Thousands of Queensland year 12 graduates are eagerly awaiting the results of their final year of schooling this morning, with the cohort the first in the state to receive Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR) scores.

The grade dubbed the “guinea pig cohort” was the first to experience year 7 at secondary school and had many traditional graduating events adapted to suit coronavirus safety measures.

The class of 2020 was the first full cohort to attend prep, the first year 7s at high school, and now the first to graduate with an ATAR during a health crisis.

Almost 50,000 students graduated and 89 per cent achieved a Queensland Certificate of Education.

Of those, 26,042 received an ATAR, with 30 students getting the highest score of 99.95.

A further 694 achieved 99.95 – 98.90, which is the equivalent of an OP 1 (under the previous scoring system).

In a statement, Education Minister Grace Grace congratulated members of the class of 2020 on their efforts throughout an exceptional year, and added that any graduates who might not be satisfied with their results still had options.

“There’s no need to be disheartened,” she said.

“Anyone whose results aren’t what they hoped for can explore alternative ways to enter university and training courses.”

Rockhampton graduate Ridhi Beotra was nervous but realistic on Friday, ahead of the release scheduled for 9:00am.

“It is a bit daunting, but I guess we’ll see how it pans out,” she said.

“I don’t think I am going to sleep … I think that I’ll be up at 12 refreshing [the website].”

Ms Beotra said the year had made it harder for her cohort because of the coronavirus pandemic, but the challenge had made her stronger.

“It’s been unpredictable — it was a combination of highs and lows,” she said.

“I think for me I was someone who had a pretty high goal that I wanted to achieve by the end of the year.

“The whole thing about COVID and the lockdown, it definitely threw me off a bit and it was quite scary knowing that my future is sort of hanging in the balance based on this.”

She said overall her school was “really good and we got through it and I think we came out a lot stronger”.

“It’s a once in a lifetime sort of thing — I think every grade 12 will agree with me when they say they’re nervous,” she said.

“But I think the most important thing to remember at the end of the day is it’s just a result and there are other ways to get into uni and it’s not the be-all and end-all.”

Source: news.google.com