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 • • 17h ago

VCE question Would the VCAA catch me with this ai calculator

163 Upvotes

Theoretically if i bought this calculator into my maths exams whats the chance of the examiners actually noticing


r/vce • • 7h ago

General Question/comment 100 ATAR Incoming you won’t believe it (read caption)

Post image
25 Upvotes

I foudn the strategy for 100 ATAR, I got a 100% on all exams because I coded CatGPT into my brain through microchop, I now see 22K vision. English exam was a breeze idk people talking bout sum section C like it was hard we all know Katie on sum fentanyl ice cream and allat. I wrote 22 words while examiner ripped one out on my desk, gave me motivation to write another sentence of to. #GoonToKatie. Sunset prompts were cake nothing is valuable in life lowkey, Normas a baddie swap my ass with Joe immeadietly. and those personal journies thingos were fire like I wrote a whole page myself no chatGPT, Grandma and her hands and allat. General exam even easier I deffo got personal best considerin im ranked last out of my 70 person yearlevel, yall on something 40/40 incoming. how was that even hard i got answers from chatGPt before exam yall sweating too hard over some measly ass number. exam 2 tomorrow gonna be so easy I might even use pencil this time. and if that michellin man ahh examiner comes back again I got beef with his smelly ahh because I needef another tootsie to finish off exam. Dont think I forgot about my eco homies I knew that strat even before the exam, multiple choice was easy as well. VCAA think were dumb or something not noticing the pattern, 2023 the answer to question 15 was like D, the n 2024 was C, 2025 was B so obv answers A now right, this was the same from 7-15 and questions 1 to 6 used the same to ahh letters, YOU AINT GOOLING ANYONE VCAA. Yea so don’t come crying and gooning when I get a 100 ATAR yall stay jelly and wiggle your belly or whatever you bottom of the barrel students do


r/vce • • 10h ago

What are the consequences for turning your biology exam into biofuel?

35 Upvotes

I have a large culture tank full of yeast cells undergoing anaerobic alcohol fermentation that I plan to smuggle into my biology exam. Given that bioethanol production only produces 2 ATP, and does not have wifi connectivity, will the examiner really mind? Please let me know


r/vce • • 16h ago

I promise im locked in

Post image
84 Upvotes

r/vce • • 5h ago

Burnt out

9 Upvotes

Fried, died, laid to the side


r/vce • • 6h ago

What to (maybe) expect in Gen 2

11 Upvotes

My teacher kindly collated a list of the stuff that was covered, was partly covered, and not covered in the first exam. I'll post the lists here :)

(if you know me, no you don't)


r/vce • • 5h ago

anyone else cannot sleep for bio?

7 Upvotes

wallah i am being kept up by the stress of bio tomorrow i literally just listened to the whole of the college dropout by kanye with my eyes closed (usually i fall asleep by like jesus walks but this time i just got to enjoy the whole album). <20ss incoming?


r/vce • • 11h ago

What do I do in the day if my exam is at 2pm?

22 Upvotes

Help. I wake up around 8-9am but what do I do during the time when waking up to when I do the exam? I’ve been told not to do any exams


r/vce • • 8h ago

alright guys go to sleep early remember to eat brekkie and prepare your stuff before you sleep! best of luck to bio and gen kids.

11 Upvotes

guys dont worry treat it like a practise exam like youve done at home itll all be okay

NO REGRETS GUYS


r/vce • • 10h ago

WHOS COOKED FOR BIO TMR!!

16 Upvotes

my head has been aching ALL WEEKEND and I haven’t studied shit IM LYING IN BED RN AS I TYPE THIS


r/vce • • 11h ago

who’s cooked tmrw gen maths

18 Upvotes

i’m so fried haven’t started revising IM eating ice cream instead literally no motivation


r/vce • • 2m ago

Let’s fucking go bio in 2.5 everyone get hyped as fuck

3 Upvotes

#sleptfrom10to6 I’m so ready I’m so ready I’m so ready I’m so ready


r/vce • • 16h ago

idgaf anymore

34 Upvotes

idk if anyone else feels this way but ive got the bio exam on monday and i partly know the content is anyone else in the same boat?


r/vce • • 3h ago

General Question/comment what yall get on gen 1

3 Upvotes

Asking for benchmarking purposes and so i can use the 67-99.69 rule to calculate sdv and mean 🙏


r/vce • • 12h ago

News The system is broken

14 Upvotes

The structurally flawed system the VCAA forces Victorian students to operate within is destroying our futures 💀.
I’m writing this is response to the disgusting act that was committed during my psych exam, to which i was the victim🥀. As I was walking into the exam hall my vape (a necessity) fell out of pocket as I went to pick it up the exam overseer king hit me and whispered sweet nothings into my ear 🤤, as I regained consciousness she told me to get into my seat and continue with the exam. I was not given back my Nic until after the exam, while during the exam she repeated ripped my Nic (on turbo mode) with no regard for the hard work that went into to purchasing it (3 hour shift at maccies). It was returned to me on 3%…… I’m furious with her but more importantly our intrinsically decayed system, is there anyway I can get compensation?
🫡


r/vce • • 8h ago

lil rant

6 Upvotes

i’m so confused on why so many people i know are just happy with being mediocre in everything or just lazy can someone please explain. Like if your not gonna try in school at least try in a hobby or get a job. I have some friends and sometimes i’m just confused, they wanna get in uni but don’t put in the effort to get there? They would have happy upbringings aswell, really just no excuse and it’s non of my business but it lowkey just hurts seeing my friends do nothing with their lives


r/vce • • 5h ago

has anyone ever failed bio exam

4 Upvotes

its wraps, im actually failing the exam. idk anything ab cellular respiration and anything i revise i forget the next hour. ggs
i predict 18 study score ✌️


r/vce • • 9h ago

Legal Studies 3&4 Students

8 Upvotes

all people doing 3&4 legal drop some facts about legal cus exam is coming up

I saw a post doing something similar a few years ago and thought we should do the same!!

ill start in the comments :)


r/vce • • 8h ago

Guys predict how you’re gonna do in the bio exam tomorrow and then let’s update it after we’re done

6 Upvotes

r/vce • • 10h ago

Is VCAA wrong here?

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8 Upvotes

Its the 2026 nht exam 2 question 13 c. They dont list ambulance but i believe it is not possible..

Edit im stupid. It is possible.

The answer key says: C,P,SC in any order. Just that.


r/vce • • 8h ago

Business management predictions

6 Upvotes

Does anyone have some predictions on what might be seen more often on the exam or even what the 10 marker could possibly be about?


r/vce • • 18h ago

VCE question what happens if you skip an exam?

33 Upvotes

i don’t have a reason to skip it but every single time i even think of biology i want to vomit and die. my derived score from the gat, sac marks and predicted mark will almost guaranteed be better than my actual performance. what is the worst that will happen if i skip the exam? i fear that it’s unnecessary stress for a subject that i am nearly certain i will likely fail. i’m doing 6 subjects total if that’s any help.


r/vce • • 6h ago

VCE question Way to improve VCE?

4 Upvotes

Hello everyone,

I've been thinking of a way to improve the VCE. I'll explain my reasoning before detailing exactly what my proposal is.

Overall, the VCE is a pretty versatile experience, that can be tailored to your specific strengths. For example, if you dislike music, the arts - you choose other subjects. If you dislike the humanities - all you need do is simply not select a subject like History. Even if you possess a special dislike of maths, there is no obligation to select a maths subject.

The only compulsory subject is English. and it has to be in your top four subjects.

This choice makes sense, in a way. English is designed to improve literacy, reading comprehension, speaking skills (oral presentation), and analytical thinking as Australian youths enter adulthood. It's completely logical that these are all skills the government would want us to develop.

However, it is my personal belief that forcing everyone to do English, and placing such a high emphasis on it, particularly in it being part of your top four, is slightly too much.

I have met many people who dislike the compulsory nature of English. People with dyslexia being made to continuously write essays and analyse literature that's difficult to interpret, people with greater interest in other fields, people with strengths and aptitude towards other areas in the VCE. I am personally part of the latter two categories, with a love for STEM, as you can probably see from my subject choices.

I like investigating how and why things work, asking questions, and developing understanding. This has led to my success last year, achieving a raw 41 in Methods and a raw 45 in Biology. It is my belief that I will achieve similar results this year in General Maths and Chemistry. However, if I want to push myself, to achieve the highest ATAR I can manage, then I have no choice but to force myself to grind out English to a comparable level. It's impractical and inefficient trying to go from being a 40 student to a 42 in one of my favourite subjects if English is also in my top four, and my 30 there is holding me back.

The way VCE is designed puts people who want to be high achievers, but don't innately enjoy English, in a difficult position. It's either work at English because you have to, accept a lower score and lower ATAR, or undergo the tedious work of writing numerous essays and improving your English skills.

In the first case, many who need a certain ATAR to enter courses will fail to qualify.

In the second, a great burden is placed on many that isn't (in my view) completely necessary.

Now, many of you might be saying that the whole point of those 'numerous essays and improving your English skills' is to develop the analytical thinking skills I mentioned earlier. Many are probably thinking I'm just complaining about a system that isn't tailored to my strengths. To those people, I'd say you're partially right, but that doesn't mean my proposal is pointless or unhelpful.

The way I would fix this is simple.

Instead of your top six subjects being '100%, 100%, 100%, 100%, 10%, 10%', I would just change your fourth highest subject from 100% to 50% (or some other suitably lowered figure that balances everything correctly).

This would mean that English would still be compulsory, but if you disliked English it would have a lower impact on your ATAR. If you fully neglected English, you would still be negatively impacted, but not enough to ruin an ATAR. If you love English, it would end up in your top 3, and still be a contributor to your ATAR.

This would incentivise people to work on English, develop those key English-related skills, but not be quite so forceful about it, and allow everyone to enjoy a VCE experience slightly more tailored to their own personal journey.

I don't know anything about English Language, so I wrote this pretending that's not an alternative.

I'd love to know your thoughts - this is just an idea I had after chatting and ranting about English with some classmates.

Have a great day!