Assessment

General assessment advice

Advice on matters related to the administration of Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) assessment is published annually in the VCE Administrative Handbook. The Handbook contains both school-based assessment advice and external assessment advice.

Updates to matters related to the administration of VCE assessment are published in the VCAA Bulletin. Subscribe to the VCAA Bulletin.

The VCE assessment principals underpinning all VCE assessment practices should guide teachers in their design and implementation of School-assessed Coursework (SACs). The VCAA assessment principles determine that assessment at VCE should be:

• Valid and reasonable
• Equitable
• Balanced
• Efficient

Essentially, these principles invite schools and teachers to create assessment practices, including tasks and instruments, that enable students to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of the outcome statements, and the key knowledge and key skills through a range of opportunities and in different contexts (balanced), that do not advantage or disadvantage certain groups of students on the basis of circumstances and contexts (equitable), that are not overly onerous in terms of workload and time (efficient) and that only assess that which is explicitly described in the study design.

The glossary of command terms provides a list of terms commonly used across the Victorian Curriculum F–10, VCE study designs and VCE examinations and to help students better understand the requirements of command terms in the context of their discipline.

Graded Distributions for Graded Assessment can be accessed from the VCAA Senior Secondary Certificate Statistical Information webpage.

The VCAA offers professional learning sessions exploring this data. More information can be found at Analysing Your Schools VCE Results.

Excepting third-party elements, schools may use this resource in accordance with the VCAA’s Educational Allowance (VCAA Copyright and Intellectual Property Policy).

Units 1 and 2

All assessments for Units 1 and 2 are school based. Procedures for assessment of levels of achievement in Units 1 and 2 are a matter for school decision. The determination of satisfactory (S) or not satisfactory (N) for each of Units 1 and 2 is a separate consideration from the assessment of levels of achievement. This distinction means that a student can receive a very low numerical score in a formal assessment task but still achieve an S for the outcome.

The decision about satisfactory completion of outcomes is based on the teacher’s judgment of the student’s overall performance on a combination of set work and assessment tasks related to the outcomes. Students should be provided with multiple opportunities across the learning program to develop and demonstrate the key knowledge and key skills required for the outcomes for the unit