Victorian Certificate of Education

The Victorian Certificate of Education or VCE is one credential available to secondary school students who successfully complete year 11 and 12 in the Australian state of Victoria. The VCE is the predominant choice for students wishing to pursue tertiary education. An alternative to VCE is the Victorian Certificate of Applied Learnings (VCAL), a vocational based senior secondary school qualification.[1]

Study for the VCE is usually completed over two years but can be spread over a longer period of time in some cases. It is possible to pass Year 12 without without completing the end of year exams although the VCE is not awarded by doing so. The VCE was established as a pilot project in 1987. The earlier Higher School Certificate (HSC) was abolished in 1992.[2][3]

Structure

The Victorian Certificate of Education is generally taught in years 11 and 12 of secondary education in Victoria, however some students are able to commence their VCE studies in year 10 or earlier if the school or institution allows it.[4]

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 (usually two or three); 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 11 and 12.

On completing a unit, a student receives either a 'satisfactory' (S) or 'non-satisfactory' (N) result. If a student does not intend to proceed to tertiary education, a 'satisfactory' result is all that is required to graduate with the VCE. If a student does wish to study at a tertiary level then they will require an ATAR. In order to gain an ATAR a student must satisfactorily complete three units of any subject in the English field (at least one English field subject is compulsory) and twelve units in any other subjects.

Assessment

VCE studies are assessed both internally (in school) and externally (through the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA). During units 1/2 all assessment is internal, while in units 3/4 assessment is conducted both internally and externally.[5]

Internal assessment

Internal assessment is conducted via "school assessed coursework" (SACs) and "school assessed tasks" (SATs).

"School assessed coursework" (SACs) are the primary avenue of internal assessment, with assessment in every VCE study consisting of at least one SAC.[5] 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). 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 (GAT) will be examined in June, with all subjects now only having one external assessment with the exceptions of mathematics subjects, and LOTE studies, which consist of both a written and oral external test. All examinations excepting the GAT are held in late October and most of November.

Subjects in the LOTE field (languages other than English) are also assessed in the form of oral examinations. Subjects in the Music field are assessed by a performance for a VCAA panel of examiners as part of their external assessment. All performance based external assessment (Oral Examinations and Music Performances) are typically held in early October.

General Achievement Test (GAT)

The GAT is an essential part of VCE external assessment. It provides the basis of a quality assurance check on the marking of examinations. Any student who is enrolled in a VCE units 3/4 study is required to sit the GAT.[6]

Scoring

Study scores

A student who satisfactorily completes units 3/4 of a VCE study is eligible for a study score of between 0 and 50. 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 according to a normal distribution, where the mean is 30 and the standard deviation is 7, with most study scores falling in the range 23 to 37. For studies with many enrolments (1000 or more), a study score of 40 or more places a student in the top 9% of all students in that subject.[7]

Scaling

Scaling is the process that adjusts VCE study scores into ATAR subject scores. The Victorian Tertiary Admissions Centre (VTAC) 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 downwards, while in those subjects where it is difficult to rank highly, it is moved upwards.

ATAR

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, whilst 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 Distance Education Victoria.

To be awarded the VCE, a student must successfully complete at least:

  • All 4 units of an English subject
  • 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:

Subject Unit 1 Unit 2 Unit 3 Unit 4
Accounting ● ● ● ●
Agricultural and Horticultural Studies ● ● ● ●
Algorithmics (Higher Education Scored Study) ● ●
Art ● ● ● ●
Biology ● ● ● ●
Business Management ● ● ● ●
Chemistry ● ● ● ●
Classical Societies and Cultures ● ● ● ●
Computing ● ●
Computing: Informatics ● ●
Computing: Software Development ● ●
Dance ● ● ● ●
Design and Technology ● ● ● ●
Drama ● ● ● ●
Economics ● ● ● ●
English: Bridging English as an Additional Language ● ●
English ● ● ● ●
English (EAL) ● ●
English Language ● ● ● ●
English: Literature ● ● ● ●
Environmental Science ● ● ● ●
Food Studies ● ● ● ●
Geography ● ● ● ●
Health and Human Development ● ● ● ●
History: 20th Century History ● ●
History: Ancient History ● ● ● ●
History: Australian History ● ●
History: Global Empires ● ●
History: Renaissance History ● ●
History: Revolutions ● ●
Industry and Enterprise Studies ● ● ● ●
Legal Studies ● ● ● ●
LOTE* ● ● ● ●
Mathematics: Foundation ● ●
Mathematics: General Mathematics ● ●
Mathematics: Mathematical Methods (CAS)* ● ● ● ●
Mathematics: Further Mathematics* ● ●
Mathematics: Specialist Mathematics* ● ● ● ●
Media ● ● ● ●
Music: Music Performance ● ● ● ●
Music: Investigation ● ●
Music: Music Style and Composition ● ● ● ●
Outdoor and Environmental Studies ● ● ● ●
Philosophy ● ● ● ●
Physical Education ● ● ● ●
Physics ● ● ● ●
Politics: Australian and Global Politics ● ●
Politics: Australian Politics ● ●
Politics: Global Politics ● ●
Physics ● ● ● ●
Psychology ● ● ● ●
Religion and Society ● ● ● ●
Sociology ● ● ● ●
Studio Arts ● ● ● ●
Systems and Technology ● ● ● ●
Texts and Traditions ● ● ● ●
Theatre Studies ● ● ● ●
Visual Communications and Design ● ● ● ●
Vocational Education and Training (VET)* ● ● ● ●
* = see table below
LOTE Languages
Albanian Japanese First Language, Japanese Second Language
Arabic Khmer
Armenian Korean First Language, Korean Second Language
Auslan Latin
Bengali Latvian
Bosnian Lithuanian
Czech Macedonian
Classical Greek Persian
Chin Hakha Polish
Classical Hebrew Portuguese
Croatian Punjabi
Dutch Romanian
Filipino Serbian
French Russian
German Sinhala
Greek Slovenian
Hebrew Spanish
Hindi Swedish
Hungarian Tamil
Indigenous Languages of Victoria Turkish
Indonesian First Language, Indonesian Second Language Ukrainian
Italian Yiddish
Vietnamese
VCE VET Programs
Agriculture Laboratory Skills
Applied Fashion Design and Technology Financial Services
Automotive Food Processing (Wine)
Building and Construction Furnishing
Business Horticulture
Cisco Hospitality
Conservation and Land Management Information Technology
Community Services Integrated Technologies
Dance Interactive Digital Media
Desktop Publishing Music Industry
Electrotechnology Small Business
Engineering Studies Sport and Recreation
Equine Industry

There are also University Extension studies available for high-achieving students. These subjects are carried out through multiple universities, including Monash University,[8] The University of Melbourne,[9] Swinburne University[10] and Deakin University[11].

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Frequently asked questions by students". www.vcaa.vic.edu.au. Retrieved 2018-03-15.
  2. ↑ "Curriculum and Assessment: A Question of Politics?" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 July 2007. Retrieved 10 November 2009.
  3. ↑ "Public Records Office Victoria". Archived from the original on 19 September 2009. Retrieved 29 August 2009.
  4. ↑ "Senior (Year 10)". Hoppers Crossing.
  5. 1 2 "VCE - The Victorian Certificate of Education". Youth Central. State Government of Victoria. 28 November 2012. Retrieved 22 October 2016.
  6. ↑ "What is the General Achievement Test?". www.vcaa.vic.edu.au. Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority.
  7. ↑ "VCE and VCAL Administrative Handbook 2014" (PDF).
  8. ↑ Monash Extension, Monash University, retrieved 2011-09-18.
  9. ↑ The University of Melbourne Extension Program, retrieved 2011-09-18.
  10. ↑ Higher Education Studies at Swinburne University of Technology, retrieved 2011-09-18.
  11. ↑ University, Deakin. "Accelerate - Deakin".
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