welcome to my first masterpost :-) i thought that i would make it about something i’m familiar with but don’t see heaps about on here- vce
okei so some of you might know that i live in australia, in the state of victoria. in victoria, our exam system is vce: the victorian certificate of education. most students in the state undertake the vce, although some might do vet, vcal or the ib (i unfortunately have limited knowledge of these three). so today, as my first masterpost (yay!) i thought that i would make a vce masterpost, explaining how you qualify, how your atar is made, key terminology and how to make your VCE years successful and fun.
important info to know before we begin/terminology
traditionally, vce goes for your final two years of secondary school, years 11 and 12.
a vce subject is divided into 4 units- units 1, 2, 3 and 4 called studies.
unit 1&2 studies are completed in year 11, your first year of vce and unit ¾ studies are completed after unit 1&2 studies, in year 12.
note: i will probably use the terms unit 1&2 studies and year 11 studies interchangeably. same with units 3&4 and year 12. ditto study/studies and subjects.
at the end of a unit, you get a pass or fail mark which is either an S (satisfactory) or an N (not satisfactory). when you complete your unit 3&4 studies, you get a
sac- school assessed coursework//a sac is pretty much just a test that is done within class time. they are often written by the school and can take many forms such as essays, reports, tests, case studies, primary source analyses, speeches- you name it!
sat- school assessed task//a sat is virtually the same as a sac but they are normally practical tasks (like folios) that are completed in visual arts subjects.
gat- general achievement test//a test that goes for around half a day that all students undertaking a units 3&4 study are required to sit. it basically assesses you on everything you should have learned throughout your education and is used to supplement exam results if you don’t sit the exam (derived scores). it is compulsory to sit the gat but you can’t study for it (you could if you wanted to, it’s just something that’s kind of impossible to study for)
(fun fact: in 2009, two students from a melbourne high school brought the gat to national attention (and made it a meme) after suggesting that everyone undertaking the gat mention george clooney in their test papers, calling it a “GATchphrase”. 8000 students did this. in 2016, the GATchphrase was “shannon noll was robbed of the 2003 australian idol title,” a massive australian meme) (x)
each school will likely have different policies on the procedure if you miss a sac or sat. if you are going to miss one, talk to your teacher or your vce coordinator.
study scores- when you finish a year 12/unit 3&4 study, you get a score out of 50 called a study score. study scores are controlled by vcaa (the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority). study scores are a ranking, everyone who completes a certain subject will be ranked from 0 to 50. the median is 30 and the standard deviation is 7, meaning that the majority of study scores will be between 23 to 37. study scores go towards calculating your atar (see atar)
scaling- one thing that is very important to know about study scores and atar calculation is that your atar is a ranking. you are ranked along with everyone else in the state, meaning that if you get an atar of 90 or above, you are in the top 10% of year 12 students in your state. this is also the reason why it is impossible to get an atar higher than 99.95- you can’t beat yourself!
derived score- the best example of a situation i can think of where you would get a derived score would be if you were unable to sit a year 12 exam. they would take you results the gat and determine your subject results and study score with them, giving you a derived score.
to be eligible for your vce, you must satisfactorily complete 16 units, or in simpler terms, 8 subjects over 2 years. normally, you would do 4 subjects in year 11 and another 4 in year 12 because you need a minimum of 4 subjects to make up your atar. it is compulsory to undertake english subject but you can drop it after 3 units. apart from that, you can choose whichever subjects you want.
you can select virtually any subjects that you want, there are around 130, not including the multiple languages to be learnt in lote (language other than english). if your school doesn’t offer a subject that you want to do, they are not running the course or you have a timetable clash, look into distance education. you can complete subjects through distance ed and through your school. talk to your school’s vce coordinator about this if it benefits you 😃
how many subjects your school makes you do might vary from school to school, but they generally won’t make you do more than 6 per year. you can complete a maximum of 6 subjects that will contribute to your atar (see atar) but you really only need a minimum of 4. at my school for example, you complete 6 unit 1&2 studies and 5 unit 3&4 studies, dropping one of your year 11 subjects for spare/free/study periods in year 12.
(for a full list of subjects, see the vcaa website) (x)
you will also need an attendence rate of over 90% for all of your classes, if you are absent you will need a medical certificate.
the victorian baccalaureate
the victorian baccalaureate can be awarded to students who complete
units 3&4 english, lit or english language, achieving a study score of 30 or higher; or units 3&4 english additional language with a study score of 33 or higher
units 3&4 maths methods or specialist maths
at least two other units 3&4 studies
disclaimer: in this section, i will try to explain how the atar (australian tertiary admission ranking) is calculated but i, like everyone else in the world, will never be entirely sure because it involves a lot of scaling and other rubbish. for a better explanation, talk to your teachers, vce coordinators or go to the vtac (victorian tertiary admissions centre) website- it should be there somewhere.
how your atar is calculated
your atar is calculated by combining your study scores from your primary four and 10% of the study scores for your 5th and 6th subjects if you completed them.
primary four- your primary four is made up of your study scores from your compulsory english study and your next highest three scores.
once all of these study scores out of 50 are added together, they form what’s called your “aggregate score.” your aggregate score will then be ranked from highest to lowest with the rest of the students in the state and voila, you have your atar!
so i’ve already mentioned study scores briefly but i haven’t completely explained how they’re calculated. this is where everything starts to get a little bit confusing. your study score is made up of a combination of sac results, sat results and exam results. the study score make up for media is below as an example.
School-assessed Coursework: 18 per cent
School-assessed Task: 37 per cent
End-of-year examination: 45 per cent.
The make up for the study score will differ from subject to subject so i recommend downloading the study design from vcaa.
when my media teacher explained this to me, i was quite confused and i’m still confused about this now but i’ll try to explain to the best of my understanding.
apparently, when your results for your sacs and 3&4 studies go to vcaa, they rank and weight you based on your cohort. so basically, if you’re average and the rest of your cohort is waaaaay above average, then your scores will be dragged up. the same goes if your cohort is below average. however, if you are extremely high or low on the spectrum, then you shouldnt really worry about this. once again, i would like to emphasise that i do not know heaps about this so you should probably talk to your vce coordinator about it.
how this affects university
idk about the rest of australia because i know that not all of the states use atars but in victoria at least, this is the basis of how we get into university. of course, i’m only in year 11 so i’m not exactly super worried about university yet. but yeah, generally speaking universities base who they accept into their courses on atars. but if you don’t get your goal atar, there are ways of getting into your desired course anyway. you can change into a different course while you’re at uni, you can apply for scholarships or you could defer uni until you’re 21 and enter as a mature age student. of course, the entry requirements will be different then but hey, where there’s a will, there’s a way.
there are also university subject that can be completed for vce credits while in high school but i know nothing about this so once again, talk to your vce coordinator
okay, apart from the typical sort of “study hard” advice, there’s only a few things i can tell you, specifically for vce.
download your study designs
if you look up your subject on the vcaa website, you will find the study designs for your subject which will explain what you’re meant to learn for your subjects and when. these are really helpful!!
familiarise yourself with the formats of your exams, this is extra important!!!
take all of your sacs seriously
idk why you wouldnt take a sac seriously but dude, don’t just tank them.
go to lectures and workshops for your subjects
my school actually books these at the school around year 12 exam time and they can be really beneficial.
whether they’re teachers or fellow students, you can get help from anyone!! find out what sort of study groups and exam help your school has as well.
while attending university open days may not directly benefit your vce, but they can give you a direction of where you want to go in the future, helping you to choose what subjects you want to complete and what atar you want to achieve.
here are some sites that might be of use to you in your vce
thse are a few of the vce studyblrs that i’m following. i’m sure that there are many more but i just havent found them yet :-( reblog this if you’re a vce studyblr :-)
@vcestudyblog @studytothe97 @arielsstudies @studytheaestheticway @academicatelier @theoverstuffedpencilcase @thevceandhadley @moleskinestudies
hopefully this masterpost was helpful and beneficial to you. as i find out new information, i’ll keep on updating it. like or reblog if you found it helpful and just shoot me a message if you have any questions about vce or what not. also, let me know if there is anything you want me to make a masterpost on in the future.
good luck on your vce :-) eloise xoxo
