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THE VCE STRUCTURE Each VCE subject is organised into units. Students usually choose to study five or six subjects each year at the VCE level. The range of subjects depends on the school, as each individual school decides which subjects they will offer to their students. Most, but not all, VCE subjects comprise four units. A unit is studied for one semester, with Units 1 and 2 being studied in Year 11 and Units 3 and 4 being taken in Year 12. Year 11 students can 'accelerate' and study a Unit 3/4 subject early, and doing this additional subject usually results in a higher final score. Units 3 and 4 of any subject must be studied in sequence, whereas Units 1 and 2 can be mixed and matched in Year 11. Students are not required to complete all the units of a subject as part of the VCE course, however Units 1 and 2 usually must be studied before Units 3 and 4 of a subject can be attempted (unless 'accelerating'). On completing a Unit, a student receives an 'S' (Satisfactory), or an 'N' (Not Satisfactory). In order to receive the VCE and an ENTER , students must have achieved an 'S' result for at least sixteen units, including 4 Units of English, the only compulsory subject (although there are variations, such as English Second Language or Literature that can count towards the English requirement). The ENTER (Equivalent National Tertiary Entry Rank) received ranges from 0 to 99.95 in increments of 0.05. An ENTER score of 60 indicates that a student has achieved a higher ENTER than 60% of the state, a score of 70 indicates a higher ENTER than 70% of the state etc.. However, students that have left school before completing Year 12(around 15%) are ''included'' in the calculation of ENTER, so the median ENTER for students who ''do'' complete year 12 is higher than 50. Approximately 20 students receive each incremental rank. The ENTER is calculated from a series of Study Scores received for each Unit 3/4 subject successfully completed, ranging from 0 to 50. A student's top four study scores (after scaling) and 10% of their next two best study scores count towards an aggregate score, which is then ranked against the aggregate scores of other students. In 2005 an aggregate of 145.1 was higher than 80% of people in the age group, correlating to an ENTER of 80. Achieving a perfect ENTER (99.95) usually requires an aggregate of approximately 209. Study scores are scaled either up or down, depending on the competitiveness of each subject. The competitiveness is determined by how well students achieving a certain score in each subject achieve in their other subjects and also in the GAT (compulsory 'General Achievement Test' taken during the middle of the year which tests general communication, logic and interpretation skills). The average study score in any subject is made equal to approximately 30, with a standard deviation of approximately 7. A study score is calculated most commonly from a combination of the assessment from both SAC (school assessed Coursework ) and mid year (only for sciences and accounting) and end of year exams. The marks a student receives for a unit 3 and 4 subject's coursework are irrelevant to the study score. At the end of the year students are assigned a SAC ranking from 1(the highest avg mark) to X (the lowest avg mark gets the lowest rank). The exam marks are then ranked from 1 to X and the highest SAC mark is made equal to the highest exam mark. Each other SAC rank is made equal to the corresponding exam rank in their respective orders from 1 to X (even if these are coming from different people), until the exams are complete any students SAC mark is as of yet undefined and could range from UG (ungraded, generally the lowest 5%) to A+ (generally indicative of being somewhere in the top 10% of the state for exams and top 15% for SAC) because the SAC marks are exclusively dependent on the exam marks and never the other way around. It is generally easier to obtain a higher mark for SAC than for exams as a higher percentage of people are given A's and A+'s on the SAC than on the exams where the upper quartile mark is lower. The average mark in all subjects varies but is generally around B+ for SAC and B for exams. The VCAA (Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority) most likely award students a high average mark to help them with employment (high marks look impressive) and to help reduce disappointment. Universities provide a Clearly-In and a Fringe ENTER for each course, denoting the range of scores required to gain a place in a course. The ENTER requirement for each subject is generally determined by supply (the supply of places provided by the universities) relative to demand (the demand for each course as determined by the number of students who apply) for each course, and does not directly relate to the difficulty or the quality of the course. Victorian Technical colleges do not require an ENTER for admission (with few exceptions). CRITICISMS Criticisms have been made of the process by which the VCE calculates the internal assessment marks. Statistical moderation is the process wherein each students' SAC rank is made equal to the corresponding exam rank. This leads to a distribution of SAC marks which some believe is inaccurate. For example, an accounting class with 20 students each gets the same approximate mark. The top student might average 80% and the bottom student might average 70% on the SAC. Even though each student in the class may have the same approximate ability, on the day of the exam, marks may be inconsistent with SAC marks. One student may do very well on the exam, while one student does very poorly. If this occurred and the student averaging 70%(for SAC) got 90% for the exam, and the student averaging 80% (for SAC) got 70% for the exam, then the student averaging 80% (for SACs) would likely come out on top due to this weighting flaw in the statistical moderation process. It has been suggested that a more accurate system which accounts for the ratio and spread of a student's SAC marks relative to the average would lead to a more accurate distribution of marks. The VCAA has not indicated a plan to change the statistical moderation process. Year 12 within Victorian High Schools is generally acknowledged to be extremely stressful and, together with the preparatory year 11, is a great source of long-term anxiety for many students. The competitive nature of the marking system changes the emphasis from a focus on "required knowledge" to obtaining the highest mark possible and performing better than one's peers, actually learning anything is a comparitively low priority. Particular emphasis is placed on the importance of the ENTER score (from 0.00 to 99.95) as the admission filter for tertiary education. This leads many students to feel that if they do not score highly they will be marked as failures, either missing out on their chosen university degree, or finding it hard to follow their chosen career, or finding it hard to get a secure, well-paid job. Such an attitude overlooks alternative entry schemes for universities, growing numbers of trade apprenticeships and the possibilities of promotion within companies and the public service. The stress of doing the VCE also generates recurring negative media coverage, usually around exam times (May-June and October-November), with parents and doctors complaining about the health problems of students caused by overstudy. But the education authorities generally regard it as the least-worst mix of ongoing assessment and exams, designed to avoid the worst of the old system where grading depended on the performance of students in a two-week set of exams at the end of year 12. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS
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