The Special Tertiary Admissions Test (STAT) is a scholastic aptitude test, used for entry into undergraduate programs at Australian universities for people without a recent Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR).
The test is designed by the Australian Council for Educational Research, and administered separately by the central tertiary admissions centre in each state and territory and the University of Tasmania. Some institutions require the STAT to be undertaken for all applicants for certain courses.
Consisting of two parts, the STAT assesses core competencies deemed necessary for university entrance, testing critical thinking and reasoning skills rather than knowledge. There are currently three types of STAT in use:
- The STAT Multiple Choice
- The standard test used by tertiary admissions centres. Contains 70 questions, 35 of which are testing Verbal (humanities and social science) competencies and 35 Qualitative (mathematical and scientific) competencies. The test is two hours in duration.
- The STAT F - used by individual institutions
- This test is used by some individual institutions to determine eligibility for entrance into specific courses. It also contains 70 questions, half of which are Verbal and half Quantitative, and is two hours in duration.
- The STAT Written English
- This test is used by some tertiary admissions centres and institutions, in addition to either the STAT Multiple Choice or the STAT F. The test is a one-hour test of the candidate's ability to express themselves in writing.
The STAT score is reported as a numeric mark between 100 and 200 (200 being a perfect score). The score indicates the candidate's potential academic capacity in relation to past or potential candidates, as the questions are relative across years and test forms. STAT scores are then translated into ENTER scores for university admission through calculation of the percentile rank of the candidate in relation to the test-taking population for the previous six years.
The STAT Written English is required for international students to assess their English language skills. The STAT Multiple Choice is required for entry into a number of tertiary courses, for example Bachelor of Pharmacy at the University of Sydney.
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