually give it versus your SACs.
So I'll be honest, I bombed my first attempt and a big part of it was I treated it like the GAT in your situation, basically convinced myself it didn't really count so I barely revised. Wrong move. Second time around I actually drilled the content properly and the difference was night and day. The biggest thing that changed was I stopped just reading my notes and started doing actual practice questions under timed conditions, because reading feels productive but it doesn't show you what you don't know.
What helped me most was working through these free nafc exercise science questions over and over until the answers clicked instead of just memorising them. Do that early. Don't leave it til the week before like I did the first time. It's way less stressful when you've already seen the style of questions and you know roughly what they're going to throw at you.
Honestly I almost didn't finish my NAFC prep. I read so many people saying the exercise science section was impossible and I genuinely convinced myself I'd fail it. I wasn't getting the practice questions right, my scores were stuck, and I kept thinking what's the point. But I kept going anyway, mostly out of stubbornness if I'm being real.
What actually turned it around for me was just drilling questions over and over until the patterns clicked. These free nafc exercise science ones were the thing that finally made the energy systems and biomechanics stuff stick. I went from dreading that section to it being one of my better ones. So don't write yourself off early. I nearly did and I ended up passing, and looking back the wall I hit wasn't even that high.