Victorian Certificate of Education

The Victorian Certificate of Education is the credential available to secondary school students who successfully complete year 10, 11 and 12 in the Australian state of Victoria as well as in some international schools in China, Malaysia, Philippines, Timor-Leste, and Vietnam.
Study for the VCE is usually completed over three years, but can be spread over a longer period in some cases.
The VCE was established as a pilot project in 1987. The earlier Higher School Certificate was abolished in Victoria, Australia in 1992.
Delivery of the VCE Vocational Major, an "applied learning" program within the VCE, began in 2023.

Structure

The Victorian Certificate of Education is generally taught in years 10, 11 and 12 of secondary education in Victoria; but some students are able to start their VCE studies in earlier year if the school or institution allows it.
All VCE studies are organised into units. VCE subjects typically consist of four units with each unit covering one semester of study. Each unit comprises a set number of outcomes ; an outcome describes the knowledge and skills that a student should demonstrate by the time the student has completed the unit. Subject choice depends on each individual school. Units 3/4 of a subject must be studied in sequential order, whereas units 1/2 can be mixed and matched. Students are not required to complete all the units of a subject as part of the VCE course, meaning they are able to change subject choice between years 10, 11 and 12.
On completing a unit, a student receives either a 'satisfactory' or 'non-satisfactory' result. If a student does not intend to receive an Australian Tertiary Admission Rank, a 'satisfactory' result is all that is required to graduate with the VCE.
To gain an ATAR a student must satisfactorily complete three units of any subject in the English field and twelve units in any other subjects.

Assessment

VCE studies are assessed both internally and externally. During units 1/2 all assessment is internal, while in units 3/4 assessment is conducted both internally and externally.
VCE Vocational Major units are only assessed internally.

Internal assessment

Internal assessment is conducted via "school assessed coursework" and "school assessed tasks".
"School assessed coursework" are the primary avenue of internal assessment, with assessment in every VCE study consisting of at least one SAC. SACs are tasks that are written by the school and must be done primarily in class time; they can include essays, reports, tests, and case studies. Some studies in the visual arts and technology areas are also assessed via "school assessed tasks". SATs are generally practical tasks that are examined in school. Both SACs and SATs are scaled by VCAA against external assessment; this is to eliminate any cheating or variances in task difficulty.

External assessment

External assessment is conducted in the form of examinations set by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority for units 3/4 studies. As of 2013, only the General Achievement Test will be examined in June, with all subjects now only having one external assessment with the exceptions of mathematics subjects, LOTE studies, which consist of both a written and oral external test, performance studies, which consist of both a written external test and a performance, and Extended Investigations, which consist of an oral presentation and a Critical Thinking Test. All examinations except the Critical Thinking Test for Extended Investigation and the GAT are held in late October and most of November.
Subjects in the LOTE field are also assessed in the form of oral examinations. Subjects in the Dance, Drama/Theatre Studies and Music fields, as well as Extended Investigations, are assessed by a performance for a VCAA panel of examiners as part of their external assessment. All performance-based external assessments are typically held in early October.

General Achievement Test (GAT)

The GAT is an essential part of VCE external assessment. It provides the basis for a quality assurance check on the marking of examinations, and for deriving an indicative study score if the student misses the external assessment with a valid reason. All students who are enrolled in a VCE units 3/4 study are required to sit some or all of the GAT, including students completing the VCE Vocational Major.

Scoring

Study scores

Students will be eligible for a study score of between 0 and 50 if they have completed at least two Graded Assessments, and have satisfactorily completed both units 3/4 of a VCE study. Study scores are calculated by VCAA, and indicate a student's performance in relation to all other students who undertook that study.
Study scores are calculated by combining the standardised scores for each Graded Assessment with specific percentages, then ranked against all students in the subject according to a normal distribution, where the mean is 30 and the standard deviation is 7, with most study scores falling between 23 and 37. For studies with many enrolments, a study score of 40 or more places a student in the top 9% of all students in that subject.
If a student is ill or affected by other personal circumstances during an external assessment, and whose result is unlikely to be a fair or accurate demonstration of their learning or achievement, they may apply for a derived examination score. Long-term illness or other ongoing conditions that have been present over the year are not eligible for a DES. Students will need to supply independent evidence to apply for a DES, and will be examined case by case by VCAA. The derived score is calculated statistically from the student's other assessments, including school-based assessments, GAT scores, other external assessment scores and grades provided by the school.

Scaling

Scaling is the process that adjusts VCE study scores into ATAR subject scores. The Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre adjusts all VCE study scores to equalise results between studies with stronger cohorts, and those with weaker ones. Contrary to common perception, scaling is not based on the difficulty of the subject, as each study score is in fact a ranking. The score adjustment ensures that in those subjects where it is easier to overtake the cohort, the score is adjusted downward, while in subjects where it is difficult to score highly, it is moved upwards. This makes sure obtaining the average score in one study required the same level of achievement as every other study.
Mathematics subjects and language subjects have additional scaling rules. In mathematics subjects, all three studies are scaled against each other in addition to being scaled against all other studies, then the higher of the two scaling scores will then be used. This is due to mathematics having a distinct hierarchy of studies with varying difficulties, so students studying the harder subjects will not be disadvantaged by the level of difficulty. In LOTE subjects, study scores are adjusted by adding up to five to the initial scaled study score average. This adjustment is different for each subject and score, and decreases as the study score moves away from 30.

ATAR

Unscored VCE

It is possible for students to complete an unscored VCE. Under this option, students still have to pass their coursework to be awarded the VCE course, but do not sit final exams and are not given an ATAR. The number of students completing an unscored VCE has increased every year since 2015, with 8.3% of VCE students completing an unscored VCE in 2020.

Studies

VCE studies refer to the various subjects available to students to contribute to their successful completion of the qualification. There are currently 128 VCE studies, ranging from diverse fields such as the humanities, science, technology and mathematics. Studies are also permitted to study one or more VCE VET programs, vocational education-based subjects which contribute to the completion of the VCE, while also resulting in a nationally recognised VET qualification.
Although a student may choose to study any VCE subject in theory, this is dependent on availability of the specified study at the student's school. Certain schools do not offer certain studies, and as a result, students may pick alternate ones, or choose to study a particular subject through an external institution such as Virtual School Victoria.
To be awarded the VCE, a student must successfully complete at least:

3 units of an English subject, with two of those being units 3 and 4
Three additional Unit 3/4 sequences
Pass with a satisfactory of at least 16 units out of the normal 20–24 units

This therefore means that a student must study at least four subjects to be awarded the VCE. Selection of studies depends on other factors as well, such as prerequisites for university courses.
The following is a list of all VCE studies available:
† indicates that study is only available at 3/4 level, * indicates that study is only available at 1/2 level, ‡ indicates this VCE VET study is unscored and can not be included in the primary 4 subjects

There are also University Extension studies available for high-achieving students. These subjects are carried out through multiple universities, including The University of Melbourne, Swinburne University and Deakin University. Monash University formerly offered extension subjects, but cancelled the program in 2019.

Controversies

2011 English exam

The 2011 English exam contained a column about tattoos attributed to "part-time journalist and blogger Helen Day", who wrote for the fictional "Street Beat" blog. The Age newspaper accused VCAA of plagiarism and breach of copyright as the column was very similar to an opinion piece featured in the newspaper's 23 September 2010 edition, written by Melbourne writer Helen Razer. The newspaper called the exam's column "clumsily edited".