Overview of the standards
The Victorian Literacy and Numeracy Standards are derived from Level 3 of the
Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF).
All senior secondary students enrolled in one or more VCE or scored VCE VET Unit 3–4 sequence are tested against the standards when they sit the General Achievement Test (GAT).
The range of skills described by the ACSF Level 3 are required to engage with everyday life, work and further study beyond schooling. They also align with the skills students develop throughout their schooling and the capabilities they are expected to have acquired through being taught the Victorian F–10 Curriculum.
Meeting the standards
Students who meet the standards demonstrate the following core skills and capabilities.
Reading
The student:
- applies appropriate reading strategies to evaluate and integrate information and ideas to construct meaning from a range of familiar, and some unfamiliar, text types
- interprets information gained from tables, charts and other graphic information using a range of sources
- identifies the purpose, intended audience and main messages in texts
- separates fact from opinion, identifies some implicit meanings and draws simple inferences in texts
- recognises most everyday words and some specialised vocabulary
Writing
The student:
- communicates ideas and information in a range of texts in a style appropriate to audience and purpose
- sequences writing to produce cohesive texts when writing about familiar topics
- selects vocabulary, grammatical structures and conventions appropriate to the text
- uses punctuation as an aid to communication and spells with reasonable accuracy
Numeracy
The student:
- selects and interprets mathematical information that may be partly embedded in a range of familiar, and some less familiar, contexts
- demonstrates functional numeracy skills and selects from and uses simple problem-solving strategies
- calculates with whole numbers, simple fractions, decimals and percentages and applies simple rates when needed
- measures, estimates and calculates length, perimeter, time, temperature and simple area
- selects appropriate units, strategies and tools for solving problems that involve estimating and measuring volume
- identifies common angles and uses distance, direction, coordinates, simple scales, symbols and keys to read and use everyday maps and plans
- interprets and comprehends familiar and routine data, tables, graphs and charts
- describes, compares and interprets the likelihood of everyday chance events
Standard of excellence
The standard of excellence for literacy and numeracy is derived from the upper levels of the ACSF.
Students who achieve excellence demonstrate mastery of the skills of interpreting, critically analysing, evaluating and applying appropriate problem-solving strategies. They can apply and adjust their skills to demands of unfamiliar contexts and to evaluate the validity of content and credibility of different sources of information.
Students who meet the standard of excellence demonstrate the following core skills and capabilities.
Reading
The student:
- interprets and analyses a broad range of texts created for a variety of purposes, including those texts that present complex ideas
- has a sophisticated understanding of the connections between context, purpose and audience for both familiar and unfamiliar text types
- understands texts requiring inference
- synthesises and critically evaluates relevant ideas and information from several sources
- understands the subtleties of language, including a range of less common words and specialised vocabulary
- identifies a range of techniques authors use to convey meaning and to inform, entertain or persuade a reader
Writing
The student:
- masters the conventions, linguistic structures and features of a comprehensive range of text types
- writes effectively for a range of purposes and has a sophisticated awareness of context, purpose and audience
- integrates information and ideas effortlessly from a range of sources and uses a logical, coherent and purposeful organisational structure
- uses appropriate grammatical structures and shows an assured understanding of the use of abstract nouns, modal verbs and other modification devices
- uses punctuation effectively to convey a range of meanings
- incorporates a broad vocabulary, which they spell accurately, including a range of relevant technical and specialised terms
Numeracy
The student:
- develops sophisticated approaches to problem solving in real-world contexts
- extracts, interprets and comprehends embedded mathematical information
- demonstrates a comprehensive mastery of their knowledge and conceptualises, generalises and applies their knowledge in a variety of problem-solving situations and unfamiliar contexts
- applies and extends their knowledge of the unit rate, ratios and proportionality to solve single and multi-step problems
- routinely uses and calculates with rational numbers
- develops, interprets and uses standard formulae, algebraic representations and conventions to describe relationships between variables in a variety of contexts
- demonstrates knowledge about space and shape
- estimates and calculates quantities, areas and volumes using relevant formulae
- converts within the metric system and between metric and other relevant non-metric units
- summarises and interprets a range of data in tables and graphs using statistical methods
- uses knowledge about chance and probability to estimate and interpret chance-event outcomes in numerical and qualitative terms