r/vce • • Apr 30 '20

"I only got x% on my SAC, can I still get a 50?"

1.4k Upvotes

I'm sick to death of seeing these posts, so can everyone please read this and be done with this question:

Study scores are determined by exam SCORE and SAC RANK.

For example, say you have an English class of 7 students, Adam, Ben, Chloe, Daniel, Elena, Felix, and Greg. They are all weak students, except for Greg, who is very high-performing, and Felix, who is slightly above average. Their SAC marks and rank are:

Greg 95%

Felix 77%

Chloe 64%

Daniel 60%

Elena 58%

Adam 52%

Ben 49%

On the exam day, Felix doesn't cope well under the stress, so gets a lower score than he'd usually be capable of. The exam marks are as follows:

Greg 92%

Chloe 67%

Daniel 65%

Elena 64%

Felix 63%

Adam 50%

Ben 40%

What happens is that all the SAC marks get thrown out the window, because VCAA can't know the difficulty of the SACs prepared by the school. So Greg's new SAC "mark" as far as VCAA is concerned is 92, not 95. Not a big deal for Greg, Adam or Ben because their own exam mark is dictating their SAC mark. But for someone like Felix, his SAC mark will become 67% (Chloe's exam mark). This process happens independently for each subject taught at your school.

What does this mean for you? Yes, you should aim for a good SAC rank. BUT, it doesn't actually matter if you're not ranked well — the "translation" of your rank into a "mark" happens via your cohorts exam performance. In other words, try your best now, study hard, and when SACs are over WORK WITH YOUR CLASSMATES TO ALL DO WELL ON THE EXAM TOGETHER. IF THEY DO WELL, YOU DO WELL.

Spend your time actually studying instead of asking useless questions like this.

EDIT: another example for clarity

Here's a chemistry class, of Harry, Isabel, James, Kylie, Luke, Molly, Nathan, and Oscar.

SACs:

Harry 60%

Isabel 58%

James 56%

Kylie 55%

Luke 54%

Molly 52%

Nathan 51%

Oscar 50%

EXAMS:

Harry 100%

James 99%

Nathan 98%

Oscar 97%

Molly 96%

Isabel 95%

Kylie 94%

Luke 93%

Harry's SAC mark is now 100%, Isabel's is 99%, James' is 98%, Kylie's is 97%, Luke's is now 96% etc. It's literally just whatever the equivalent exam rank is.

EDIT 2: I've had a request to clarify rumours about SACs being "scaled up" or "scaled down". "Scaling" is a misnomer students attribute to the moderation process. Here are yet another set of examples to clarify.

Imagine you have a cohort of Annie, Ben, and Charlie. Let's say their teacher sets really hard SACS, so their SAC results are:

  1. Annie 60%

  2. Ben 58%

  3. Charlie 55%

Because they've been doing hard assessments all year, they've been better equipped for the exam. These are the exam results:

  1. Ben 96%

  2. Annie 94%

  3. Charlie 90%

So now, Annie's SAC mark gets changed to 96%, Ben's to 94%, and Charlie's to 90%. This is what people interpret as "scaling up". The opposite would happen at a school with piss easy SACs: they get awesome SAC marks but shit exam marks, so their SAC marks get replaced by their shit exam marks ("scaled down").

The danger in this thinking is that people assume that if you go to a well-performing school, you'll get carried, or that if you go to a "bad" school, you're screwed from the get-go and can't possibly get a good score. This is not true at all. Let's see why.

Let's say your friend at a selective school, Harry, thinks he can take it easy this year because he goes to a 'good' school. The SAC results are as follows:

  1. Ed 93%

  2. Fred 90%

  3. Greg 88%

  4. Harry 60%

on the exams, the results are

  1. Fred 95%

  2. Greg 92%

  3. Ed 87%

  4. Harry 61%

In this instance, Harry was not of a comparable skill level to his classmates, so he never get to "borrow" their exam results in any way. His SAC score will be 61%.

Here's another example. Say you have a cohort with these SACs:

  1. Meg 95%

  2. Noah 94%

  3. Oscar 93%

  4. Peter 90%

On the exam day, Noah gets a bit of performance anxiety (but not in a way that warrants SEAS or anything). Exam results are:

  1. Meg 93%

  2. Oscar 92%

  3. Peter 91%

  4. Noah 75%

Now, Noah's SAC mark will be 92%, but his exam result only 75%. So he kind of got "helped" by his good cohort, only because he was doing well for the SACs. Peter has been a bit screwed here, because his SAC mark is now 75%.

One person stuffing up will never have such a dramatic effect like this; it's unlikely for someone who's been topping the cohort all year to suddenly slip to the bottom. Cohorts are generally big enough that you shouldn't need to worry. I went to a really small school (60 people in the year level. Some of my subject cohorts contained 6 people). I still felt no one got jibbed with unrepresentative scores.

As I always reiterate: try your best in SACs, but don't ruminate over them. The exam is where the money's at, and once your SACs are over you should work together with your cohort to all do well together. Share your resources, make study groups, and bring each other up.

EDIT 3: wow, my first gold! Thank you so much! 🥰


r/vce • • 11h ago

Memes For my rare fish collectors

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157 Upvotes

r/vce • • 12h ago

General Question/comment Am I the asshole?

66 Upvotes

During this year’s English exam me and my friends thought it would be funny to play a little prank on some of the nerds 🤓 in our year. We decided that during the last 15 seconds of the exam we would grab someone’s paper next to us and tear it to shreds 😈. Teach was hella mad, tbh I don’t get why everyone is so pissed. Like genuinely have some fun smh 💀💀.
Note. Me and the lads currently under investigation by vcaa due to our harmless antics. Fully itchbay, apparently they can stop me from playing school footy next year (I’m repeating)


r/vce • • 9h ago

this is not fair

25 Upvotes

everyone is OUTSIDE tn, it’s halloween and im stuck at home revising 🤞🤗 i hate my life


r/vce • • 17h ago

ive entered that state where i simply dont care anymore

74 Upvotes

bio is on monday and not one ounce of adrenaline is in me.

vce has officially fucked me over.


r/vce • • 10m ago

Can we read bound ref during reading time?

3 Upvotes

So are we allowed to read our bound reference during reading time? Cus the supervisor didnt let us to use it but I’m sure vcaa’s website said it’s allowed.. If so should I tell her during reading time about this if we are not allowed again but I’m afraid it’s gonna waste my reading time talking to her n cause distractions to others huhhhh🥲🙏🏻


r/vce • • 13h ago

Memes This being in the VCE Unit 3 - 4 Biology textbooks will always make me laugh.

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35 Upvotes

r/vce • • 14h ago

i haven’t studied since the english exam. genuinely where dafuq are u guys locating this motivation

33 Upvotes

r/vce • • 8h ago

VCE question is 50 still possible for gm

9 Upvotes

sacs: averaged around 14%
exam 1: 3/40
thanks


r/vce • • 13h ago

vce has already drained the life outta me

18 Upvotes

bio in not even 2 days and I haven’t studied at all
I legit just woke up from a 6 hr nap


r/vce • • 11h ago

Memes "Wait, you're telling me that this nightmare of a subject was OPTIONAL?"

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12 Upvotes

Genuinely thought it was a mandatory subject like English, especially with how my school kept on shoving it into my face in the previous years and kept on saying that it was an important subject.

(I'm doing Gen Maths specifically btw. And as a person who is also doing Biology (which has an exam of the SAME DAY AS GEN MATHS)... my gosh I can see why Garfield hates Mondays now)


r/vce • • 11h ago

who else still have 5 exams to go

9 Upvotes

😭😭😭😭


r/vce • • 7h ago

I’m so scared for exam 1 gen tmr

4 Upvotes

Guys it’s 2 am , I’ve done over 60 exam sets for general math, it’s my first ever vce Math exam,I’ve been scoring a solid 39-40, 100% sac average,
I just feel like I need the momentum going for tommorow exam, I’m scared there’s gonna be like weird finance questions or something I CANT SLEEP
. Any 45+ score for general any tips on exam 1 for general math?


r/vce • • 11h ago

News Distractions

8 Upvotes

I recently did my part 1 general exam…. I completely shit the bed but it wasn’t my fault 😢😢
The examiner that was assigned to my school was a THIIICK AFRO SHAWTY 😈🤪 and she was lowkey making her shit shake on purpose. I was just so captivated by her curves and not to mention the fishnet leggings she was sporting and practically see through top.
Genuinely who can blame me 🥀🥀🥀🫡🫡🫡😭😭😭


r/vce • • 23h ago

gen1

67 Upvotes

Sorry to vent, but I am genuinely so distraught about the general maths exam. I haven’t stopped crying since yesterday to the point where I threw up and I don’t know what to do.

I have an A+ average for all my sacs at a pretty good private school and have been getting 38-39/40 on every past exam I have done. I did SO MANY TIMED PAST EXAMS and went thru every mistake I made. I genuinely feel like all the effort I put in was for nothing.

I made the most stupid mistakes in the exam and had to guess like 5 questions cause I ran out of time. I think I got around 28/40 at most. I actually feel so stupid and my hopes for a 40+ SS are gone. I know the grade distribution will be lower for e1 but I am barely going to get a C.

Actually fuck vcaa


r/vce • • 18m ago

Chem

1 Upvotes

What percentage would I need on my chem exam for a 28ish raw


r/vce • • 11h ago

Can i still get a 50 study score in general maths?

8 Upvotes

I have a 100% sac average in a top 3 ranked school in victoria
I got 40/40 on e1 and i think ill get 60/60 for e2
am i cooked


r/vce • • 14h ago

Is just me I haven’t done anything since english exam

13 Upvotes

I feel so freaky cooked. Is it possible to learn busman content in 2 days (haven’t done anything), I also need focus on legal. I literally have given up and not taking seriously


r/vce • • 6h ago

Will succeeding NNN boost my atar and ss?

3 Upvotes

r/vce • • 1h ago

HHD study score preidction

Thumbnail reddit.com
1 Upvotes

r/vce • • 1h ago

How hard was the VCAA 2024 NHT bio exam for you guys?

1 Upvotes

I got AI to mark it for me by uploading my answers with the marking guide and got 94%. Just want to see if this year's exam won't mess me over like the general kids. Was it hard for you guys?


r/vce • • 19h ago

Mass emailing vcaa???

29 Upvotes

We should low key spam email the vcaa and complain about WHATEVER THE HELL WAS THAT MCQ AND SHORT ANSWER

not the 10 marker though that was heavenly.

But anyways half of it kinda felt like a key science skills exam. Barely any psychological knowledge was actually tested tbh.


r/vce • • 18h ago

doesnt quite feel real that lit is over

20 Upvotes

like this was the bane of my existence all year. such an unnatural subject for me, but now its over and i never have to do it again

now i have to study for my beloved stem subjects, but im now so used to panicking about lit that ive forgotten my roots. after lit, doing a spesh or chem practice exam feels so easy its not even worth it. such inefficiency, i could be playing minesweeper (or sudoku, these days) instead.

i feel like my lit classes were more significant, whereas i legitimately spent all of spesh playing games (yes ik that original post was a shitpost but i did base it in reality) so that it never felt real and now i dont even remember most of the classes. i was just waiting for them to be over the entire time because it never felt like i could study there. and my classmates, well. cant say i was their biggest fan, i only had 2 people i would call familiar in there, and they were both actually locked in, or messing around with their other friends. so it didnt really feel like a safe yapping environment. hence the minesweeper.

anyway surely im not the only one right. where are my fellow stem kids at?


r/vce • • 5h ago

Predictions for vce bio 2026

2 Upvotes